‘Socialism doesn’t need to be utopian’

[jondwhite]

'Socialism doesn't need to be utopian'

 

Comment is free interviews: France's Left Front leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon speaks to Seumas Milne

[ALB]

Of course it doesn't and isn't, but the reformism he advocates is. He is not a socialist but a leftwing French nationalist who wants a stronger role for the state (and what politician wouldn't say they didn't stand for the general interests of humanity?). In other words, he stands for a French national state capitalism.  But at least in France the word "socialism" is still in general use, which gives us a way in even if only to explain what it's not, as used to be the case when the USSR still existed.

[jondwhite]

I've heard a couple of critics accuse the SPGB position of "utopianism" but always thought this inaccurate as I assumed "utopianism" historically was defined as applied to co-operative communities. Still as recently trended over twitter by the deterritorial group, "full communism now" seems to be a position accepted more broadly than the SPGB. Some of the general political apathy might even be fed up with any reformism whatsoever.

[Author]

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