149-579: Oxford University Labour Club ( OULC ), was founded in 1919 to promote democratic socialism and is today the home of the Labour Party and of social democracy at Oxford University . The club caters for any students who are interested in the ideals of the labour movement whether members of the Labour Party or entirely new to politics. Stewart Wood , special adviser to consecutive Labour Party leaders Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband , said that 'OULC
298-735: A defensive alliance , and in August 1935, the 7th World Congress of the Comintern officially endorsed the Popular Front strategy. In the elections of May 1936 , the Popular Front won a majority of parliamentary seats (378 deputies against 220), and Blum formed a government. In Fascist Italy , the Comintern advised an alliance between the Italian Communist Party and the Italian Socialist Party , but
447-443: A market economy and that a genuinely free-market or laissez-faire system would be anti-capitalist and socialist. According to its supporters, this would result in the society advocated by democratic socialists, when socialism is not understood as state socialism and conflated with self-described socialist states . The free market and laissez-faire are free from all economic privilege, monopolies and artificial scarcities. This
596-597: A social revolution to transition to socialism , distinguishing it from some forms of social democracy . In Soviet politics, democratic socialism is the version of the Soviet Union model reformed democratically. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev described perestroika as building a "new, humane and democratic socialism." Consequently, some former communist parties have rebranded themselves as democratic socialists. This includes parties such as The Left in Germany,
745-430: 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
894-542: A stateless , propertyless , post-monetary economy based on calculation in kind , a free association of producers , workplace democracy and free access to goods and services produced solely for use and not for exchange . Although these characteristics are usually reserved to describe a communist society, this is consistent with the usage of Marx, Friedrich Engels and others, who referred to communism and socialism interchangeably. The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), defines democratic socialism as
1043-399: A " United Front " (the "Second Period") after it became clear proletarian revolution would not sweep aside capitalism in the rest of the world, whereby the minority of workers who supported communist revolution would join forces against the bourgeoisie with workers outside the communist parties. This was followed by the " Third Period " starting in mid-1928, which posited that capitalism
1192-593: A New Socialism a computerised central planning model based on direct democracy and modern technological advances. Some proponents of market socialism see it as an economic system compatible with the political ideology of democratic socialism. Democratic socialist advocates of market socialism often support the development of worker cooperatives , and sometimes market-based sovereign wealth funds . Advocates of market socialism, such as Jaroslav Vaněk , argue that genuinely free markets are impossible under private ownership of productive property . Vaněk contends that
1341-511: A book written in 1977, the eurocommunist leader Santiago Carrillo offered a positive assessment of the Popular Front. He argued that in Spain, despite the excesses attributable to the passions of civil war, the period of coalition government in Republican areas "contained in embryo the conception of an advance to socialism with democracy, with a multi-party system, parliament, and liberty for
1490-482: A condition of their continued existence. For example, East Germany was ruled by a "National Front" of all parties and movements within Parliament ( Socialist Unity Party of Germany , Liberal Party , Farmers' Party , Youth Movement , Trade Union Federation etc.). At legislative elections, voters were presented with a single list of candidates from all parties. The People's Republic of China 's United Front
1639-499: A decentralised form of economic planning where productive units are integrated into a single organisation and organised based on self-management. Eugene V. Debs and Norman Thomas , both United States Presidential candidates for the Socialist Party of America , understood socialism to be an economic system structured upon production for use and social ownership in place of the for-profit system and private ownership of
SECTION 10
#17327936831831788-547: A decentralised socially-owned economy and rejecting both authoritarian socialism and social democracy , stating: Capitalism is a system designed by the owning class to exploit the rest of us for their own profit. We must replace it with democratic socialism, a system where ordinary people have a real voice in our workplaces, neighborhoods, and society. We believe there are many avenues that feed into [democratic socialism]. Our vision pushes further than historic social democracy and leaves behind authoritarian visions of socialism in
1937-496: A different guise. Those democratic socialists believe that the fundamental issues with capitalism can only be resolved by revolutionary means of replacing the capitalist mode of production with the socialist mode of production through a replacement of private ownership with collective ownership of the means of production and extending democracy to the economic sphere in the form of workplace democracy or industrial democracy . The main criticism of democratic socialism from
2086-460: A gigantic workhouse. There certainly are some communists who, with an easy conscience, refuse to countenance personal liberty and would like to shuffle it out of the world because they consider that it is a hindrance to complete harmony. But we have no desire to exchange freedom for equality. We are convinced that in no social order will freedom be assured as in a society based upon communal ownership. Theoretically and philosophically, socialism itself
2235-666: A joint Socialist-Communist ticket with Norman Thomas 's Socialist Party of America in the 1936 presidential election , but the Socialists rejected the overture. The communists also then offered support to Franklin D. Roosevelt 's New Deal . The Popular Front saw the Communist Party taking a very patriotic and populist line, later called Browderism. The Popular Front has been summarized by historian Kermit McKenzie as: ...An imaginative, flexible program of strategy and tactics, in which Communists were permitted to exploit
2384-571: A more "benevolent" form of capitalism had emerged since the Second World War. ... According to Crosland, it was now possible to achieve greater equality in society without the need for "fundamental" economic transformation. For Crosland, a more meaningful form of equality could be achieved if the growth dividend derived from effective management of the economy was invested in "pro-poor" public services rather than through fiscal redistribution. The political scientist Lyman Tower Sargent offers
2533-479: A one-year period as a protest over the way the organisation was run. In February 2012, OULC voted by 20 to 4 to rejoin Labour Students citing the progress made by the leadership of the organisation in improving accountability and democracy. However, in 2019, the club voted unanimously to disaffiliate with the co-chairs Owen Winter and Rosie Sourbut citing incompetence by Labour Students' national committee and
2682-613: A party succeeding the Party of Democratic Socialism , which was itself the legal successor of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany . Some uses of the term democratic socialism represent social democratic policies within capitalism instead of an ideology that aims to transcend and replace capitalism, although this is not always the case. Robert M. Page, a reader in Democratic Socialism and Social Policy at
2831-638: A range of speakers from the Labour movement, including a number of high-profile politicians. In Trinity term 2009, OULC hosted the then current Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs , David Miliband . He commented "I recently met with the OULC members and was impressed. [They] can help Labour be at the cutting edge." OULC holds regular informal meetings to discuss policy. This provides its members with an opportunity to engage in serious political debate. An October 2008 review of party political events by
2980-496: A relationship with residents which is ultimately expressed in voting." In the run up to the 2010 General Election the club regularly turned out 20 campaigners every Sunday. This made a huge contribution to Oxford East's position of having the highest voter contact rate of anywhere in the country (more than Wales, Scotland and the North-East put together). In 2012, the club was instrumental in Labour winning its first Student Ward in
3129-500: A similar definition based on the practice of social democracy in Europe: Democratic socialism can be characterised as follows: Publicly held property is limited to productive property and significant infrastructure; it does not extend to personal property, homes, and small businesses. And in practice in many democratic socialist countries [sic], it has not extended to many large corporations. Social democracy prior to
SECTION 20
#17327936831833278-619: A social basis, meaning they originate from intersubjective communication between members of society. Honneth criticises the liberal state and ideology because it assumes that principles of individual liberty and private property are ahistorical and abstract when they evolved from a specific social discourse on human activity. In contrast to liberal individualism , Honneth has emphasised the intersubjective dependence between humans, namely that human well-being depends on recognising others and being recognised by them. With an emphasis on community and solidarity , democratic socialism can be seen as
3427-475: A socialism and freedom as we have described it; indeed, this conception of socialism is the very epitome of these freedoms", referring to open association of individuals in political and social life; the democratization and humanization of work; and the cultivation of personal talents and creativity. Popular front A popular front is "any coalition of working-class and middle-class parties", including liberal and social democratic ones, "united for
3576-465: A socialist political revolution to establish or re-establish socialist democracy in deformed or degenerated workers' states . Draper also compared social democracy and Stalinism as two forms of socialism from above , contraposed to his socialism from below as being the purer, more Marxist version of socialism. As a political tradition, democratic socialism represents a broad anti-Stalinist leftist and, in many cases, anti-Leninist strand within
3725-437: A socialist economy based on worker-owned cooperatives have more substantial incentives to maximise productivity because they would receive a share of the profits based on the overall performance of their enterprise, plus their fixed wage or salary. The Lange–Lerner model is a model first proposed by Oskar R. Lange in 1936 in response to the socialist calculation debate and later expanded by Abba P. Lerner in 1938, which
3874-658: A spontaneously self-regulating system of stock control, relying solely on calculation in kind , to come about and that in turn decisively overcomes the objections raised by the economic calculation argument that any large-scale economy must necessarily resort to a system of market prices. Decentralised planning models often involve workers' councils or industrial unions , and include models proposed by anarchist economists Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel as participatory economics ; and economist Pat Devine as " negotiated coordination ," based on representative democracy . On
4023-539: A way of safeguarding this dependency. While socialism is frequently used to describe socialist states and Soviet-style economies , especially in the United States due to the First and Second Red Scares , democratic socialists use socialism to refer to the tendency that rejects the ideas of authoritarian socialism and state socialism as socialism, regarding them as a form of state capitalism in which
4172-469: Is Joseph Schumpeter 's argument in Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (1942) that liberal democracies were evolving from liberal capitalism into democratic socialism with the growth of industrial democracy , regulatory institutions and self-management . A key difference is that social democrats are mainly concerned with practical reforms within capitalism, with socialism either relegated to
4321-745: Is representative democracy under the rule of law , which is to implement social change via reformism . Many social democrats "refer to themselves as socialists or democratic socialists", and some "use or have used these terms interchangeably." Others argue that "there are clear differences between the three terms, and preferred to describe their own political beliefs by using the term 'social democracy' only." In political science, democratic socialism and social democracy are occasionally seen as synonymous or otherwise not mutually exclusive, while they are usually sharply distinguished in journalistic use. While social democrats continue to call and describe themselves as democratic socialists or simply socialists ,
4470-414: Is "the road to socialism." Socialist thinkers such as Eduard Bernstein , Karl Kautsky , Vladimir Lenin and Rosa Luxemburg wrote that democracy is indispensable to realising socialism. Philosophical support for democratic socialism can be found in the works of political philosophers such as Axel Honneth and Charles Taylor . Honneth has put forward the view that political and economic ideologies have
4619-631: Is a County Councillor in Oxfordshire. As of the 2016 Oxford City Council Elections, Dan Iley-Wiliamson, OULC Membership and Alumni Officer at the time, was elected as a councillor for the Holywell ward, serving most city centre University colleges. In 2021, Michael O'Connor, a graduate student and OULC member, was elected County Councillor for Holywell Ward. A number of former OULC co-chairs stood for council seats in 2022, including David Parton and Eleanor Ormsby, both for Westminster City Council . At
Oxford University Labour Club - Misplaced Pages Continue
4768-483: Is almost unbelievable. If the Socialist movement as a whole is anything like as active as they are, then a socialist victory at the next election is inevitable." In February 1934, British fascist William Joyce , ( Lord Haw Haw ), visited Oxford. Lewis and future Ontario Co-operative Commonwealth Federation leader Ted Jolliffe , organised a noisy protest against the fascist, by simply planting Labour Club members in
4917-606: Is an oxymoron when socialism is defined as an end to wage labour . Various computer scientists and radical economists have also proposed computer-based forms of democratic economic planning and coordination between economic enterprises, based on either centralised or decentralised models. Chile explored computerised central planning from 1971 to 1973 with Project Cybersyn . In 1993, computer scientist Paul Cockshott and economics professor Allin Cottrell proposed in Towards
5066-496: Is based on public ownership of the means of production with simultaneous market-based allocation of consumer goods. While this model is typically considered a type of centrally planned economy, Lange and Lerner referred to it as a market socialist model. Many pre-Marx socialists and proto-socialists were fervent anti-capitalists just as they were supporters of the free market, including the British philosopher Thomas Hodgskin ,
5215-572: Is consistent with the classical economics view that economic rents , i.e. profits generated from a lack of perfect competition , must be reduced or eliminated as much as possible through free competition rather than free from regulation. While socialism is commonly used to describe Marxism–Leninism and affiliated states and governments, there have also been several anarchist and socialist societies that followed democratic socialist principles, encompassing anti-authoritarian and democratic anti-capitalism . The most notable historical examples are
5364-401: Is defined as having a socialist economy in which the means of production are socially and collectively owned or controlled alongside a democratic political system of government. Democratic socialists reject most self-described socialist states , which followed Marxism–Leninism . In democratic socialism, the active participation of the population and workers in the self-management of
5513-423: Is democratic, seen as the highest democratic form by its proponents and at one point being the same as democracy. Some argue that socialism implies democracy and that democratic socialism is a redundant term. However, others, such as Michael Harrington , argue that the term democratic socialism is necessary to distinguish it from that of the Soviet Union and other self-declared socialist states. For Harrington,
5662-423: Is distinguished between the early trend that supported revolutionary socialism , mainly related to Marx and Engels, as well as other notable social-democratic politicians and orthodox Marxist thinkers such as Bernstein, Kautsky, Luxemburg and Lenin, including more democratic and libertarian interpretations of Leninism ; the revisionist trend adopted by Bernstein and other reformist socialist leaders between
5811-595: Is held up as an exemplar of what needs to be done.' During his visit to Oxford in July 2009 the Prime Minister Gordon Brown was reported as having praised OULC's 'brilliant contribution to progressive politics in the University, the city and the country.' The club was instrumental in returning Andrew Smith to Parliament for Oxford East at the 2010 General Election with a 4.1% swing to Labour,
5960-725: Is mutualism, a democratic and libertarian socialist theory developed by Proudhon in the 18th century, from which individualist anarchism emerged. Benjamin Tucker is one eminent American individualist anarchist who adopted a laissez-faire socialist system he termed anarchistic socialism as opposed to state socialism . This tradition has been recently associated with contemporary scholars such as Kevin Carson , Gary Chartier , Charles W. Johnson, Samuel Edward Konkin III , Roderick T. Long, Chris Matthew Sciabarra and Brad Spangler, who stress
6109-724: Is perhaps the best known example of a communist-run popular front in modern times. It is nominally a coalition of the Chinese Communist Party and eight minor parties. Though all parties had origins in independent parties prior to the Chinese Civil War , noncommunists eventually splintered out to join the Nationalists, and the parties remaining in Mainland China allied with either Communist Party sympathizers or, in some cases, actual members. In
Oxford University Labour Club - Misplaced Pages Continue
6258-885: Is reflected at the European party level, where the centre-left social democratic parties are within the Party of European Socialists and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats , while left-wing democratic socialist parties are within the Party of the European Left and the European United Left–Nordic Green Left . These democratic socialist groups often include communist tendencies, in contrast to social democratic groups which exclude anti-capitalist tendencies. According to Steve Ludlam, "the arrival of New Labour signalled an unprecedented and possibly final assault on
6407-430: Is related to the trend of Eurocommunism originating between the 1950s and 1980s, referring to communist parties that adopted democratic socialism after Nikita Khrushchev 's de-Stalinisation in 1956, but also that of most communist parties since the 1990s. As a related ideology, classical social democracy is a form of democratic socialism. Social democracy underwent various major forms throughout its history and
6556-462: Is the dearth of what are technically known as 'promising people' in the ranks of the Labour Club. For years the Labour Club has been turning out a Geoffrey Wilson, a Frank Hardie, a John Cripps , a David Lewis, each year: but this [coming] year there seems to be no figures as outstanding as these." Since there was not a strong Labour leader to take over from Lewis after he graduated and left in
6705-456: The Cherwell commented that OULC is 'an active political party as opposed to a social gathering. Their meetings are informal, and last year they were visited by a number of prominent left wing politicians.' OULC also runs campaigns. The club plays a role in the efforts to keep Oxford East Labour and contributed significantly to the election effort in July 2009 where Labour gained four seats on
6854-593: The April 9 tragedy had radicalised society and so it was unable to play the compromise role of similar movements. In the other republics, such organisations existed but never posed a meaningful threat to the incumbent party and economic elites. The French Front populaire and the Spanish Frente Popular popular fronts of the 1930s are the most notable ones. These are non-socialist parties unless indicated otherwise. These were established after
7003-517: The Chartist movement in Britain, which somewhat differed in their goals but shared a common demand for democratic decision-making and public ownership of the means of production and viewed these as fundamental characteristics of the society they advocated for. From the late 19th to the early 20th century, democratic socialism was heavily influenced by the gradualist form of socialism promoted by
7152-606: The Communist Party of Germany (KPD) was regarded as the world's most successful communist party in terms of membership and electoral results. As a result, the Communist International , or Comintern, expected national communist parties to base their political style on the German example. That approach, known as the "class against class" strategy, or the " Third Period ", expected that the economic crisis and
7301-689: The European Economic Community , which demanded a capitalist free-market economy among its members. Nevertheless, public ownership in France and the United Kingdom during the height of nationalisation in the 1960s and 1970s never accounted for more than 15–20% of capital formation . The form of socialism practised by parties such as the Singaporean People's Action Party during its first few decades in power
7450-548: The John Smith Memorial Dinner, in the fifth week of Hilary term. The dinner commemorates the contribution and life of John Smith, the former Labour party leader, who died suddenly in 1994. Recent speakers at this event have included Neil Kinnock , Andrew Adonis and Margaret Beckett . OULC used to be affiliated with Labour Students , and former OULC members have held a number of positions there. In February 2011, OULC disaffiliated from Labour Students for
7599-541: The Labour and Democratic parties such as with New Labour and the New Democrats , respectively. Social democracy originated as a revolutionary socialist or communist movement. One distinction to separate the modern versions of democratic socialism and social democracy is that the former can include revolutionary means. In contrast, the latter asserts that the only acceptable constitutional form of government
SECTION 50
#17327936831837748-768: The Paris Commune , the various soviet republics established in the post-World War I period, early Soviet Russia before the abolition of soviet councils by the Bolsheviks , Revolutionary Catalonia as noted by George Orwell , and the Federation of Rojava in Northern Syria . Other examples include the kibbutz communities in modern-day Israel , Marinaleda in Spain , the Zapatistas of EZLN in
7897-530: The United Kingdom , have been governed by socialist parties or have social democratic mixed economies sometimes referred to as "democratic socialist". However, some have argued that following the end of the Cold War , many of these countries have moved away from socialism as a neoliberal consensus replaced the social democratic consensus in the advanced capitalist world. Democratic socialism
8046-557: The University of Birmingham , wrote about transformative democratic socialism to refer to the politics of Labour Party Prime Minister Clement Attlee and its government ( fiscal redistribution , some degree of public ownership and a strong welfare state) and revisionist democratic socialism as developed by Labour Party politician Anthony Crosland and Labour Party Prime Minister Harold Wilson , arguing: The most influential revisionist Labour thinker, Anthony Crosland, contended that
8195-592: The World Federation of Democratic Youth , International Union of Students , World Federation of Trade Unions , Women's International Democratic Federation , and the World Peace Council ). Communist front was a label frequently applied to political organizations opposed by anti-communists during the Cold War . The strategy of creating or taking over organizations that would then claim to be expressions of popular will, and not manipulation by
8344-500: The World Socialist Movement define socialism in its classical formulation as a "system of society based upon the common ownership and democratic control of the means and instruments for producing and distributing wealth by and in the interest of the community." Additionally, they include classlessness, statelessness and the abolition of wage labour as characteristics of a socialist society, characterising it as
8493-563: The administrative-command model formed in the Soviet Union and other Marxist–Leninist states during the 20th century. Democratic socialism is also distinguished from Third Way social democracy because democratic socialists are committed to the systemic transformation of the economy from capitalism to socialism, while social democrats use capitalism to create a strong welfare state , leaving many businesses under private ownership . However, many democratic socialists also advocate for state regulations and welfare programs in order to reduce
8642-432: The class differences and unequal distribution of income and economic power that result from private ownership of industry enable the interests of the dominant class to skew the market in their favour, either in the form of monopoly and market power or by utilising their wealth and resources to legislate government policies that benefit their specific business interests. Additionally, Vaněk states that workers in
8791-465: The displacement of Keynesianism by neoliberalism and monetarism , which caused many social-democratic parties to adopt the Third Way ideology, accepting capitalism as the current status quo and powers that be , redefining socialism in a way that it maintained the capitalist structure intact, has been occasionally described as a form of democratic socialism. The new version of Clause IV of
8940-526: The means of production . Contemporary proponents of market socialism and decentralised planning have argued that rather than socialism itself, the primary reason for the economic shortcomings of Soviet-type economies was their administrative-command system and its failure to create rules and operational criteria for the efficient operation of state enterprises in their hierarchical allocation of resources and commodities. All types of democratic socialists, including those in favor of central planning, often cite
9089-484: The republics of the Soviet Union , between around 1988 and 1992 (when the USSR had dissolved , and the republics were all independent), the term "Popular Front" had quite a different meaning. It referred to movements led by members of the liberal-minded intelligentsia (usually themselves members of the local Communist Party), in some republics small and peripheral but in others broad-based and influential. Officially, their aim
SECTION 60
#17327936831839238-564: The 1890s and 1940s; the post-war trend that adopted or endorsed Keynesian welfare capitalism as part of a compromise between capitalism and socialism; and those opposed to the Third Way . One of the foremost scholars who have argued that socialism and democracy are compatible is the Austrian-born American economist Joseph Schumpeter , who was hostile to socialism. In his book Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (1942), Schumpeter emphasised that "political democracy
9387-600: The 2005 General Election, five recent former OULC members stood for election as Labour candidates. In the 2019 election, Rosie Sourbut, who had been the co-chair earlier that year, ran as the Labour candidate in Oxford West and Abingdon . In parliament former OULC members currently include Angela and Maria Eagle, Ed Miliband, Rachel Reeves, Ellie Reeves, Anneliese Dodds, Bridget Phillipson, Keir Mather, and Alistair Strathern. While no longer in parliament, John Grogan, David Miliband and Ed Balls were OULC members at Oxford (Balls
9536-733: The Australian Socialist Alliance , Socialist Alternative and Victorian Socialists or the French New Anticapitalist Party , Revolutionary Communist League and Socialism from below have described their form of socialism as democratic and have emphasised democracy in their revolutionary development of socialism. Similarly, several Trotskyists have emphasised Leon Trotsky 's revolutionary-democratic socialism. Some such as Hal Draper spoke of "revolutionary-democratic socialism." Those third camp revolutionary-democratic socialists advocated
9685-761: The British Fabian Society and Eduard Bernstein 's evolutionary socialism in Germany. Democratic socialism has been used in multiple senses, including a broad sense that refers to all forms of socialism which reject Marxist–Leninism and authoritarianism . The broad interpretation of democratic socialism is more similar to the historical understanding of libertarian socialism . In the broad sense, democratic socialism includes anti-authoritarian forms of social democracy , liberal socialism , utopian socialism , market socialism , reformist socialism , revolutionary socialism , state socialism , left populism , Trotskyism , and Eurocommunism . In
9834-512: The British Labour Party's constitution, first adopted by former party leader Tony Blair , uses democratic socialism to describe a modernised form of social democracy. While affirming a commitment to democratic socialism, it no longer commits the party to public ownership of industry and, in its place, advocates "the enterprise of the market and the rigour of competition" along with "high quality public services ... either owned by
9983-596: The Club no longer runs official candidates, OUSU's executive committee and delegate body has also had a Labour presence. In 2019, former co-chair Anisha Faruk was elected president of Oxford SU, and her fellow co-chair Ray Williams was elected VP for Access and Academic Affairs. Stephen Twigg was National President of the National Union of Students and an OULC member in the early 1990s. Six current or former members of OULC currently sit on Oxford City Council, and one
10132-623: The Club. The report – which was not published in full but was leaked to the media in August 2016 – concluded that antisemitic incidents had occurred and some Jewish members felt uncomfortable attending the Club, but that the extent of the problem was hard to verify. OULC is run by an elected Executive Committee, as established under the OULC Constitution. The Constitution can be changed by a two-thirds majority at any OULC General Meeting, Termly General Meeting (TGM), or Extraordinary General Meeting; at which its members can also pass policy in
10281-538: The Club. This also applies if the only two people standing for Co-Chair are men. At the General Meeting in Trinity Term 2016, the Club also re-established its long-forgotten alumni network. Upon receiving permission from Lord Attlee, the grandson of Clement Attlee, the former Labour Prime Minister, the alumni network was named The Attlee Association, in the former Prime Minister's honour. OULC has hosted
10430-459: The Executive at every TGM, must be reserved for those who self-identify as belonging to a marginalised gender. The positions so reserved rotate around the Executive. If no one who self-identifies as a marginalised gender stands for such a position, the incoming Co-Chairs must produce a report to be made public, detailing what they will do to enhance the position of those who so self-identify within
10579-524: The French mutualist thinker and anarchist philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and American philosophers Benjamin Tucker and Lysander Spooner , among others. Although capitalism has been commonly conflated with the free market, there is a similar laissez-faire economic theory and system associated with socialism called left-wing laissez-faire to distinguish it from laissez-faire capitalism . One example of this democratic market socialist tendency
10728-538: The Labour Club were deadly serious.... His influence at the Labour Club, more than anyone else's, I think, explains the failure of the Communists to make headway there." In 1935, the Soviet controlled Comintern 's Seventh Congress , called for a united left response to fascism, called the popular front . The communist October Club used this call, for a popular front, as a pretext to have a union between themselves and
10877-582: The Labour Club's membership by three-quarters, from 484 members in December 1932 to over 850 members by the time he left, while the October Club never rose above 300 members. Ted Jolliffe stated "there was a difference between his speeches at the [Oxford] Union and his speeches at the Labour Club. His speeches at the Union had more humour in them; the atmosphere was entirely different. But his speeches at
11026-540: The Labour Club. Under Lewis' leadership, the club was able to easily defeat a motion by the October Club, as only 20 OULC members voted for the union. When Lewis returned to Canada in the summer of 1935, there really wasn't anyone to replace him, to keep the communists at bay as The Isis noted: "The Labour may have rejected fusion [with the October Club] but the matter is not yet settled. An interesting thing
11175-541: The Labour Party, which was seething with anger over communist efforts to take over union locals. In addition, the incompatibility of liberal and socialist approaches also caused many Liberals to be hostile. The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) had been quite hostile to the New Deal until 1935, but it suddenly reversed positions and tried to form a popular front with the New Dealers. It sought
11324-568: The Nazis with his defence against charges of involvement in the Reichstag fire became the general secretary of the Comintern, and its officials became more receptive to the approach. Official acceptance of the new policy was first signalled in a Pravda article of May 1934, which commented favourably on socialist-communist collaboration. The reorientation was formalised at the Comintern's Seventh Congress in July 1935 and reached its apotheosis with
11473-679: The Oxford District, Reading and Slough Labour Parties. Since the establishment of the Oxford University Student Union (OUSU) in the early 1970s, OULC has maintained a presence. There have been many Labour presidents, starting with John Grogan in the early 1980s, and OULC candidates have in recent years been successful in the 1999 ( Anneliese Dodds ), 2000 (Kirsty McNeill), 2004 (Emma Norris), 2005 (Alan Strickland) and 2006 (Martin McCluskey) elections. Whilst
11622-410: The Popular Front had existed, such as in the (later-renamed) World Committee Against War and Imperialism , but they sought not to co-operate with other parties as equals but instead to draw potential sympathisers into the orbit of the communist movement, which caused them to be denounced by the leaders of other left-wing associations. It was thus not until 1934 when Georgi Dimitrov , who had humiliated
11771-593: The Soviet Union and the Communist party line reversed yet again) was not a fight against Nazi aggression, but "the Second Imperialist War". Many party members quit the party in disgust at the agreement between Hitler and Stalin, but many communists in France and other countries refused to enlist in their countries' forces until June 1941 since until then, Stalin was not at war with Hitler. Leon Trotsky and his far-left supporters roundly criticised
11920-477: The Soviet Union or communist movement, was first suggested by Vladimir Lenin . These would not be political coalitions seeking power in opposition to fascist movements, but groups designed to spread the Marxist–Leninist message in places where the Communist party was either illegal or distrusted by many of the people the party wanted to reach. It was used from the 1920s through the 1950s, and accelerated during
12069-590: The Soviet Union signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany in August 1939, dividing Central and Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence, and leading to the Soviet takeover of the Baltic Republics and Finland . Comintern parties then turned from a policy of anti-fascism to one of advocating peace with Germany, maintaining that World War II (until Germany invaded
12218-427: The Soviet Union were democratic. Marxist–Leninists also tended to distinguish socialist democracy from democratic socialism , which they associated pejoratively with "reformism" and "social democracy." Ultimately, they are considered outside the democratic socialist tradition. On the other hand, anarchism (especially within its social anarchist tradition) and other ultra-left tendencies have been discussed within
12367-539: The Workers' International (SFIO) signed a pact of united action with the French Communist Party . By October, the Communist Party had begun to suggest that the republican parties that had not sided with the nationalist government might also be included, and it accepted the offer the next July after the French government tilted even further to the right . In May 1935, France and the Soviet Union signed
12516-436: The [British] Labour Party's democratic socialist tradition, that is to say the tradition of those seeking the transformation of capitalism into socialism by overwhelmingly legislative means. ... It would be a while before some of the party's social democrats—those whose aim is the gradual amelioration of poverty and exploitation within a liberal capitalist society—began to fear the same threat to Labour's egalitarian tradition as
12665-517: The alleged coalitions gave the Party the ability to maintain that it did not have a monopoly on power in that country. Another use of the word "front" in connection with communist activity was " Communist front ". This phrase used "front" not in the sense of a political movement "linking divergent elements to achieve common objectives", but as a facade "used to mask" the identity/true character/activity of "the actual controlling agent", (examples being
12814-510: The architect of the National Health Service , disputed the claim that Britain was a socialist state. For Crosland and others who supported his views, Britain was a socialist state. According to Bevan, Britain had a socialist National Health Service , which opposed the hedonism of Britain's capitalist society. Although the laws of capitalism still operated entirely as in the rest of Europe and private enterprise dominated
12963-674: The benefit of left-wing anticapitalist parties. In the weeks that followed Hitler's rise to power in February 1933, the German Communist Party and the Comintern clung rigidly to their view that the Nazi triumph would be brief and that it would be a case of "after Hitler – our turn"; however, as the brutality of the Nazi government became clear and there was no sign of its collapse, communists began to sense that there
13112-469: The causes of which have been widely attributed to the neoliberal shift and deregulation economic policies. This latest development contributed to the rise of politicians that represent a return to the post-war consensus social democracy, such as Jeremy Corbyn in the United Kingdom and Bernie Sanders in the United States, who assumed the democratic socialist label to describe their rejection of centrist politicians that supported triangulation within
13261-539: The city in over two decades. When possible the club sends members to other towns to campaign, including Reading, Slough, Southampton and even Edinburgh. In 2022, OULC travelled to Birmingham to campaign in the successful defence of Birmingham Erdington . OULC holds a number of social events including a fresher's dinner in Michaelmas Term and a barbecue or picnic in Trinity term. OULC also hosts an annual dinner,
13410-400: The club's total membership, the Communists made up approximately less than 200 members. The national Labour Party appointed Janet Royall , to head an inquiry into allegations of antisemitism within the Club made in February 2016. The then-current Co-Chair and another officer resigned from the Club, alleging they were disturbed by the discrimination and antisemitism they alleged was inherent in
13559-549: The club. This resulted in the national Labour Party officially investigating the club for antisemitism, resulting in a report concluding that the true extent of the problem was hard to verify. When David Lewis came to Oxford, the Labour Club was a tame organisation adhering to Christian activism, or the not-quite-so-scrappy-socialist theories of people such as R. H. Tawney and his book The Acquisitive Society . David's modified Jewish Labour Bundist interpretation of Marxism, that Cameron Smith labels "Parliamentary Marxism," ignited
13708-472: The collapse of a leftist government coalition of social-democrats and left-liberal republicans , followed by the far-right riots , which brought to power an autocratic right-wing government , changed the equation. To resist a slippery slope of encroachment towards authoritarianism , socialists were now more inclined to operate in the street and communists to co-operate with other antifascists in Parliament. In June 1934, Léon Blum 's socialist French Section of
13857-431: The county council, the most successful Labour result in the county. In its report on the election victory, the Cherwell cited the club's then co-chair, Jacob Turner, as saying that he felt the result was a consequence of "a very great effort from the local party including Labour Club members. We've been going out, meeting people, and asking them not to vote for us, but just how our councillors can help them. We've built up
14006-512: The dance hall that Joyce was speaking in, and causing a commotion, as groups of two and three left making much noise on the creaking wooden floors. The speech was foiled. Afterwards, the Blackshirts contingent had a street battle in Oxford with members of the Labour Club and the townsfolk. Lewis prevented the communists from really making inroads at Oxford during his time there. He increased
14155-536: The defense of democratic forms" against "a presumed Fascist assault". More generally, it is "a coalition especially of leftist political parties against a common opponent". However, other alliances such as the Popular Front of India have used the term, and not all leftist or anti-fascist coalitions use the term "popular front". The term was first used in the mid-1930s in Europe by communists concerned over
14304-471: The democratic socialist tradition for their opposition to Marxism–Leninism and their support for more decentralised, direct forms of democracy. While both anarchists and ultra-left tendencies have rejected the label as they tend to associate it with reformist and statist forms of democratic socialism, they are considered revolutionary-democratic forms of socialism, and some anarchists have referred to democratic socialism . Some Trotskyist organisations such as
14453-454: The dustbin of history. Tony Benn , a prominent left-wing Labour Party politician, described democratic socialism as socialism that is "open, libertarian, pluralistic, humane and democratic; nothing whatever in common with the harsh, centralised, dictatorial and mechanistic images which are purposely presented by our opponents and a tiny group of people who control the mass media in Britain." Some tendencies of democratic socialism advocate for
14602-435: The economy and firms in the form of industrial democracy . Supporters of democratic economic planning often reject market socialism on the basis that it fails to broadly coordinate information and resources according to social needs, and reject the Soviet model-based administrative-command system due to inefficient or undemocratic operation. Democratic socialist proponents of decentralised planning assert that it allows for
14751-585: The economy characterises socialism, while administrative-command systems do not. Nicos Poulantzas makes a similar, more complex argument. For Hal Draper , revolutionary-democratic socialism is a type of socialism from below, writing in The Two Souls of Socialism that "the leading spokesman in the Second International of a revolutionary-democratic Socialism-from-Below was Rosa Luxemburg , who so emphatically put her faith and hope in
14900-500: The economy, several political commentators claimed that during the post-war period, when socialist parties were in power, countries such as Britain and France were democratic socialist states. The same claim is now applied to Nordic countries with the Nordic model . In the 1980s, the government of President François Mitterrand aimed to expand dirigisme by attempting to nationalise all French banks, but this attempt faced opposition from
15049-547: The expulsion of all but one Northern Labour Club. Shortly afterwards Labour's National Executive Committee voted to disaffiliate Labour Students altogether. Following the recreation of Labour Students in 2022, OULC narrowly voted to support a motion in favour of engaging in their upcoming internal elections by endorsing candidates. Two members of OULC stood for the 2022 Labour Students executive, including one candidate for chair. OULC also has links with other socialist organisations, trade unions, and Labour Party groups, including
15198-491: The form of motions (such as submissions to the Labour Party's Policy Review), hear reports from the executive and elect (at the TGM) the new Executive. Under the most recent version of the OULC Constitution (as of Trinity Term 2022), the head of the Executive is the two Co-Chairs. One Co-Chair position must at all times be held by someone who "self-identifies partly or wholly as a woman or transfeminine ", and three other positions on
15347-459: The form of social democracy that remained committed to the gradual abolition of capitalism and social democrats opposed to the Third Way merged into democratic socialism. During the late 20th century and early 21st century, these labels were embraced, contested and rejected due to the development within the European left of Eurocommunism between the 1970s and 1980s, the rise of neoliberalism in
15496-483: The grassroots members engaged closely with extra-parliamentary struggles." Democratic socialists have promoted various different models of socialism and economics , ranging from market socialism , where socially owned enterprises operate in competitive markets and are self-managed by their workforce, to non-market participatory economics based on decentralised economic planning , and democratic central planning . Democratic socialism can also be committed to
15645-431: The indefinite future or perceived to have abandoned it in the case of the Third Way. More radical democratic socialists want to go beyond mere meliorist reforms and advocate the systemic transformation of the mode of production from capitalism to socialism . While the Third Way has been described as a new social democracy or neo-social democracy, standing for a modernised social democracy and competitive socialism,
15794-530: The initiative from the more radical dissident organisations established earlier by moving their republics towards greater autonomy and then independence. They also became the main challengers to the communist parties' hegemony in Byelorussia , Moldavia , Ukraine , Armenia and Azerbaijan . A Popular Front was established in Georgia but remained marginal, compared to the dominant dissident-led groups, since
15943-527: The institution of a post-capitalist economy. Andrew Lipow thus wrote in 1847 the editors of the Journal of the Communist League , directly influenced by Marx and Friedrich Engels , whom Lipow describes as "the founders of modern revolutionary democratic socialism": We are not among those communists who are out to destroy personal liberty, who wish to turn the world into one huge barrack or into
16092-486: The lack of democracy in the political and economic systems of Marxist–Leninist regimes as a reason for their historical or contemporary shortcomings or failures. A democratically planned economy has been proposed as a basis for socialism and variously advocated by some democratic socialists who simultaneously reject market socialism and Soviet-type economic planning . Democratic economic planning implies some process of democratic or participatory decision-making within
16241-413: The language of these market socialists, they maintain that radical market anarchism should be seen by its proponents and by others as part of the socialist tradition because of its heritage, emancipatory goals and potential and that market anarchists can and should call themselves socialists. Critics of the free market and laissez-faire , as commonly understood, argue that socialism is fully compatible with
16390-544: The largest in England outside London. Throughout the year it hosts a range of speaker, social, discussion, and campaigning events, as well as producing a termly magazine called Look Left . Signature events include the annual Barbara Castle Memorial Lecture and John Smith Memorial Dinner. In 2016, some officers of the Oxford University Labour Club resigned citing allegations of antisemitism in
16539-744: The latter rejected the idea. There were attempts in Great Britain to found a popular front, against the National Government 's appeasement of Nazi Germany , between the Labour Party , the Liberal Party , the Independent Labour Party , the Communist Party and even rebellious elements of the Conservative Party under Winston Churchill , but they failed mainly because of opposition from within
16688-611: The left recognised to its socialist tradition." This was reflected similarly in Labour: A Tale of Two Parties by Hilary Wainwright. According to Andrew Mathers, Hilary Wainwright's 1987 work Labour: A Tale of Two Parties provided "a different reading which contrasted the 'ameliorative, pragmatic' social democratic tradition expressed principally in the Parliamentary Labour Party with a 'transformative, visionary' democratic socialist tradition associated mainly with
16837-420: The majority of the population controlling the economy through some democratic system , with the idea that the means of production are owned and managed by the working class . The interrelationship between democracy and socialism extends far back into the socialist movement to The Communist Manifesto ' s emphasis on winning as a first step the "battle of democracy", with Karl Marx writing that democracy
16986-744: The meaning of democratic socialism and social democracy effectively reversed. Democratic socialism originally represented socialism achieved by democratic means and usually resulted in reformism, whereas social democracy included reformist and revolutionary wings. With the association of social democracy as a policy regime and the development of the Third Way, social democracy became almost exclusively associated with capitalist welfare states, while democratic socialism came to refer to anti-capitalist tendencies, including communism , revolutionary socialism , and reformist socialism . While most social-democratic parties describe themselves as democratic socialists , with democratic socialism representing
17135-478: The mid to late 1970s, the fall of the Soviet Union in December 1991 and of Marxist–Leninist governments between 1989 and 1992, the rise and fall of the Third Way between the 1970s and 2010s and the simultaneous rise of anti-austerity , green , left-wing populist and Occupy movements in the late 2000s and early 2010s due to the global financial crisis of 2007–2008 and the Great Recession ,
17284-522: The narrow sense, democratic socialism refers to the anti-capitalist wing of social democracy , seeking to quickly move beyond the welfare state . Democratic socialism is contrasted with Marxism–Leninism , whose opponents often perceive as being authoritarian, bureaucratic, and undemocratic in practice. Democratic socialists oppose the Stalinist political system and the Marxist–Leninist economic planning system, rejecting as their form of governance
17433-529: The opposition". Carrillo, however criticised the Communist International for not taking the Popular Front strategy far enough, especially since French communists were restricted to supporting Blum's government from without, rather than becoming full coalition partners. After World War II , most Central and Eastern European countries were ruled by coalitions between several different political parties that voluntarily chose to work together. By
17582-568: The other hand, democratic socialist proponents of centralised planning argue that it is better equipped to carry out economy-wide coordination and strengthen the collective power of the working class. David McNally , a professor at the University of Houston , has argued in the Marxist tradition that the logic of the market inherently produces social inequality and leads to unequal exchanges , writing that Adam Smith 's moral intent and moral philosophy espousing equal exchange were undermined by
17731-610: The overthrow of capitalism through revolution remaining unchanged. Cultural historian Michael Denning has challenged the Communist Party-centric view of the US popular front, saying that the "fellow travelers" in the US actually composed the majority of the movement. In his view, Communist party membership was only one (optional) element of leftist US culture at the time. The period suddenly came to an end with another abrupt reversal of Soviet or communist policy, where
17880-559: The perceived harms of capitalism and slowly transform the economic system. While having socialism as a long-term goal, some moderate democratic socialists are more concerned about curbing capitalism's excesses and are supportive of progressive reforms to humanise it in the present day. In contrast, other democratic socialists believe that economic interventionism and similar policy reforms aimed at addressing social inequalities and suppressing capitalism's economic contradictions can simply exacerbate them or cause them to emerge under
18029-420: The perspective of liberal democrats is focused on the compatibility of democracy and socialism, while Marxist–Leninist criticisms are focused on the feasibility of achieving a socialist or communist society through democratic means or without suppressing counter-revolutionary forces. Several academics, political commentators, and scholars have noted that some Western countries, such as France , Sweden and
18178-510: The popular front period of the 1930s. Eventually there were large numbers of front organizations. The international communism , in the form of the Communist International (Comintern), the international communist organization created by the Russian Communist Party in the wake of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution , went through a number of ideological strategies to advance proletarian revolution. Its 1922 congress called for
18327-450: The practice of the free market he championed as the development of the market economy involved coercion, exploitation and violence that Smith's moral philosophy could not counteract. McNally criticises market socialists for believing in the possibility of fair markets based on equal exchanges to be achieved by purging parasitical elements from the market economy, such as private ownership of the means of production, arguing that market socialism
18476-456: The primary reason for this was the perspective that viewed the Stalinist -era Soviet Union as having succeeded in usurping the legacy of Marxism and distorting it in propaganda to justify its politics. Both Leninism and Marxism–Leninism have emphasised democracy, endorsing some form of democratic organisation of society and the economy whilst supporting democratic centralism , with Marxist–Leninists and others arguing that socialist states such as
18625-461: The proclamation of a new policy: "The People's Front Against Fascism and War". Communist parties were now instructed to form broad alliances with all antifascist parties with the aim of securing social advance at home as well as a military alliance with the Soviet Union to isolate the fascist dictatorships. The "popular fronts" thus formed proved to be successful politically in forming governments in France, Spain and China but not elsewhere. In France,
18774-755: The public or accountable to them." Donald F. Busky's Democratic Socialism: A Global Survey describes social democracy as a form of democratic socialism that follows a gradual, reformist or evolutionary path to socialism rather than a revolutionary one. This tendency is captured in the statement of Labour revisionist Anthony Crosland , who argued that the socialism of the pre-war world was now becoming increasingly irrelevant. This tendency has been evoked in works such as Roy Hattersley 's Choose Freedom: The Future of Democratic Socialism , Malcolm Hamilton's Democratic Socialism in Britain and Sweden , and Jim Tomlinson's Democratic Socialism and Economic Policy: The Attlee Years, 1945–1951 A variant of this set of definitions
18923-594: The rapid growth of fascist movements in Italy and Germany, which they sought to combat by coalescing with non-communist political groupings they had previously attacked as enemies. Temporarily successful popular front governments were formed in France , Spain, and Chile in 1936. When communist parties came to power after World War II in the People's Republic of China , and the countries of Central , and Eastern Europe , it
19072-566: 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 countries during the 20th century. The history of democratic socialism can be traced back to 19th-century socialist thinkers across Europe and
19221-617: The region of Chiapas , and to some extent, the workers' self-management policies within the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Cuba . However, the best-known example is Chile under President Salvador Allende , who was overthrown in a military coup funded and backed by the CIA in 1973. When nationalisation of large industries was relatively widespread during the Keynesian post-war consensus , it
19370-465: The renewed interest in the club after the disappointment with Ramsay MacDonald 's second Labour government . In 1932 the Labour Club and the October Club (Oxford University's communist society) jointly organised a reception for a contingent of hunger marchers passing through Oxford. The Oxford newspaper The Isis noted Lewis' leadership ability at this early stage in his career in their 7 February 1934 issue: "The energy of these University Socialists
19519-455: The socialist movement, including anti-authoritarian socialism from below, libertarian socialism , market socialism , Marxism and certain left communist and ultra-left tendencies such as councilism and communisation as well as classical and libertarian Marxism . It also includes the orthodox Marxism related to Karl Kautsky and Rosa Luxemburg, as well as the revisionism of Eduard Bernstein. In addition, democratic socialism
19668-485: The spontaneous struggle of a free working class that the myth-makers invented for her a ' theory of spontaneity .'" Similarly, he wrote about Eugene V. Debs that "'Debsian socialism' evoked a tremendous response from the heart of the people, but Debs had no successor as a tribune of revolutionary-democratic socialism." Some Marxist socialists emphasise Karl Marx 's belief in democracy and call themselves democratic socialists. The Socialist Party of Great Britain and
19817-429: The state undertakes commercial economic activity and where the means of production are organised and managed as state-owned enterprises , including the processes of capital accumulation , centralised management and wage labour . Democratic socialists include those socialists who are opposed to Marxism–Leninism and social democrats who are committed to the abolishment of capitalism in favour of socialism and
19966-544: The strategy. Trotsky believed that only united fronts could ultimately be progressive and that popular fronts were useless because they included bourgeois forces such as liberals. Trotsky also argued that in popular fronts, working-class demands are reduced to their bare minimum, and the ability of the working class to put forward its own independent set of politics is compromised. That view is now common to most Trotskyist groups. Left communist groups also oppose popular fronts, but they came to oppose united fronts as well. In
20115-405: The summer of 1935, the Labour Club amended its constitution to remove impediments to fusion with the communist October Club in December 1935. Shortly thereafter the two clubs joined together forming a "popular front". The club's membership peaked before the war at between 1000 and 1200 members depending on whose numbers were used, which was approximately a fifth of all of Oxford's 5023 students. Of
20264-419: The symbols of patriotism, to assume the role of defenders of national independence, to attack fascism without demanding an end to capitalism as the only remedy, and, most important, to enter upon alliances with other parties, on the basis of fronts or on the basis of a government in which Communists might participate. McKenzie asserted that to be a mere tactical expedient, with the broad goals of communists for
20413-454: The theory and social democracy the practice and vice versa, political scientists distinguish between the two. Social democratic is used for centre-left political parties, "whose aim is the gradual amelioration of poverty and exploitation within a liberal capitalist society." On the other hand, democratic socialist is used for left-wing socialist parties, including left-wing populist parties such as The Left , Podemos and Syriza . This
20562-463: The time that the countries in what became the Eastern Bloc had developed into Marxist–Leninist states, the non-communist parties had pushed out those members not willing to do the communists' bidding and were taken over by fellow travellers . As a result, the front had turned into a tool of the communists. The non-communist parties were required to accept the communist party's " leading role " as
20711-413: The trauma of war would increasingly radicalise public opinion and that if the communists remained aloof from mainstream democratic politics, they would benefit from the populist mood and be swept to power. As such, non-communist socialist parties were denounced as " social fascist ". After a series of financial crises in 1926 , 1929 and 1931, public opinion in Europe was certainly radicalising but not to
20860-700: The value of radically free markets, termed freed markets to distinguish them from the common conception which these left-libertarians believe to be riddled with statism and bourgeois privileges. Sometimes referred to as left-wing market anarchists, proponents of this approach strongly affirm the classical liberal ideas of self-ownership and free markets while maintaining that taken to their logical conclusions, these ideas support anti-capitalist , anti-corporatist , anti-hierarchical and pro-labour positions in economics, anti-imperialism in foreign policy and radically progressive views regarding sociocultural issues such as gender, sexuality and race. Echoing
21009-467: Was a need for a radical alteration of their stance, especially as Adolf Hitler had made it clear that he regarded the Soviet Union as an enemy state. In several countries over the previous years, a sense had grown within elements of the Communist Parties that the German model of "class against class" was not the most appropriate way to succeed in their national political contexts and that it
21158-706: Was also a member of the Oxford University Conservative Association ) and before Britain left the European Union, OULC alumni Richard Corbett and Mary Honeyball were both members of the European Parliament . [REDACTED] Jack Evans [REDACTED] Kat Shields [REDACTED] Joseph Thomas Democratic socialism Democratic socialism is a left-wing economic and political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of
21307-740: Was collapsing and militant policies should by rigidly maintained, As the Nazi Party came to power in 1933 in Germany , and annihilated one of the more successful communist movements in that country, it became clear fascism was both on the rise and saw Communism as an enemy to be destroyed, and that opposition to fascism was disorganized and divided. A new, less extreme policy was called for whereby Communists would form political coalitions with non-Communist socialists and even democratic non-socialists – "liberals, moderates, and even conservatives" – in "popular fronts" against fascism. Until early 1933,
21456-872: Was common to do so at the head of a "front" (such as the United Front and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in China, the National Front in Czechoslovakia , the Front of National Unity in Poland , the Democratic Bloc in East Germany , etc.) containing several ostensibly-noncommunist parties. While it was the communist party—not the fronts—that held power in these countries,
21605-404: Was necessary to build some alliance to prevent the greater threat of autocratic nationalist governments; however, figures such as Henri Barbé and Pierre Célor in France and José Bullejos and Adama in Spain, who advocated greater flexibility by co-operating loyally with social-democratic parties and possibly even left-wing capitalist parties, were removed from positions of power. Predecessors to
21754-475: Was not uncommon for some political commentators to describe several European countries as democratic socialist states seeking to move their countries towards a socialist economy . In 1956, leading British Labour Party politician Anthony Crosland claimed that capitalism had been abolished in Britain. However, others, such as Welshman Aneurin Bevan , Minister of Health in the first post-war Labour government and
21903-449: Was pragmatic, as it its rejection of mass nationalisation characterised it. The party still claimed to be socialist , pointing out its extensive regulation of the private sector, activist intervention in the economy and social welfare policies as evidence of this claim. Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew stated that he had been influenced by the democratic socialist factions of the British Labour Party. Democratic socialism involves
22052-710: Was thoroughly compatible with socialism in its fullest sense". However, it has been noted that he did not believe that democracy was a sound political system and advocated republican values. In a 1963 All India Congress Committee address, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru stated: "Political democracy has no meaning if it does not embrace economic democracy . And economic democracy is nothing but socialism." Political historian Theodore Draper wrote: "I know of no political group which has resisted totalitarianism in all its guises more steadfastly than democratic socialists." Historian and economist Robert Heilbroner argued that "[t]here is, of course, no conflict between such
22201-462: Was to defend perestroika against reactionary elements within the state bureaucracy, but over time, they began to question the legitimacy of their republics' membership of the Soviet Union. It was their initially cautious tone that gave them considerable freedom to organise and to gain access to the mass media. In the Baltic republics , they soon became the dominant political force and gradually gained
#182817