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Freedom, by itself (not followed by anything, i.e. speech), is an abstract concept that has many different meanings. This concept is subjective and its definition depends on the perspective of the one describing it, which is greatly influenced by ones class interests.[1]
The bourgeoisie defines freedom as the right to buy and sell property without restrictions as opposed to the restricted economic activity of the Middle Ages.[2][3] Classical liberals like Antoine Barnave believed that allowing the lower classes to vote would abolish freedom.[4]
Liberal democracies propagate the facade of liberty and individual rights while concealing the true essence of their rule -- the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. This is a mechanism by which the capitalist class as a whole dictates the course of society, politics, and the economy to secure their dominance. Capital holds sway over institutions, media, and influential positions, manipulating public opinion and consolidating its control over the levers of power. The illusion of democracy the bourgeoisie creates is carefully curated to maintain the existing power structures and perpetuate the subjugation of the masses. Freedom under capitalism is similarly illusory; it is freedom for capital not freedom for people as it liberates capital and enslaves the worker.[5][6]
The poor cannot enjoy true freedom under capitalism; capitalism requires a reserve army of labour in order to keep wages low, and that necessarily means that many people must be deprived of life’s necessities in order to compel the rest of the working class to work more and demand less. You are free to work, and you are free to starve.[7] All other freedoms only exist depending on the degree to which a given liberal democracy has turned towards fascism; the working class are only given freedoms when they are inconsequential to the bourgeoisie.[8]
True freedom can only be achieved through the establishment of a Proletarian state, a system that truly represents the interests of the working masses, in which the means of production are collectively owned and controlled, and the fruits of labor are shared equitably among all. Only in such a society can the shackles of capitalist oppression be broken, and the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie dismantled. Despite the assertion by reactionaries to the contrary, communist revolutions invariably result in more freedoms for the people than the regimes they succeed.[9][10] As pointed out by Joseph Stalin: the whole point of communism is to liberate the working class.[11]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ “Gentlemen! Do not allow yourselves to be deluded by the abstract word freedom. Whose freedom? It is not the freedom of one individual in relation to another, but the freedom of capital to crush the worker.”
Karl Marx (1848). On the Question of Free Trade / Public Speech Delivered by Karl Marx before the Democratic Association of Brussels. Marx Engels Collected Works, vol.6 (p. 450). [MIA] - ↑ Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels (1848). Communist Manifesto: 'Proletarians and Communists'. [MIA]
- ↑ “The capitalists have always use the term "freedom" to mean freedom for the rich to get richer and for the workers to starve to death. And in capitalist usage, freedom of the press means freedom of the rich to bribe the press, freedom to use their wealth to shape and fabricate so-called public opinion. In this respect, too, the defenders of "pure democracy" prove to be defenders of an utterly foul and venal system that gives the rich control over the mass media. They prove to be deceivers of the people, who, with the aid of plausible, fine-sounding, but thoroughly false phrases, divert them from the concrete historical task of liberating the press from capitalist enslavement.”
V. I. Lenin (1920). First Congress of the Communist International. Lenin Collected Works, vol.28 (pp. 455-477). [MIA] - ↑ Domenico Losurdo (2011). Liberalism: A Counter-History: 'The Struggle for Recognition' (p. 198). [PDF] Verso. ISBN 9781844676934 [LG]
- ↑ “It is difficult for me to imagine what "personal liberty" is enjoyed by an unemployed person, who goes about hungry, and cannot find employment. Real liberty can exist only where exploitation has been abolished, where there is no oppression of some by others, where there is no unemployment and poverty, where a man is not haunted by the fear of being tomorrow deprived of work, of home and of bread. Only in such a society is real, and not paper, personal and every other liberty possible.”
Joseph Stalin (1936). Interview with Roy Howard. Works, vol.14. London: Red Star Press Ltd.. [MIA] - ↑ “Under capitalism, the very land is all in private hands; there remains no spot unowned where an enterprise can be carried on. The freedom of the worker to sell his labour power, the freedom of the capitalist to buy it, the ‘equality’ of the capitalist and the wage earner - all these are but hunger’s chain which compels the labourer to work for the capitalist.”
- ↑ “They speak of the equality of citizens, but forget that there cannot be real equality between employer and workman, between landlord and peasant, if the former possess wealth and political weight in society while the latter are deprived of both - if the former are exploiters while the latter are exploited. Or again: they speak of freedom of speech, assembly, and the press, but forget that all these liberties may be merely a hollow sound for the working class, if the latter cannot have access to suitable premises for meetings, good printing shops, a sufficient quantity of printing paper, etc.”
J. V. Stalin (1978). On the Draft Constitution of the U.S.S.R: Report Delivered at the Extraordinary Eighth Congress of Soviets of the U.S.S.R.. https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1936/11/25.htm. - ↑ “The freedom to organize is only conceded to the workers by the bourgeois when they are certain that the workers have been reduced to a point where they can no longer make use of it, except to resume elementary organizing work - work which they hope will not have political consequences other than in the very long term.”
Antonio Gramsci (1924). Democracy and fascism. - ↑ “4. Basic rights and duties of the citizen
The draft amended Constitution clearly stipulates the basic rights and duties of the citizens of our country. These stipulations demonstrate the genuinely democratic character of our regime.
The capitalists often boast that their Constitutions guarantee the rights of the individual, democratic liberties and the interests of all citizens. But in reality, only the bourgeoisie enjoy the rights recorded in these Constitutions. The working people do not really enjoy democratic free
doms ; they are exploited all their life and have to bear heavy burdens in the service of the exploiting class. The capitalists often circulate the slander that our socialist regime does not respect the personal interests of the citizen. But in reality, only our regime really serves the
\ interests of the people, first and foremost the working people, safeguards all interests of the people and develops democracy to enable the people to take effective part in the management of the State. That is why our people devote all their energies to their duties as the masters of
the country, in order to build socialism and make our country strong and our people prosperous. The draft amended Constitution clearly points out that the citizens of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam have :
— the right to work ;
— the right to rest ;
— the right to study ;
— the right to personal liberty ;
— freedoms of opinion, of the press, of assembly, of
association ; the right to hold demonstrations ;
— freedom of religious belief, to adhere or not to adhere-
to any religion;
— the right to elect and stand for election, etc.
All citizens are equal before the law. Women enjoy equal rights with men in every respect...”
Ho Chi Minh (1959). Selected Works, 1920-1966 (1977): 'Report on the Draft Amended Constitution' (p. 209). Hanoi: FOREIGN LANGUAGES PUBLISHING HOUSE. - ↑ “Some people conclude that anyone who utters a good word about leftist one-party revolutions must harbor antidemocratic or “Stalinist” sentiments. But to applaud social revolutions is not to oppose political freedom. To the extent that revolutionary governments construct substantive alternatives for their people, they increase human options and freedom.
There is no such thing as freedom in the abstract. There is freedom to speak openly and iconoclastically, freedom to organize a political opposition, freedom of opportunity to get an education and pursue a livelihood, freedom to worship as one chooses or not worship at all, freedom to live in healthful conditions, freedom to enjoy various social benefits, and so on. Most of what is called freedom gets its definition within a social context.
Revolutionary governments extend a number of popular freedoms without destroying those freedoms that never existed in the previous regimes. They foster conditions necessary for national self-determination, economic betterment, the preservation of health and human life, and the end of many of the worst forms of ethnic, patriarchal, and class oppression. Regarding patriarchal oppression, consider the vastly improved condition of women in revolutionary Afghanistan and South Yemen before the counterrevolutionary repression in the 1990s, or in Cuba after the 1959 revolution as compared to before.
U.S. policymakers argue that social revolutionary victory anywhere represents a diminution of freedom in the world. The assertion is false. The Chinese Revolution did not crush democracy; there was none to crush in that oppressively feudal regime. The Cuban Revolution did not destroy freedom; it destroyed a hateful U.S.-sponsored police state. The Algerian Revolution did not abolish national liberties; precious few existed under French colonialism. The Vietnamese revolutionaries did not abrogate individual rights; no such rights were available under the U.S.-supported puppet governments of Bao Dai, Diem, and Ky.
Of course, revolutions do limit the freedoms of the corporate propertied class and other privileged interests: the freedom to invest privately without regard to human and environmental costs, the freedom to live in obscene opulence while paying workers starvation wages, the freedom to treat the state as a private agency in the service of a privileged coterie, the freedom to employ child labor and child prostitutes, the freedom to treat women as chattel, and so on.”
Michael Parenti (1997). Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism. PDF. - ↑ “But we did not build this society in order to restrict personal liberty but in order that the human individual may feel really free. We built it for the sake of real personal liberty, liberty without quotation marks. It is difficult for me to imagine what “personal liberty” is enjoyed by an unemployed person, who goes about hungry, and cannot find employment.
Real liberty can exist only where exploitation has been abolished, where there is no oppression of some by others, where there is no unemployment and poverty, where a man is not haunted by the fear of being tomorrow deprived of work, of home and of bread. Only in such a society is real, and not paper, personal and every other liberty possible.”
Joseph Stalin (1936). Interview between J. Stalin and Roy Howard. Marxists Internet Archive.