HamdenRice wrote:marshwren wrote:HamdenRice wrote:
If you guys believe that about DSA, well that says everything about you, doesn't it?
Who are some of the leading figures of your "socialist" party?
Well, yes and no. While i can hardly endorse the over-the-top prose used to criticise DSA, the suggestion that they belong to the 'accomodationist' wing of 'socialism' (and not only to the 'democratic wing' of the DP, either) does have more than a little validity. But that rather misses the point: DSA also belongs to the "anti-communist" (or "authoritarian") wing of the left (as, i suspect, do most other leftists), and this accounts for most--if not all--of the piss, vinager and vemon.
As for who the NPG regards a "true" or "genuine" socialists, they've turned PI into one big reading room/guided discussion group/intellectual slumber chamber for that, and i'm quite certain they wouldn't object to your, or anyone else's, lurking...
See Jeff's post above. I think you are confusing Democratic Socialists of America with the Social Democrats. When the Socialist Party split decades ago, one of its factions was an extreme "anti-communist left". They became the Social Democrats and neo-conservatives, not the Democratic Socialists. As far as I know DSA has never had much of a position on the former Soviet Union or on communism in general.
In fact, my recollection of Cornell West, one of DSA's founders, in the 70s, was that he was steeped in Marxist theory and very enthusiastic about "Eurocommunism." (On edit: Eurocommunism referred to the communist parties of Western Europe that were breaking with the Soviet Union's communist party on issues of elections and free speech.)
The socialist left's main problem with Stalinism, Leninism and Trotskyism was always that they did not believe in elections (formal democracy) or free speech. That was always the big divide. With the demise of Soviet communism, and the acceptance by Russian and Eastern European successor communist parties of formal democracy, the issue is largely moot -- except with the fragmentary splinter groups, like Socialist Workers Party, Socialist Equality Party/World Socialist Web Site and the like that still believe in secretive organization, no formal democracy, following the party line, and other Leninist/Trot/Stalinist tactics and organizations principles (in the past, referred to by the Orwellian term, "Democratic Centralism", ie that decisions would be made solely by the Central Committee of the party).
Apparently, PI is now firmly in that camp.
Hamden--my bad, having posted this without seeing Jeff's post beforehand...i really shouldn't troll on the tubular interwebs past my bedtime...