TRANSITION TO SOCIALISM IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

Abstract

This article attempts to outline the economic steps that would be necessary to convert a capitalist economy like the EU into a socialist one. We examine the issue in very concrete terms and propose specific policy measures. The measures we propose differ significantly from the tradition of 20th-century European Social Democracy. The main differences are (1) that we advocate measures to abolish exploitation prior to measures to take the means of production into public ownership; (2) that we advocate radical action against the accumulation of debt both private and public; (3) we see the transition to socialism as something that has to take place at a regional or continental level rather than within individual European nation states; (4) we take the Marxian labor theory of value as a practical guide in monetary policy; (5) we argue for a shift in the financial basis of the EU from indirect taxes which are regressive to direct progressive taxes on income and property.