roachboy

at the risk of being pedantic, the splitting of democratic socialism off from more revolutionary-oriented ways of thinking about/using the term happened just before world war 1 within the German SPD--the debate was basically over how important the creation of stock was for marxian economic theory, that it meant for the idea of concentration of wealth/increasing immiseration of the working class as the overall dynamic of capitalism and by extension whether revolution was a short-term possiblity or not. the SPD position (edouard bernstein) argued that revolution was an eventual goal but wasn't going to happen any time soon so tactically that meant integrating into the normal operation of capitalism and working to improve the material lives of working people was a good idea. the revolutionary wing didnt think that a good move, so they (around rosa lumxbourg) didn't go along with any of it. that's how the spd and kpd split. that's the big dividing line between democratic socialist and revolutionary areas of the workers movement.

so democratic socialists are different---it is not the same understanding of the word that you see in, say, pannekoek or the council communist tradition.

they---the two understandings of the term "socialism"---have nothing really to do with each other. not since 1910 or so. that split is also a reason why the russian revolutionaries started calling what they were trying to instituted "communism" which had nothing to do with what marx had in mind--to the extent that he spelled it out (which he kinda hinted at, but didnt really spell out---there were a riot of others--especially early, like 1848, who spent all their time working out alternative possible arrangements--utopian socialists, saint-simonians, blah blah blah.)

one of the problems with the left as it turned out is that terminologies were tossed about in a closed universe and everyone tried to elaborate their positions by taking over the same words.

but its 2008.
the democratic socialist tradition is huge everywhere except in the political backwater of the united states.
it isn't new, it isn't a surprise: the nonsense you see here about the term is a simple reflection of parochialism.

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note: baraka--that reads like old-school diamat.
that is a particularly crude understanding of marx, not that it matters any more.

__________________
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spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

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