Red Shift: Class Effects of Socialist Egalitarianism and Capitalist Polarization

The tenth anniversary in 1999 of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and two years later of the collapse of the Soviet Union, provides a medium-term perspective from which to reflect on the nature of the societies of "actually existing socialism," and in particular on the economic position once held by their working classes. The need for such an examination gains added weight from the triumphalist declarations of the spokespersons for capitalism that the socialist system "does not work," with the disintegration of the former Soviet Bloc taken as the prime proof⎯Exhibit A⎯for this claim. Yet with tens of millions of formerly employed proletarians in those nations now literally not working, and a widespread increase in impoverishment even among those who previously constituted their middle classes, such "truths" should be met with skepticism. Among the most common arguments as to why socialism did not survive longer, especially in the USSR and the nations of Eastern Europe, is that it was unable to generate sufficiently high levels of economic well-being to allow workers there to attain the lifestyle to which their Western peers had become accustomed. Great expectations pervaded the region "before the fall" that even those at the lower levels of the economy would benefit from an end to the system. This was a major factor in the widespread willingness of many of their peoples to participate in the overthrow of the previous regimes. But for vast numbers such hopes were quickly and brutally smashed, with a resulting rise in class inequality. In the years since 1989, both statistical and anecdotal evidence has accumulated regarding the class polarization that has developed as a result of the rapid conversion of Soviet Bloc societies to capitalistic economies, with the growth of new rich on the one side and deep poverty on the other. Given these results, it is useful to reexamine whether the anticipated economic betterment that so many sought by moving away from socialism was ever realistic. The basic issue is whether the former Soviet Bloc societies had developed a form of economic and social organization that, despite its many serious flaws, provided sectors within their working populations⎯especially those of lower income⎯with certain relative advantages compared to similar strata under capitalism. Particularly worthy of reconsideration is the degree of egalitarianism that these nations achieved, and the effects of this on the economic position of their workers in contrast to those in …