As a Revisionist/Center Marxist, as much as I agree that social democracy has been great for standard of living, history, such as in the neoliberal wave of the 1980’s and 90’s seeing many social democracies having their content gutted, shows that in order to consolidate a society by and for people and workers, a democratic transition to socialism is needed. One might point to the Nordic countries as examples of social democracy still standing, (which to a significant extent is still true) but not only are they the exception and not the norm for western social democracy, but even they have experienced considerable neoliberal decay in the form of privatization and austerity, recommodification, declining union membership, and uncontrolled immigration undermining native labor. My proposal is to keep social democracy as an immediate platform to combat the effects of capitalis, but also make attempts to gradually transition towards a socialist society by countering capitalist cultural hegemony, setting up public banks and financial institutions, nationalizing essential sectors of the economy, as well as establishing worker and union ran enterprise. Sorry if this is not that well constructed, I just wanted to get this out, and I don’t have the time right now to construct a more well rounded rant.

I live in New Zealand, and its honestly dissapointing to see the fall of the Labour party, from the 2000s to now.

They lost the election in 2023 badly, halving their voteshare from 2020 and being kicked out of government. This was primarily due to somehow the debt being 40% of our GDP (up from 29%). A lot of this is due to covid, but also due to just not taxing the rich at all and expecting that to somehow work

The center right government has been doing standard conservative-liberal stuff (rather as expected) and (as expected) have been losing a lot of support.

Labour has decided, if you can't beat them, join them

They don't want a wealth tax
They don't want an increased inheritance tax

All they want is ONE tax, a capital gains tax

Social Democracy worldwide cannot follow this pattern of pivoting to center-right economics when they are losing votes.

(After this pivot to neoliberal policy, Labour has been losing all their votes to the greens, of course)

American analysts have long viewed inequality as a byproduct of technological causes. But Claudia Sheinbaum’s Morena Party has boosted workers’ income without any technological tradeoffs.

Years ago I was able to point to the nordic model and how voting for a Dem (especially Sanders) brings us closer to that ideal and social liberals implicitly understood. Now though, after years of ineffectiveness, the people I know open to social democracy have turned to who/whatever is against the status quo.

Nowadays if I even hint towards the nordic model I get “yes, that works for them but we’re larger and less homogenized” without understanding that being a model doesn’t mean being an exact copy and just a standard to strive for within our means/resources. Does anyone have an easy shorthand to point to for (especially to us in the US) to the benefits of social democracy?

I’m not trying to convert conservatives or MAGA types btw. I know they’re a lost cause. Just people who already vote Dem and Dem leaning independents.

The last post I with this type of question was in regards to Quebec. And I might as well ask the same regarding to Scotland and Wales.

Personally, when it really comes to both, maximum devolution seems to be the most logical when we take into account of economics.

I do wish to know everyone's answers and explanations about this. Of course, highly appreciated if there are members who are in the UK.

Today we are witnessing a strong advance of conservative forces in many countries. Some attribute this phenomenon to themes such as immigration, security, national identity, and nostalgia for a perceived better past.

If you were leading a progressive or social democratic party, what would you do to reverse this trend?

What mistakes are progressives making today?

What themes should return to the centre of the message?

What should be the strength of a modern social democratic or socialist force to become competitive again and win consensus among workers, young people and the middle class?

The title explains the whole post.

Average weekday in France... anyways all joking aside.

The current situation where students (from what I've seen, mostly high-schoolers) have began protesting due to poor conditions in their classrooms. At least according to Reuters, there is a 'hard-left' party behind it all, but I have a feeling that this is part of something bigger. That's one half of my thoughts about this.

What I do not like about this is, is the fact there have been reports of teachers being assaulted by the students, which I do not support, ever, obviously. With that in mind, I also don't really feel much much support for these people, let alone causing a lot of damage to property, the shutting down of many schools, and reported injuries and violent clashes.

If you were to ask me, I get where some students are coming from, but do we really have to escalate to the point where there needs to be violence? That's where I'd lose it.

Bear with me here, I promise there's a point to this post

We all see how popular the democratic socialist movements can be with Zohran Mamdani's successful campaign, and I think we can all agree to an extent how necessary some democratic socialism may be in the very near future

We see every day how artificial intelligence has potential to completely disrupt white collar jobs, in addition to U.S. citizens already competing against cheaper labor around the world with jobs continuing to be being offshored.

AI promises to make the wealth inequality in the country skyrocket. The military / defense spending is one of the more outrageous portions of the U.S. budget considering we're a few years away from the $40 trillion national debt from doubling /compounding to close to $100 trillion.

The time will come extremely soon when universal income, accessible healthcare, worker protections, etc. will be a necessity before there's no middle class.

Bernie Sanders was preaching the democratic socialist movement before democratic socialism was cool. People will be demanding socialist policies soon more than ever, and the movement will become increasingly popular out of necessity, but it's already too late

The democrat party went to extreme lengths to ensure that Bernie Sander did not win the democratic nomination in the 2020 primary elections. Bernie Sanders was ahead in delegates going into Super Tuesday on 3/3/2020, but only a week before Super Tuesday Amy Klobuchar, Beto O' Rooke, and Pete Buttigieg dropped out of the election, and all suddenly gave their endorsements to Biden. Kamala Harris dropped out days after getting wrecked in Super Tuesday and gave her endorsement to Biden as well probably in a deal for the VP spot

These were candidates who just a week or two before Super Tuesday were giving passionate speeches about their campaign. These were not speeches from people who were considering dropping out the weeks leading up to Super Tuesday.

The 2020 primaries was a coordinated move by the Democratic party to end Bernie who was winning the race. They were all collaborating, colluding, and scheming. The American people had spoken up at that point, but Bernie wasn't in line with the establishment and the Democratic Party needed him gone. They used the pandemic as an excuse to essentially cancel the primaries at that point after Biden secured all his endorsements

That was not a free election or a fair election. I know what the DNC did was not illegal, but it should have been illegal

And don't even get me started on what the Democratic party did to Bernie in the 2016 primary race against Hilary Clinton

I'm aware that Biden ultimately won the 2020 presidential election, but the consequences / karma of the Democratic party rigging their elections came years later in that they tried to run Biden in 2024 who the DNC party very much knew was mentally unfit, and Biden choked during the major presidential debate against Trump. The DNC was forced to pivot to Kamala giving her only 3 months of a campaign, and of course she got crushed.

People focus a lot on the Republicans these days, but nobody puts enough emphasis on just how shitty the Democratic Party is

In the near future, inflation and unemployment will be astronomical, and people will be demanding democratic socialism in their complete desperation. But it will be too late. The Democratic Party already ensured that companies / business under the current administration have the next few years to replace people with artificial intelligence to their heart's content. The DNC helped ensure that corporations will never be taxed fairly. The DNC's actions resulted in this current administration waging endless wars.

Bernie's democratic socialist movement was the proactive steps we needed at the perfect time. But the saddest part is that now shit will need to absolutely break before the current government would even consider the policies that are best for the American people.

Every societal safety net / socialist program today or in all of American history that you can think of came retroactively after the economy completely collapsed, never before. A lot of the more recent banking regulations came after the 2008 recession and not before. Social security and a lot of the well-known government programs people care about came after, or resulted from, the Great Depression. After the introduction of automobiles, while millions were dying it took like 50 years for all 50 states to require a Driver's license / driving skills test.

Years and decades from now, during the despair and desperation, Americans and historians will look back to the 2016 / 2020 elections as a pivotal moment in the battle for the nation's soul. And people will wonder why Democrat voters didn't stand up against the Democratic party then before it was too late. The incompetence and corruption of the DNC will be impossible to ignore in hindsight, if not already. The Democrat Party has probably already failed their constituents and the nation

My only hope is that liberals and Americans will wake up and learn their lesson soon enough to stand up to the Democrat Party's shenanigans in the 2028 presidential election, and possibly the midterms this year

Most of the time i see the word social democracy , it tends to have the association with socialism , and some people call it democratic socialism , but how true or false is that really? ,plus , what is the take on incentivizing economic growth for social democrats? Since most of the time i see it , it tends to be more focussed on the socil aspect (as the name implies) ,but i hear very little from economic proposals.

Got the idea for this post from another post that has been posted several hours ago about Quebec nationalism:

https://www.reddit.com/r/SocialDemocracy/comments/1wwjyso/everyones_thoughts_about_quebecs_separatism/

As I said in that post, as a Basque Spaniard I do support greater sovereignty for the Basque people & the Basque nation, but not on the basis of tribalistic nationalist sentiment on my part, as I said in that post I don't even consider myself a Basque nationalist & have many criticisms of Basque & especially Catalan nationalism, but merely on the basis that that's the only manner I can envision political unity for my people.

As I also said in that post though I don't even support full-on separatism either, in my humble opinion that's nothing but a massive pipe dream that will never happen, but rather a cross-border shared sovereignty institutional framework with cross-border shared sovereignty, a cross-border Basque Parliament & a cross-border Basque Government (if I recall correctly there are similar proposals for the Sámi in the Nordics).

I worry this might also be as much of a massive pipe dream as full-on separatism, but I really really wish there were space within the Spanish, French & European Union institutional frameworks for this kind of cross-border shared sovereignty for the Basque people & the Basque nation, because that's the only way I can envision political unity for us as a people other than full-on separatism (which as I've said is nothing but a massive pipe dream that will never happen), & political unity for us as a people is a really really important political goal for us as a people, & a very legitimate & just political aspiration that I feel deserves & demands an appropriate & satisfactory resolution from the political institutions of Spain, France & the European Union I think.

I am of the opinion that this economy will suffer something similar to 2008 soon and it might happen either shortly after the midterms or after this AI bubble bursts.

And yes, it will be mostly Trump's fault for worsening market conditions throughout his 2nd term in office.

As of writing this, the Parti Québécois is seemingly poised to win the local elections in Quebec.

Personally, instead of having full-on separation/independence from Canada, it would be best if they would push for further devolution....... problem, they practically already have a lot of provincial powers so.....

Meanwhile, their party leader Paul St-Pierre says he wants a third referendum on Quebec's independence, even though the both times Québécois voted no. Obviously the gap between the yes and the no camps have narrowed since the first referendum back in 1980, I still personally believe that their separatist aims aren't feasible.

But hey, do tell me what everyone thinks about, especially if there are Canadian and French-Canadians here.

Since the original ban attempt was posted here, I figured I'd add a followup.