A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

have the time for a gradual evolution. The transition must be organized,
taking into account present power relationships and the state of the
means of production – not only as a process, but as a struggle.
To achieve this, the fundamental question is how to define the objective.
The transition should be a new paradigm in order to bring about the
Common Good of Humanity, that is, the production, reproduction and
improvement of life. This runs completely counter to the aim of capitalism,
not only in the field of economics (the universality of the law of
value), but also in politics (the State at the service of the market) and in
culture (consumer individualism). The transition is necessarily a process
that will take time. Not only that, but capital, as a monopolistic economic
power, is capable, in order to reproduce itself, of inciting warfare (even
nuclear), of sacrificing millions of people through hunger, and of corrupting
the political bodies of the whole world to ensure its predominance. Its
logic has penetrated so much into the culture, even of the subordinate
classes and workers’ organizations, that it has a veritable hegemony.
It is important to analyze what is happening at the present time. In fact,
the measures that are now called transition are considered in two different
ways: either as steps towards a new paradigm, or as an adaptation
of the existing system to new ecological and social requirements.
It is not so much the terminology that differentiates the two trends, but
rather the actual policies. In both cases there is talk of the transition to
socialism, of the Socialism of the 21 st Century, of ‘Buen Vivir’, even of
revolution, but the contents are different at the political level.
What is happening in the progressive regimes in Latin America illustrates
the problem very well, with differences according to each case. There
are the countries that are clearly opting for a social democrat solution,
in which the tool for economic growth is capitalism, including national
and international financial capitalism and where social justice is to be
achieved by programmes of social redistribution, often large-scale and
effective, of part of the surplus value (as for example, Brazil, Argentina,
Nicaragua).
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