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From: carnes@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP (Richard Carnes)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: requests for carnes (Re: democratic socialism, syndicalism)
Message-ID: <353@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 5-Mar-85 13:05:28 EST
Article-I.D.: gargoyle.353
Posted: Tue Mar  5 13:05:28 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 6-Mar-85 04:42:44 EST
Organization: U. Chicago - Computer Science
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Dave Hudson asks me two questions.  Second question first:  How do I
distinguish democratic socialism, syndicalism, and guild socialism.

I don't know much of anything about guild socialism.  Syndicalism is,
or was, a militant trade union movement in Europe (like the Wobblies
in the US).  Democratic socialism, or social democracy as it is known
in Europe, is a broad and heterogeneous political trend which
emphasizes democratic values in contrast to the Leninist conception
of a centralized vanguard party which will take power and then rule
as the unique representative of the working class.  The boundaries of
social democracy are vague, but the term can be applied both to
reformist, mixed-economy parties such as the German SD's and to the
Eurocommunist movement.  It is not, as Dave seems to imply, a
blueprint for a future organization of society.  A bit of the history
of social democracy:  In 1891, Engels wrote: "If one thing is certain
it is that our Party and the working class can only come to power
under the form of the democratic republic.  This is even the specific
form for the dictatorship of the proletariat."  The Second
International and such contemporary Marxists as Luxemburg and Kautsky
emphasized democracy as the substance of a socialist society as well
as the way the working class would come to power.  The Austro-Marxist
Hilferding defended Weimar democracy when various Communists were
saying that fascism was not essentially different from bourgeois
democracy.  

Richard Carnes