Social democracy
Social democracy is an accusation of discrediting and persecuting alternative concepts of socialism within state socialist governing parties. Often, but not exclusively, representatives of a democratic socialism or social democracy were attacked.
The accusation was regularly used in the SED , especially after 1948, against members who, as former SPD members, had become SED members after the forced unification . The aim of these allegations, which were brought together in a campaign, was to protect the orthodox-Leninist leadership around Walter Ulbricht and to remove critical currents from the party. At the beginning of the 1950s, further “party reviews” followed, which also affected communists from other directions - for example former members of the Lenin League .
In other state socialist states, too, “social democracy” was used as an accusation for disciplining members; it had a status similar to “ Trotskyism ” and other terms. The members assigned these labels did not always have a real closeness to the indicated currents - often a completely arbitrary deviation was constructed in order to get rid of independent persons.
literature
- Ulla Plener : »Social Democratism« - Instrument of the SED leadership in the Cold War against parts of the labor movement (1948–1953) (PDF; 72 kB), in: Utopie Kreativ No. 161, March 2004.
- Stefan Wolle : "Agents, saboteurs, traitors, ..." In: Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk , Armin Mitter , Stefan Wolle (eds.): Day X - June 17, 1953. The campaign of the SED leadership against "Social Democratism" ( = Research on GDR history ). 2nd Edition. tape 3 . Ch.links, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-86153-083-X , p. 243-277 .