From: jan.vindheim@gmail.com   
      
   Pete Bayle  wrote:   
      
   > jan.vindheim@gmail.com (jan bojer vindheim) wrote   
      
   > > In the 1920s it was still possible to consider yourself a social   
   > > democrat while scorning the  process of "petit borugeois   
   > > parliamentarianism", During the 1930s this became impossible, as  the   
   > > revolutionaries adapted the label "communist" and the reformists the   
   > > label "Social democrat".   
   > >   
   >   
   > Exactly. This is the process I am interested in. It seems that much of   
   > the tension, at least ideologically must have been derived from the   
   > battles in Germany over the supression of the revolution in 1919,   
   > which seems to have produced an irrevocable split on the left, even if   
   > that didn't mean that the Social Democrats would support the liberals   
   > or other centrist parties.   
   >   
   > Does anyone know about how these events would have been recieved in   
   > England by the Labor Party as well as others on the left?   
   >   
   > Also, are you sure the it took to the 30s for the label communism to   
   > be adopted? That seems a little late to me.   
      
   I have the Norwegian experience in mind. The Norwegian Labour Party   
   overwhelmingly accepted Lenin's "Moscow theses" in 1921. These theses   
   were the ideological foundation of the komintern. They claimed the class   
   struggle necessitateed the organization of the working class avantguard   
   (ie the Party)  according to the principles of "dmocratic centralism".   
   All reformists must be removed from influential positions in  working   
   class organizations. And the working class party must use the  name   
   "communist".   
      
   However even though the Norwegian party accepted the tehsis at a general   
   conference, there was little will to apply the principles of "democratic   
   entralism" and the name was never changde from "the Norwegian Labour   
   Party" to "the Norwegian Communist party". In 1923 there was a dramatic   
   break with Moscow, and a new Communist aprty formed by a sizeable   
   minority.   
      
    So the definiton of the terms communist vs social democrat seems to   
   have been cemented by 1920.   
      
      
   one of the points of disagreement between the social democrat and the   
   communist party model concerns the role of trade unions. The Norwegian   
   DNA like the British Labour Party had labour unions directly affiliated,   
   something the Moscow modeled explicitly banned.   
   --   
   jan bojer vindheim   
   http://vindheim.net   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)