TWEETING THE REVOLUTION

By Mauro Gia Samonte

Part 3: KOMUN: Solution to Working Class Dilemma 

Our last post has given rise to this issue: The working class not buying capitalist goods is tantamount to committing suicide.

How, indeed, can workers live without buying capitalist goods?

Surely, workers not buying capitalist goods would send capitalism crashing, but by that act their own lifeblood would go crashing as well.

This is the dilemma today's revolutionary must overcome. 

The idea is not "not buying capitalist goods" but "not buying from capitalism".


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Buying capitalist goods is an entirely different thing from buying from capitalism. The former is concerned with necessity, the latter with a system. 

If the idea is to crush capitalism, then don't buy goods from capitalism. But since workers live on capitalist goods, then in order to crush capitalism and at the same time live, workers must buy those goods outside of the capitalistic system. How is this to be done? 

Ideally, the practice of socialism is the way of doing it. But save for some semblances of it taking place here and there in the world, there is no prospect at all of socialism getting realized even in the long term, That is, from the way current brand of revolutionaries are working it out.  

To get socialism done now thus becomes the challenge for the real, true revolutionary.

All revolutionary ideas are born to bring solutions to current problems. If those ideas don't bring the solutions now, then they are no revolutionary ideas.

Simple as that. 

Solving the workers' problems now is the essence of the revolution of today:: the establishment of the Socialist Society within - but in circumvention of - capitalistic political and economic strictures.

For the conduct of that revolution, it is imperative for the revolutionary to accept a number of givens.

Firstly, that the workers are never to be disrupted in their wage-earning. They live a hand-to-mouth existence so that even just a day of not getting pay means hunger for themselves and their families. They are never to go on strikes, work stoppages, sit-ins and mass protests, activities that result to a diminution of their income.

Secondly, the workers must have strategic stores from which to buy goods for their existence. These stores sell goods to the workers at cost, meaning, no mark up on the original cost of acquisition. In brief, no profit. The stores are put up precisely to buffer the impact of continually rising prices of commodities upon the income of workers. This way, the real value of the wages of workers is never diminished. This way, workers are effectively held back in their otherwise sinking into deeper levels of poverty.

Thirdly,  an element of exclusivity must be in place for buyers at the socialist strategic stores. These stores sell only to exclusive subscribers and not just to anyone. The exclusive subscribers are qualified according to fixed criteria for formulation through a consensus among themselves. For easy reference, call this new economic setup by whatever name applicable to local conditions and at any rate connotes a Socialist Community; in the Philippines, KOMUN.

Fourthly, KOMUN members are not to buy anything whatsoever at capitalistic stores. Two significant things are achieved by this. 

One, the income of workers is not made to circulate through the lifeline of capitalistic enterprises. That's so much funds denied the capitalist economy, which then must print more money to keep itself going. Replicated all over society and repeated over and over again down time, capitalism wakes up one morning to find itself gasping for breath.

Two, the money unspent by the workers and unrecycled into the capitalistic economy represents so much funds no longer needed for their day-to-day subsistence. This surplus money is used to put up industries for serving only the exclusive members of the KOMUN.. Soon the KOMUN achieves a good degree of self-reliance. Once this happens, the exclusive circles of subscribers to the socialist strategic stores achieve a qualitatively new cohesion, the transformation into a new social economic system, the KOMUN..

Fifthly, the socialist strategic stores reject all governmental regulations on the conduct of business, like paying fees and taxes. The KOMUN stores are not business enterprises and so are not subject to any business fees, levies and regulations.

Sixthly, subscribers to the strategic stores are not to vote in elections. Voting is a right, which workers may or may not wish to exercise; it is to the best interest of workers not to vote.

Seventhly, subscriber-workers to the strategic stores continue working in their respective workplaces as long as permissible by capitalism's objective conditions  (i.e., continuing capacity of capitalistic enterprises to pay salaries and wages). This, by way of maximizing funds that could be siphoned off from the capitalistic economy and infused into the new-emerging economy.

Eightly, health care, education, and public utilities continue to be had from capitalistic institutions in these fields until such time as such institutions are in place in the KOMUN for those purposes.

Ninthly, as early as the infancy of the new economy, education for pre-schoolers is already undertaken strictly along principles of the revolution as reached in concensus among members of the KOMUN. This is to ensure that the succeeding generations are no longer infected by capitalist thinking and culture.This pre-supposes the molding of a qualitatively different man, steeped in new values for full understanding of himself, his fellowmen and nature.

Tenthly, KOMUN members are to reject every trace of consumerism by which capitalists ideologically enslave the masses of workers and the poor. They are to learn to live by what are only necessary to subsist, like food, clothing and shelter. Items not carried by the socialist stores are deemed not necessary and must not be yearned for.  This requires no mean self-sacrifice by KOMUN members. But the bottom-line is rejection of capitalism as far as practicable. In due time, the new economy will itself be able to produce its own extra features of living like shampoo and cellphones, television shows and electronic networks, but then by that time these features are no longer capitalistic commodities but socialist which workers may indulge in to their hearts' content.

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