DOCSLIB.ORG

Marxism-Leninism and the Future of Marxist Thought in Post-Socialist Bulgaria

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Marxism-Leninism and the Future of Marxist Thought in Post-Socialist Bulgaria Spectral Socialisms: Marxism-Leninism and the Future of Marxist Thought in Post-Socialist Bulgaria By Zhivka Venelinova Valiavicharska A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Rhetoric in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Wendy Brown, Chair Professor Samera Esmeir Professor David Cohen Professor Alexei Yurchak Fall 2011 Spectral Socialisms: Marxism-Leninism and the Future of Marxist Thought in Post-Socialist Bulgaria ©2011 Zhivka Valiavicharska Abstract Spectral Socialisms: Marxism-Leninism and the Future of Marxist Thought in Post-Socialist Bulgaria by Zhivka Venelinova Valiavicharska Doctor of Philosophy in Rhetoric University of California, Berkeley Professor Wendy Brown, Chair Asking what discursive conditions enabled the unchallenged reign of neoliberal capitalism in Eastern Europe after 1989, this dissertation argues that Stalinist philosophy leaves a silent yet powerful structuring legacy in post-socialist politics and intellectual discourse. Stalinist Marxism-Leninism has survived in the presumption that there is a necessary relationship between authoritarianism and politics on the left, and conversely, between democracy and free- market capitalism. Rejecting the premise that there is an inevitable, trans-historical relationship between socialism and authoritarianism, this project locates the historical juncture that sealed them together in the discursive production of Leninism and the doctrines of Dialectical Materialism and Historical Materialism during Stalinist Soviet Union. With a focus on socialist Bulgaria, the dissertation examines the political uses and material effects of the Stalinist ideologemes throughout the intellectual history of East-European Marxist thought. In addition, it retrieves Marxist humanist intellectual movements from the post-Stalinist 1960s and 1970s, which contested the legitimacy of the Stalinist doctrine. Challenging Marxism-Leninism’s claim to the historical inevitability of state authoritarianism, they imagined a “third way” for socialism’s future—a third way between liberal democracy and authoritarian socialism. In conclusion, the dissertation turns to the question of what possibility for politics on the left remains in the post-socialist historical conditions, a left that finds itself inevitably implicated in the histories of state socialisms. Redressing these foreclosures requires recovering the emancipatory ideas and practices out of the contradictory experiences of the socialist past and reformulating their critical potentials for the future. 1 Table of Contents ii Acknowledgments 1 Chapter One Socialist Past and Neoliberal Present in Eastern Europe: A View from the Bulgarian Experience 17 Chapter Two Lenin-Stalin: A Juncture in Disquiet 45 Chapter Three Stalinist Marxism-Leninism: The Apparitions of a Disavowed Paradigm 66 Chapter Four Holistically Developed Persons: Post-Stalinist Marxism and the Return of Human Agency 92 Chapter Five Totalitarianism and Utopia: Dissident Discourses during Late Socialism 120 Bibliography i Acknowledgments My deepest gratitude goes to Wendy Brown. My intellectual journey at Berkeley has been an extraordinary experience thanks to the gift of her brilliance and rigor. Living up to her generosity, trust, and support has been the hardest—and most rewarding—challenge. I thank Samera Esmeir for appreciating the ambitions of my project and for engaging thoroughly with its intricacies. With her feedback I have worked through some of what I consider the most interesting and difficult arguments. I thank Alexei Yurchak for his inspiring classes on socialism and postsocialism. To him I owe the turn of my interest to socialism, and in great part—the focus of this dissertation. Throughout the years, David Cohen kindly supported my intellectual meanderings and encouraged my independence. I am also grateful to Marianne Constable for her attention and care throughout graduate school and for her unforgettable introduction to the critical power of textual interpretation. I have benefited greatly from the critical feedback of colleagues in Wendy Brown’s dissertation seminar—I extend special thanks to Diana Anders, Matt Baxter, Mona Bower, George Ciccariello-Maher, and Yasmeen Daifallah. My dear friends and colleagues Amanda Armstrong, Robert Hurley, Satyel Larson, Zachary Levenson, Munira Lokhandwala, Caitlin Manning, Janet Sarson, and Susanne Wengle have read, commented on, and proofread various chapters in various stages. Praba Pilar has been a beautiful friend and a force of inspiration throughout the years, and Chris Chen, Fred Noland, Dennis O’Brien, Jay Rehm, and Anuj Vaidya have supported me in numerous ways. I also thank Robert Meister for supporting my intellectual pursuits and political work. During the last two years, I navigated my academic work and teaching while sharing with comrades the experiences of organizing and fighting against the privatization of the University of California. Both grueling and exhilarating, these experiences have likely left their imprint on this work. The Rhetoric Department provided me with a permissive space for intellectual exploration and an autonomy of sorts, yet my project wouldn’t have been possible without the critical approaches the department stands behind. Maxine Fredericksen’s care for the graduate students in the department continuously amazed me throughout the years. I have received long-term intellectual and financial support from the Berkeley Institute for Slavic, East-European, and Eurasian Studies and the Berkeley Program in Eurasian and East-European Studies. My research has also been funded by the Institute of European Studies, the EU Center of Excellence, and the Peter N. Kujachich Endowment in Serbian and Montenegrin Studies at Berkeley. Juan Garcia at Graduate Division contributed to the final stages of the process by helping me navigate the maze of paperwork and bureaucratic steps required for filing the dissertation . During my trips to Sofia and other parts of Southeastern Europe, countless friends, colleagues, and strangers have contributed to my research. I am indebted without limit to Momchil Hristov, who—in addition to reading a substantial part of the final draft—shared ideas, research materials, and the intellectual excitements and everyday frustrations of research. I thank Andrey Bundzhulov, Deyan Deyanov, Lilyana Deyanova, Petur Emil-Mitev, Emil Grigorov, Deyan Kyuranov, Miglena Nikolchina, and Andrey Raychev, among others, for sharing their time, experience, and personal archives. Their collaboration, support, insights, and disagreements ii helped me shape the contours of this project. I also owe to Snezhka Neshkova and Filka Litovoyska at the Plovdiv Public Library “Ivan Vazov” for enabling intellectual work through their extraordinary dedication to the public accessibility of resources. My special gratitude goes to Svetlana Kuyumdzhieva and Galina Dimitrova for taking great care of my well-being during my research trips. Countless other friends, both old and new, have helped with various aspects of the research process, including Petya Abrasheva, Polly Mukanova, Vessela Nozharova, and Vanya Petkova. In Belgrade, I thank Dusan Grlja and Ana Vilenica for their collaboration, hospitality, and for our fascinating and memorable conversations. I am also grateful to Milica Tomic and Branimir Stojanovic, who shared experiences and made useful suggestions. In Skopje, it was an honor and pleasure to work with Suzana Milevska. On both continents, I have been blessed with the intelligence, generosity, and unconditional support of my parents Elena and Venelin. Perhaps the most I owe to my sister Vessela who, in addition to always being next to me in difficult moments, has endured through reading, commenting, and proofreading countless versions of these chapters. My fondest memories, love, and admiration go to my great-aunt Nadezhda Katzarova who gave me all her love and care, and who passed away in my absence. iii c h a p t e r o n e Socialist Past and Neoliberal Present in Eastern Europe: A View from the Bulgarian Experience At the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the socialist states, the Bulgarian weekly newspaper Kultura asked Alexander Kiossev, a leading intellectual from the 1980s, to reflect on his experience before and after 1989. “During the early 1990s,” he says, I was writing a variety of things—they were related to the problem of truth. I was working on ideas coming from the circle Sintez; we argued that, generally speaking, in reality, socialism is a semiotic phenomenon, an ideological language that infiltrates all spheres of life and begins to replace their specific logic and languages. It ideologizes everything—from childhood to sports and science, to, for example, the economy. 1 Borrowing from Vaclav Havel’s famous work, “The Power of the Powerless,” he continues: In this total ideologization everyone was forced to communicate not via everyday ways of conveying facts, i.e. via truth-telling discourse, but through automated, cliched pathos statements, ideological slogans devoid of meaning and emptied out of content. In other words, everyone almost everywhere, even in the most specialized spheres, communicated via the language of deception. 2 Kiossev refers to the official state discourse, known as Marxism-Leninism, as well as the state’s practices of political indoctrination. That Stalin’s doctrine of Marxism-Leninism served to legitimate one of
Load more

Recommended publications
  • War Communism and Bolshevik Ideals" Is Devoted to a Case I N Point: the Dispute Over the Motivation of War Communism (The Name Given T O
    TITLE : WAR COMMUNISM AND BOLSHEVIK IDEAL S AUTHOR : LARS T . LIH THE NATIONAL COUNCI L FOR SOVIET AND EAST EUROPEA N RESEARC H TITLE VIII PROGRA M 1755 Massachusetts Avenue, N .W . Washington, D .C . 20036 PROJECT INFORMATION : ' CONTRACTOR : Wellesley Colleg e PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR : Lars T. Li h COUNCIL CONTRACT NUMBER : 807-1 9 DATE : January 25, 199 4 COPYRIGHT INFORMATIO N Individual researchers retain the copyright on work products derived from research funded b y Council Contract. The Council and the U.S. Government have the right to duplicate written reports and other materials submitted under Council Contract and to distribute such copies within th e Council and U.S. Government for their own use, and to draw upon such reports and materials for their own studies; but the Council and U.S. Government do not have the right to distribute, o r make such reports and materials available, outside the Council or U.S. Government without th e written consent of the authors, except as may be required under the provisions of the Freedom o f information Act 5 U.S. C. 552, or other applicable law. The work leading to this report was supported in part by contract funds provided by the National Council for Soviet and East European Research, made available by the U. S. Department of State under Title VIII (th e Soviet-Eastern European Research and Training Act of 1983) . The analysis and interpretations contained in th e report are those of the author. NCSEER NOTE This interpretive analysis of War Communism (1918-1921) may be of interest to those wh o anticipate further decline in the Russian economy and contemplate the possible purposes an d policies of a more authoritarian regime .
    [Show full text]
  • Socialism from Above Or Below “The Two Souls of Socialism” Revisited
    Socialism from Above or Below “the two souls of socialism” revisited The quotation at the right is from the beginning of “The Two “Socialism’s crisis today is a crisis in the meaning Souls of Socialism,” by Hal Draper (1992), published as a of socialism…. Throughout the history of social- pamphlet in 1966. Draper’s editor notes, “Its political impact ist movements and ideas, the fundamental divide on a generation of socialists in the United States and Great is between Socialism-from-Above and Socialism- Britain has been considerable.” (Haberkern, 1992, p. xvii) It from-Below.… The history of socialism can be influenced that wing of Trotskyism which rejected Trotsky’s read as a continual but largely unsuccessful effort belief that the Soviet Union under Stalin (and after) was to free itself from the old tradition…of emanci- some sort of “workers’ state.” Instead, these semi-Trotskyists pation-from-above.” (Draper, 1992, pp. 3 & 4) held (correctly) that the U.S.S.R. had developed a bureau- cratic ruling class which collectively exploited the workers. Draper’s pamphlet was rewritten as the first half of a work by David McNally, “Socialism from Below” (1984). This has been circulated by the International Socialist Organization, which remains a major part of this international semi-Trotskyist By WAYNE PRICE tendency. McNally rewrote “Socialism from Below” in 1997; this version has been circulated by the New Socialist Group in Canada. He has recently rethought and rewritten his social- ism-from-below perspective in a new book (2002). Draper himself went on to publish four volumes on Karl Marx’s Theory of Revolution,elaborating on his arguments.
    [Show full text]
  • Pablo Bio-Bibliographical Sketch
    Lubitz' TrotskyanaNet Michel Pablo Bio-Bibliographical Sketch Contents: Basic biographical data Biographical sketch Selective bibliography Basic biographical data Name: Michel Pablo Other names (by-names, pseud. etc.): Abdelkrim ; Alain ; Archer ; Gabe ; Gabriel ; Henry ; Jérôme ; J.P. Martin ; Jean-Paul Martin ; Mike; Molitor ; M.P. ; Murat ; Pilar ; Michalēs N. Raptēs ; Michel Raptis ; Mihalis Raptis ; Mikhalis N. Raptis ; Robert ; Smith ; Spero ; Speros ; Vallin Date and place of birth: August 24, 1911, Alexandria (Egypt) Date and place of death: February 17, 1996, Athens (Greece) Nationality: Greek Occupations, careers, etc.: Civil engineer, professional revolutionary Time of activity in Trotskyist movement: 1928 - 1964 (1995) Biographical sketch A lifelong revolutionary, Michel Pablo for some one and a half decades was the chief leader of the Trotskyist Fourth International – or at least of its majority faction. He was perhaps one of the most renowned and at the same time one of the most controversial figures of the international Trotskyist movement; for all those claiming for themselves the label of "orthodox" Trotskyism, Pablo since 1953 was a whipping boy and the very synonym for centrism, revisionism, opportunism, and even for liquidationism. 'Michel Pablo' is one (and undoubtedly the best known) of more than about a dozen pseudonyms used by a man who was born Michael Raptis [Mikhalēs Raptēs / Μισέλ Πάμπλο]1 as son of Nikolaos Raptis [Raptēs], a Greek civil engineer, in Alexandria (Egypt) on August 24, 1911. He grew up and attended Greek schools in Egypt and from 1918 in Crete before, at the age of 17, he moved to Athens enrolling at the Polytechnic where he studied engineering.
    [Show full text]
  • Democratic Republic of Congo Constitution
    THE CONSTITUTION OF THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO, 2005 [1] Table of Contents PREAMBLE TITLE I GENERAL PROVISIONS Chapter 1 The State and Sovereignty Chapter 2 Nationality TITLE II HUMAN RIGHTS, FUNDAMENTAL LIBERTIES AND THE DUTIES OF THE CITIZEN AND THE STATE Chapter 1 Civil and Political Rights Chapter 2 Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Chapter 3 Collective Rights Chapter 4 The Duties of the Citizen TITLE III THE ORGANIZATION AND THE EXERCISE OF POWER Chapter 1 The Institutions of the Republic TITLE IV THE PROVINCES Chapter 1 The Provincial Institutions Chapter 2 The Distribution of Competences Between the Central Authority and the Provinces Chapter 3 Customary Authority TITLE V THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL TITLE VI DEMOCRACY-SUPPORTING INSTITUTIONS Chapter 1 The Independent National Electoral Commission Chapter 2 The High Council for Audiovisual Media and Communication TITLE VII INTERNATIONAL TREATIES AND AGREEMENTS TITLE VIII THE REVISION OF THE CONSTITUTION TITLE IX TRANSITORY AND FINAL PROVISIONS PREAMBLE We, the Congolese People, United by destiny and history around the noble ideas of liberty, fraternity, solidarity, justice, peace and work; Driven by our common will to build in the heart of Africa a State under the rule of law and a powerful and prosperous Nation based on a real political, economic, social and cultural democracy; Considering that injustice and its corollaries, impunity, nepotism, regionalism, tribalism, clan rule and patronage are, due to their manifold vices, at the origin of the general decline
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Comrade China on the Big Screen
    COMRADE CHINA ON THE BIG SCREEN: CHINESE CULTURE, HOMOSEXUAL IDENTITY, AND HOMOSEXUAL FILMS IN MAINLAND CHINA By XINGYI TANG A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN MASS COMMUNICATION UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2011 1 © 2011 Xingyi Tang 2 To my beloved parents and friends 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First of all, I would like to thank some of my friends, for their life experiences have inspired me on studying this particular issue of homosexuality. The time I have spent with them was a special memory in my life. Secondly, I would like to express my gratitude to my chair, Dr. Churchill Roberts, who has been such a patient and supportive advisor all through the process of my thesis writing. Without his encouragement and understanding on my choice of topic, his insightful advices and modifications on the structure and arrangement, I would not have completed the thesis. Also, I want to thank my committee members, Dr. Lisa Duke, Dr. Michael Leslie, and Dr. Lu Zheng. Dr. Duke has given me helpful instructions on qualitative methods, and intrigued my interests in qualitative research. Dr. Leslie, as my first advisor, has led me into the field of intercultural communication, and gave me suggestions when I came across difficulties in cultural area. Dr. Lu Zheng is a great help for my defense preparation, and without her support and cooperation I may not be able to finish my defense on time. Last but not least, I dedicate my sincere gratitude and love to my parents.
    [Show full text]
  • Course Handbook
    SL12 Page 1 of 29 UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE DEPARTMENT OF SLAVONIC STUDIES PAPER SL12: SOCIALIST RUSSIA 1917-1991 HANDBOOK Daria Mattingly [email protected] SL12 Page 2 of 29 INTRODUCTION COURSE AIMS The course is designed to provide you with a thorough grounding in and advanced understanding of Russia’s social, political and economic history in the period under review and to prepare you for the exam, all the while fostering in you deep interest in Soviet history. BEFORE THE COURSE BEGINS Familiarise yourself with the general progression of Soviet history by reading through one or more of the following: Applebaum, A. Red Famine. Stalin's War on Ukraine (2017) Figes, Orlando Revolutionary Russia, 1891-1991 (2014) Hobsbawm, E. J. The Age of Extremes 1914-1991 (1994) Kenez, Peter A History of the Soviet Union from the Beginning to the End (2006) Lovell, Stephen The Soviet Union: A Very Short Introduction (2009) Suny, Ronald Grigor The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR, and the Successor States (2010) Briefing meeting: There’ll be a meeting on the Wednesday before the first teaching day of Michaelmas. Check with the departmental secretary for time and venue. It’s essential that you attend and bring this handbook with you. COURSE STRUCTURE The course comprises four elements: lectures, seminars, supervisions and reading. Lectures: you’ll have sixteen lectures, eight in Michaelmas and eight in Lent. The lectures provide an introduction to and overview of the course, but no more. It’s important to understand that the lectures alone won’t enable you to cover the course, nor will they by themselves prepare you for the exam.
    [Show full text]
  • April 20, 1961 Memorandum of Conversation, Comrade Abdyl Kellezi with Comrade Zhou Enlai
    Digital Archive digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org International History Declassified April 20, 1961 Memorandum of Conversation, Comrade Abdyl Kellezi with Comrade Zhou Enlai Citation: “Memorandum of Conversation, Comrade Abdyl Kellezi with Comrade Zhou Enlai,” April 20, 1961, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Central State Archive, Tirana, AQPPSH-MPKK-V. 1961, L. 13, D. 6. Obtained by Ana Lalaj and translated by Enkel Daljani. http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/111817 Summary: Zhou Enlai expressed China's opinions on the result of the meeting of the Political Consultative Committee of the Warsaw Pact, China's support of the principles of Marxism-Leninism in several Soviet-Albanian conflicts. They also discussed issues of economic and military assistance. Original Language: Albanian Contents: English Translation At the meeting there were also present: From our side, comrade Mihal Prifti, from the Chinese side the comrades Deng Xiaoping, Luo Ruiqing, Vice Premier of the State Council and Chief of Staff, and Wu Xiuquan, Deputy Director of the CCP CC International Department. In the lunch that was given after the talks there was also comrade Tan Zhenlin, member of the Political Bureau of the CCP CC and dealing with agriculture issues, as well as Comrade Li Xiannian. Comrade Zhou Enlai: We took a look at the minutes of the meeting between [Chairman of the Ministerial Council and Member of the Political Bureau of the ALP CC] Comrade Mehmet Shehu and comrade Luo Shigao that they had after the meeting of the Political Consultative Committee of the Warsaw Pact that was held in Moscow. In addition, we have also seen the minutes of your meeting with comrade Li Xiannian.
    [Show full text]
  • Meeting the Challenge of Crisis and Opportunity Left Refoundation and Party Building
    Meeting the Challenge of Crisis and Opportunity Left Refoundation and Party Building About this paper: The Party-Building Commission The slogan of Left Refoundation arises out of our of Freedom Road Socialist Organization takes assessment of the ideological and structural crisis pleasure in circulating the following paper. Like among Leftists here in the U.S. and other parts of other socialist organizations, since its inception, the world. Four major occurrences define this crisis: Freedom Road has looked for opportunities to com- (1) The crisis of socialism, which predates the bine our own organizing with opportunities for collapse of the Soviet Union strengthening the unity and coherence of socialist efforts overall. We endorse the themes presented (2) The dismantling of the welfare state, here as an important part of our efforts in this gen- (3) The crisis of national liberation movements, eral direction. Members of our organization from and several cities worked on this paper over the last year and a half. We also appreciate the invaluable (4) The rise of neoliberalism. comments of friends and co-workers from other or- All four are connected. The rise of neoliberalism and ganizations who have seen this in draft and helped the crisis of socialism are intertwined with the de- shape it. We don't see this as the final word on the struction of the welfare state and the crisis of na- way forward for the socialist left. Nor do we even tional liberation movements. This crisis is an ideo- see it as the first word, since others have also grap- logical and structural vacuum in which words such pled with similar issues throughout this past decade.
    [Show full text]
  • Socialist Planning
    Socialist Planning Socialist planning played an enormous role in the economic and political history of the twentieth century. Beginning in the USSR it spread round the world. It influenced economic institutions and economic policy in countries as varied as Bulgaria, USA, China, Japan, India, Poland and France. How did it work? What were its weaknesses and strengths? What is its legacy for the twenty-first century? Now in its third edition, this textbook is fully updated to cover the findings of the period since the collapse of the USSR. It provides an overview of socialist planning, explains the underlying theory and its limitations, looks at its implementation in various sectors of the economy, and places developments in their historical context. A new chap- ter analyses how planning worked in the defence–industry complex. This book is an ideal text for undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in comparative economic systems and twentieth-century economic history. michael ellman is Emeritus Professor in the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands. He is the author, co- author and editor of numerous books and articles on the Soviet and Russian economies, on transition economics, and on Soviet economic and political history. In 1998, he was awarded the Kondratieff prize for his ‘contributions to the development of the social sciences’. Downloaded from Cambridge Books Online by IP 128.122.253.212 on Sat Jan 10 18:08:28 GMT 2015. http://ebooks.cambridge.org/ebook.jsf?bid=CBO9781139871341 Cambridge Books Online © Cambridge University Press, 2015 Downloaded from Cambridge Books Online by IP 128.122.253.212 on Sat Jan 10 18:08:28 GMT 2015.
    [Show full text]
  • Surviving Through the Post-Cold War Era: the Evolution of Foreign Policy in North Korea
    UC Berkeley Berkeley Undergraduate Journal Title Surviving Through The Post-Cold War Era: The Evolution of Foreign Policy In North Korea Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4nj1x91n Journal Berkeley Undergraduate Journal, 21(2) ISSN 1099-5331 Author Yee, Samuel Publication Date 2008 DOI 10.5070/B3212007665 Peer reviewed|Undergraduate eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Introduction “When the establishment of ‘diplomatic relations’ with south Korea by the Soviet Union is viewed from another angle, no matter what their subjective intentions may be, it, in the final analysis, cannot be construed otherwise than openly joining the United States in its basic strategy aimed at freezing the division of Korea into ‘two Koreas,’ isolating us internationally and guiding us to ‘opening’ and thus overthrowing the socialist system in our country [….] However, our people will march forward, full of confidence in victory, without vacillation in any wind, under the unfurled banner of the Juche1 idea and defend their socialist position as an impregnable fortress.” 2 The Rodong Sinmun article quoted above was published in October 5, 1990, and was written as a response to the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union, a critical ally for the North Korean regime, and South Korea, its archrival. The North Korean government’s main reactions to the changes taking place in the international environment during this time are illustrated clearly in this passage: fear of increased isolation, apprehension of external threats, and resistance to reform. The transformation of the international situation between the years of 1989 and 1992 presented a daunting challenge for the already struggling North Korean government.
    [Show full text]
  • Libertarianism Karl Widerquist, Georgetown University-Qatar
    Georgetown University From the SelectedWorks of Karl Widerquist 2008 Libertarianism Karl Widerquist, Georgetown University-Qatar Available at: https://works.bepress.com/widerquist/8/ Libertarianism distinct ideologies using the same label. Yet, they have a few commonalities. [233] [V1b-Edit] [Karl Widerquist] [] [w6728] Libertarian socialism: Libertarian socialists The word “libertarian” in the sense of the believe that all authority (government or combination of the word “liberty” and the private, dictatorial or democratic) is suffix “-ian” literally means “of or about inherently dangerous and possibly tyrannical. freedom.” It is an antonym of “authoritarian,” Some endorse the motto: where there is and the simplest dictionary definition is one authority, there is no freedom. who advocates liberty (Simpson and Weiner Libertarian socialism is also known as 1989). But the name “libertarianism” has “anarchism,” “libertarian communism,” and been adopted by several very different “anarchist communism,” It has a variety of political movements. Property rights offshoots including “anarcho-syndicalism,” advocates have popularized the association of which stresses worker control of enterprises the term with their ideology in the United and was very influential in Latin American States and to a lesser extent in other English- and in Spain in the 1930s (Rocker 1989 speaking countries. But they only began [1938]; Woodcock 1962); “feminist using the term in 1955 (Russell 1955). Before anarchism,” which stresses person freedoms that, and in most of the rest of the world (Brown 1993); and “eco-anarchism” today, the term has been associated almost (Bookchin 1997), which stresses community exclusively with leftists groups advocating control of the local economy and gives egalitarian property rights or even the libertarian socialism connection with Green abolition of private property, such as and environmental movements.
    [Show full text]
  • DSA's Options and the Socialist International DSA Internationalism
    DSA’s Options and the Socialist International DSA Internationalism Committee April 2017 At the last national convention DSA committed itself to holding an organizational discussion on its relationship to the Socialist International leading up to the 2017 convention. The structure of this mandatory discussion was left to DSA’s internationalism committee. The following sheet contains information on the Socialist International, DSA’s involvement with it, the options facing DSA, and arguments in favor of downgrading to observer status and withdrawing completely. A. History of the Socialist International and DSA The Socialist International (SI) has its political and intellectual origins in the nineteenth century socialist movement. Its predecessors were the First International (1864-1876), of ​ ​ which Karl Marx was a leader, and the Second International (1889-1916). In the period of ​ the Second International, the great socialist parties of Europe (particularly the British Labour Party, German Social Democratic Party, and the French Section of the Workers International) formed and became major electoral forces in their countries, advancing ideologies heavily influenced by Marx and political programs calling for the abolition of capitalism and the creation of new systems of worker democracy. The Second International collapsed when nearly all of its member parties, breaking their promise not to go to war against other working people, rallied to their respective governments in the First World War. The Socialist Party of America (SPA)—DSA’s predecessor—was one of the very few member parties to oppose the war. Many of the factions that opposed the war and supported the Bolshevik Revolution came together to form the Communist International in 1919, which over the course of the 1920s became dominated by Moscow and by the 1930s had become a tool of Soviet foreign policy and a purveyor of Stalinist orthodoxy.
    [Show full text]