cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/5741
Zohran Mamdani’s opponent, disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo, has received the political and financial backing of right-wing billionaires
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democratic socialism isn’t social democracy though, social democracy is just capitalism with welfare (“the nordic model”) 🙄 but democratic socialism is just liberals reinventing socialism (because socialism is democratic)
Democratic socialism is just social democracy though in a literal sense. It is merely a difference in marketing. The social democrats historically have been revisionist and concessionary “socialists”.
Starting from its early usage, social democracy meant socialism. The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, once supported by Lenin, considered itself socialist. And I’d say that social democrats today still consider themselves socialists much of the time, just not “communists” or “Marxists” in requisite scare-quotes.
Yeah that is one of the issues with reading What Is To Be Done, it was written before the adoption of the word Communist by Lenin and Co to differentiate themselves from the revisionist Social Democrats. You know, those silly Bernsteinians. Eventually it became clear that some of the Social Democrats rejected the idea of revolution and instead were more interested in shaking hands with former Tsarists and appointing them to key roles in the provisional government.
So not that different then our current Democratic Socialists.
Are they reinventing socialism or are they appropriating the term? Mamdani always goes back to King and talks about the distribution of wealth, about childcare and public transportation, about affording rent and food. That all fits solidly within the framework of social democracy
i think the problem here is also illiterate americans not knowing what words mean and using the terms interchangeably but I guess we’ll see if he does some socialism or if he does some capitalism with welfare and then we can call it
City-run grocery stores has a potentially socialist implementation framework. If that succeeds in lowering food costs for average New Yorkers, that’s only good for socialist messaging. Yeah there’s a lot of other undesirable potential with Mamdani, but continuing to open peoples’ eyes and see past the red scare tactics for the first time… Well, I think that’s why there’s cause for optimism that socialist messaging even being discussed is a hopeful sign.
Genuine question, what would doing some socialism in his position look like compared to capitalism with welfare? Does that mean more focus on increasing labor power vs focusing on things like healthcare and transportation?