Kozhikode: Democracy and market will be inevitable components of socialist systems in the 21st century, Sitaram Yechury, CPM politburo member, said here on Thursday.
Addressing a seminar on Marxism in the 21st century, he said the socialist alternatives emerging in the current century will not be a replica of the socialist system of the previous century.
“We will learn from the Soviet and Chinese models, but will not replicate them,” he said.
Pointing out the inevitability of an alternative to the prevailing capitalist order to end human misery, Yechury called for a ‘socialist market’ economy based on democracy and civil liberties.
In a socialist market economy, the “lifeline of the economy will be state controlled,” he said and added that a difference exists between ‘state control’ and ‘state ownership’ of economic means.
He cited China as a model of socialist market economy.
The endless cycle of crises facing capitalist economy all over the world is a validation of the arguments put forward by Marxism, he said.
The seminar organised as part of the golden jubilee celebration of Chintha journal published by the CPM was also addressed by Dr T.M. Thomas Isaac, C.P. Narayanan and others. CPM Kozhikode district secretary T.P. Ramakrishnan presided over the function.
