Lettre à la ICL-FI (extract), 28 Juin 2021.
The ideology of an association is determined by its social composition. However, political organizations determine membership in their party according to ideological principles.
In the case of communist organizations, this is illusory because :
- an organization whose social composition is not proletarian tends spontaneously to revisionism,
- an organization whose social composition is proletarian tends spontaneously to communism.
Although social origin does not directly determine the ideology of a particular person, it does determine the ideology of several people as a group, as long as they are numerous enough.
This is why the party must have mechanisms to control its social composition, not its ideology. If the party feels the need to control the ideology of its members, it is because its social composition has changed and there is a contradiction between its social composition and its ideology.
The average standard of living and wealth, a limit not to be exceeded
Communism tends towards world economic equality, that is to say towards the reduction of all agents towards the average, whatever it may be. This average may be above or below the current world average, but that is another matter.
In any case, people with an economic level above the average have an objective interest in maintaining inequality, so as not to reduce their level to the average. These people may individually have a communist ideology, but as a group they spontaneously tend towards a policy that reinforces inequality.
Two criteria seem to me to be essential for defining this average economic level: standard of living and wealth. As long as the individual standard of living and wealth of the activists do not exceed the world average, each activist has an objective interest in equality, and the party, as a group, has an objective interest in communism.
Mistakes will be corrected through discussion, experience and democracy, because the material basis is healthy. The party is democratic, it does not need a small enlightened elite that controls the ideology. The party is not de facto empty of proletarians and full of intellectuals. Intellectuals are accepted as long as their standard of living and wealth do not exceed the world average.
[Addenda: If a companion has a standard of living or wealth above the world average, he can join the party on condition that he pays the excess (compared to the world average) of his standard of living and of his wealth to the party.]
[Addenda: If a comrade saw his standard of living or his wealth rise above the world average, he could be granted a reasonable period of time (for example 1 year) to pay the excess to the party, and to ensure that his level of average life (for example over 5 years), does not exceed the world average. After this period, the comrade would be demoted to the level of companion (suspension of membership status) pending payment of the excess.]
Consequently, the standard of living and the patrimony of the comrades should be verified every year, a bit like a declaration of income for taxes.
Conclusion
The parties obsessed with their ideological differences have not understood how materialism works. The right political orientation will be found spontaneously through discussion and democracy if the social composition is right. On the contrary, a party that believes it has found the truth through ideological selection will always be determined by its social composition, and will condemn itself to remain a small sect of intellectuals.
[Addenda: This double maximum, both of the standard of living and of patrimony, and not of income or salary, inherits the name of PARTMAXIMUM.]
[Addenda: Estimating global capital from net capital formation (2021-02)