Classical Social Democracy

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"As things stand today capitalist civilization cannot continue; we must either move forward into socialism or fall back into barbarism."

Classical Social Democracy is a movement that has its roots in the Social Democratic Party of Germany, with most of the theories of it ranging from Marxian to even reformist ones. In spite of this, social democrats are united in believing in the following three ideas, belief in itself being the representative of all non-capitalist classes, belief in the ultimate victory of socialism no matter what or which measure and the belief in the formation of an independent organization of the working class.

History

Lassalle and Marx

In Germany, two major strains of socialist thought had been established, one would be considered as "Marxism", another would be "Lassallism". These two tendencies would mostly be hostile to one another, Marx along with other socialist figures like W. Liebknecht and A. Bebel had heavily criticized Lassalle for his collusion with Bismarck and reformism.

Formation of the SPD

"Three Arrows" 1932 SPD election poster.

USPD and Rosa

Becoming Social Democracy

The death of Luxemburg and Liebknicht meant there was no prominent movement aiming for the immediate overthrow of the global capitalist system. This allowed Friedrich Ebert to take the movement in a new direction that ran counter to its original goal. Ebert forced the revolutionary section of the SPD out of the party. From now on, the party’s goal would be to make minor reforms to capitalism while carrying on the aesthetics and populist messaging of the old party. This tactic essentially turned a once radical Marxist party into a milquetoast moderate social democratic or even third wayer party.

Beliefs

The beliefs of Social-Democrats are often very divided, ranging from reformism to pure direct action. In spite of this, they are all united in one common struggle, the construction of a mass workers movement to overthrow capitalism.

Variants

Bremen Left

Bremen Leftists, or Bremenists are a tendency within the Social Democratic Party of Germany that emphasises on the revolutionary role of direct action. Rejecting Kautsky's and Luxemburg's ideas that capitalism will collapse through economic means, the Bremenists advocate for a focus on mass action in working-class organisations and rejection of entryism and "taking over the state". The Bremenists would instead advocate for the abolishment of the state and the creation of a proletarian one. Alongside that, they would place special emphasis in the idea that the basis of reformism is the labour aristocracy and the rejection of national liberation.

Centrism

The Centrists were a major faction within the SPD, which theory is mainly based on the works of Karl Kautsky. While embracing revolution, they support parliamentarianism (as a tactic to get more popular). A fundamental belief of theirs is the concept of the merger formula, which emphasizes the role of intellectuals in creating socialist consciousness and theory. However, these intellectuals, having no material need for liberation, cannot be the subject of social revolution. A quote from the newspaper Die Neue Zeit written in 1902 by Karl Kautsky illustrates this concept "Modern socialist consciousness can arise only on the basis of profound scientific knowledge. Indeed, modern economic science is as much a condition for socialist production as, say, modern technology, and the proletariat can create neither the one nor the other, no matter how much it may desire to do so; both arise out of the modern social process. The vehicle of science is not the proletariat, but the bourgeois intelligentsia: it was in the minds of individual members of this stratum that modern socialism originated, and it was they who communicated it to the more intellectually developed proletarians who, in their turn, introduce it into the proletarian class struggle where conditions allow that to be done. Thus, socialist consciousness is something introduced into the proletarian class struggle from without and not something that arose within it spontaneously.". It should be said, however, that Centrists believe that the main vehicle for social change should be the mass movement of the proletariat, instead of something like the vanguard party and such.

Spartacist Left

One of the many radical factions within Social Democracy centered around Luxemburg, the Spartacist Left is one of the more centrist-aligned ones. Embracing Social Democracy as the proletariat instead of being the vanguard of the proletariat, the Spartacist Left would advocate for the masses to "reconquer" the mass movements that have fallen to revisionism instead of rejecting those movements. Luxemburg would also believe in the idea of "economism", which assumes that capitalism will collapse through mechanic and economic factors that don't include the proletariat.

Behavior and Personality

Classical Social Democracy is very contrarian and hates anyone trying to undermine the working class but Classical Social Democracy is often rather confused as it doesn't have a central program, so in conflicts between its children it tries to mend relations as best as possible.

How to Draw

Symbols

Flags

Flag of Classical Social Democracy
Color Name HEX RGB
Dark Red #950000 149, 0, 0
Coffee Gold #DA8E43 218, 142, 67
Gold #FDBD59 253, 189, 89
Beige #FBFD82 251, 253, 130

The flag design of Classical Social Democracy is based on a old SPD banner and a simplified version of that banner. It has a dark red background, a coffee gold wreath, two golden hands shaking and a beige ribbon.

Props

Classical Social Democracy can often be seen holding old socialist flags when in action but when things are more calm it walks around with a wooden cane.

Drawing

  1. Draw a ball,
  2. Fill the ball in dark red,
  3. Draw a coffee golden wreath
  4. Draw a beige ribbon at the bottom of the wreath
  5. Draw a pair of golden hands shaking in the center
  6. Draw two eyes
  7. And you're done
Color Name HEX RGB
Dark Red #950000 149, 0, 0
Coffee Gold #DA8E43 218, 142, 67
Gold #FDBD59 253, 189, 89
Beige #FBFD82 251, 253, 130


Relationships

Friends

  • Abolitionism - Long live the Union.
  • Council Communism - My a little too blanquist son, learn to reform some time.
  • Leninism - One of my most loyal comrades, albeit too anarcho-syndicalistic and too much of a "Stirnerized Proudhonian".
  • Radical Social Democracy - I am the only real social democrat. He is just a murderous fake.
  • Left-Wing Populism - I used your tactics to gain power and to bring Germany (and the world) to the brink of rebellion. Such a shame to see succdems force this potentially revolutionary power within the confines of liberal democracy.

Frenemies

  • Reformist Marxism - You may have been a revisionist and had turned me into what I am today, but we are all common brothers of the great Socialist tradition.
  • Liberal Socialism - My revisionist variant likes you. Still, the rest of my followers and variants think that your sole participation in the parliamentary process is naive at best and counterrevolutionary at worst.

Enemies

  • Theory of Social Contract - This theory is very lovely, it has only one error: it is false.
  • Social Democracy - You betrayed everything you stood for and killed Luxemburg. I hate you with every fiber of my being. I hate you.
  • Third Way - You're just worse than the guy above, prepare for a bullet!
  • Social Authoritarianism - Wow, I didn't know that anyone could manage to be worse than a killer or a neoliberal with welfare. You have stolen my theories and have managed to convince people that socialism is nothing more than the "government doing stuff."
  • Bismarckism - Lassalle sold us out, he undermined the workers movement by working with you by taking the institutions of the worker and making them the institutions of the State.
  • Capitalism - Long live the international fraternization of peoples! Down with capitalism!

Gallery

Portraits

Alternative designs

Further Information

Wikipedia

Notes

  1. In regards to analysis of monopoly capitalism

References

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