this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2025
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submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by DylanMc6@hexbear.net to c/main@hexbear.net
 
  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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

  4. 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).

  5. 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!

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[–] axont@hexbear.net 19 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Ok this isn't materialist in any way, this is designing a rube goldberg machine without the means of putting it together. You're saying this stuff as if it's not specific to situation, geography, or climate? I do wanna say

But regardless of all of this, where do you specifically come in to declare all of this? For instance Cuba has a constitution that was designed by popular mandate, it wasn't designed by a single person and then given a yes/no vote. Socialism is a mass movement and like anything similar consists of compromises and negotiation.

What you're doing is designing the specific policies of a fictional country that has no outside interference or internal strife or what? I think I don't understand how exactly something like this comes about, although a few of the specific policies you mention already exist in places like Vietnam and Cuba.

Also despite all of that I do think it's valid of you to say what you believe in and support. I hope we can discuss this in good faith because you do seem to have put a lot of thought into this.

[–] Mardoniush@hexbear.net 13 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Congratulations on inventing the DDR

[–] stink@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 5 months ago

Dance Dance Revolution

[–] SpookyBogMonster@lemmy.ml 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

The DDR is such an interesting example of Socialism to me, because of the comparatively large amount of parties and mass organizations in its parliament relative to other eastern bloc states, and I often wonder why that was.

I suspect it has to do, in part, with Germany having a more well established Democratic tradition, as compared to say, Romania, and that it wasn't originally intended to be a socialist state, but a neutral liberal democracy like Austria, that later became a Socialist Republic

[–] spectre@hexbear.net 12 points 5 months ago

I haven't had enough coffee to respond directly, but I respect you putting your ideas out there for criticism and discussion. I don't think that happens often enough on this site. I think this community is too quick to dogpile instead of educate although we are starting to break that mold a bit and I hope we take the opportunity here to have a more constructive discussion and encourage these kinds of posts in the future.

Cc: @Cowbee@hexbear.net

[–] lil_tank@hexbear.net 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)

These are not views they're daydreams, it's cool and well intentioned but really the only "right" socialist system is the one that adapts to the specifics of the place and time it is implemented to

If you're under extreme foreign pressure to the point of having to deal with a ground invasion, if your country is under blockade by its neighbours and fails to ally with existing socialist powers, if you face immense risks of internal sabotage, many of the things that would feel good to have may simply not be possible to implement

[–] DylanMc6@hexbear.net 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

i support a synthesis of leftist ideologies that i call "reciprocalism" - it's mostly market socialism.

also, can you explain what you're trying to say?

[–] lil_tank@hexbear.net 8 points 5 months ago

I'm not trying to say anything beyond what I strictly wrote, which is that coming up with a utopia and trying to implement it isn't an approach I find realistic

[–] fannin@hexbear.net 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] DylanMc6@hexbear.net 1 points 5 months ago
[–] starkillerfish@hexbear.net 7 points 5 months ago

a planned market economy is a true socialist economy

rereading this part makes me think this is a bit

[–] TreadOnMe@hexbear.net 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Market socialism is only a stop-gap measure on the way towards a communized system, not a whole system in of itself.

Even here you are looking at running both a currency and labor voucher in some kind of dual system, which is unsustainable, because those who can convert labor vouchers into currency will be able to accrue interest and gain influence over those who have to spend labor vouchers on necessities. Unless you are running some sort of complex banking and centralized market where certain items can only be exchanged for labour vouchers or currency, depending. If a value game can be run, someone will run it. Doesn't mean that it isn't worth trying, but making it more complex just makes the game easier to run. Why not just abolish currency, only use labor vouchers? It is much simpler, especially in an era of computerized inventory.

As others have said, these kinds of systems tend to be developed ad hoc. It is utopian to pretend otherwise.

I mean, based off of reading this, you aren't really into socialism/communism, as the goals of the movement is ultimately the emancipation of the working class and total abolition of the state (legalized violence). For example, the argument between communists and anarchists one of the required steps in that process, not over what an 'ideal government' is. That is fundamentally a liberal argument, that an adequately planned state with the correct values will become the end of history. The communist does not view it that way. We once existed in a time without states, with industrial machinery and organization, we could easily exist as that again. More importantly, if we do not seek to exist as that again, that same industrial machinery will be used to enslave us and pit us in brutal competition both martial and commerical against each other.

[–] DylanMc6@hexbear.net 1 points 5 months ago (3 children)

i support workers and such. that said, do you think i should learn more about marxist theory, and are there any websites that are easy to understand?

[–] Dirt_Possum@hexbear.net 5 points 5 months ago

do you think i should learn more about marxist theory, and are there any websites that are easy to understand?

Looks like Cowbee is already in this thread, but it hasn't been mentioned yet that their theory reading list is a good place to start.

[–] TreadOnMe@hexbear.net 5 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

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'.

[–] starkillerfish@hexbear.net 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

you should join a communist organisation

[–] DylanMc6@hexbear.net 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] starkillerfish@hexbear.net 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] DylanMc6@hexbear.net 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] starkillerfish@hexbear.net 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

that's not a real thing. communist organisations are rooted in their social and economic enviornment. to join such an org you will have to reach out to your local chapter and participate in local activities.

[–] DylanMc6@hexbear.net 1 points 5 months ago (2 children)

i CAN'T go outside without permission

[–] SevenSkalls@hexbear.net 5 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

If you're in the US, then I recommend joining PSL's Action Network. It's a sort of online periphery for their organization focused a lot on socialist education and providing materials for activism, though you can ignore the second part if you can't go outside and just throw those away when you get them from the mail. But it costs a little money, so if you can't go outside because of an age or dependency thing, that might be an issue. But it's a pay what you can kind of thing, so they're extremely flexible. They have actual links to things like conferences, they hosted an educational Socialism Summer School this last summer, things like that, too.

Otherwise I recommend theory reading threads on this site from Cowbee on hexbear or on Lemmygrad, when they start over. They're basically like book clubs you sign up for where they pick a book, a few pages every week, and then discuss it in a thread.

Other than that, you're on the right track so don't let the criticism and all the responses get to you. You're putting your thoughts out there to be critically examined, reviewed, questioned, and analyzed, which is more than most people do (even on this site) and can be a component of self-growth.

[–] starkillerfish@hexbear.net 5 points 5 months ago

then that sounds like the primary issue

[–] starkillerfish@hexbear.net 5 points 5 months ago

private property exists alongside public and collective property

you say this

all corporations get split and collectivized by the workers

and then this

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

then all of this

do you realise how incoherent this whole set of sentences is? do you have any practical experience you can point to where this all works?

[–] thefunkycomitatus@hexbear.net 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I don't think you can make these decisions without having to build it. You won't know if you need a three-way framework until you get to the point where you're building that framework. By then you might learn something new and have a better idea or find a reason why it wouldn't work. Something can sound really good in theory and have no problems but then problems somehow appear in practice. I encourage anyone to get some friends and try to carry out a big project together. You'll start to see why it's not as easy as finding the right answer on paper first. It's not really an ideas problem, it's an organization problem. It's getting people together, synchronized, and focused on one goal despite the hiccups that will appear. It's also being able to keep those people together and focused when things go wrong and you have to change the plan.

[–] DylanMc6@hexbear.net 1 points 5 months ago

can you explain?

[–] Cowbee@hexbear.net 4 points 5 months ago

There's a lot to unpack here, but the bulk of it as others have pointed out is that there's a lot of contradictions. I think what you're doing is working off of what sounds good to you, rather than taking a materialist approach and truly verifying if what you're proposing makes any sense at all. Land is a good one, why have a land value tax and not just publicly own it? It seems like you just want a more progressive version of western liberalism, but aren't committing to unpacking why socialists take issue with such structures.

[–] drinkinglakewater@hexbear.net 2 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I think the term "proletarian liberalism" will be very popular in certain circles as socialism grows in the US

[–] DylanMc6@hexbear.net 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] drinkinglakewater@hexbear.net 1 points 5 months ago

Pro-establishment/counter-revolutionary academics and opinion writers in the media.

[–] drinkinglakewater@hexbear.net 1 points 5 months ago

I mean this as a bad thing, but not as a slight on OP