by keifermiller

Bhaskar Sunkara, who is a vice chair of the Democratic Socialists of America wrote an op-ed piece for the NYT a while back: Socialism’s Future May Be Its Past

In it, he sets out three possible "destinations" for where we are using the somewhat contrived metaphor of rail stations as an homage to Lenin's return to Russia. "Finland Station" in the quote below represents the leftmost branch that he lays out in the railway of society.

But there is a third alternative: back to “Finland Station,” with all the lessons of the past. This time, people get to vote. Well, debate and deliberate and then vote — and have faith that people can organize together to chart new destinations for humanity.

Stripped down to its essence, and returned to its roots, socialism is an ideology of radical democracy. In an era when liberties are under attack, it seeks to empower civil society to allow participation in the decisions that affect our lives. A huge state bureaucracy, of course, can be just as alienating and undemocratic as corporate boardrooms, so we need to think hard about the new forms that social ownership could take.

Then, Counter Punch published a response by Alan Jones of Socialist Alternative a couple of days ago: “Finland Station” and the Struggle for Socialism Today

Bhaskar seems to be unaware of the democratic role of the soviets, while implying there was something fundamentally undemocratic about the Russian Revolution. While appealing for a return to the “Finland station” he insists that things will be different this time around. The key difference, he says, is that “This time, people get to vote. Well, debate and deliberate and then vote”. But the Bolsheviks did “debate and deliberate and then vote,” quite often in fact. If they hadn’t done that, both internally and in the soviets, the October revolution would not have been successful.

I thought it was an interesting exchange, both the pieces themselves, and in the context of where the American left is at right now.