ORIENTATION
Name me one country where socialism works
When I first considered myself a socialist revolutionary in 1970, I was hounded by free marketers’ challenge: “name me one country where socialism works”. These market fundamentalists would then hold up the most strident expectations for socialism:
Everyone is exactly equal with no classes.
There is an abundance of goods which are conveniently circulated.
Political rule is not dictatorial.
All competition is banished.
People are working together, collectively and creatively.
The state has withered away.
Anything less than this was proof that it didn’t work.
Without really understanding how difficult it is to create any of these conditions when surrounded by a sea of capitalist sharks, I was at first intimidated. I was driven away from examining Russia, China and Cuba because they were “authoritarian”. Without realizing it, I had accepted that more than one political candidate was the ultimate measuring rod. I