Democratic Marxism Discussion Paper # 6
Note: cyclically re-posted for the benefit of new DMGI members, DM-G viewers, and DMGF members/viewers.
Survey
In this survey, answering “yes” to many of the questions may indicate you are in mainstream Marxian thought, though you may never have seen your progressive views in this light:
........................................................................................................Yes...... No.....Unsure
- Labour should have priority over Capital............................ ______ _____ _____
2. Capitalism, of necessity, generates unhealthy
extremes of wealth and income.................................................. _______ _____ _____
3. Workers should own, or at least have 50 % control
of, the means of production. .....................................................______ _____ _____
4. The legal structure of cooperatives should be
favoured over corporations........................................................ ______ _____ _____
5. There should be a Universal Basic Income (UBI)................. ______ _____ _____
6. The tax system should include both a wealth and
very progressive income tax. Tax loopholes allowing
legal tax “avoidance” must be closed. Those
benefiting most from the common system should
substantially contribute back into funding the system............... ______ _____ _____
7. Self-governance from the bottom-up is always
preferable to top-down governance of the electorate.
(Example: Ontario municipalities should not be
dictated to by the province)....................................................... ______ _____ _____
8. There are three historical implementations of “socialism”:
a. USSR-style Communism (Example: China) –
unacceptable; maintained at the end of the barrel
of a gun, with breaching of human rights; no
open elections............................................................................... _____ _____ _____
b. Democratic Socialism (Example: Venezuela) -
acceptable when competent government, but
generally centralizes power, rather than
decentralizing it..........................................................................______ _____ _____
c. Democratic Marxism (Closest Example: Chile -
1971-73 – Unity Government of Socialist
President Salvadore Allende) – best economic
system; best self-governance model............................................ _____ _____ _____
9. The electorate has the right to decide the system
under which it wishes to govern itself. Democratic
Marxism must win the hearts of the electorate at the
ballot box, and then maintain support democratically................. ______ _____ _____
10. A person can be a “Democratic Marxist” without
being a theoretical “expert” in Marx' writings (though
the more knowledge, the better).................................................. ______ _____ ____
Democratic Marxist Global Institute (DMGI)
Author: Bob Armstrong, Coordinator
Original – 20/10/24
Most Recent Revision – 20/12/18 - Bob Armstrong
Most Recent Postings:
24/2/7: CT.DM; DMPO; DM-G; DMGF; TRN
Disclaimer
Our main author of our Discussion Papers, Bob Armstrong, readily admits he is no academic, nor a Marxist expert. He considers himself only an “armchair Marxist” - he has read a bit, but thought about Democratic Marxism (DM) a lot. So he writes much the way an ordinary working person might about Democratic Marxism. He hopes these short simple papers will therefore help working people access the concepts of DM fairly easily.
He admits also that these papers are therefore a “work-in-progress”. His concepts and strategies are constantly under revision as he reads a bit more, and thinks a bit more, about this whole area. So you may see evolution of concepts in later papers, only lightly touched on in earlier papers. In fact, some early ideas may be now seen as contradictory, and jettisoned totally. Bob's choice is to let the reader take the same path as he has, and sort things out with him, rather than him constantly having to go back and edit every prior paper, with every change of nuance on the concepts. He hopes readers, like him, will see how the concepts have layers to them, and that they are not obvious at the start.
So please separate the “message” (The actual text concepts) from Bob, the “messenger”, and his limitations in depth of knowledge as author. The author may be weak, yet the message might have some merit, and even, nonetheless, be strong and clear. As always, the readers must not rely on expert opinion, and an appeal to authority – we must do the best to decide for ourselves.
So we ask readers, and Democratic Marxists, to cut us, and Bob, some slack, for the evolution in thinking in some aspects of the overall concepts and strategies, as we push on.
Democratic Marxist Global Institute (DMGI)
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