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Socialism
The dismal science Economics |
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Economic systems |
Major concepts |
The worldly philosophers |
“”Socialism is a scare word they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last 20 years. Socialism is what they called public power. Socialism is what they called social security. Socialism is what they called farm price supports. Socialism is what they called bank deposit insurance. Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations. Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people.
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—Harry S. Truman[1] |
Socialism is a wide movement proposing a fairly broad set of related socio-economic systems which aim to create a more egalitarian society based on the collective ownership and administration of the means of production.[2] The exact nature of this collective ownership varies depending on the particular conception of socialism. Socialists may advocate for state, societal or cooperative ownership. Alternatively, for most conservatives/libertarians, socialism is widely regarded as "when the gummint does stuff".[3]
Socialists are often also defined as those who wish to abolish private property. This has often led to socialism being characterized as a system where "you can't own your house or toothbrush". However, this comes from a misunderstanding of what most socialists mean by "private property". For them, private property relates to the dynamic between the person who owns the property and the person actually using it, such as an employee working on a factory owned by their boss. In this context, the owner is able to generate profits despite not actually needing to do the work themselves. Socialists consider this dynamic to be exploitative, as it deprives the worker of the "fruits of their labor" for the self-gain of an individual. There's a difference between this and your actual possessions, often called "personal property", which are the things made for individual use.[4][5][6][7]
People who believe in socialism are referred to variously as "socialists" or "communists" — the technical difference being that communists see socialism as a "transitory phase" towards a communist society,[8] while socialists may not, meaning not every socialist is a communist. One of the main distinctions between a communist and a socialist society is that within socialism, society follows the idea of "to each according to their contribution". Within communism, society instead follows "from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs
".[9][10]
Historically, most attempts at estabilishing socialism have turned out less than ideal, often turning into horrifying dictatorships. Many socialists tend to promote methods of implementation that differ from the ones used in these dictatorships, hoping to avoid the mistakes of the past. Others argue these regimes were actually vibrant democracies, and figures such as Stalin were the good guys, injustly framed by the bourgeois media. That, or they were only bad because of Western sabotage.
Context[edit]
In the developed world during the Industrial Revolution, workers often felt underpaid for their labour, and dangerous working conditions became commonplace.[11] This laid the foundations for the modern idea of "socialism,"[note 1] which advocated for a better society where the workers would be liberated from such harsh conditions brought by capitalism.[12]
While the need for a radical change in the system has grown weaker in the last few decades, partly due to the acquisition of stronger labor rights and better conditions for a large part of the population, support for socialism still exists.[13] While different variants of socialism may advocate for different goals, most of them aim to fix some major perceived issues within capitalism, including economic inequality, concentration of power in the wealthy, exploitation of workers and underdeveloped countries, production for profit at society's expense (aggravating issues such as poverty and climate change), and so on.[14][15][16][17]
Proponents of capitalism consider a radical change of economic system to be unneeded, instead disagreeing with the socialist analysis of capitalism for a variety of reasons.
Some may consider things such as economic inequality to not be so bad, claiming it may increase economic growth and produce higher incomes.[18] Others may consider capitalism to be a meritocratic system and that issues such as inequality or poverty are the fault of "poor people not working hard enough",[19] or that capitalism doesn't aggravate issues like climate change through externalities as "climate change isn't real and is a socialist hoax".[20][21][22]
On the more reasonable scale, many supporters of capitalism agree that unregulated capitalism indeed features major flaws, but argue socialism is ineffective at actually fixing these societal issues, or that it suffers from other major drawbacks that make the trade-off not worth it (most often cited, economic inefficiency, like how private property rights lead to higher economic development[23]). These supporters may promote reforms within capitalism rather than an abolition of the whole system, which may include welfare programs, stronger regulations for private enterprises and partial, rather than full, public ownership, as is the case for modern social democrats. Similar reforms have demonstrated to be relatively successful, at least in the case of countries like Finland and Norway.[24]
Meanwhile, most right-libertarians would argue how it's the lack of capitalism and the free-market that is the problem. They might believe that many issues found in modern capitalism, including inequality and monopolies, are caused by government interventions distorting the unfallible free-market, and that all of it can be remedied by liberalizing the economy, instead of regulating or socializing it.[25][26]
Economic models[edit]
Different socialists propose different methods of organizing an economy. The following is a summary of how different types of economies would work within a socialist context. Note that some of the proposals shown have few to no examples of them in practice, meaning they remain mostly speculative and lack empirical data on their feasibility.
Planned economy[edit]
A planned economy is a type of economic system where production, distribution and investment is predominantly done according to economic plans rather than through the market and its participants. Plans may determine which and how many goods need to be produced, who produces them and what resources they will have available, how these goods will be distributed and to who, what will be the prices of these goods (if any), etc.[27][28]
Central planning[edit]
A centrally planned economy, often referred to as a command economy, is a form of planned economy where economic plans are made by a central body, normally the state bureaucracy. Individual central planners design the plans based on the information they have available about the productive capacity of firms and the national demands.[29][14][15]
This socialist model is arguably the most (in)famous, being the face of socialism throughout the whole world. Command economies have been popularized by the rise of socialist states such as the USSR and its form of central planning utilized by it and future socialist nations.[29][30][note 2]
Central planning has received numerous criticisms since its inception. Some of the most notable critiques come from the Austrian school of economics, particularly from figures such as Friedrich Hayek.[29] One of Hayek's major critiques include the difficulty of gathering and using relevant information, which is tacit and dispersed in a whole economy, due to the lack of price signals for conveying such information.[33] Another critique by him is the inevitability of central planning to result in authoritarianism, since the kind of power that comes from planning would inevitably grant high powers of coercion to the state.[34] Central planning also struggles with incentives, as firms may lack the pressure from competition and profitability to avoid waste,[29] as well as maintain the quality of products, while central planners themselves may lack the motivation to act on information, even when they possess it.[35] Authoritarianism and centralization, as well as various economic issues such as shortages of consumer goods, were indeed common in existing centrally planned socialist states, as noted by many academics.[36][37][38]
Due to the issues cited, there's not a lot of academic support for centrally planned economies in the modern age. Some leftists have taken this for a bourgeois attack against the glorious socialist states and their extremely efficient economies. Others have abandoned the Soviet model of planning, but still advocate for alternative models involving central planning that are (hopefully) more democratic and efficient. One such example is the model of planning through supercomputers described by Paul Cockshott and Allin Cottrell.[39]
Decentralized planning[edit]
As the name suggests, a decentrally planned economy proposes a form of economic planning based on horizontalism and bottom-up decision-making, aiming to fix the issues found in central planning, including the concentration of power in the government bureaucracy, the lack of worker self-management and the difficulties surrounding calculation and information-gathering.[14][15] This model distinguishes itself from the market mechanism, the other horizontal method of coordination, by having interdependent decisions be made collectively and in advance, instead of being done atomistically and in isolation like in the market.[40]:24
Its advocates commonly propose utilizing worker's councils and direct or participatory democracy for the planning process. A popular contemporary proposal is the one made by the economists Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel, named participatory economics, although some elements of it could be traced back to older theorists, such as Cornelius Castoriadis and the various council communists.[41]
This kind of planning has few examples in practice however, meaning most of its support, and criticism, rests on speculation, which might've contributed to the lack of academic evaluation of the concept. The socialist economist Alec Nove has argued how there is no realistic alternative to the market mechanism for horizontal coordination, as a political voting process is impracticable due to the sheer scale of an economy, and because of the risk of it devolving into a tyranny of the majority by the assemblies not permitting the production of goods that only satisfy a minority of the population.[42]
Market economy[edit]
A market economy is one where the production and distribution of goods and services is determined by the forces of supply and demand through price signals.[43][44] While socialism is often associated with planning, the idea of social ownership is by no means incompatible with markets. In fact, market socialists have existed before socialism was even popularized by Marx and later socialist experiments.
Historically, a form of market socialism has been practiced in Yugoslavia. While the means of production were publicly owned, the actual management of enterprises was, for the most part, done by the workers themselves.[45] Under Tito, Yugoslavia did actually enjoy a relatively healthy economy, with no major shortages of consumer goods, in contrast to the many other socialist regimes of that time (although the same can't really be said on the "democracy" department). Yugoslavia's economy suffered from major downturns in its later years, however. Considering its many reforms and peculiarities, it's hard to tell whether it was because of fundamental flaws of market socialism or not.[45] Yugoslavia was eventually dissolved after major internal ethnic conflicts.[46]
The current system found in China is officially named "socialism with Chinese characteristics" and features predominant use of markets, although it might more closely resemble a form of state capitalism,[47] as it still features private property. The Lange model, idealized by Oskar Lange during a debate with Friedrich Hayek, is often regarded as an important market socialist model, although perhaps erroneously, as the model was created with the intention of replacing the market with planning.[48]:252
Many on the left in the modern day have proposed different models of market socialism, including John Roemer's model of "coupon socialism"[49] and David Schweickart's model of "economic democracy".[50] Some influential figures, such as American politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have advocated for a market socialist system.[51] Interestingly, even some Marxists have advocated for a market socialist economy, including the economist Richard D. Wolff (and the aforementioned Roemer).[52]
Ideologies[edit]
Utopian socialism[edit]
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The first person who theorized of the initial modern concept of socialism was Henri de Saint-Simon, a political, social, and economic philosopher. The term socialism itself was coined in 1832 by a follower of Simon, Pierre Leroux, when describing the system Simon had theorized.[53] The term "utopian socialism" was coined by a later socialist thinker to refer to those who generally believed in a classless and stateless society but had not hammered out any specific theories for getting there.[54]
Utopian socialism is also among the earliest forms of theorized and practiced socialism globally. A group known as the Owenites, followers of 19th-century Welsh social reformer Robert Owen, formed several utopian socialist communities organized along communitarian and cooperative principles. The most famous of the communities located in New Harmony, Indiana, was where Owen himself chose to reside. The Owenite communities largely failed in short order (New Harmony's Owenite community only lasted two years). Still, Owenism is largely thought to have been the first socialist movement in American history,[55] and former Presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both attended his lectures.[56] While the Owenites largely failed in their goals, Owen's ideas on labor vouchers influenced later socialist thinkers such as Daniel De Leon, while the Owenites' most lasting legacy on the socialist movement is most likely the cooperative movement.[57]
Blanquism[edit]
Blanquism refers to the socialist current derived from the ideas of Louis Auguste Blanqui. He advocated for socialism to be brought through a revolution led by a small and secretive group, who would then seize power through a coup d'état and gradually create a socialist society. Only after this tyrannical period would power be given to the masses. Unlike later socialist theorists, Blanqui was not particularly interested in visualizing how a socialism society would function. He also differed from most revolutionary socialists by rejecting a popular movement as the means of seizing power.[58] Blanquism isn't particularly well-known or notable in comparison to most other socialist ideologies. Even so, Blanquists were an influence to the socialist experiment of the Paris Commune.
Anarchism[edit]
“”To be governed is to be kept in sight, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right, nor the wisdom, nor the virtue to do so.
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—Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, The General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century (1851).[59] |
Anarchism is a variant of socialism often characterized by its advocacy for the abolishment of the state. Anarchists define the state as any tool of domination which allows a small group of people to subjugate the whole. In other words, anarchists oppose any mechanism which goes against the self-government of the people, which includes virtually all forms of authority or hierarchy.[60][61]
Anarchism is a wildly varied ideology. The first self-styled anarchist was Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who was also the first mutualist, an anarchist ideology. Other influential figures include the anarcho-collectivist Mikhail Bakunin
and the anarcho-communist Peter Kropotkin, who both created/popularized their respective anarchist ideologies and advanced some of the fundamentals followed by most anarchist in the current age. Anarchism has also inspired movements in various countries, such as the anarcho-syndicalist one in Spain during the Spanish Civil War and the anarcho-communist one in Ukraine during the Ukraine War of Independence.
[62]
Predictably, the most common critique against anarchism is its infeasibility, as the idea of a society without any of the hierarchies and coercive institutions anarchists oppose is at least somewhat dubious, considering the lack of large-scale societies which can be used as successful examples. Critics may also consider anarchists to be violent, in particular how many anarchists may advocate or utilize violent means to resist or take down authority, although there are still many examples of more pacifist anarchists, such as Lev Tolstoy.[63]
Marxism[edit]
“”The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.
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— Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Communist Manifesto (1848).[64] |
In contrast to utopian socialism, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels formulated what they called "scientific socialism".[54] This variant of socialism came to be from an analysis of the history of civilization based on class struggle and historical materialism. They believed that the conditions created by capitalism would result in the conflict between the ruling class (the bourgeoisie, i.e. the class that owns the means of production) and the ruled class (the proletariat, i.e. the class of wage-earners who only own their own labor-power) which would build the foundations for a proletarian revolution where the workers would gradually seize the means of production.[64][65][66]
Marx believed that all socio-political orders, except in the mythical pure communism, were "dictatorships" in which one class dictated to the rest; the bourgeoisie was assigned that role in his characterization of capitalism. For Marx, the path towards communism would not be any less a dictatorship, but it would be a "dictatorship of the proletariat" where the workers would dictate to everyone else. The term "dictatorship of the proletariat" was initially coined to differentiate between Marx's idea of a grass-roots worker-run state and the more elitist ideas of Blanquism; but the "dictatorship" part is not meaningless, since he said in the Communist Manifesto that this dictatorship would have to resort to "despotic" measures at first (e.g., control the army to conquer other capitalist territories).[64] Engels also advocated for the state to be used "not for the purpose of freedom, but of keeping down its enemies".[67]
After the dictatorial period, society would then begin to transition towards a classless, stateless and moneyless society. "Classless" and "stateless" were tightly bound together in Marx's theory. Within Marxism, the state is defined as the tools of class oppression and subjugation,[68] meaning a society without social classes would, consequently, have no state.[69][note 3] As the socialist order is established, Marx divided what he called the lower and higher phases of a communist society, with the main distinction being that the lower phase would use labor certificates as a basis for reward, while the higher phase would distribute according to need.[10] Traditionally, these phases would simply be called "socialism" and "communism" respectively. However, Marx used both terms interchangeable. Only later would Marx's ideas be reinterpreted to separate the two definitions, making socialism this transitory phase (and also fusing the lower phase with the dictatorship of the proletariat, which initially preceded the phases of communism).[48]:90–91
Marxism was arguably the most influential socialist school of thought, having inspired countless movements and theorists in history. It has also created a great amount of enemies and critics all across the political spectrum, including from other socialists. For example, the anarchist Mikhail Bakunin was an ardent critic of Marx, predicting the dictatorship of the proletariat would be seized by a small elite of false representatives of the worker-class.[71] Libertarians (and, to an extent, supporters of democracy in general) from both sides often share similar sentiments. The fact that this basically happened probably helps their case.[note 4]
Marx's ideas have also been criticized by members of the scientific community from various fields. The philosopher Karl Popper has criticized Marxism on the grounds of it not being scientific (contrary to what "scientific socialism" might suggest) and it relying on historicism.[73][74] Marxism also sees little relevance in the field of economics, with most economists rejecting the core tenets found in Marx's economic works, such as the ones in Capital.[75][76] Despite this, Marxism still finds some relevance in the social sciences, with 18% of social scientists identifying themselves as Marxists, according to a 2007 survey on American professors.[77] Contemporarily, many scholars who describe themselves as Marxists follow more "updated" traditions, such as the strain of Analytical Marxism, largely prompted by the philosopher G. A. Cohen and other members of what was endearingly called the "Non-Bullshit Marxism Group".[78]
Marxism is also used as a boogeyman by right-wing cranks and fascists in various conspiracy theories, notably in Cultural Marxism. It's common for these groups to make baseless accusations against those to the left of them by claiming they're actually secret Marxists trying to bring communism through progressive policies. Tactics like these were also used during the American Red Scares.
Leninism[edit]
“”Attention, must be devoted principally to raising the workers to the level of revolutionaries; it is not at all our task to descend to the level of the “working masses.”
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— Vladimir Lenin, What Is To Be Done? (1901).[79] |
Leninism was the current which spawned from the Bolshevik revolutionary Vladimir Lenin's works and interpretations of orthodox Marxism leading to, and after, the Russian Revolution, which occured in during the beginning of the 20th century.
Lenin was an extensive critic of "evolutionary socialism," a current developing within his time. Evolutionary socialists, such as Eduard Bernstein, promoted the idea of a gradual change towards socialism. They believed that, since the conditions of the workers actually improved as the years went by, it was indeed possible to implement socialism without a revolution.[12]
In contrast, Lenin advocated for a violent revolution as the only means to achieve socialism, arguing the improvement of conditions was due to the exploitation of poorer countries, condemning Bernstein of being revisionist. Ironically, Lenin himself held positions which went against what most Marxists believed at the time, such as how he wished to skip capitalism and go straight to socialism, rejecting the notion that a period of capitalism would be needed to develop both the productive forces of the country and the revolutionary proletariat.[12]
Lenin considered the dictatorship of the proletariat to be democratic, but also argued that the "exploiters and oppressors of the people" should be excluded from democracy, with democracy for all being only possible after reaching a classless society.[8] In practice however, the worker's state was mainly controlled by the Communist Party rather than the workers, meaning that, in the end, there was no democracy at all.[80]
Lenin was distrustful of a spontaneous revolution, i.e. that the workers themselves would realize how wonderful communism is through the natural development of history, which was the prediction made by the more traditional Marxism. Instead, he promoted the use of a central "vanguard party", organized through democratic centralism. The vanguard party was to be composed of the most class-conscious and intelligent members of the worker-class, who would bring the masses to the revolution by spreading revolutionary thought and would seize the power from the ruling classes.[80][79] Democratic centralism was (on theory) based on "freedom of discussion, unity of action", where discussion was completely permitted until a decision was made by a vote from the party, in which case any actions which may derail the reached resolution are strictly forbidden.[81]
Critics may argue how such method of organizing the revolution is not only oppressive towards dissident members due to the nature of democratic centralism, but can lead to the alienation of the worker-class as a whole in favor of a small minority of so-called "great thinkers" tasked with leading the revolution.[70]
Marxism-Leninism[edit]
Marxism-Leninism is the communist ideology created by Joseph Stalin, according to his own interpretation of Marxism and Leninism. Marxism-Leninism advocates for a centrally planned economy with a one-party socialist state and brutal repression of anything deemed "bourgeois" or "counter-revolutionary", which, for virtually all Marxist-Leninist leaders, includes anyone or anything they don't like.[82]
Marxism-Leninism became the official state ideology of the Soviet Union, as well as many communist regimes following Stalin's rule. Many different ideologies can be found within it, including Stalinism under Joseph Stalin, Maoism under Mao Zedong, Juche under Kim Il-sung, and so on, each altering or adapting Marxism-Leninism in different ways under different contexts. It's one of the most followed communist ideologies to date, with many of the former and existing self-described socialist states advocating it in some form.[83]
From the Great Purge and Holodomor of Stalin to the "Year Zero" of Pol Pot, most Marxist-Leninist societies featured some kind of event leading to mass death as a result of abuse of power. Similarly to fascism, there are still those who deny the atrocities committed under these regimes, including Grover Furr and Michael Parenti. Apologists of these regimes may pejoratively be called tankies, in reference to those who were in support of the Soviet Union sending tanks to stop protests, such as the ones in Hungary during 1956.[84]
As the state controlled speech, so too was science controlled. This came from a desire to follow the principles of Marxism and dialectical materialism to a tee while avoiding all the "bourgeois pseudoscience". This was especially notorious in the Soviet Union under Stalin, where publications in scientific journals and books, granting of degrees, promotions and demotions, and so on, were all controlled by the Party. This also resulted in stuff like the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics to be labeled bourgeois, as well as the USSR's most notorious piece of pseudoscience: Lysenkoism, invented by Trofim Lysenko, who created "agricultural techniques" that were actually a lot of bullshit dressed in the garb of dialectical materialism.[85] Science was still used for political purposes even after Stalin's rule, like how the Soviet Union utilized a made-up diagnosis named sluggish schizophrenia against political dissidents, with these "patients" being deprived of their basic rights.[86]
It's claimed by many anti-Soviet socialists that these Marxist-Leninist regimes were a departure from socialism, on account of the means of production being in the hands of an undemocratic state instead of the workers. Many of these critics may argue these regimes were a form of "state capitalism", as they did not erase the general relations of management and ownership which exist in capitalism (i.e. a small unaccountable minority owning the means of production and telling the workers what to do).[70][87][88] On the other hand, Stalinists would argue that these parallels were all fabrication by the oppressive bourgeois media and then send thugs to beat up anyone who said otherwise.
Trotskyism[edit]
Leon Trotsky attempted to become the leader of the Soviet Union after Lenin died, but was defeated by Stalin and later exiled. Initially, the key difference between Stalinism and what later became known as Trotskyism was whether the socialist revolution should be exported to other countries as quickly as possible (as advocated by Trotsky) or if socialism should be strengthened in a single country before (as advocated by Stalin). Later on, Trotsky would harshly criticize the Stalinist rule of the USSR, calling it a "degenerated worker's state" taken over by the bureaucracy.[89]
Contemporarily, Trotsky became a figure of the anti-Stalinist left, sometimes even being considered a more democratic alternative to Stalin.[90] An obvious example of this in practice is how George Orwell made an allegory of Trotsky as the opposition against the tyrannical figure of the story in two separate occasions, first with Snowball in Animal Farm and then with Emmanuel Goldstein in Nineteen Eighty-Four, despite Orwell himself being doubtful that Trotskyists were morally superior to other communists.[91]
Aside from the regular Trotskyists, there are also more bizarre and niche Trotskyist movements. One of the most notorious is Posadism, which affirms the communist revolution should come from a nuclear war. It also features elements of ufology, for whatever reason.
Libertarian socialism[edit]
Libertarian socialism, also named left-libertarianism, is the most anti-authoritarian form of socialism. While anarchism is found within libertarian socialism and both terms are frequently used interchangeably, not all libertarian socialists call themselves anarchists, preferring instead a limited government rather than a complete abolition of it.[62]:13,641
Some of the most prominent libertarian socialist theorists can be found within the libertarian Marxist tradition, which emphasizes direct democracy and autonomy in a Marxist conception. Within this tradition are included Rosa Luxemburg and the council communists, who were both contemporaries of Lenin but critical of his ideas. Daniel De Leon has also been characterized as a Marxian libertarian socialist, having taken inspiration from anarcho-syndicalism to formulate the branch named "De Leonism", based on labor unions being the supreme legal force.[92]
Another important figure in libertarian socialism is Murray Bookchin and his communalism, which later influenced the political system of Rojava. Bookchin's communalism was based on libertarian municipalism, where each city or commune would be largely autonomous and manage itself and its economy in a decentralized fashion, united together in a confederation.[93]
Democratic socialism[edit]
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Despite socialism being intended to be democratic, various socialists may prefer to use the term "democratic socialism" in order to convey the goal of socialization of the means of production through an accountable democratic government more clearly, in contrast to the many dictatorships that claim to have their people's best interests in mind.[94][95] The term has also often been used to refer to social democracy, although social democracy generally refers to a reformist version of capitalism rather than an abolition of it.[94]
Plenty of folks have declared democratic socialist views but have had their views misconstrued with time, including Nelson Mandela,[96] Albert Einstein,[16] Helen Keller,[97] Martin Luther King,[98][99] and George Orwell.[100] Other big-name self-described democratic socialists include British politician Jeremy Corbyn[101] and American politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.[51] Former Chilean president Salvador Allende has also been described as democratic socialist, being one of the few Marxist leaders actually elected by democratic means.[102] Bernie Sanders calls himself a democratic socialist, despite the label of social democrat being potentially more fitting when taking into account his actual policies.[103]
Liberal socialism[edit]
Liberal socialism does NOT refer to the Republican phenomenom of calling any liberal a socialist. Rather, liberal socialists are ones who favor a more market-oriented economy with a welfare state which enshrines basic liberties such as freedom of expression and civil rights. Despite its similarities, it may be distinguished from social democracy by emphasizing more fundamental changes in the relations of production, including higher democratization of the workplace.[104]
Religious socialism[edit]
Marxism explicitly criticizes religion, with Marx referring to religion as "the opium of the people"[note 5] to which a pre-socialist state of existence has given rise. Communists have made heavy persecutions of churches when in power, and in some cases even banned religion altogether. Anarchists are also known for their anti-clerical church-burning activities (although not all anarchists perform such behavior, and some are actually Christians themselves).
But Marx did not advocate the banning of religion, instead saying that it is simply a way to cope, and to see something bright at the end of the tunnel when one is faced with the injustices of feudal and capitalist society, and says that the criticism of religion is thus the criticism of the conditions that breed it.
There are also currents of religious socialism, as will be mentioned right now.
Christian socialism[edit]
It's not uncommon for fundamentalists to argue socialism is incompatible with Christianity. However, the tradition of Christian socialism isn't a new one. In fact, one could even argue a major player in the Bible actually advocated for something similar to socialism. As to who this figure is, here's a few hints: he is generally portrayed as a tall, blue eyed white man with long hair, wearing a flowing robe, or nailed to a cross, although he was more likely short, had short hair, brown skin, brown eyes and would have never worn a robe, as it would have been a terrible hazard in his carpentry work. A few quotes:
Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
- Matthew 19:24 (KJV)Do not store up your treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart is also.
- Matthew 6:19-21No man can serve two masters. For a slave will either love the one and hate the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
- Matthew 6:24Sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.
- Matthew 19:21Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
- Matthew 25:34-40The love of money is the root of all evil."
- 1 Timothy 6:10
As recounted in Acts 2:44-45, the early Christian church practiced a form of religious communism with "all things common."[note 6] Today, there are many Christian socialist throughout the world, particularly in South America, which hold that the teachings of Jesus Christ and Marx line up nicely, and see Christ as a great social reformer and the first socialist agitator. However, these people have been criticized for equating the poor, spoken of at length by Jesus, with Marx's proletariat; specifically, Jesus said, "For the poor always ye have with you" (John 12:8), while Marxism aims to do away with the proletariat altogether. There are also small Christian groups such as the Hutterites who also practice a form of voluntary religious communism. Monasteries and other similar religious institutions may also do so.
Oddly enough, his message has been largely ignored by some of his North American followers, who seem to think he was actually ye olde Ronald Reagan or a long-haired John Galt. Cognitive dissonance sure is great, isn't it? Although in their defense, Jesus never said give your money to the poor through government. He talked about private self-decided socialism. Of course, they don't do that either.
Not-Socialism[edit]
The term socialism has a long history of gatekeeping, especially by the radical left, be it anarchists not considering any kind of state socialism to be socialism at all, or Marxists calling anything that doesn't align exactly with (their interpretation of) Marx's theories as a bourgeois distortion. However, sometimes people might get too inclusive with the term socialism, to the point where it becomes a meaningless term, be it for a red-baiting tactic, to invoke a message of "I care for the workers", or as a way to not be associated with certain controversial figures.
National Socialism[edit]
“”First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a socialist.
|
—Martin Niemöller, about the persecution by the Nazis, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.[105] |
National socialism, also commonly known as Nazism, was the ideology practiced by Adolf Hitler during his leadership of Germany. Some on the right, such as Dinesh D'Souza[106] and Elon Musk,[107] have tried to argue the Nazis were actually socialists, thus putting the blame of the horrors of Nazism on the left instead of the far-right. While one might assume that the Nazis are socialist based on their name alone, there are many reasons that prevents them from being so.
For one, the Nazis upheld private property. While fascism historically advocated for extensive government interference in the economy to attend the interests of the state, it by no means rejected private ownership of industry. In fact, it promoted it wherever possible, with state ownership being avoided unless absolutely necessary.[108] Privatization is, of course, the last thing most socialists would want in order to actually socialize the economy.[citation NOT needed]
Another key reason is that the Nazi ideology includes the existence of "slave-races" who would perform all the menial tasks a society would need, while the "superior" Germans would have generous social welfare and careers for themselves only. While social welfare is indeed a key aspect advocated by various socialists and it's possible to have a stratified society in most versions of socialism, the core concept is that everyone has some ownership over their place of employment, not a singular group. In theory, Nazi ideology would have all the slave-races exterminated eventually with only the Germans remaining, at which point one could argue that, depending on how society would develop afterwards, the Germans could live in some bizarre and vile form of socialism... until they just declared that the grey-eyed and/or strawberry-blonde Germans to be insufficiently German and they are back to slavery again.
Finally, Hitler and his party also continuously persecuted the left-wing of Germany, including the communists, socialists and even trade unionists.[109] He even demonized the Jews by claiming they were secretly behind the creation and dissemination of communism, a conspiracy theory labeled "Jewish Bolshevism". The only faction of the Nazis which might've taken the "socialist" part actually seriously were the followers of Strasserism.
Despite this, they were still ultra-nationalists and racists, and were mostly killed off by Hitler anyways for being "dissidents".[110]
Social democracy[edit]
Unlike what virtually every socialist current advocates for, most forms of social democracy explicitly endorse the preservation of capitalist relations such as private ownership. While it differentiates itself from other capitalist systems (such as neoliberalism) by advocating for a welfare state, partial public ownership and stronger labor rights, social democracy doesn't fit into the concept of collective/social ownership.[111][94]
However, while not as prominently, social democracy may also be used to refer to something similar to evolutionary socialism, which advocated for a gradual and reformist method to overcome capitalism, in contrast to a revolution.[112] This type of social democracy could be considered socialistic, as it's still advocating for socialism as the end-goal.
Obamunism and successors[edit]
Generally, the Democrats are regarded as being a centrist or center-left party. In the last few decades however, the right-wing in the US has been trying to redefine the term "socialist," with the desired meaning being, "a person who flouts the Republican party line on more than two issues."[113] U.S. President Barack Obama became the poster-boy for this sort of "socialism" during his presidency, despite having no socialistic tendencies except for introducing a reform in the healthcare system (which is arguably not even socialist, as many capitalist countries have full public healthcare).
More recently, former president Joe Biden has also been called a socialist. Biden has responded to these allegations by saying “I beat the socialist, that’s how I got elected. That’s how I got the nomination. Do I look like a socialist? Look at my career — my whole career. I am not a socialist”.[114]
Former vice-president Kamala Harris has also been called a communist and even received the nickname "Comrade Harris".[115] Donald Trump argued Harris is a Marxist on the grounds that her father is a Marxist professor in economics.[116] Her father, Donald J. Harris, is indeed well-versed in Marxian economics and has taught it in his career,[117] although there's not much evidence of Kamala Harris herself being a Marxist. Donald Trump has also called Harris's anti-price-gouging laws as "socialist price controls", despite these laws not actually proposing price controls like the ones found in existing socialist states, but rather an evaluation of corporate conduct.[118] Trump's claim also ignores how price controls aren't even inherently socialistic, as they have been used by figures such as Richard Nixon before.[119]
The only members of the Democratic Party which could conceivably be called socialists would be the ones who are members of the Democratic Socialists of America, most notably Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Even so, this section of the party is hardly notable in comparison to its Third Way and socially liberal sections.
Socialism and patriotism[edit]
Socialism and patriotism/nationalism are typically in opposition and socialists are generally against the concept of nations, seeing them as an unnecessary division. Many socialists instead strive for "internationalism." To quote Eugene V. Debs, early leader of the SPUSA (he started as a social democrat, and then turned to socialism along the lines of De Leonism. He ran for President while locked in jail for protesting against the first World War), "I have no country to fight for; my country is the earth, and I am a citizen of the world." They often view patriotism and nationalism as simply ways to divide the working class, like racism and sexism.
This has, unfortunately, led to some people using socialism as a front to push hatred of whatever ethnic group they can paint as coterminous with whatever class of people are judged to be the "oppressors" this week; the bloodiest example of this was Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. It is also seen in some left-wing anti-American sentiment, as criticized in the Euston Manifesto.
On the flip side, many leaders of "actually existing" socialist countries have promoted nationalism however. Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, for instance, as well as probably most other Latin American socialists, has definitely played on nationalist appeal.[120] Gamal Abdel Nasser promoted Arab nationalism.
Notable organizations[edit]
International[edit]
International Workingmen's Association[edit]
The International Workingmen's Association, often referred to as the First International, was a left-wing organization founded in the 19th century, but dissolved in the midst of the Bakunin-Marx infighting. Later on, similar organizations were created. The Second International followed, but dissolved in the midst of infighting over support of World War I. The Third International (Comintern) was a Soviet-funded body dissolved in World War II. The Fourth International, a Trotskyist organization, still exists.
Socialist International[edit]
The Socialist International is a worldwide federation of socialist political parties, mostly consisting of democratic socialist, labor, and social democratic parties. Over thirty nations are governed by a Socialist International member-party, such as France, Iceland and South Africa. These parties are in practice social democratic or even Third Way/liberal and in recent years have experienced spectacular collapses in the face of polarization.
American[edit]
Democratic Socialists of America[edit]
The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is, as one can imagine, a democratic socialist organization. In fact, it's the largest socialist organization in America currently. While not a party per se, some members do run on elections, most often as a member of the Democratic Party, including people like AOC. They most often advocate for democratic socialist or social democratic reforms, such as increasing the minimum wage, reforming the healthcare and education system, implementing social and welfare programs, etc. Despite their name, they still have more authoritarian tendencies such as Marxism-Leninism.[121] Some members have also shown support for authoritarian figures, such as Lenin.[122]
Party for Socialism and Liberation[edit]
The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) is a Marxist-Leninist American political party.[123][124][125] They have a pretty radical program, including stuff such as nationalizing the 100 biggest domestic corporations and cutting the military budget by 90%.[126]
They have a long history of support for authoritarian regimes. For one, they support North Korea, labeling it an "alternative to the global capitalist system" and defending it from accusations of poor human rights records, calling them "pure fantasy".[127][128][129] They also support the Chinese government and deny the Tiananmen Square Massacre, arguing the protests were funded by the US government and criticizing the testimonies of eyewitnesses.[130]
British[edit]
British Labour Party[edit]
Historically, the Labour Party were social democrats, or 'reformists', and Labour governments have made some lasting changes in terms of universal welfare, especially the founding of the National Health Service.
"New Labour" (Tony Blair etc.) were arguably conservatives in all but name, and indeed much has been said about the similarities between their policies and those of Thatcherism.[131][note 7] Clause IV of the Labour Party's constitution, which expressed a long-term commitment to redistribution of wealth and common ownership of the means of production, was rewritten in 1994, under Blair's leadership, as a more vague expression of striving for equality, causing some internal conflict and outrage from "Old Labour" socialist members of the party. In 2015, many social democrats won Labour Party contests, signaling a return to the left; there was only one actual socialist who was elected to leadership, however, although being the leader of the party, he (Jeremy Corbyn) does have a lot more say in party policy. In the run-up to the 2017 General Election the party published a report entitled Alternative Models of Ownership which tried to envision economic and business models without traditional capitalists; even though it ran its most left-wing campaign in years, envisioning more state-run corporations, universal welfare programs and public services, the party stopped far short of actively railing against capitalism in general, and in fact tried to court some businesses over Brexit.
Notable proponents of socialist theories[edit]
- George Orwell; British author
- Nelson Mandela
- Jeremy Corbyn; British Labour party leader, considered hard-left by his party standards
- Bernie Sanders; (self proclaimed socialist, though often considered a social democrat)
- Albert Einstein; His socialist leanings best shown in his essay "Why Socialism?"; he notably had various conflicting attitudes towards the USSR throughout his life, supporting its goals and achievements but taking issue with the ways they were achieved.
- Eugene Debs
- Noam Chomsky
- Jean-Luc Mélenchon
- Olof Palme
See also[edit]
- Anarchism
- Communism
- Charles Fourier
- George Orwell
- Socialist Alliance
- Fun:Socialism with Biden characteristics
Notes[edit]
- ↑ Although it can be argued its roots trace back to ancient history.
- ↑ Interestingly enough, some scholars have argued that calling these economies "planned" is mistaken, as the central management was often prioritized over the plans themselves, meaning a "managed economy" would be a more accurate label.[31][32]
- ↑ Note how the definition of state by anarchists contrasts with this Marxist definition, meaning a "stateless society" in an anarchist context might not mean the same thing as in a Marxist one.[70]
- ↑ Although some Marxists would contest that the Soviet Union was in any way actually Marxist. To their credit, Marx probably didn't have something like the Soviet Union in mind when writing about socialism, considering how he believed everyone should be part of the government, comparing it to a trade union.[72]
- ↑ Some context: in Marx's time, opium was seen (and actually is) a very effective painkiller, and at the time there was nothing more effective that opium, so he's not saying that religion is a dangerous drug, but rather a painkiller used to cope with pain.
- ↑ In fact, the phrase "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs", first used by Blanqui, is also an apparent paraphrase of those same verses
- ↑ On the other hand, they dramatically increased the level of public expenditure. Following the 2008 recession, the proportion of public spending in the economy hit 50% of GDP. How this level of state intervention in the economy can be considered "conservative" is anyone's guess (then again, see Dubya).
References[edit]
- ↑ Rear Platform and Other Informal Remarks in New York by Harry S. Truman (October 10, 1952) Harry S. Truman Library & Museum, National Archives.
- ↑ Merriam-Webster dictionary. Definition of "Socialism". Retrieved December 5, 2024
- ↑ socdoneleft (June 4, 2016). "Socialism Is When The Government Does Stuff". Youtube.
- ↑ Sunkara, Bhaskar (February 13, 2016). "End Private Property, Not Kenny Loggins". Jacobin. Retrieved December 7, 2024.
- ↑ McKay, Iain; Elkin, Gary; Neal, Dave; Boraas, Ed (February 22, 2024). "B.3.1 What is the difference between private property and possession?". An Anarchist FAQ. Version 15.6. Vol. 1. The Anarchist FAQ Editorial Collective.
- ↑ Liberation Staff (November 9, 2011). "Eight myths about socialism–and their answers". Liberation News.
- ↑ Marx, Karl (February 1848). "Chapter II. Proletarians and Communists". Manifesto of the Communist Party – via Marxists Internet Archive.
Communism deprives no man of the power to appropriate the products of society; all that it does is to deprive him of the power to subjugate the labour of others by means of such appropriations.
- ↑ Jump up to: 8.0 8.1 Lenin, Vladimir. "Chapter V: The Economic Basis of the Withering Away of the State". The State and Revolution – via Marxists Internet Archive.
- ↑ Gregory, Paul; Stuart, Robert (2003). Comparing Economic Systems in the Twenty-First. South-Western College Pub. p. 118. ISBN 0-618-26181-8.
Under socialism, each individual would be expected to contribute according to capability, and rewards would be distributed in proportion to that contribution. Subsequently, under communism, the basis of reward would be need.
- ↑ Jump up to: 10.0 10.1 Marx, Karl (1875). "Part I". Critique of the Gotha Programme – via Marxists Internet Archive.
- ↑ Montgomery, David. "Chapter 3: Labor in the Industrial Era". U.S. Department of Labor. Retrieved December 7, 2024. "Shifting seasonal demands, crippling illnesses caused by industrial poisons, and alternating spasms of relentless work and forced idleness caused by the drive of each employer to capture as much of the market as possible--all these made for many long days without income."
- ↑ Sunkara, Bhaskar (1 May 2019). "This May Day, let's hope democratic socialism makes a comeback". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved January 9, 2025.
- ↑ Jump up to: 14.0 14.1 14.2 Gilabert, Pablo; Neill, Martin (May 25, 2024). "Socialism". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 2025-01-09.
- ↑ Jump up to: 15.0 15.1 15.2 Arnold, Samuel. Socialism. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Accessed January 8, 2025.
- ↑ Saltmarsh, Chris (August 11, 2021). "Capitalism Is What's Burning the Planet, Not Average People". Jacobin. Retrieved January 9, 2025.
- ↑ Winship, Scott (October 29, 2014). "Inequality Does Not Reduce Prosperity: A Compilation of the Evidence Across Countries". Manhattan Institute.
- ↑ Ferdman, Roberto A. (October 9, 2014). "One in four Americans think poor people don't work hard enough". The Washington Post.
- ↑ Challenging Knowledge: How Climate Science Became a Victim of the Cold War (preprint) by Naomi Oreskes & Erik M. Conway (2008) In: Agnotology: The Making and Unmaking of Ignorance, edited by Robert Proctor & Londa Schiebinger. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804759014.
- ↑ Global Warming or Global Governance? by George Stamm (Aug 8, 2008) The Epoch Times via Prison Planet.
- ↑ Reuters Fact Check (August 18, 2021). "Fact Check: Climate change is not a ploy for communism; a Greta Thunberg meme has been digitally altered". Reuters.
- ↑ Acemoglu, Daron; Johnson, Simon (2005-10-01). "Unbundling Institutions". Journal of Political Economy. 113 (5): 949–995. doi:10.1086/432166. ISSN 0022-3808.
- ↑ See the Wikipedia article on Nordic model.
- ↑ Matthews, Lipton (December 14, 2022). "Capitalism Does Not Create Social Inequality". Mises Institute.
- ↑ Patil, Soham (July 12, 2024). "The Myth of Market Failure". Mises Institute.
- ↑ Cambridge Business English Dictionary. "Economic planning". Cambridge University Press. Retrieved December 8, 2024.
- ↑ See the Wikipedia article on planned economy.
- ↑ Jump up to: 29.0 29.1 29.2 29.3 The Investopedia Team (October 7, 2024). "Centrally Planned Economy: Features, Pros & Cons, and Examples". Investopedia. Investopedia. Retrieved January 10, 2025.
- ↑ See the Wikipedia article on Soviet-type economic planning.
- ↑ Wilhelm, John Howard (1985). "The Soviet Union Has an Administered, Not a Planned, Economy". Soviet Studies. 37 (1). Taylor & Francis, Ltd: 118–130. JSTOR 151614.
- ↑ Ellman, Michael (2007). "The Rise and Fall of Socialist Planning". In Estrin, Saul; Kołodko, Grzegorz W.; Uvalić, Milica (eds.). Transition and Beyond: Essays in Honour of Mario Nuti. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 22. ISBN 978-0-230-54697-4.
Realization of these facts led in the 1970s and 1980s to the development of new terms to describe what had previously been (and still were in United Nations publications) referred to as the 'centrally planned economies'. In the USA in the late 1980s the system was normally referred to as the 'administrative-command' economy. What was fundamental to this system was not the plan but the role of administrative hierarchies at all levels of decision making; the absence of control over decision making by the population [...].
- ↑ Hayek, Friedrich (1945). "The Use of Knowledge in Society". The American Economic Review.
- ↑ Hayek, Friedrich (1944). The Road to Serfdom. Institute of Economic Affairs.
- ↑ Heilbroner, Robert (Fall 1990). The World After Communism. Dissent. pp. 429–430.
- ↑ Nove, Alexander (May 4, 1993). An Economic History of the USSR: 1917-1991, 3rd Edition. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0140157741.
- ↑ Kornai, János (1980). Economics of shortage. Amsterdam, New York: Elsevier Science Ltd. ISBN 978-0444860590.
- ↑ Bideleux, Robert; Jeffries, Ian (September 11, 2007). A History of Eastern Europe: Crisis and Change, 2nd Edition. Routledge. ISBN 978-0415366274.
[The development strategies] involved the relative neglect of consumer needs and the service sector (with the partial exceptions of education and health care), unprecedentedly rapid urbanization, acute urban overcrowding, chronic shortages, massive recruitment of women into mostly menial and/or low-paid occupations, widespread use of coercion, repression, 'show trials', purges and intimidation, and major errors and waste in the over-centralized resource allocation and distribution systems.
- ↑ Cockshott, Paul; Cottrell, Allin (April 1, 1993). Towards a New Socialism. Spokesman Books. ISBN 978-0851245454.
- ↑ Devine, Pat (1988). Democracy and Economic Planning: The Political Economy of a Self-governing Society. Polity Press.
- ↑ Spannos, Chris (2012). "Examining the History of Anarchist Economics to See the Future".The Accumulation of Freedom. AK Press.
- ↑ Nove, Alec. The Economics of Feasible Socialism Revisited (PDF) (second ed.). London: HarperCollinsAcademic. pp. 219–221.
- ↑ Gregory, Paul; Stuart, Robert (2003). Comparing Economic Systems in the Twenty-First. South-Western College Pub. p. 538. ISBN 0-618-26181-8.
Market Economy: Economy in which fundamentals of supply and demand provide signals regarding resource utilization.
- ↑ The Investopedia Team (September 20, 2024). "What Is a Market Economy, and How Does It Work?". Investopedia. Investopedia. Retrieved January 11, 2025.
- ↑ Jump up to: 45.0 45.1 Estrin, Saul (1991). "Yugoslavia: The Case of Self-Managing Market Socialism". Journal of Economic Perspectives. 5 (4): 187–194. doi:10.1257/jep.5.4.187. ISSN 0895-3309.
- ↑ Allcock, John B ; Lampe, John R (December 15, 2024). Yugoslavia. Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed 19 January 2025.
- ↑ Szamosszegi, Andrew; Kyle, Cole. "An Analysis of State-owned Enterprises and State Capitalism in China" (PDF). U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
- ↑ Jump up to: 48.0 48.1 Steele, David Ramsay (September 1992). From Marx to Mises: Post Capitalist Society and the Challenge of Economic Calculation. Open Court. ISBN 978-0-8126-9862-6.
- ↑ Roemer, John (January 1, 1994). A Future for Socialism. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674339460.
- ↑ Schweickart, David (July 23, 2002). After Capitalism. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. ISBN 9780742513006.
- ↑ Jump up to: 51.0 51.1 Croucher, Shane (June 18, 2019). "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Explains Socialism During Instagram Live Stream: 'It Does Not Mean Government Owns Everything'". Newsweek.
- ↑ Wolff, Richard D. (November 7, 2022). "Economic Update: Capitalism vs Socialism is NOT Markets vs Planning". Democracy at Work.
- ↑ https://www.etymonline.com/word/socialism
- ↑ Jump up to: 54.0 54.1 Engels, Friedrich (1880). Socialism: Utopian and Scientific. Marxists Internet Archive.
- ↑ https://archive.org/stream/cu31924030362721/cu31924030362721_djvu.txt
- ↑ Rowland Hill Harvey (1947). Robert Owen: Social Idealist. University of California Press. pp. 99–100.
- ↑ http://scholar.google.com/scholar_url?url=https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/143150/files/weavers.pdf&hl=en&sa=X&scisig=AAGBfm2zSSg4Y5rV3zYlNxXbdy4Fw5QoCQ&nossl=1&oi=scholarr
- ↑ See the Wikipedia article on Blanquism.
- ↑ Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph (1851). The General Idea of the Revolution in the 19th Century – via The Anarchist Library.
- ↑ McKay, Iain; Elkin, Gary; Neal, Dave; Boraas, Ed (February 22, 2024). "Section A - What is Anarchism?". An Anarchist FAQ. Version 15.6. Vol. 1. The Anarchist FAQ Editorial Collective.
- ↑ Malatesta, Errico (1891). Anarchy. Freedom Press. ISBN 0 900384 74 3.
Anarchists [..] have used the word State, and still do, to mean the sum total of the political, legislative, judiciary, military and financial institutions through which the management of their own affairs, the control over their personal behaviour, the responsibility for their personal safety, are taken away from the people and entrusted to others who, by usurpation or delegation, are vested with the powers to make the laws for everything and everybody, and to oblige the people to observe them, if need be, by the use of collective force.
- ↑ Jump up to: 62.0 62.1 Marshall, Peter (2008). Demanding the Impossible. Harper Perennial. ISBN 978-0-00-686245-1.
- ↑ See the Wikipedia article on anarcho-pacifism.
- ↑ Jump up to: 64.0 64.1 64.2 Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1847). Manifesto of the Communist Party. Marxists Internet Archive.
- ↑ Marx, Karl (1845). The German Ideology. Marxists Internet Archive.
Communism is for us not a state of affairs which is to be established, an ideal to which reality [will] have to adjust itself. We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state of things. The conditions of this movement result from the premises now in existence.
- ↑ Engels, Friedrich (1847). The Principles of Communism. Marxists Internet Archive.
- ↑ Engels, Friedrich (1875). Engels to August Bebel In Zwickau – via The Marxists Archive.
The people's state has been flung in our teeth ad nauseam by the anarchists, although Marx's anti-Proudhon piece and after it the Communist Manifesto declare outright that, with the introduction of the socialist order of society, the state will dissolve of itself and disappear. Now, since the state is merely a transitional institution of which use is made in the struggle, in the revolution, to keep down one's enemies by force, it is utter nonsense to speak of a free people's state; so long as the proletariat still makes use of the state, it makes use of it, not for the purpose of freedom, but of keeping down its enemies and, as soon as there can be any question of freedom, the state as such ceases to exist.
- ↑ Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1891). The Civil War in France - Engels 1891 Postscript. Marxists Internet Archive.
[..]the state is nothing but a machine for the oppression of one class by another[..]
- ↑ Engels, Friedrich (1880). Socialism: Utopian and Scientific. Marxists Internet Archive.
As soon as there is no longer any social class to be held in subjection; as soon as class rule, and the individual struggle for existence based upon our present anarchy in production, with the collisions and excesses arising from these, are removed, nothing more remains to be repressed, and a special repressive force, a State, is no longer necessary.
- ↑ Bakunin, Mikhail (5 October 1873). Statism and Anarchy. Marxists Internet Archive.
- ↑ Marx, Karl (April 1874 – January 1875). Conspectus of Bakunin’s Statism and Anarchy – via Marxists Internet Archive.
- ↑ Popper, Karl (1945). The Open Society and Its Enemies. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-691-15813-6.
- ↑ Popper, Karl (1944). The Poverty of Historicism. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-06569-0.
- ↑ Stigler, George J. (December 1988). "Palgrave's Dictionary of Economics". Journal of Economic Literature. 26 (4): 1729–36. JSTOR 2726859.
Economists working in the Marxian-Sraffian tradition represent a small minority of modern economists, and that their writings have virtually no impact upon the professional work of most economists in major English-language universities.
- ↑ Acemoglu, Daron; Robinson, James (2014). The Rise and Decline of General Laws of Capitalism (Report). Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research. doi:10.3386/w20766.
- ↑ Gross, Neil; Simmons, Solon (2014). "The Social and Political Views of American College and University Professors". In Gross, Neil; Simmons, Solon (eds.). Professors and Their Politics. Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 19–50. ISBN 978-1421413358 – via Google Books.
- ↑ Leopold, David. "Analytical Marxism". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2022 Edition), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.)
- ↑ Jump up to: 79.0 79.1 Lenin, Vladimir (1901–1902). What Is To Be Done? – via Marxists Internet Archive.
- ↑ Jump up to: 80.0 80.1 The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica (October 8, 2024). Leninism. Encyclopedia Britannica.
- ↑ See the Wikipedia article on democratic centralism.
- ↑ See the Wikipedia article on Marxism-Leninism.
- ↑ See the Wikipedia article on List of socialist states.
- ↑ "Tankie". Dictionary. April 23, 2019. Retrieved February 8, 2024.
- ↑ Graham, Loren R. (1993). "Stalinist ideology and the Lysenko affair". Science in Russia and the Soviet Union: a Short History. Cambridge Univesity Press. ISBN 0-521-24566-4.
- ↑ See the Wikipedia article on sluggish schizophrenia.
- ↑ Goldman, Emma (1935). There Is No Communism in Russia – via The Anarchist Library.
- ↑ Chomsky, Noam (1986). "The Soviet Union Versus Socialism".
- ↑ The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica (January 18, 2025). "Trotskyism". Retrieved February 7, 2025.
- ↑ Daniels, Robert V. (1 October 2008). The Rise and Fall of Communism in Russia. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-13493-3.
- ↑ Orwell, George (May 1945). "Notes on Nationalism". GB, London: Polemic.
The fact that Trotskyists are everywhere a persecuted minority, and that the accusation usually made against them, i. e. of collaborating with the Fascists, is obviously false, creates an impression that Trotskyism is intellectually and morally superior to Communism; but it is doubtful whether there is much difference.
- ↑ See the Wikipedia article on libertarian Marxism.
- ↑ Bookchin, Murray. What is Communalism?. Retrieved February 5, 2025 – via The Anarchist Library.
- ↑ Jump up to: 94.0 94.1 94.2 Volle, Adam (November 28, 2024). "Democratic socialism". Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed January 7, 2025.
- ↑ Busky, Donald F. (2000). Democratic Socialism: A Global Survey. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Publishers. ISBN 9780275968861.
- ↑ Sampson, Anthony (1999). Mandela: The Authorised Biography. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-00-638845-0.
- ↑ Keller, Helen (November 3, 1912). "How I Became a Socialist". The New York Call. Via Marxist Internet Archive.
- ↑ Laurent, Sylvie (2019). King and the Other America: The Poor People's Campaign and the Quest for Economic Equality. University of California Press. p. 82. ISBN 978-0-520-28857-7.
I imagine you already know that I am much more socialistic in my economic theory than capitalistic [...]
- ↑ Franklin, Robert (1990). Liberating Visions: Human Fulfillment and Social Justice in African-American Thought. Fortress Press. p. 125. ISBN 0-8006-2392-4.
There must be a better distribution of wealth, and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism.
- ↑ Orwell, George (1946). "Why I Write. "The Spanish war and other events in 1936-37 turned the scale and thereafter I knew where I stood. Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it."
- ↑ Calamur, Krishnadev (August 18, 2015). "How Jeremy Corbyn Would Govern Britain". The Atlantic.
- ↑ Allende, Ben B. , Marianela D'Aprile, and Salvador (2018-09-11). "Allende and Democratic Socialism". The Call. Retrieved 2024-02-01.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ↑ Barro, Josh (October 20, 2015). "Bernie Sanders, Democratic Socialist Capitalist". The New York Times.
- ↑ McManus, Matt (31 August 2024)."Why Socialists Shouldn't Reject Liberalism" (Interview). Interviewed by Igor Shoikhedbrod. Jacobin. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
- ↑ United States Holocaust Memorial. Martin Niemöller: "First they came for...". Retrieved February 8, 2025.
- ↑ Emery, David (March 14, 2023). "Were the Nazis Socialists?". Snopes.
- ↑ Gilbert, David (January 9, 2025). "Elon Musk and Far-Right German Leader Agree ‘Hitler Was a Communist’". Wired. Retrieved January 10, 2025.
- ↑ Buchheim, Christoph; Scherner, Jonas (June 2006). "The Role of Private Property in the Nazi Economy: The Case of Industry" (PDF). The Journal of Economic History. Cambridge University Press. p. 406. Retrieved January 1, 2025.
- ↑ United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "Political Prisoners". Holocaust Encyclopedia. Accessed February 4, 2025.
- ↑ See the Wikipedia article on Gregor Strasser.
- ↑ McCarthy, Michael A. (July 8, 2018). "Democratic Socialism Isn't Social Democracy". Jacobin. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
- ↑ Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (December 9, 2024). "Social democracy". Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed December 18, 2024
- ↑ Wallsten, Peter (November 24, 2008). "Some Conservatives Push a 'Purity Test' for GOP Candidates". The Wall Street Journal.
- ↑ Kaplan, Thomas (September 22, 2020). "Biden's response to voters concerned about socialism: 'I beat the socialist.'". The New York Times.
- ↑ Wells, Ione; Cruz, Jessica (September 23, 2024). "Why 'Comrade Kamala' memes are spreading among Latino exiles". BBC News.
- ↑ Medina, Jennifer (September 10, 2024). "Trump Ties Harris Critically to Her Father, a Professor Who Studied Marxism". The New York Times.
- ↑ Cassidy, John (November 2, 2024). "The Economic Philosophy of Donald Harris". The New Yorker.
- ↑ Giangiulio, Davis (August 21, 2024). "Trump slams Harris' call for a price-gouging ban, but 37 states already have their own". NBC News.
- ↑ See the Wikipedia article on Nixon shock.
- ↑ See Chávez in some sort of goofy flag costume.
- ↑ See the Wikipedia article on Democratic Socialists of America.
- ↑ A, Ajmal (April 22, 2020). "Lenin's Relevance Today". Young Democratic Socialists of America.
- ↑ Ford, Derek P. (June 1, 2017). "Making Marxist Pedagogy Magical: From Critique to Imagination, or, How Bookkeepers Set Us Free". Critical Education. 8 (9): 10.
I want to turn our attention to the magical thinking of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. As a Marxist-Leninist Party in the United States, the PSL was founded in 2004.
- ↑ Kroitzsh, Aleka A. (August 2, 2019). "Local socialists see the "fog of anti-communism" lifting". Mission Local.
The PSL espouses a Marxist-Leninist ideology, one intent on "fighting the war program in the U.S., fighting imperialism, and fighting for Socialism," said Gloria La Riva, a socialist presidential candidate since 1993 and a PSL founder.
- ↑ "Community celebrates 14th annual Enero Zapatista event". Liberation News. Party for Socialism and Liberation. February 4, 2018.
As a Marxist-Leninist party we strive to uphold the tradition of the right to self-determination for oppressed nations.
- ↑ Our Program. Claudia and Karina 2024.
- ↑ Gowans, Stephan (February 23, 2013). "Why North Korea is developing nuclear weapons". Liberation News. Party for Socialism and Liberation. Archived from the original on December 18, 2020.
A North Korean nuclear arsenal does not increase the chances of war—it reduces the likelihood that the United States and its South Korean marionette will attempt to bring down the communist government in Pyongyang by force. This is to be welcomed by anyone who opposes imperialist military interventions; supports the right of a people to organize its affairs free from foreign domination; and has an interest in the survival of one of the few top-to-bottom, actually-existing, alternatives to the global capitalist system of oppression, exploitation and foreign domination.
- ↑ Wang, Mike (March 26, 2014). "UN hypocrisy and human rights in North Korea". Liberation News. Party for Socialism and Liberation. Archived from the original on November 11, 2020.
Like the great majority of accusations hurled at North Korea in the past, the UNHRC Report rings hollow as a thinly veiled justification for U.S. aggression toward North Korea. [....] In fact, previous UN specialist agencies' reports show the UNHRC's accusations are pure fantasy: no UN specialist agency has identified the North Korean government's food and health policy in terms even vaguely similar to the UNHRC's report. To the contrary, conditions in North Korea are vastly better than those in other developing countries.
- ↑ Kim, Crystal (December 22, 2011). "North Koreans mourn death of leader Kim Jong Il". Liberation News. Party for Socialism and Liberation.
- ↑ Becker, Brian (June 13, 2014). "Tiananmen: The Massacre that Wasn't". Liberation School. Party for Socialism and Liberation.
- ↑ "Thatcherism and New Labour: "The similarities between Thatcherism and New Labour are more important than the differences".