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Old socialists look back on May Day

By CHRISTIAN BOURGE, UPI Think Tank Correspondent

WASHINGTON, May 3 (UPI) -- A diverse group of former and current devotees of socialism shared their conflicting views of the legacy left behind by that political and philosophical movement at a forum Wednesday at the Carnegie Institute for International Peace.

The New Economy Information Service, a non-profit group that examines the effect of the economy and globalization on workers, sponsored the May Day discussion.

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Likely the most misunderstood political label of the last century, the word socialism has been used to describe a range of values and ideas. Some of the versions even contradict each other. From the early utopian idealists in the 19th century who sought to create socialist communities free from religious influence, to the brutal communist regimes that applied the theories of Karl Marx and others in their totalitarian political systems later on, socialism as a political movement has a complex history.

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Though discussion was lively, the panelists at the event ultimately showed that debate over the effect socialism has had on the Western world may never be resolved.

Jeane Kirkpatrick, a well-known conservative, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute and former ambassador to the United Nations in the Reagan administration, detailed her brief flirtation with socialist thought and politics in her college days that led to her rejection of the philosophy.

She said her "relatively short" career as a socialist began as a freshman member of the Young People's Socialist League at the University of Missouri. Kirkpatrick said it was her study of the philosophy and political ideals behind the various sects of socialist thought while doing graduate work at Columbia University that ultimately led her to reject it as a political ideal.

"Whatever I could read in English or French I read and I learned a great deal, " she told the crowd of former and still-practicing socialists. "I came to the conclusion that almost all of them (socialists), including my grandfather, were engaging in an effort to change human nature, and the more I thought about it, the more I thought that it would be a less than successful effort."

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Kirkpatrick drew a parallel between her criticism of socialist ideals and the differences Aristotle had with the Plato's idea for a perfect society laid out in "The Republic." As Aristotle believed that Plato's idea state was a noble but unattainable concept that did not fit real people, she believes that socialism, especially of the utopian variety, ignores man's inclinations towards privacy, private property and other non-socialist constructs.

The rise of the democratic socialist movement in the United States in the last century complicates the debate, because this group of idealists arguably had some successes, such as its integral role in promoting the basic ideals behind the New Deal.

But socialism's ties to its philosophical offshoots, like communism, that were used to oppress citizens, and under which horrible atrocities were committed, have left the question of whether these totalitarian regimes were a natural outgrowth of socialism, or a bastardization of the original ideals.

Joshua Muravchick, a former socialist and currently a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, responded to the criticism made by some that socialists should be ashamed of the connection between the movement and communism.

Muravchick, author of the book "Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism," argued that no socialist should be ashamed of these ties because -- in the words of Irving Kristol, a former socialist and one of the founding fathers of neoconservatism -- socialists do not have "blood on our hands." Muravchick added, however, that they should be embarrassed about the "ratio of opinion to knowledge that informed our thought."

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"Not only are we different from the communists, but we fought them tooth and nail, often when few others did," said Muravchick. "We also made significant contributions in this country to defeating Jim Crow (laws) and building the labor movement."

Practicing socialists and others embrace Muravchick's argument that the socialist movement in the United States made contributions to American society. Some argue that many of the humanistic, government-sponsored social programs that came about in the last century -- such as welfare assistance for the poor and strong protections for workers -- were the result of work done by socialist democrats. Panelist Sandra Feldman, president of the American Federation of Teachers, praised the influence that socialist democrat ideals have had over the labor movement in the United States.

Nevertheless, Muravchick said that American socialists fell prey to a "false ideal" by rejecting the various failed attempts to create socialist communities that predated the rise of communism and its application of Marxist principles for totalitarian political ends.

"We believed in socialism even though we rejected every real, existing (form of) socialism that came down the pipe," he said.

Other former believers were even more critical of the legacy of the socialist movement.

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On the one hand, Marshall Wittman, a senior fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute and a former spokesman for the conservative religious group the Christian Coalition, acknowledged that some of the ideals that work as a beneficial check on capitalism came out of the Socialist Democratic movement.

On the other, however, he said that socialist thought had worked in many ways to the detriment of society as a whole, and of the Jewish people in particular.

Wittman, who is Jewish, said that the European left's embrace of the Palestinian uprising against Israel is a prime example of this. He believes this is the result of a strong socialist belief in -- and uncritical acceptance of -- the rightness of the motives and actions of economically depressed people, despite the repeated rejection by that social group of the socialist movement's ideals. He said some of this is due to the "nihilist spark" of communism that remains in Europe.

"The ranks of socialism and Marxism have (historically) been disproportionately filled with Jews," he said. "(But) to this day the legacy of Marxism and socialism is that it is the great enemy of the Jewish people and of civilization itself." Prominent Jewish socialists include linguist and social critic Noam Chomsky and scientist Albert Einstein.

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He further explained that by supporting the Palestinian uprising and therefore their terrorist tactics, socialist-minded Europeans are effectively making Israeli Jews pay the price for the accumulated poor treatment of the Middle East by Europe, and for failed Western policies in that region of the world.

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