Leftism

1. Maxmilien Robespierre of the Jacobins. 2. V. I. Lenin, Russian Marxist revolutionary. 3. Salvador Allende, pacifist and electoralist Chilean Marxist. 4. Headquarters of the Social Democratic Party of Germany during the United Front era, 1932. 5. First Intifada in the Gaza Strip, an anti-imperialist struggle headed by leftist and socialist groups. 6. "Big Bill" Haywood, American socialist organizer. 7. Ho Chi Minh, Vietnamese revolutionary.

Left-wing politics, also known as leftism, is a broad grouping of ideological tendencies which seek to alter and advance past the given socio-economic and political status quo in favor of a more egalitarian arrangement. In a modern context, leftist politics centers around the abolition of capitalism in favor of socialism and communism. Modern leftists also oppose the ideological forces in support of capitalism, including liberalism and fascism.

Common left-wing tendencies include Marxism, anarchism, reformist or democratic socialism, and the various sub-groupings in those trends.

Etymology

The terms left-wing and leftism are derived from the French Revolution, when the more progressive, egalitarian political factions were seated on the left-side of the assembly whereas the reactionary factions sat on the right-wing.

Tendencies

Marxism

Main article: Marxism

Leninism

Main article: Leninism

Marxism–Leninism

Main article: Marxism–Leninism

Maoism

Main article: Marxism–Leninism–Maoism

Anarchism

Main article: Anarchism

Reformist

Main article: Reformism

Democratic socialism

Main article: Democratic socialism

Issues

State verses anarchy

A common point of division between leftists is towards the question of a revolutionary state. Most Marxists, particularly Marxist–Leninists and Maoists, argue it is necessary to create a revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat following the revolution to maintain the gains of the working class, fight class enemies, etc. Anarchists and other libertarian socialists on the other hand believe that creating a state in any form, socialist or not, will lead to the leaders of that state growing as corrupt as the bourgeois government preceding it, which will reproduce capitalist society. Therefore, from an anarchist perspective, statelessness is the most liberative form of political organization.

Revolution verses reformism

Main article: Reform versus revolution

Markets verses planning

See also: Market socialism

In modern and historical leftist discourse, a question exists over how to organize a socialist economy. Tendencies like democratic socialism, Titoism, market anarchism, and Dengismhave argued that markets are needed in order to develop the productive forces and provide a superior mode of distribution over a planned economy, which they perceive as ineffective and bureaucratic. On the contrary, socialist advocates of a planned economy argue that markets fundamentally reproduce capitalist relations, generate the same periods of economic crisis due to their inability to be rationally planned, and ultimately create a new bourgeois class which will eliminate socialism and restore capitalism as a whole once empowered. The exact form of a planned economy also differs among different tendencies; anarchists and other libertarian socialists wanting a decentralized and communal-based form of planning whereas Marxists–Leninists and others wanting centralized economic planning.

See also

• Left-unity
• Internal debates
• United front