5. THE SO-CALLED 'SOCIALIST' COUNTRIES By concentrating capital
in the hands of the state, state capitalism has created the
illusion that private ownership of the means of production has
disappeared and that the bourgeoisie has been eliminated. The
Stalinist theory of ‘socialism’ in one country, the whole lie of
the ‘socialist’ or ‘communist’ countries, or of countries ‘on
the road’ to socialism, all have their origins in this
mystification. The changes brought about by the tendency to
state capitalism are not to be found on the level of the basic
relations of production, but only on the level of the juridical
forms of property. They do not eliminate the private ownership
of the means of production, but only the juridical aspect of
individual ownership. The means of production remain ‘private’
property as far as the workers are concerned; the workers are
deprived of any control over the means of production. The means
of production are only ‘collectivised’ for the bureaucracy which
owns and manages them in a c