"DEMOCRATIC" SOCIALISM
AS LUDICROUS AS
"DEMOCRATIC" FASCISM
ENDNOTES
[1]. Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf, trans. Ralph Manheim (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1943), 299.
[2]. Mario Palmieri, The Philosophy of Fascism (Dante Alighieri Society, 1936). Benito Mussolini is referred to as "the father of Fascism" multiple times in this work, not only by Mr. Palmieri, but also by Dr. Guido Corni, who writes the preface and reports: "Mr. Palmieri's work is not only honored by the seal of the Dante organization, but also by the approval of the father of Fascism, the Duce himself, his Excellency Benito Mussolini."
Before becoming "the father of Fascism," Mussolini was a leader of the Italian Socialist Party and editor-in-chief of Avanti!—the Socialist Party's national daily newspaper. And prior to running Avanti!, he was the managing editor of three smaller socialist newspapers. Mussolini even founded his own socialist philosophical journal, Utopia: Fortnightly Review of Revolutionary Socialism.
[3]. Benito Mussolini, The Doctrine of Fascism (1935; New York: Howard Fertig, 2006), 10.
[4]. Mussolini, 10.
[5]. Mussolini, 23.
[6]. Mussolini, 10.
[7]. Mussolini, 29.
[8]. Palmieri, Philosophy of Fascism, 8.
[9]. Palmieri, Philosophy of Fascism, 8.
[10]. Ernest Rudolf Huber, "Constitutional Law of the Greater German Reich (1939)," quoted in Raymond E. Murphy et. al., National Socialism, Basic Principles, Their Applications by Nazi Party's Foreign Organization, and the Use of Germans Abroad for Nazi Aims (Washington, DC: US Department of State, 1943), 50.
[11]. Mussolini writes that the fascist state's "functions cannot be limited to those of enforcing order and keeping the peace, as the liberal doctrine had it. It is no mere mechanical device for defining the sphere within which the individual may duly exercise his supposed rights." (emphasis added). Benito Mussolini, Fascism: Doctrine and Institutions (New York: Howard Fertig, 1968), 13.
[12]. Benito Mussolini, "To the Complete Vanquishing of the Huns [December 1, 1917]," in Mussolini as Revealed in His Political Speeches, trans. and ed. Bernardo Quaranta di San Severino (London: J. M. Dent and Sons, 1923), 25.
[13]. "La Patria che noi sogniamo, è la Patria dove tutti lavorano e dove parassiti non esistono più." Benito Mussolini, "Al popolo di Ferrara [September 22, 1924]," Benito Mussolini: Le opere, i discorsi e gli scritti, https://www.adamoli.org/benito-mussolini/pag0277-01.htm.
[14]. "Noi siamo la generazione dei costruttori che col lavoro e colla disciplina, col braccio e con l'intelletto, vogliono raggiungere il punto estremo, la mèta agognata della grandezza della nazione di domani, la quale sarà la nazione di tutti i produttori e non parassiti.» Benito Mussolini, "Speech to the workers of the Automobile Transport Company [Rome, January 18, 1923]," in De Angelis, Mussolini Autori Vari.
[15]. Ernest "Che" Guevara, "On Creating a New Attitude," in Venceremos! The Speeches and Writings of Che Guevara, ed. John Gerassi (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1968), 337.
[16]. Ernest Belfort Bax, The Ethics of Socialism: Being Further Essays in Modern Socialist Criticism (London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co, 1893), 21.
[17]. Fidel Castro, "Reception at Bratislava Castle Reception at Bratislava Castle [June 23, 1972]," https://web.archive.org/web/20110317211214/http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/castro/db/1972/19720623.html. As one example of his attacking individualism, in a speech on July 8, 1981, Castro calls for socialists to "fight all manifestations of individualism." Fidel Castro, "Commencement for Teachers Graduation [July 8, 1981]," https://web.archive.org/web/20110313194904/http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/castro/db/1981/19810708.html.
[18]. Mao Tse-tung, "Combat Liberalism," in Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1965), 2:31–34. See Marxists.org, https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-2/mswv2_03.htm.
[19]. In The Return of Nature, John Bellamy Foster discusses Gronlund and describes his work "an important influence on English-speaking socialists," including such noted socialists as Eugene Debs, Edward Bellamy, Bernard Shaw, and William Morris. John Bellamy Foster, The Return of Nature: Socialism and Ecology (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2020), 89.
[20]. Laurence Gronlund, The New Economy (New York: Duffield & Co., 1907), 90.
[21]. Ernesto "Che" Guevara, "On Revolutionary Medicine," trans. Beth Kurti, Obra Revolucionaria, 24 (1960):https://www.marxists.org/archive/guevara/1960/08/19.htm.
[22]. Fidel Castro, "PURSC Central Committee Presentation [October 4, 1965]," Castro Speech Database, accessed, https://web.archive.org/web/20110515014323/http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/castro/db/1965/19651004.html.
[23]. "Plus un homme peut, plus il doit. … D'où l'axiome: De chacun, selon ses facultés. Là est le DEVOIR.» Louis Blanc, La Histoire de la Révolution de 1848 (Paris: C. Marpon, 1880), 1:148.
[24]. Laurence Gronlund, The Cooperative Commonwealth: An Exposition of Modern Socialism (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1884), 83–84.
[25]. Bernard Shaw, letter to Dr. Friedrich Adler, October 14, 1927, quoted in Margaret Cole, The Story of Fabian Socialism (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1964), 197. Shaw wrote these words praising Mussolini five years after Mussolini had established his fascist reign over Italy, but before Italy joined Nazi Germany to lead the world into World War 2.
[26]. Karl Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme, in Marx/Engels Selected Works (London: Wishart, 1950), 2:23.
[27]. Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme, 23.
[28]. Karl Marx, "On the Jewish Question," in The Marx-Engels Reader, ed. Robert Tucker (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1978), 40.
[29]. Marx, "On the Jewish Question," 41.
[30]. Hugh Gaitskell, quoted in Ross Terrill, R. H. Tawney and His Times (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1973), 276.
[31]. R. H. Tawney, The Acquisitive Society (London: G. Bell and Sons, 1921), 96. Emphasis original.
[32]. Kenneth O. Morgan writes: "He [MacDonald] had been regarded as one of the most dynamic and magnetic of British political leaders, a model for democratic socialists throughout the world." Kenneth O. Morgan, "Ramsay MacDonald and the Rise of Labour," New Perspectives 1, no. 3. (March 1996).
[33]. J. Ramsay MacDonald, Socialism and Government (London: Independent Labour Party, 1909), 1:12.
[34]. Marx's most famous work is The Communist Manifesto—so titled because he considered himself a communist. He referred to himself and others as "we communists" within this work.
[35]. Harrington refers to Marx as a "social democrat" (Michael Harrington, Socialism [New York: Saturday Press, 1970)], 57); and Harrington dedicates one of his books to "democratic socialist, Karl Marx" Michael Harrington, The Twilight of Capitalism [New York: Simon and Schuster, 1976], v). For additional details, see the Red Flags Press paper "Karl Marx, 'Democratic Socialist.'"
[36]. Chris Williams, Ecology and Socialism (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2010), 221.
[37]. William Morris, "An Unpublished Lecture of William Morris," ed. Paul Meier, International Review of Social History 16, no. 2 (1971): 23.
[38]. "An Unpublished Lecture of William Morris," ed. Paul Meier, International Review of Social History 16, no. 2 (1971): 33.
[39]. Marx not only defined socialism as a society that did away with all private enterprise, but his plan was also for a society that did away with all buying and selling. As one of the countless examples of today's socialists detailing these facts, see chapter 3, "The Vision of the New Society in Marx's Capital," in Peter Hudis, Marx's Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism (Boston: Brill, 2012), 110.
[40]. Fascists used the "useless mouths" slur as well as "parasite." But it was socalists who used both terms first. For example, French socialist Paul Lafargue used them repeatedly. Paul Lafargue, "Le Lendemain de la Révolution 3," Le Socialiste, January 7, 1888.
[41]. For a list of over two dozen examples of Debs attacking alleged "parasites," visit https://redflagspress.org/ldsed/.
[42]. Eugene Debs, "Capital and Labor: Parasites and Hosts (August 1, 1903)," Marxists.org, accessed May 1, 2026, https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1903/030801-debs-capitalandlabor.pdf.
[43]. J. Ramsay MacDonald, Socialism and Society, 6th ed. (London: Independent Labour Party, 1908), 204.
[44]. "Las medidas drásticas de eliminar al parasito, ya sea al que esconde en su actitud une enemistad profunda la sociedad socialista o al que esta irremediablemente reñido con el trabajo." Ernesto "Che" Guevara, "Contra El Burocratismo [February 1963]," in Obra revolucionaria (Mexico City: Ediciones ERA, 1971), 548.
[45]. Fidel Castro, "Castro Speaks at Uvero Battle Commemoration [May 28 1965]," Castro Speech Database, accessed October 20, 2020, https://web.archive.org/web/20080513043039/http://www1.lanic.utexas.edu/project/castro/db/1965/19650528.html.
[46]. Fidel Castro, "Castro Speaks at Uvero Battle Commemoration [May 28 1965]," Castro Speech Database, accessed October 20, 2020, https://web.archive.org/web/20080513043039/http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/ castro/db/1965/19650528.html.
[47]. Socialists have attacked sales and marketing in capitalist society as being based on "harmful lies" and the like for hundreds of years. In the quote herein where Chris Williams talks about the suppression of "useless" products, he also promises socialism would mean that "advertising, marketing … are abolished." How ironic to find that socialists themselves use every sales trick in the book. See page 206 of Socialism Says for additional examples.
[48]. Marx's influence on earlier socialist experiments (and still today in the People's Republic of China) is illustrated by the untold number of posters featuring his image produced in these nations. See our book Socialism Says, pp. 8–9, for many examples.
[49]. Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme, 23.50. Marx's animosity toward craftwork and other small-scale production is detailed in the RFP paper "Why Socialism Says Craftwork Is 'Idiocy.'" This paper is also visually summarized in Socialism Says, Chapter 6.
[50].Marx's animosity toward craftwork and other small-scale production is detailed in the RFP paper "Why Socialism Says Craftwork Is 'Idiocy.'" This paper is also visually summarized in Socialism Says, Chapter 6.
[51]. Sidney Webb and Beatrice Webb, Soviet Communism: A New Civilisation, 3rd ed. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1944), xxi. Beatrice Webb wrote the introduction and preface herself. She stated that she "fell in love" with Soviet socialism—as is certainly demonstrated by her effusive praise for the system despite her knowledge of the many lives it was taking (Cole, The Story of Fabian Socialism, 220).
[52]. Fidel Castro, "Castro Defines the Theory of the Cuban Revolution [May 10, 1963]," Castro Speech Database, https://web.archive.org/web/20110515023153/http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/castro/ db/1963/19630510.html.