The principle of upholding the people's democratic dictatorship
I think we're going to have to ditch the language (not the idea) of "dictatorship of the proletariat" if we want an American socialist movement to go mainstream anytime soon. We can keep the exact same concept, but we need to package it in something from the American political tradition -- maybe we talk about government that's actually "of the people, by the people, for the people." It's just too common to call even the most reasonable government action "tyranny," and the idea that socialism = dictatorship dictatorship is too deeply ingrained in American propaganda.
Just say "people's democracy" or "democratic republic" which is what most socialist countries call themselves.
"dictatorship of the proletariat" was Marx's materialist way of describing popular democracy in contrast to bourgeois democracy. As democracy and states are authoritarian dictatorships for the purpose of class oppression no matter who controls them.
It was also meant to drive home the point that "this is not good and by no means the final stage of communism". Mainly as a critique of the Gotha Program, which seemed to take a "free people's democracy/state" as it's end state which he thought was fucking stupid and meaningless.
not exactly the same elements
hmmm, wondering if USSR had anything like the Four Cardinal Principles
I think we're going to have to ditch the language (not the idea) of "dictatorship of the proletariat" if we want an American socialist movement to go mainstream anytime soon. We can keep the exact same concept, but we need to package it in something from the American political tradition -- maybe we talk about government that's actually "of the people, by the people, for the people." It's just too common to call even the most reasonable government action "tyranny," and the idea that socialism = dictatorship dictatorship is too deeply ingrained in American propaganda.
Just say "people's democracy" or "democratic republic" which is what most socialist countries call themselves.
"dictatorship of the proletariat" was Marx's materialist way of describing popular democracy in contrast to bourgeois democracy. As democracy and states are authoritarian dictatorships for the purpose of class oppression no matter who controls them.
It was also meant to drive home the point that "this is not good and by no means the final stage of communism". Mainly as a critique of the Gotha Program, which seemed to take a "free people's democracy/state" as it's end state which he thought was fucking stupid and meaningless.
I think some orgs have started saying stuff like "worker control of the government" or something to make it more understandable
"democracy in the workplace" is another okay one
Proletarian libertarian, it even rhymes :ancap-good:
Paul McCartney's "Temporary Secretary" but instead he says "Proletarian Libertarian"