What was the first country to adopt socialist principles?
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The objectives of the Party of European Socialists, the European Parliament's socialist and social democratic bloc, are now "to pursue international aims in respect of the principles on which the European Union is based, namely principles of freedom, equality, solidarity, democracy, respect of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and respect for the Rule of Law". As a result, today the rallying cry of the French Revolution—"Liberté, égalité, fraternité"—is promoted as essential socialist values. To the left of the PES at the European level is the Party of the European Left (PEL), also commonly abbreviated "European Left"), which is a political party at the European level and an association of democratic socialist, socialist and communist political parties in the European Union and other European countries. It was formed in January 2004 for the purposes of running in the 2004 European Parliament elections. PEL was founded on 8–9 May 2004 in Rome.
Democratic socialism
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After three years, the First World War, at first greeted with enthusiastic patriotism, produced an upsurge of radicalism in most of Europe and also as far afield as the United States ("see Socialism in the United States") and Australia. In the Russian revolution of February 1917, workers' councils (in Russian, "soviets") had been formed, and Lenin and the Bolsheviks called for "All power to the Soviets". After the October 1917 Russian revolution, led by Lenin and Trotsky, consolidated power in the Soviets, Lenin declared "Long live the world socialist revolution!". Briefly in Soviet Russia socialism was not just a vision of a future society, but a description of an existing one. The Soviet regime began to bring all the means of production (except agricultural production) under state control, and implemented a system of government through the workers' councils or soviets.
History of socialism
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The main tasks of the CMEA were plan coordination, production specialization and regional trade. In 1961 Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader, put forward proposals for establishing an integrated, centrally planned socialist commonwealth in which each geographic region would specialize production in line with its set of natural and human resources. The resulting document, the "Basic Principles of the International Socialist Division of Labour" was adopted at the end of 1961, despite objections from Romania on certain aspects. The "Basic Principles" were never implemented fully and were replaced in 1971 by the adoption of the "Comprehensive Programme for Further Extension and Improvement of Cooperation and Development of Socialist Economic Integration". As a result, many specialization agreements were made between CMEA member states for investment programmes and projects. The importing country pledged to rely on the exporting country for its consumption of the product in question. Production specialization occurred in engineering, automotive, chemicals, computers and automation, telecommunications and biotechnology. Scientific and technical cooperation between CMEA member states was facilitated by the establishment in 1969 of the International Centre for Scientific and Technical Information in Moscow.
Socialist economics
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Parallel to these developments, the Soviet Union led efforts to coordinate the investment strategies of the members in the interest of a more rational pattern of regional specialization, increased productivity, and a more rapid overtaking of the capitalist economies. These efforts culminated in 1962 with the adoption at the 15th Council Session of the Basic Principles of the International Socialist Division of Labor. Although the principles of specialization were generally favored by the more industrial, northern-tier states, the less developed East European countries were concerned that such specialization would lead to a concentration of industry in the already established centers and would thus thwart their own ambitious industrialization plans. Moreover, the increased economic interdependence that the Basic Principles called for had inevitable political connotations. The latter were reinforced in 1962 by articles and speeches by Soviet party leader Nikita Khrushchev proposing a central Comecon planning organ to implement the Basic Principles and foreseeing the evolution of a "socialist commonwealth" based on a unified regional economy.
History of the Comecon
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In 1989, the Socialist International adopted its present Declaration of Principles. The Declaration of Principles addressed issues concerning the "internationalization of the economy". The Declaration of Principles defined its interpretation of the nature of socialism. It stated that socialist values and vision include "a peaceful and democratic world society combining freedom, justice and solidarity". It defined the rights and freedoms it supported, stating: "Socialists protect the inalienable right to life and to physical safety, to freedom of belief and free expression of opinion, to freedom of association and to protection from torture and degradation. Socialists are committed to achieve freedom from hunger and want, genuine social security, and the right to work". However, it also clarified that it did not promote any fixed and permanent definition for socialism, stating: "Socialists do not claim to possess the blueprint for some final and fixed society which cannot be changed, reformed or further developed. In a movement committed to democratic self-determination there will always be room for creativity since each people and every generation must set its own goals".
Social democracy
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Throughout this period, the country had a reputation for its Stalinist style of state administration influenced by Enver Hoxha and the Party of Labour of Albania and for policies stressing national unity and self-reliance. Travel and visa restrictions made Albania one of the most difficult countries to visit or from which to travel. In 1967, it declared itself the world's first atheist state. But after the end of its communist regime in 1991, the practice of religion slowly increased. It was the only Warsaw Pact member to formally withdraw from the alliance before 1990, an action occasioned by the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. The first multi-party elections in Socialist Albania took place on 31 March 1991 – the Communists gained a majority in an interim government and the first parliamentary elections were held on 22 March 1992. The People's Socialist Republic was officially dissolved on 28 November 1998 upon the adoption of the new Constitution of Albania.
People's Socialist Republic of Albania
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In 2001, the DSP, along with several other socialist parties including the International Socialist Organisation, formed the Socialist Alliance, initially an electoral vehicle. In 2002 the DSP championed the idea of turning Socialist Alliance into more of a party formation, although at first it had to withdraw this proposal as the ISO's opposition threatened to destroy the alliance. In 2003 the DSP became the first (and so far only) Socialist Alliance affiliate to become an internal tendency within the Alliance, changing its name to the Democratic Socialist Perspective, in line with its view that SA should become a "Multi-Tendency Socialist Party", a view that the May 2003 National Conference of the Socialist Alliance subsequently adopted.
Democratic Socialist Perspective
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This view is challenged by Stalinists and their followers, who claim that socialism was established in the Soviet Union after Joseph Stalin came to power and instituted the system of five year plans. The 1936 Constitution of the USSR, known as the Fundamental Law of Victorious Socialism, embodied the claim that the foundations for socialism had been laid. Joseph Stalin introduced the theory of Socialism in one country, which argued that socialism can be built in a single country, despite existing in a global capitalist economic system. Nevertheless, it was recognized that the stage during which developed socialism would be built would be a lengthy one and would not be achieved by the USSR on its own. According to the official textbooks, the first stage of the transition period from capitalism to socialism had been completed by the 1970s in the European socialist countries (except Poland and Yugoslavia), and in Mongolia and Cuba. The next stage of developed socialism would not be reached until "the economic integration of the socialist states becomes a major factor of their economic progress" and social relations had been reconstructed on "collectivist principles". Communist writers accepted that during these earlier stages in constructing socialism, the exchange of commodities on the basis of the average socially necessary labour embodied within them occurred and involved the mediation of money. Socialist planned economies were systems of commodity production but this was directed in a conscious way towards meeting the needs of the people and not left to the "anarchy of the market". At the stage of developed socialism, "the state of dictatorship of the proletariat changes into a state of all people reflecting the increasing homogeneity of society" and the "evening out of economic development levels" within and between socialist countries. It would provide the foundations for a further stage of perfected socialist society, where an abundance of goods permitted their distribution according to need. Only then could the world socialist system progress towards the higher phase of communism.
Socialist economics
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The first meeting of the "General Council" of the socialist parties and trade unions was held in 1920, between January 31 and February 2, and reunited 47 delegates, including 8 from Transylvania, and 2 from Bukovina. Besides tactics and means of unification, one of the major subjects of the discussion was the international affiliation of the unified party: either with a resurrected Second International or with the more radical Third International (Comintern). The Bucharest socialist section, increasingly communist in outlook, had already requested affiliation to the later in June 1919, however the other sections had yet to come to a decision. During the following months the communist ideas gained traction, and, after the Bucharest section adopted a motion that supported affiliation to the Third, many local section followed suit, mostly in Old Romania, but also in Transylvania and Banat (e.g. the Reșița-Petroșeni section). Ultimately, a new meeting of the "General Council", held in April 1920, decided to officially announce it no longer considered the socialist movement in Romania to be bound to the Second International. As a sign of unity, in the context of the May general elections, the Council also resolved for some Transylvanian candidates to run in constituencies inside Old Romania, with some representatives from the latter running instead in Transylvania. Consequently, 21 socialists were elected in the Chamber of Deputies and 3 in the Senate.
The Congress tasked with the unification of the movement, initially set for April, was postponed twice, as the dispute regarding international dragged on. In the meantime, a regional Congress of the Socialist Party of Transylvania and Banat was held in Cluj during August 15-17, reaffirmed its support for an unified party and relinquished its independence, declaring it would abide by the programme and statute to be decided by the country-wide socialist Congress. A similar resolution was adopted by the Congress of the socialist movement of Banat, held in Timișoara during September 19-20.
Socialist Party of Transylvania
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"We repudiate the essential features of the Declaration of Principles adopted at the Socialist National Convention insofar as they depart from the traditional socialist position and commit the Socialist Party to the use of violence and extralegal means.
"As between the program of orderly, peaceable, constructive, and intelligent political action and the insurrectionary, destructive, and violent methods proposed by the left wing, Socialists will have no difficulty in making their choice."
The Old Guard opponents of the Detroit decisions formally organized themselves as a faction immediately after the close of the Detroit conclave, establishing the Committee for the Preservation of the Socialist Party. Pamphlets were published and distributed alleging the Declaration of Principles was a "culminating point of a deep seated antagonism" within the Socialist Party — the proverbial "straw that breaks or threatens to break the camel's back." A stern warning was issued that it was "not enough" to merely defeat the Detroit Declaration of Principles in the party referendum held for their ratification, but that "the Socialist Party must be made safe for Socialism, for social democracy." Names of sympathizers were gathered, funds collected, and an office established in New York City. A "Provisional Executive Committee" of the faction was named, including such long-time members of the SPA as James Maurer of Pennsylvania, Algernon Lee and Louis Waldman of New York, George Roewer of Massachusetts (Chairman of the Provisional Executive Committee), George Goebel of New Jersey, and Mayor Jasper McLevy of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Louis Hendin was engaged as Executive Secretary of the faction, which had already in 1934 taken the form of a "party within the party."
Social Democratic Federation (United States)
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In response to the fall of Eastern European governments, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, and the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, two distinct positions began to emerge within the FRSO on how to assess the socialist countries. One position saw the events of 1989-1991 as indicative of a deep crisis in socialism that required what they called "left refoundation". The other position continued to assess the experience of socialist countries as essentially positive, and saw their defeats as the result of revisionism, not as a crisis of Marxism itself. This side continued to identify itself as Marxist-Leninist. At the organization's 1991 Congress, the group's highest decision-making body, a document explaining the official position of the organization was adopted entitled "On the Crisis of Socialism." This document was reaffirmed at the 1997 Congress. This internal division solidified throughout the 1990s until the organization split in 1999.
Freedom Road Socialist Organization