#michael harrington

[thunderstruck9]

Michael Harrington (Canadian, 1964), Underground, 2019. Oil on canvas, 38 × 48 in.

[racefortheironthrone]

hi ser steven

been following awhile and while i came across your blog and tumblr from all the asoiaf stuff, i definitely stayed for the historical and economic analysis along the way

so my ask is more of a beginner's to left-right economic/political terminology question: is there a difference or distinction between a social democrat and a democratic socialist?

i see a lot of US politicians say they're the former and oly one prominent one identifying themselves as the latter

or there not really a distinction but the order became important because americans are still terrified of socialism's association with the red scare?

p.s. pardon my english and lack of knowledge of some issues, english isn't really my first languange and my knowledge of american history is the cliff-notes version lol

I'm afraid you've openeed up a rather large can of worms with this question. Not that it's not a useful or important question, but it's annoyingly complicated.

Because there is an explanation about what the differences between "social democrat" and "democratic socialist" are in a European context, but then there's an entirely different explanation about what the differences between "social democrat" and "democratic socialist" are in an American context.

The European Context:

In a European context, the difference between the two labels largely has to do with how different groups on the left feel about the Third Way movement of the 1990s and what's happened to the left (or more accurately, center-left) politically since then. So, for example, democratic socialists are more likely to emphasize the need for a shift from a capitalist to a socialist economy than social democrats, who traditionally have sought to regulate and reform capitalist economies.

However, this can very easily get into the weeds, especially if you try to follow the complex ideological manueverings and movements from the 1950s-1970s in the British Labour Party - where social democrats were the right wing of the party and socialists the center and more revolutionary socialists the left - and how those influenced struggles within the Labour Party in the 1980s that helped give rise to New Labour and so forth.

The American Context:

But the reason why the largest and fastest-growing socialist organization in the United States is called the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and why Bernie Sanders calls himself a democratic socialist actually has nothing to do with that complex economic debate, and everything to do with a man named Max Shachtman.

Max is a complicated and controversial figure in the history of the American left. On the one hand, he was probably the most significant American Trotskyist, he created this whole theory of "bureaucratic collectivism" that caused Trotskyists to fight amongst themselves about whether the USSR was "state capitalist" or a "degraded worker's state" until the Berlin Wall came down, and he was by all accounts a highly charismatic speaker and someone who recruited other intelligent and hardworking people into the movement.

On the other hand, Shachtman was also a lifelong devotee of entryism, a sectarian tactic by which members of an organization join or merge into another, larger organization. Rather than actually genuinely intending to work for the interests of the new organization, they're really there to recruit people into their own organization, steal the mailing list and the rolodex (this is how political organizations used to work before the advent of computers and the internet), and cause the larger organization to split and become politically paralyzed, so that it no longer poses a threat to the expansion of their own organization.

Shachtman was kind of a genius at this, because people from other organizations would agree to mergers with him, despite knowing that he had done this to other organizations before: there was the Workers Party of the United States merging into Norman Thomas' Socialist Party back in the 30s, then there was his break with the Socialist Workers Party in the 40s, then it was the Independent Socialist League merging with the Socialist Party in 1958 - and on and on.

Anyway, by 1972 said Socialist Party decided to rename itself "Social Democrats, USA." Michael Harrington (who was Shachtman's most prominent protege thanks to his authorship of The Other America) decided to break with Shachtman and the former Socialist Party due to their anti-Communism and thus support for (or rather, opposiition to opposition to) the Vietnam War.

In order to distinguish themselves from Shachtman and the "Social Democrats, USA," Harrington and his allies ultimately decided to go with Democratic Socialists of America as the name for their new group, and one of the historical ironies of the American left is that they probably would have gone with Social Democrats of America and avoided a whole lot of future confusion from European visitors and journalists had their former parent organization not had a name that was too similar.

[wellconstructedsentences]

It is much easier in the United States to be decently dressed than it is to be decently housed, fed, or doctored.

Other America by Michael Harrington

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1876 – The ship Catalpa arrives in the U.S. with Irish Fenian prisoners rescued from Australia.

#OTD in 1876 – The ship Catalpa arrives in the U.S. with Irish Fenian prisoners rescued from Australia.

The “Fremantle Six” were Irish political prisoners who made an audacious escape from the notorious British prison in West Australia aboard the U.S. whaling ship “Catalpa” in 1876. Captain Anthony and the Catalpa arrive at Rockingham beach near Fremantle to rendezvous with the escaped prisoners; after a fierce confrontation with the Georgette, an armed British steamer, the Catalpa and the…

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[die-schweinsteigers]

Basti plays golf with his teammates

[thunderstruck9]

Michael Harrington (Canadian, 1964), Guidance, 2024. Oil and acrylic on canvas, 40 × 60 in.

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1876 – The ship Catalpa arrives in the U.S. with Irish Fenian prisoners rescued from Australia.

#OTD in 1876 – The ship Catalpa arrives in the U.S. with Irish Fenian prisoners rescued from Australia.

The “Fremantle Six” were Irish political prisoners who made an audacious escape from the notorious British prison in West Australia aboard the U.S. whaling ship “Catalpa” in 1876.

Captain Anthony and the Catalpa arrive at Rockingham beach near Fremantle to rendezvous with the escaped prisoners; after a fierce confrontation with the Georgette, an armed British steamer, the Catalpa and the…

View On WordPress

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1876 – The ship Catalpa arrives in the U.S. with Irish Fenian prisoners rescued from Australia.

#OTD in 1876 – The ship Catalpa arrives in the U.S. with Irish Fenian prisoners rescued from Australia.

The “Fremantle Six” were Irish political prisoners who made an audacious escape from the notorious British prison in West Australia aboard the U.S. whaling ship “Catalpa” in 1876.

Captain Anthony and the Catalpa arrive at Rockingham beach near Fremantle to rendezvous with the escaped prisoners; after a fierce confrontation with the Georgette, an armed British steamer, the Catalpa and the…

View On WordPress