De Leonism

De Leonism
"Double the methods, double the effectiveness!"
Basic Information
Aliases	Marxism–De Leonism Marxist Syndicalism (erroneously) Daniel De Leon Thought Socialist Industrial Unionism File:SocSynd.png Social Syndicalism
Alignment(s)	LeftUnity Communists
Ideological Information
Influenced by:	Marxism
Notable people	Daniel De Leon (1852-1914) USA/ Netherlands/ Spain
Character Information
Likes	Labour unions Loosely organized party structures Baking Soda
Dislikes	Vanguardism Elitism

De Leonism, occasionally known as Marxism–De Leonism, is a form of unionist Marxism developed by Daniel De Leon. De Leon combined the rising theories of American unionism in his time with orthodox Marxism. According to De Leonist theory, militant industrial unions (specialized trade unions) are the vehicle of class struggle. Industrial Unions serving the interests of the proletariat (working class) will bring about the change needed to establish a socialist system.

History

De Leon settled in New York City, studying at Columbia University. He was a Georgist socialist during the 1886 Mayoral campaign of Henry George and in 1890 joined the Socialist Labor Party, becoming the editor of its newspaper, The People. De Leon became a Marxist in the late 1880s, and argued for the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism, trying to divert the SLP away from its Lassallian outlook.

De Leon was highly critical of the trade union movement in America and described the craft-oriented American Federation of Labor as the "American Separation of Labor". At this early stage in De Leon's development, there was still a considerable remnant of the general unionist Knights of Labor in existence, and the SLP worked within it until being driven out. This resulted in the formation of the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance (ST&LA) in 1895, which was dominated by the SLP.

By the early 20th Century, the SLP was declining in numbers, with first the Social Democratic Party and then the Socialist Party of America becoming the leading leftist political force in America (as these splinter groups embraced capitalist reforms). De Leon was an important figure in the US labor movement, and in 1904 he attended the International Socialist Congress, held in Amsterdam. Under the influence of the American Labor Union (ALU), he changed his politics around this time to put more focus on industrial unionism, and the ballot as a purely destructive weapon, in contrast to his earlier view of political organization as 'sword' and industrial union as 'shield'. He worked with the ALU in the founding of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in 1905. His participation in this organization was short-lived and acrimonious. After DeLeon's death, his ideology was carried on by the SLP with little success, although they had a brief moment in the 60s when disaffected left wing youth were looking for a party to join, the "dogmatic" leadership eventually caused most of that membership to drift away (they even alienated multi-time Presidential candidate Eric Hass into leaving the party). By the time their national office closed in 2008, they had a grand total of 77 members. However, De Leonism has found new life in the Brazilian social democratic Democratic Labour Party, in which it forms a considerable minority.

Variants

Impossibilism

Impossibilism is a Marxist, libertarian left, anti-reformist, and revolutionarily spontaneous ideology. Impossibilists hold that any reforms to ameliorate social ills in capitalism are ultimately futile since it believes immediate reforms strengthen capitalism instead of achieving socialism in the long term. Adherents to this ideology support structural changes instead of evolutionary reforms like many democratic socialists. They also believe that spontaneous revolutionary actions are the only viable method to achieve a socialist society. Because of this, impossibilists oppose vanguardism and democratic centralism in Leninism. The idea of impossibilism was brought up by Daniel De Leon, American Marxist theoretician, though he did not coin the term.

Personality

De Leonists are rare on the net (due to the younger ones closing in on age 80), but once you find one, you'll find out that they're comparable to syndicalists; a huge love for industrial unionism, the arming of workers for defense, and will tend to think of the gool 'ol days when trade unionist socialist parties used to be popular (compared to our time). De Leonists are chill with most LeftComs and Anarchists, on the other hand, they're usually are very critical of "bureaucratic state despotists" and "bourgeois socialists." This is because of both ideologies inability to lead a true workers revolution with either an elitist vanguard party or trying to reform capitalism, respectively.

How to Draw

Flag of De Leonism

1. Draw a circle.
2. Fill it with red.
3. Draw a yellow circle inside.
4. Draw a silhouette of a muscular arm holding a hammer in yellow (#D8C306) inside the circle and fill the silhouette in.
5. Draw the eyes and you’re done.

Color Name		HEX	RGB
	Red	#C9261F	201, 38, 31
	Yellow	#D8C306	216, 195, 6

Relations

Friends

• Marxism - The best ideology.
• Libertarian Marxism - We have a lot in common!
• Left-Wing Populism - Power to the people!

Frenemies

• Leninism - While revolution isn't the best way to achieve socialism I can say for certain that your methods were successful at creating a socialist state (Unfortunately your successors ruined the reputation of leftist ideas in the west).
• Left Communism - While I do enjoy discussing theory with you, you oppose the idea of a United Front which has unfortunately made praxis more difficult. (You still do have good ideas and critiques)
• Democratic Socialism - While you may be my modern day counterpart and many of your followers are reformists I do still have hope.
  

Enemies

• Capitalism - The only thing you do is destroy workers lives.
• Fascism - Militarism is only the natural accompaniment of capitalism fully developed.
• Reformist Marxism - Bad socialist, very bad.
• Social Democracy - This is literally just the natural conclusion of reformism...
• Third Way - I think I'm going to be sick...
• Blanquism - Why no mass movements?
• Syndicalism - Whosoever struts in the phraseology of Syndicalism is as ridiculous as a monkey would be in the frozen North, or a Polar bear in the wilds of the torrid zone. The social-political atmosphere makes them freak-frauds.
• National Syndicalism - Some dumb nationalist, don't listen to him.

Further Information

YouTube

Videos

• Socialist Industrial Unionism Explained By The SLP

Literature

• Reform or Revolution? (1896) by Daniel De Leon
• What Means This Strike? (1898) by Daniel De Leon
• Socialism vs Anarchism (1901) by Daniel De Leon
• Two Pages from Roman History (1903) by Daniel De Leon
• The Burning Question of Trade Unionism (1904) by Daniel De Leon
• DeLeon Replies ... (1904) by Daniel De Leon
• Socialist Reconstruction of Society (1905) by Daniel De Leon

Wikipedia

• De Leonism
• Daniel De Leon

Gallery

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  Impossibilism

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  Alt design