The Six Essential Components of Sustainable Socialism: From Building the Productive Forces to Combating Bourgeois Liberalization

Abstract

A sustainable socialist society has six essential components: (1) an economic system that builds the productive forces and promotes common prosperity in a steady, sustainable manner; (2) a political system that supports a vigorous people's democracy focused on implementing the people's political agenda; (3) a strong, united, and fully sovereign socialist homeland; (4) a progressive socialist culture; (5) resource management policies that promote a flourishing natural environment while meeting the people's economic needs; and (6) successful resistance to bourgeois liberalization. Sustainable socialism is the result of successfully constructing, managing, and preserving the six components. In order to prevent contradictions, the components must be scientifically harmonized in a way that is appropriate to national conditions. In addition to harmonization, dynamic, highly organized, and vigilant political leadership is necessary for launching and organizing the drive for sustainable socialism and protecting the gains of socialism from reactionaries. The communist party working through the instrument of the people's democratic dictatorship provides these organizing, harmonizing, and protective functions. Thus, the leading role of the communist party becomes the overarching principle that guides the construction, implementation, and scientific harmonization of the six components of sustainable socialism.

Keywords:

• sustainability
• socialism
• sustainable socialism
• communism
• Marxism

Notes on Contributor

David S. Pena is an independent researcher specializing in Marxist-Leninist philosophy, Director of the Library Learning Resource Center at Palm Beach State College in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA, and author of Economic Barbarism and Managerialism (2001). His work has been translated into Chinese, Vietnamese, French, and Romanian. He is a member of the World Association for Political Economy (WAPE), a WAPE Council member, and a regular contributor to WAPE's annual forums. He is also a Vice-President of the World Economic Development Society. His recent articles include: “21st Century Socialism and the Four Components of Sustainability”; “Beyond Bourgeois Liberalization: A Pathway to the Future of Socialism”; “Systemic Responsibility for the Climate Crisis”; and “Comparing the Chinese Dream with the American Dream” (forthcoming). In addition to International Critical Thought, his articles have appeared in Political Affairs; Nature, Society, and Thought; People's World; The Guardian (CP of Australia); People's Voice; Philosophy (Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences); World Review of Political Economy; and Marxism-Leninism Today.

Notes

¹This quotation has been attributed to Marx and Engels, but the present author has never been able to find it written word-for-word in any of their works. It is probably an amalgam of paraphrases from Marx's (1844, 182) “A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right” and Engels's (1995, 531–32) letter to F. A. Sorge on November 29, 1886.