James P. Cannon speaks on America's road to socialism

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SOCIALIST ACTION MAY 1987 17 By JAMES P. CANNON The following are excerpts from a speech given by James P. Cannon in January 1953 titled "America Under Workers' Rule."

Cannon, who died on Aug. 21, 1974, at the age of 84, was the founder of the American Trotskyist movement and one of the eminent veterans of the revolutionary movement both internationally and domestically.

In this speech, Cannon takes up the character and tasks of the new workers' government that will lead the transition toward the establishment of a socialist society.

The speech has been preserved in the language of the period, which used the masculine pronoun to refer to men and women.

We Marxists conceive of socialism, not as an arbitrary scheme of society to be constructed from a preconceived plan, but as the next stage of social evolution...

Capitalism has exhausted its progressive role. Now it must leave the stage to a higher system.

Capitalism has done its work here, so that when the workers come to power they Will fall heir not to a ruined, backward, hungry country [as was the case in Russia in 1917], but to the richest country with the most highly developed productive plant in the whole world. That's where the new government of the workers in America will have to start.

What will be the form of the new workers' government? I wouldn't undertake to say positively, any more than I would undertake to say positively just how the transfer of the governmental power from the capitalists to the workers will take place.

The two questions are connected, to a certain extent. Many variants are possible, depending on the strength of each side at the time of the showdown, and the dispo -sition of the capitalists in particular.

The most likely scenario If somebody says: "I would prefer to see the change effected by the workers getting the majority in a fair election and taking power peacefully" —well, I wouldn't say I'm opposed to that.

I would say, if it can be done, if the democratic forms are maintained and it can be done peacefully, that would probably be the most economical way of transforming the government.

Of course, even in such a case, you would have to do a very serious job of fixing up the Constitution to make it fit the new needs. But that could be all done, provided the capitalists-contrary to the disposition of all ruling classes in the past—will agree peacefully to submit to the will of the majority.

But if history tells us anything, it is doubtful, to say the least, that they would agree to that. As the workers approach a position of political strength, where their majority in a fair election becomes a threatening prospect, it is possible-and even probable-that the capitalists will disregard democratic processes, organize fascist gangs, and try to settle the question with armed force.

The workers then will be obliged to set up their own defense battalions. In such circumstances it is quite possible--due to the stupidity, arrogance, unfairness, and historic blindness of the capitalists-that there will be some scuffling before the government is changed.

More democratic, representative But it will be changed just the same. And however it may be changed, the new government will probably approximate the occupational or workers' council form; or will eventually be remodeled along that line.

The present form of representation in the government by territorial units will probably be replaced by representation of occupational units.

The delegates in the Congress will directly represent the workers in their shops, the factories, the farms and so on;

as they continue to exist.

The workers' council form of government will be preferred because it is more repre -sentative and more democratic than the present form of American government.

The new government will be primarily concerned with the problems of the economy. The workers will have a means of exerting direct pressure and influence through their own delegates in the occupational councils, all the way up from the local to the regional and to the federal assemblies....

The first task of the new government -once it has established its authority and its power-will be to abolish private property in the means of production.

This will be done by one law, or by one decree, declaring that the banking system and all the key industries-all the big factories, mines, and factory farms; all the means of communication and transport -ation, public utilities, etc.—are henceforth public property.

I don't mean every little shop, corner store, and small farm. I mean the great industries which have already been organized on a colossal scale....

I wonder what the future man, the really civilized man, will think when he reads in his history books that there was once a society, long ago, where the people might be hungry for the products of farms and factories. And the workers in the factory might be eager to produce and needing the work so that they could live. But because the hungry people couldn't buy the products, the workers weren't allowed to work and produce them, and the factories were shut down, and agricultural production was artificially restricted.

What will the people of the future think of a society where the workers lived in constant fear of unemployment? There is hardly a worker anywhere who knows for sure whether he will have a job six months from now or not.

He can work all his mature life, 40 or 50 years, and he's never free from that fear. His having a job depends, not on his willingness to work, nor on the need of the people for the products of his labor. It depends on whether the owners of the factories can find a market for the products and make a profit at a given time. If they can't, they shut down the factory, and that's all there is to it.

The workers' government will put a stop to this monstrous squandering of the people's energies and resources, which is the direct result of the anarchy of capitalist production.

Just by cutting out all this colossal waste—to say nothing of a stepped-up rate of productivity, which would soon follow—the socialist reorganization of the economy will bring about a startling improvement of the people's living standards.

The first condition will be to eliminate all private profits of nonproducers; to eliminate all conflicting interests of private owners of separate industries; to stop production for sale and profit and organize planned production for use....

A planned economy «As one of its first acts, the new workers' WE CANT government will appoint a central planning board to organize and regulate the entire economy of America according to one general comprehensive plan.

What will be the composition of this planning board? Certainly no loud-mouthed politicians, no bankers, no lawyers. I doubt whether there will be any preachers. But I would say, representatives of the unions, farm cooperatives, economists and statisticians, scientists, technicians, and consumers will be appointed as a matter of course....

The citizen of Socialist America will gradually move into a new state of affairs where his main preoccupation is no longer his struggle for individual existence-as it is today—but what he is going to do with that wonderful gift of leisure, the greatest gift, I think, of all.

Leisure is the premise of all cultural development. Without leisure, you have no rights. What's the use of being told you should do this, and you should do that, you should develop your mind and let your soul expand—when you're so preoccupied with work and trying to make a living and keep your family out of the poorhouse that you have no time for anything else?

What you need is time! And for that you need an efficient system of planned economy to shorten the hours of necessary labor and give everyone the time and the leisure to think and reflect and loaf and invite his soul, as the poet said.

A big start in this direction will be made already in the early period of the workers' government.

Real workers' democracy

The regime of the workers' government in this country will be a democratic regimedemocratic through and through.

The abundance which the planned economy will provide for all-plus the time for leisure, for education, and cultural development in general-—will be the surest safeguards against a usurping bureaucracy infringing on the rights and liberties of the people, as is the case today in the Soviet When there is plenty for all, there is no material basis for a privileged bureaucracy, and the danger, therefore, is largely eliminated. That will be the situation in rich and highly developed America under the workers' rule.

From the beginning, we will go in for real workers' democracy in this country because, among other things, democracy is not only better for ourselves, for our minds, and for our souls, but is also better for production.

Democracy will call out the creative energy of the masses. When all the workers participate eagerly in the decisions-and bring together their criticisms and proposals based upon their experience in the shops-higher production will result.

Faults in the plans will be corrected right away by the experience of the workers. Misfits and incompetents in the leading bodies will be recalled by the democratic process. Officious "bosses" will be given the boot.

An educated and conscious working class will insist on democracy. And not the narrowly limited and largely fictitious democracy of voting every four years for some bigmouthed political faker picked for you by a political machine, but democracy in your work. That's where it really counts.

Every day you will have something to say about the work you're doing, how it should be done and who should be in charge of it, and whether he's directing it properly or not. Democracy in all cultural activities. Democracy in all spheres of communal life-from A to Z.

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not to omit the military units, which will also have a hand in the new regime as long