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i think that a true socialist government involves a three-way party-state-union framework: the party leads the state through organic centralism and multi-party democracy (i call a multi-party socialist democracy 'proletarian liberalism', rather than centre-right bourgeois liberalism); the state controls and coordinates (led by the workers and farmers themselves - a dictatorship of the proletariat) with a coalition of political parties in the government (the vanguard socialist party is the lead party, the big cheese); the union handles economics and such (a planned market economy is a true socialist economy) in a 'council of the economy', led by a national trade union federation.
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all political parties should be put in the care of the proletariat, rather than the oligarchs (or the people who enable the oligarchs. the general secretary of the vanguard party is the highest-ranking role, but the president and premier are the real leaders. the policies were enforced to prevent authoritarian stuff.
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in addition, private property exists alongside public and collective property; competition exists as it helps drive innovation; strict antitrust and antimonopoly laws were enforced; all corporations get split and collectivized by the workers. landowners get stripped of their landowner role, so the tenants get to be their own landowners, and they pay the taxes to the land and other stuff (taxation is NOT theft in any way, shape and form). property (whether private or public or collectivized) becomes regulated to avoid inequalities and such
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wealth is redistributed among everyone, and everyone is paid fairly - everyone gets a dividend of $1000 per month (financed through public banking run by the government). labor value is measured through an accounting system. the government controls how much money people spend - if they wanna exchange currency for goods and services without getting the guilt of being poorer, they can use labor vouchers. ethical consumption is allowed under market socialism. private, public and collective ownership co-exist peacefully (but private companies are regulated).
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rich people are taxed, and so does churches. food stamps (and snap benefits), bridge cards and welfare are important.
what do you think?
edit: listen the point is that i support full-fledged market socialism within a government that had three-way power between the parties, the state and the union. seriously!
In my opinion, marxist theory, in particular historical materialism and it's actionable counterpart, marxist-leninist theory, offers a greater and more comprehensive political analysis than almost any of their predecessors, contemporaries, and so-called ideological inheritors. So yes, I'd definitely recommend getting more into Marxist theory lol.
That said, there are a couple of resources and primary sources that I usually push towards newer people.
The first is the ABCs of communism on Marxists.org. They can be a bit of a fractional bunch, but their intentions seem to be good and the literature is decent.
The rest is primary source material, which may be a bit of a struggle but I promise you it is worth it.
The second is Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Friedrich Engles, the third is The Anti-Durhing by Friedrich Engles, and the fourth is 'State and Revolution' by Vladimir Ilyich (Lenin).
These are a combination of background information/theoretical introduction in a way that isn't just throwing Capital or like ten different letters and essays by Marx at you.
And if you haven't thrown in the towel or decided that being an anarchist or libertarian socialist is easier (it's not imo, the reading is often even more obscure), then I would actually crack open Capital by Karl Marx, ideally with some sort of read-along primer.
After that, then you can always read the Communist Manifesto for shits and giggles. Not that it isn't a very serious document, but there are people who treat it as if it is the entire communist canon, when more than anything it is an afterthought, an 'oh shit we are actually supposed to be clearly demanding something using the implications of all these ideas we have floating around'.