American Socialism  [Back to Top]
Democratic socialism advocates socialism as a basis for the economy and democracy as a governing principle. This indicates that the means of production are owned by the entire population and that political power would be in the hands of the people democratically through a co-operative commonwealth or republic as a post-state form of self-government. In its broadest sense, democratic socialism could refer to any attempts to bring about socialism through peaceful democratic means as opposed to violent insurrection. This can sometimes include social democracy.
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Communism  [Back to Top]
Communism is a socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of a classless, stateless society based on common ownership of the means of production. It is usually considered a branch of the broader socialist movement that draws on the various political and intellectual movements that trace their origins back to the work of theorists of the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution. Communism attempts to offer an alternative to the problems believed to be inherent with capitalist economies and the legacy of imperialism and nationalism. Communism states that the only way to solve these problems would be for the working class, or proletariat, to replace the wealthy bourgeoisie, which is currently the ruling class, in order to establish a peaceful, free society, without classes, or government. The dominant forms of communism, such as Leninism, Trotskyism and Luxemburgism, are based on Marxism, but non-Marxist versions of communism (such as Christian communism and anarchist communism) also exist and are growing in importance since the fall of the Soviet Union.
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Libertarian Marxism  [Back to Top]
Libertarian Marxism is a school of Marxism that describes itself as taking a less authoritarian view of Marxist theory than conventional currents such as Stalinism, Maoism, Trotskyism and other well-known forms of Marxism-Leninism. The current also has a generally less reformist view than do social democrats. It is often based upon a reading of Marx's work, such as the Grundrisse and The Civil War in France, that emphasizes the ability of the working class to forge its own destiny without the need for a revolutionary party or state to mediate or aid its liberation. Libertarian Marxism includes such currents as Luxemburgism, council communism, left communism, Socialisme ou Barbarie, the Johnson-Forest Tendency, World Socialism, Lettrism/Situationism and operaismo/autonomism, and New Left. Libertarian Marxism has often had a strong influence on both post-left and social anarchists. Notable theorists of libertarian Marxism have included Anton Pannekoek, Raya Dunayevskaya, CLR James, Antonio Negri, Cornelius Castoriadis, Maurice Brinton, Guy Debord and Raoul Vaneigem. Along with anarchism, libertarian Marxism is one of the main currents of libertarian socialism.
Sources: Wikipedia

Marxist-Leninism  [Back to Top]
Marxism-Leninism is a communist ideological stream that emerged as the mainstream tendency amongst the Communist parties in the 1920s as it was adopted as the ideological foundation of the Communist International during Stalin's era. However, in various contexts, different (and sometimes opposing) political groups have used the term "Marxism-Leninism" to describe the ideology that they claimed to be upholding.
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Maoism  [Back to Top]
Variation of Marxism and Leninism developed by Mao Zedong. It diverged from its antecedents in its agrarian focus: Mao substituted the dormant power of the peasantry (discounted by traditional Marxists) for the urban proletariat that China largely lacked. The Maoist faith in revolutionary enthusiasm and the positive value of the peasants' lack of sophistication as opposed to technological or intellectual elites fueled the Great Leap Forward of the 1950s and the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and '70s. The disastrous consequences of both upheavals led Mao's successors to abandon Maoism as counterproductive to economic growth and social order. Maoism was embraced by insurgent guerrilla groups worldwide; under the Khmer Rouge it became Cambodia's national ideology.
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Socialism  [Back to Top]
Socialism refers to the goal of a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to control by the community. This control may be either direct—exercised through popular collectives such as workers' councils—or indirect—exercised on behalf of the people by the state. As an economic system, socialism is often characterized by state, worker, or community ownership of the means of production, goals which have been attributed to, and claimed by, a number of political parties and governments throughout history. The modern socialist movement largely originated in the late-19th century working class movement. In this period, the term "socialism" was first used in connection with European social critics who criticized capitalism and private property. For Karl Marx, who helped establish and define the modern socialist movement, socialism would be the socioeconomic system that arises after the proletarian revolution, in which the means of production are owned collectively. This society would then progress into communism.
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Totalitarianism  [Back to Top]
Totalitarianism is a concept used in political science that describes a state that regulates nearly every aspect of public and private behavior. Totalitarian regimes or movements maintain themselves in political power by means of secret police, propaganda disseminated through the state-controlled mass media, personality cults, regulation and restriction of free discussion and criticism, single-party states, the use of mass surveillance, and widespread use of terror tactics.
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Trotskyism  [Back to Top]
Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party. His politics differed sharply from those of Stalinism, most importantly in declaring the need for an international proletarian revolution (rather than socialism in one country) and unwavering support for a true dictatorship of the proletariat based on democratic principles. Trotsky was, together with Lenin, the most important and well-known leader of the Russian Revolution and the international Communist movement in 1917 and the following years. Nowadays, numerous groups around the world continue to describe themselves as Trotskyist, although they have developed Trotsky's ideas in different ways. On the political spectrum of Marxism, Trotskyists are considered to be on the left. They supported democratic rights in the USSR,[5] opposed political deals with the imperialist powers, and advocated a spreading of the revolution throughout Europe and the East.
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