{"id":8919,"date":"2023-01-18T02:56:26","date_gmt":"2023-01-18T07:56:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tempestmag.org\/v01_2020\/staging\/?p=8919"},"modified":"2023-01-24T09:45:47","modified_gmt":"2023-01-24T14:45:47","slug":"revolution-means-smashing-the-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/2023\/01\/revolution-means-smashing-the-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Revolution means smashing the state"},"content":{"rendered":"

F<\/span>ar from being a radical slogan out of touch with reality, the notion of the need to \u201csmash the state\u201d represents the realistic starting point for thinking about the task of the transition to socialism.<\/p>\n

The state<\/h4>\n

What is a state? A state is an organized body of people with a \u201cmonopoly on certain crucial social functions,\u201d namely making social rules and enforcing them through \u201clegitimate\u201d violence.1

The modern capitalist state, as described in a famous line from The Communist Manifesto<\/em>, is \u201cbut a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie.\u201d But what are those common affairs? Primarily, these include ensuring the smooth functioning of capital accumulation for the capitalist class of any given country. And at the core of this capacity for management of capitalist order is a \u201cspecial body of armed men,\u201d to use an oft-quoted phrase of Lenin\u2019s.2 https:\/\/www.marxists.org\/archive\/lenin\/works\/1917\/staterev\/<\/a><\/span><\/span>These two elements: the monopoly on overwhelming violence (and importantly, the threat thereof) and the \u201cmanagement of capitalist interests\u201d are the operating principles of the capitalist state in general.<\/p>\n

The class character of the state<\/h4>\n

It is important to note that the \u201ccommittee\u201d referred to by Marx and Engels is not a literal committee of the ruling capitalists.3

The instrumentalist theory\u2014as pointed out by radical sociologist Fred Block\u2014misses two key features of the state.4https:\/\/jacobin.com\/2020\/04\/ruling-class-capitalist-state-reform-theory<\/a>.<\/span><\/span> The first is that even though it does serve as a tool for class rule, it must appear as if it doesn\u2019t. The fact that the bourgeois state \u201cappears” as a neutral intermediary between social groups and classes allows it to play an important ideological function. \u200b\u200bThe \u201cneutral\u201d appearance of the capitalist state is rooted in capitalist social relations. Because in most circumstances force (aside from threat of starvation) isn\u2019t needed to compel workers to go to work and produce, political power is institutionally separate from the \u201cprivate sphere\u201d of exploitation. Instead, it takes the form of a \u201cpublic\u201d and \u201cimpersonal\u201d power, standing above classes defined in production. 5

But secondly, and more importantly, the general interests of capital are not always shared or known by the capitalists themselves. Capitalists as a class are not class conscious. Jeff Bezos, for example, is guided by his own best interest in making the most profit from his little slice of the economic pie, and this shapes his inability to know the best interest of the system as a whole.<\/p>\n

As capitalism is system-driven by the processes of exchanges on the market, capitalists are in competition with each other. Competition between them proceeds simultaneously alongside the strong solidarity they have with each other when their collective interests are threatened by the working class. It is why Marx and Engels referred to them as a \u201chostile band of brothers.\u201d6

Because of the competitive and crisis-prone nature of capitalism, sometimes the state may have to act against the private interest of this or that capitalist with policies like price controls, restrictions on exports and the like, or even to aid the working class to quell class conflict (as in the case of implementing the New Deal out of fear of insurrection<\/a>), or to ensure social reproduction (like making sure that there is a supply of workers able to carry out work).7https:\/\/rampantmag.com\/2021\/04\/all-good-social-change-comes-from-mass-disruption\/<\/a>; and Kim Moody, \u201cWorker Insurgency and the New Deal,\u201d Tempest<\/em>, December 20, 2022, https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/2022\/12\/worker-insurgency-and-the-new-deal\/<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"An
\u201cThe fact that the bourgeois state \u201cappears” as a neutral intermediary between social groups and classes allows it to play an important ideological function.\u201d Photo<\/a> by OZinOH.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To the extent that the capitalist class does become consciously a class \u201cfor itself,\u201d it\u2019s often as it\u2019s organized by the state. Capitalists organize themselves as a class with the aid of idea-generating para-state institutions like parties, think tanks, and NGOs; non-state institutions like universities or elite media also contribute.8

As such, the state is the organized means by which the capitalist class formulates and pursues its interests as a class, including by arbitrating conflicts within the class. In still other words: the state is the way that members of the ruling class gain collective agency as a class.<\/p>\n

State managers play a central role in this expression. Yet they may also develop their own special interests. Some reformists use this critique of crude instrumentalism to suggest that since there are divisions in a capitalist class, and since the state is not simply their tool, working people can simply grab hold of the state and use it for our purposes to carry out a socialist transition. I will return to this point, but one thing to note is that this position just replicates the view of the state as an instrument, this time to be wielded from our side, as opposed to the structural analysis that shows why the state necessarily functions to serve capitalists\u2019 interests.9

States rely on tax revenue and borrowing to pay for their functioning and functionaries. Both of these depend on a growing economy, profitability, and a business climate that promotes investment.10