The social revolution represents the culmination of working-class struggles against capitalism. While political revolutions are capable of altering the composition of the ruling class, they maintain the fundamental social relations of class and capitalism. In contrast the social revolution represents the destruction of class itself. Such an act can only be born through the working-class directly seizing their workplaces and all nodes of production and distribution, placing them under self-managed control of the workers. Such an act shatters the basis of the worker-capitalist social relation and allows for a transition beyond capitalism.
However, taking collective control of the workplaces represents only one part of the social revolution. Capitalist control of society is also predicated on the power and authority of the State. History shows that during a revolutionary period, a situation of dual power is likely to occur in which organs of workers power and the State represent competing nodes of power and legitimacy. However, such a situation of dual power can only be temporary. To see the social revolution to fruition, organs of workers' power must overcome and liquidate the State. Failure to do so will inevitably lead to counter-revolution.
Social Revolution and Violence
Both the economic and political components of the social revolution will not be peaceful affairs. The capitalists will not open their factory doors to the workers peacefully, nor will the State allow for its liquidation. Force and violence are necessary parts of breaking the rule of the capitalists.
History has shown that no ruling class will willingly give up its position. The capitalists have shown this themselves. The capitalists have responded to countless attempts both peaceful and violent by the working class to liberate itself by unleashing horrific violence. The next attempt will be no different.
The capitalists are more than willing to call on the State to enact violence to defend their interests. The need for violence is thrust upon the working class in its own self-defence. But this self-defence goes beyond simply defending ourselves against police, the military, or strike-breakers. Capitalism enacts violence upon us every day through economic deprivation, housing insecurity, wars, and environmental collapse. The violence of even the bloodiest revolution pales compared to the reality of the daily violence enacted by capitalism across the globe. As capitalism continues to drive the world towards environmental collapse and global conflict, the necessity of revolution, even if it must be violent, only grows.
The Ongoing Process of Social Revolution
The social revolution is not solely an event to occur on some historic day. Rather the social revolution is a process always in development. The myriad of working-class struggles in the past and today all contribute in their own way to the social revolution tomorrow. The social revolution requires the ongoing growth of working-class strength, consciousness and militancy and the development of its mass organisations which can serve as organs of workers' power. Such a process can only be developed through the daily struggle against capitalism.
As the working class develops its strength and aspirations further an insurrectionary break with capitalism becomes a possibility and a necessity. Without such a break the strength developed over time will eventually be strangled and crushed. Until capitalism is overcome the strength and organisation of the working class will always rise and fall. Today we find ourselves in the period of low-ebb that has persisted since working-class strength was crushed by neoliberalism. But our current period of low struggle will not last forever. The working-class will rise again and with it the possibility of the final revolution.
The success of this revolution will be premised on the efforts which have preceded it. To overcome capitalism the working-class requires a level of militancy, revolutionary spirit, and organisation far outstripping what currently exists today. Moreover, the working-class must have structures through which it can wage and defend the revolution itself.
The Tasks of the Social Revolution
Two great tasks will face the working class on the day of the revolution - the defence of the revolution and the transformation of society from capitalism to socialism. The victory of the revolution will be decided by the willingness of the workers to see it to fruition and the confrontation between organs of workers' power and the forces of capital and the State.
This confrontation and the establishment of socialism will inevitably be a prolonged process. Between capitalism and socialism there will be a period of transition. During this transitional period the workers will be confronted by counter-revolutionary forces and the task of restructuring society. A transition to socialism necessitates the dissolution of the state and the expropriation of the means of production, alongside a process of systemic self-management rooted in organs of workers' power.
The day of the revolution cannot be predicted. Seemingly impossible today, the process of the class struggle, the myriad of capitalist crises, and the constant unforeseen events which history produces, means that we cannot fully predict what is possible tomorrow. Recognising that social revolution represents a process, which today entails a myriad of non-revolutionary struggles, assists us in seeing that struggle today and revolution tomorrow cannot be neatly separated. Rather the social revolution represents the universalisation of the workers struggle and the principles of socialism in which we imbue within it.