Libertarian socialism is an anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist political current that emphasises self-governance and workers' self-management. It is contrasted from other forms of socialism by its rejection of state ownership and from other forms of libertarianism by its rejection of private property. Broadly defined,it includes schools of both anarchism and Marxism,as well as other tendencies that oppose the state and capitalism.
Leninism is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary vanguard party as the political prelude to the establishment of communism. Lenin's ideological contributions to the Marxist ideology relate to his theories on the party,imperialism,the state,and revolution. The function of the Leninist vanguard party is to provide the working classes with the political consciousness and revolutionary leadership necessary to depose capitalism.
Socialism is an economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production,as opposed to private ownership. It describes the economic,political,and social theories and movements associated with the implementation of such systems. Social ownership can take various forms,including public,community,collective,cooperative,or employee. Traditionally,socialism is on the left wing of the political spectrum. Types of socialism vary based on the role of markets and planning in resource allocation,and the structure of management in organizations.
The Communist Party of Great Britain is a political group which publishes the Weekly Worker newspaper. The CPGB (PCC) claims to have "an internationalist duty to uphold the principle,'One state,one party'. To the extent that the European Union becomes a state then that necessitates EU-wide trade unions and a Communist Party of the EU". In addition,it is in favour of the unification of the entire working class under a new Communist International. It is not to be confused with the former Communist Party of Great Britain,the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist–Leninist),or the current Communist Party of Britain.
Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a materialist interpretation of historical development,better known as "historical materialism," to understand class relations and social conflict. It also uses a dialectical perspective to view social transformation. Marxism originates from the works of 19th-century German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxism has developed over time into various branches and schools of thought,As a result,there is no single,definitive Marxist theory. Marxism has had a profound impact in shaping the modern world,with various left-wing and far-left political movements taking inspiration from it in varying local contexts.
Communism is a left-wing to far-left sociopolitical,philosophical,and economic ideology within the socialist movement,whose goal is the creation of a communist society,a socioeconomic order centered around common ownership of the means of production,distribution,and exchange that allocates products to everyone in the society based on need. A communist society would entail the absence of private property and social classes,and ultimately money and the state.
Social democracy is a political,social,and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and supports a gradualist,reformist and democratic approach towards achieving socialism,usually under a social liberal framework. In practice,social democracy takes a form of socially managed welfare capitalism,achieved with partial public ownership,economic interventionism,and policies promoting social equality.
Tom Bramble is a socialist activist,author and retired academic based in Queensland,Australia. He taught Industrial Relations at the University of Queensland for many years and has authored numerous books and articles on the Australian labour movement. He is a member of Socialist Alternative.
Alfredo Saad-Filho is a Brazilian Marxian economist.
Marxism is a method of socioeconomic analysis that originates in the works of 19th century German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxism analyzes and critiques the development of class society and especially of capitalism as well as the role of class struggles in systemic,economic,social and political change. It frames capitalism through a paradigm of exploitation and analyzes class relations and social conflict using a materialist interpretation of historical development –materialist in the sense that the politics and ideas of an epoch are determined by the way in which material production is carried on.
Democratic socialism is a left-wing set of political philosophies that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy,with a particular emphasis on economic democracy,workplace democracy,and workers' self-management within a market socialist,decentralised planned,or democratic centrally planned socialist economy. Democratic socialists argue that capitalism is inherently incompatible with the values of freedom,equality,and solidarity and that these ideals can only be achieved through the realisation of a socialist society. Although most democratic socialists seek a gradual transition to socialism,democratic socialism can support revolutionary or reformist politics to establish socialism. Democratic socialism was popularised by socialists who opposed the backsliding towards a one-party state in the Soviet Union and other nations during the 20th century.
Neo-Marxism is a collection of Marxist schools of thought originating from 20th-century approaches to amend or extend Marxism and Marxist theory,typically by incorporating elements from other intellectual traditions such as critical theory,psychoanalysis,or existentialism. Neo-Marxism comes under the broader framework of the New Left. In a sociological sense,neo-Marxism adds Max Weber's broader understanding of social inequality,such as status and power,to Marxist philosophy.
Post-Marxism is a perspective in critical social theory which radically reinterprets Marxism,countering its association with economism,historical determinism,anti-humanism,and class reductionism,whilst remaining committed to the construction of socialism. Most notably,Post-Marxists are anti-essentialist,rejecting the primacy of class struggle,and instead focus on building radical democracy. Post-Marxism can be considered a synthesis of post-structuralist frameworks and neo-Marxist analysis,in response to the decline of the New Left after the protests of 1968. In a broader sense,post-Marxism can refer to Marxists or Marxian-adjacent theories which break with the old worker's movements and socialist states entirely,in a similar sense to post-Leftism,and accept that the era of mass revolution premised on the Fordist worker is potentially over.
Orthodox Marxism is the body of Marxist thought which emerged after the death of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the late 19th century,expressed in its primary form by Karl Kautsky. Kautsky's views of Marxism dominated the European Marxist movement for two decades,and orthodox Marxism was the official philosophy of the majority of the socialist movement as represented in the Second International until the First World War in 1914,whose outbreak caused Kautsky's influence to wane and brought to prominence the orthodoxy of Vladimir Lenin. Orthodox Marxism aimed to simplify,codify and systematize Marxist method and theory by clarifying perceived ambiguities and contradictions in classical Marxism. It overlaps significantly with Instrumental Marxism.
A socialist state,socialist republic,or socialist country,sometimes referred to as a workers' state or workers' republic,is a sovereign state constitutionally dedicated to the establishment of socialism. The term communist state is often used synonymously in the West,specifically when referring to one-party socialist states governed by Marxist–Leninist communist parties,despite these countries being officially socialist states in the process of building socialism and progressing toward a communist society. These countries never describe themselves as communist nor as having implemented a communist society. Additionally,a number of countries that are multi-party capitalist states make references to socialism in their constitutions,in most cases alluding to the building of a socialist society,naming socialism,claiming to be a socialist state,or including the term people's republic or socialist republic in their country's full name,although this does not necessarily reflect the structure and development paths of these countries' political and economic systems. Currently,these countries include Algeria,Bangladesh,Guyana,India,Nepal,Nicaragua,Sri Lanka and Tanzania.
The history of socialism has its origins in the Age of Enlightenment and the 1789 French Revolution along with the changes that it brought,although it has precedents in earlier movements and ideas. The Communist Manifesto was written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1847-48 just before the Revolutions of 1848 swept Europe,expressing what they termed scientific socialism. In the last third of the 19th century parties dedicated to Democratic socialism arose in Europe,drawing mainly from Marxism. The Australian Labor Party was the world's first elected socialist party when it formed government in the Colony of Queensland for a week in 1899.
Far-left politics in the United Kingdom have existed since at least the 1840s,with the formation of various organisations following ideologies such as Marxism,revolutionary socialism,communism,anarchism and syndicalism.
Common Sense was a magazine of left-wing theory published in Edinburgh,Scotland from 1987. It ceased publication in 1999. The creators of Common Sense aimed to be minimalist in its production.
Democratic socialism represents the modernist development of socialism and its outspoken support for democracy. The origins of democratic socialism can be traced back to 19th-century utopian socialist thinkers and the Chartist movement in Great Britain,which somewhat differed in their goals but shared a common demand of democratic decision making and public ownership of the means of production,and viewed these as fundamental characteristics of the society they advocated for. Democratic socialism was also heavily influenced by the gradualist form of socialism promoted by the British Fabian Society and Eduard Bernstein's evolutionary socialism.
Social democracy originated as an ideology within the labour whose goals have been a social revolution to move away from purely laissez-faire capitalism to a social capitalism model sometimes called a social market economy. In a nonviolent revolution as in the case of evolutionary socialism,or the establishment and support of a welfare state. Its origins lie in the 1860s as a revolutionary socialism associated with orthodox Marxism. Starting in the 1890s,there was a dispute between committed revolutionary social democrats such as Rosa Luxemburg and reformist social democrats. The latter sided with Marxist revisionists such as Eduard Bernstein,who supported a more gradual approach grounded in liberal democracy and cross-class cooperation. Karl Kautsky represented a centrist position. By the 1920s,social democracy became the dominant political tendency,along with communism,within the international socialist movement,representing a form of democratic socialism with the aim of achieving socialism peacefully. By the 1910s,social democracy had spread worldwide and transitioned towards advocating an evolutionary change from capitalism to socialism using established political processes such as the parliament. In the late 1910s,socialist parties committed to revolutionary socialism renamed themselves as communist parties,causing a split in the socialist movement between these supporting the October Revolution and those opposing it. Social democrats who were opposed to the Bolsheviks later renamed themselves as democratic socialists in order to highlight their differences from communists and later in the 1920s from Marxist–Leninists,disagreeing with the latter on topics such as their opposition to liberal democracy whilst sharing common ideological roots.
