Community Led Socialism

[Zyklon B]

I applaud your objectives. However, it might be worth pointing them out to RockofCashel.

Why? ROC sounds like he is very much involved in his community. Indeed I do beleive quite a number of them even vote for him.

He is, however he has a bit of a tendency to bristle when called a socialist, or even a leftist.

One would think that being part of an organisation calling for a 32 County Socialist Republic would make you something of a Socialist, but apparently not.

I'd imagine there are lots of people in SF and a large number of their supporters who are not socialists. I don't think ROC is in danger of being expelled because of that. Besides, a lot of people who call themselves socialists are really liberals. There are very few socialists left, as in people who support the expropriation of private property and its replacement by state ownership or some other form of collective ownership.

One could say the same about Labour members.

[Tomáis Joad]

Okay so we dont harp on about socialism as much as the swpers or sp but we do not claim in general to not be a socialist party. Some of our members would object to being called a socialist because of the negative connotations and the belief that our brand of republicanism encompasses al the ideals of socialism and so it is not so necessary. That said I would strongly object to a chang ein the constitution, I and most of my comrades are very definitely socialists.

They can't complain about being labelled socialists if they have socialism as one of their objectives.

I've never heard anyone do this, we have been called marxist which is different and we are most certainly not. I have a great respect for marx and have been very influenced by his writings but I and my party are no marxists much like himself.

[Garibaldy]

PSF used to describe themselves as Marxists. They told somebody I know this in their office on the Falls as late as 1997. When did this stop?

[Podolski]

Some of our members would object to being called a socialist.

So you're not socialists then, are you?

[Defeated Romanticist]

I've always thought it the ultimate proof of the economic and societal failure of socialism to achieve its objectives was that it never managed to build organic socialist systems independent of the state. Capitalism did not suffer this problem. There was a roaring black market in the former USSR.

[MartinP]

Large numbers of people who support the provisional movement would not claim to be socialist in their outlook. Many non-members would claim the provisional party have drifted rightwards in recent years also, but that's another point. In any case, I've come across quite a few provisional supporters whose common ground with what the organisation claim to be runs no deeper than the question of partition.

[Coggy]

I've never heard anyone do this, we have been called marxist which is different and we are most certainly not. I have a great respect for marx and have been very influenced by his writings but I and my party are no marxists much like himself.

Much like who ?

Some of our members would object to being called a socialist because of the negative connotations and the belief that our brand of republicanism encompasses al the ideals of socialism and so it is not so necessary

So you hide your policies to the public because you doubt peoples support for them ?

[Tomáis Joad]

So you hide your policies to the public because you doubt peoples support for them ?

So your politics begin and end with what you call it?

I'm a republican, I never shy away from that and nobody else in the party would either and an essential part of Irish republicanism is democratic socialism, read any Sinn Féin policy document and its there maybe not in big S-O-C-I-A-L-I-S-T lettering but its in the core of what we stand for thats what matters, not posturing and talking about "scientific" marxism for hours on end.

[Aindriu]

To achieve a 32 County Democratic Socialist Republic.

That is an oxymoron. It isn't achievable.

[Defeated Romanticist]

To achieve a 32 County Democratic Socialist Republic.

That is an oxymoron. It isn't achievable.

Can I have that in writing,
I socialist admitting that Socialism and democracy are contradictory. By the graces of God.