- by Marcus Browning
- The Guardian
- Issue #2158
Xiaomeisha beach, Shenzhen, China. Photo: Farrukh – flickr.com (CC BY-NC 2.0)
One time someone sent me – as a correspondent for the Guardian – a series of questions to do with Communist attitudes to individual freedom. How did we feel about copyright law and “the antiquated speed limits on our roads,” they wanted to know. What was our attitude towards random breath-testing of motorists or compulsory wearing of helmets by cyclists?
Clearly the attempt by governments to use the state to prevent protesters in support of the Palestinians from marching in the streets is an example of attack on their democratic freedom to dissent and solidarity.
Contrary to what the mass media usually say, Communists firmly believe in freedom of the individual. We believe that only socialism provides the means for the individual to be truly free. We also recognise that individuals are part of society, and that society has responsibilities and rights just as individuals do.
Individuals are free to act as they please, so long as their actions do not impact adversely on the rights of other members of society. Free speech for example, does not mean that you can say anything you like about other people; there is no such thing in our view as freedom to libel or freedom to slander. Similarly, we believe that promoting racial or religious hatred is unacceptable.
One question sought our views on the matter of copyright and intellectual property laws. In response I would say that Communists do not believe that ideas and discoveries that help to advance the human condition should be treated as commodities. It is capitalism’s approach to everything to treat it as a commodity and see if you can sell it for profit.
We believe that art and culture, for example, should be nurtured and encouraged through community recognition and support, not by consigning them to the vagaries of fashion and the market. The inventor of a new system of software, say, should be rewarded by society through grants and prizes commensurate with the importance and value of the new system to society, not by making the inventor a multi-billionaire.
If it is of benefit to society, then society should be able to benefit from it. At the same time, the person who devised the system or whatever it is, should be suitably rewarded.
Also raised was whether we favoured compulsory or non-compulsory voting. This cry is raised by conservative interests on a regular basis, because experience in other countries clearly shows that optional voting markedly favours conservative parties and candidates.
In the conditions of bourgeois democracy that presently prevail in Australia, compulsory voting may cause some people to grumble and to vote meaninglessly, but it produces a far more accurate democratic outcome than the alternative.
We would prefer to see a system of participatory democracy with candidates nominated and openly discussed by the colleagues in their workplace, or the neighbours in their housing estate, or other community institutions. We would like people to have the right to recall their elected representatives if a majority feel that the candidate has forfeited their support (by ignoring their campaign promises, for example).
Capitalist society is made up of classes who look out for their own interests. We believe that the interests of the working class, working farmers, and the proprietors of small businesses, have to be paramount, for these are the people who create the wealth in society and do not exploit the labour of others.
Laws and regulations that enhance the interests of ordinary working people will always have our support; those that do not do that will not have our support.
Freedom for the capitalist class is defined by the crises of over-production and increasing exploitation of labour that are fundamental to capitalism. These crises are interwoven with and exacerbate capitalism’s main contradiction, that between social production and private appropriation of the socially produced wealth.
In the last decades capitalism has undergone major developments which have allowed the crisis in the financial system to the crisis of over-production is an extremely destructive way.
Economies have been deregulated as conservative governments in the USA and other capitalist countries, including Australia, bowed to the demands of the transnational corporations.
Public enterprises were privatised, many government-run services were contracted out, barriers to investment were removed giving capital free movement globally to seek low-wage, non-unionised labour to exploit.
Under the banner of lower inflation, unions were attacked, wages and working conditions were cut or kept down. Government roles and functions in economies were greatly reduced. Markets – i.e. huge corporations – reign supreme. Trillions of dollars are wasted on preparations for war and war itself. Where is the freedom of the individual in all this?
As a Turkish communist poet put it, this is a sad freedom.
