“I like the idea of a world without money,” said a young black worker. “I don’t have any money now anyway.” He’s not the only one!
But how will communist society function without money?
Sometimes people think we mean a “cashless” society where everyone buys stuff with debit or credit cards. Some think we mean a decentralized “block-chain” system like Bitcoin. Or do we mean a barter system?
No.
Barter means a direct exchange of goods or services. It’s a limited system that could only lead to the creation of money to facilitate trade. Worse, those who don’t already have goods to exchange– or who have less ability to produce goods and services that others want – are out of luck.
In communist society, nothing will be bought or sold – or bartered or exchanged. Instead, everything will be shared.
We will share the work. We will share the products of our labor. We will give them to those who need them. We will ask for and accept as gifts the things and the help we need.
Most of us are used to sharing within our family or household. We are used to sharing with friends. These are the relationships that sustain us in good times and bad.
Building and maintaining those relationships is work. Sometimes it’s called “emotional labor.”
Often, it’s not easy.
And as a comrade pointed out in a recent meeting, usually it’s the woman in the family or the relationship who is expected to do most of this emotional labor. She often has to do it on top of her wage-slavery job outside the home and her unpaid housework. Part of the communist fight against sexism is more of us, regardless of gender, becoming more committed to the work of building relationships.
What does this have to do with mobilizing for communist society?
A society organized around sharing will require a vast expansion of our web of close social relationships—starting now. To make the leap from “me and mine” to “all of us” means intentionally building communist social relationships.
An industrial worker comrade talks about his deepening friendship with a co-worker who is increasingly helpful in building the work of the Party. They see each other more and more off the job—even sometimes when it might not be very convenient.
Clearly this means more opportunities to talk about communism and how to advance the work. But it means more. It’s relationships like these that sustain us.
Red Flag readers, including Party members everywhere, are learning a lot from the comrades in South Africa about building strong Party collectives. These communist social relationships reflect their commitment to each other. They are helping to sharpen the struggle to advance the work of each individual and their collectives.
Too often we don’t pay enough attention to the emotional work – and rewards – of building communist social relationships. These don’t come “naturally” in capitalist society. We can’t rely on spontaneity.
Late-stage capitalism – intentionally, and by its very nature – promotes alienation and isolation. It atomizes and fragments the working class. All forms of capitalist entertainment contribute to this. Racism, sexism and xenophobia are part of it, but not the whole story.
We need to spend more time with the students, workers and others we hope to convince to join and build the International Communist Workers’ Party. We can’t live “two lives” (a work life and a “private” life). We need to struggle collectively and intentionally to build and strengthen communist social relationships.
We need to rely on networks of relationships to take advantage of the opportunities to advance communism that exist around us today. These friendships are the basis for recruiting and consolidating new Party members. And we’ll need to rely on these expanding networks to take advantage of revolutionary opportunities when they arise.
But – equally or even more important – the quantitative change (“more communist relationships”) will become a qualitative change (“building communist society”).
The lifeblood of capitalist social organization is money. Money allows a tiny but powerful ruling class to accumulate our social labor as their private property. It greases the wheels of their political system as well as their economy.
In contrast, communist social relationships will be the lifeblood of communist society—the world without money that we, the masses, desperately need.
This article summarizes an important theme discussed at a recent ICWP leadership meeting.
We welcome your experiences and comments.
Communist Relations Among Maquila Workers
How can we establish communist social relations? This is an important question and maybe I don’t have the complete answer, but I consider that a main aspect is solidarity.
A few weeks ago, a worker from a factory had her stove burn up. It was very dangerous because her children were there at home while she was working, but we were glad to learn that they were safe.
We decided to collect a little money to buy a stove. The confidence of this comrade to communicate her situation to the collective was important since it means that she has understood that all aspects of everyday life matter. In communism we will all be responsible for everyone. Why not do it today to some extent? A comrade in the base of ICWP should be important.
A few months ago we went to visit a comrade who has fought against an illness, and we took a basic food basket and spent a few hours at her house. These moments are valuable and we shared ideas about how to advance the organizing work of ICWP.
These examples that I share are difficult but common moments for the working class. But there are also moments of joy that are good and that we must create and take advantage of politically to speak about communist ideas, mainly because they are spaces in which people are willing to share and to listen. I think that this collective participation is helping make our way forward.
Someone is not a comrade just in a meeting, in a march, in a leaflet distribution, or during agitation.
They are our comrade all the time.
The discussion on this subject must continue to combat capitalist practices and ideas about how to relate in a communist way. Let’s read and distribute our newspaper Red Flag.
Long live the working class!
—Comrade in El Salvador
The indigenous Iroquois people of North America (shown here in a 16th century European etching) had a traditional “gift economy.” They held land and worked it communally. When smaller groups hunted or fished, the whole community shared what they brought back.
Among Iroquois communities, gift-giving was more common than trading. Iroquois people taught their children to think for themselves and work hard for the community. Today, more and more people around the world are talking about – and trying to build – small-scale gift economies. Communism will build on the best of these traditions and experiments, taking them to a new and higher level.
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