Socialism (magazine)

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socialism
Socialism logo
description political monthly magazine
First edition 1972
Frequency of publication per month
Sold edition 2,500 copies
editor Heinz Bierbaum , Joachim Bischoff , Klaus Bullan, Frank Deppe , Otto Koenig, Sybille Stamm, Michael Wendl , Sost e. V.
Web link www.sozialismus.de
ISSN (print) 0343-2815

The German political journal Sozialismus , which has existed since 1972 , is published by several individuals and the Verein Sozialistische Studiengruppen e. V. (Sost e.V.) and appears in VSA: Verlag Hamburg .

The editorial team of the monthly issues sees the magazine as a forum for the political debate of the trade union and political left in the Federal Republic of Germany. The paper, which appears in magazine form, primarily contains articles by authors from the socialist , left-wing socialist and social democratic spectrum and from the trade union movement. At the same time, the editorial team provides analyzes and information on the economic and political developments in the most important countries in Europe, the emerging countries and the global economy for discussion. The magazine is a cooperation partner of the Internet portal Linksnet .

Forum trade unions

In every issue, articles appear in the trade unions forum, which has an advisory board. This is made up of assets primarily from the IG Metall and the United Services Union ver.di together. In issue 11 of 2018, the following persons are named as members of the advisory board. Heinz Bierbaum, Ulrich Brinkmann, Günter Busch, Frank Deppe, Richard Detje, Christoph Ehlscheid, Michael Erhardt, Klaus Peter Kisker, Dieter Knaus, Jörg Köhlinger, Otto König, Klaus Pickshaus, Lilo Rademacher, Sabine Reiner, Bernd Riexinger, Heidi Scharf, Manfred Scherbaum, Michael Schlecht, Gabriele Schmidt, Horst Schmitthenner, Sybille Stamm, Hans-Jürgen Urban, Gerhard Wick, Jörg Wiedemuth.

The advisory board and the editorial team try to introduce topics “beyond the decision-making process” into the trade union discussions at an early stage. »With the contributions of the Forum for Trade Unions contained in every issue , important debates within the trade unions have been initiated and still are.“ This occasionally led to irritations and delimitations. In 2005, the then DGB chairman Michael Sommer , who had previously participated as deputy chairman of the Deutsche Postgewerkschaft in events organized by the Forum for Trade Unions against the Yugoslav wars, put it in an interview with brand eins magazine  : “An IG Metall functionary writes in the journal Sozialismus that the DGB is incapable of acting in terms of location competition and the resulting potential for blackmail of employers. With all due respect, I do not consider this magazine to be the central organ of the German trade unions. ”Neither the members of the advisory board nor the editorial team had ever intended such a role.

content

The topics of the magazine include:

  • reporting and commenting on economic and political facts in Germany, the European Union, emerging economies and other countries around the world
  • Reports and comments on trade union strategies in the Trade Unions Forum
  • the developments of geopolitical conflicts in international politics
  • the dissemination of the international debate of the left on the analysis and criticism of the capitalist social formation, in cooperation with authors and magazines from France , Italy , Great Britain and the USA
  • the discussion and criticism of relevant new publications
  • the history of the left

The journal contains supplements every two months with articles on theoretical, political and historical topics.

history

The magazine has existed in varying intervals since 1972. The first issues were published under the title »Discussion Volumes« by the then »Project Class Analysis« in West Berlin. From 1976 to 1981 it was published under the title "Contributions to Scientific Socialism" and since then under the current title "Socialism" in magazine format. Since October 1983, the publication cycle has been monthly. The reason for the publication was the unsatisfactory condition of the socialist-communist papers at the beginning of the 1970s. The central thesis of the editors at the time was (and today's editors still see this as a task): Marxist journals must be a platform for controversial discussions. That was directed against the position that was widespread at the time that critical or even self-critical contributions to the debate would ultimately only cause confusion. In contrast, the maxim of Karl Marx was set: "Recklessness is the first condition of all criticism".

After the fall of the Wall in 1989, authors from the former GDR took part in the difficult tightrope walk of creating an up-to-date and at the same time scientific socialist magazine that is both at a critical distance from the real attempt at socialism and from the established scientific establishment in the West, but at the same time theoretically sound and is readable for trade unionists and committed socialists.

editorial staff

The editors of the magazine take part in various conferences and congresses as well as in the political education work of trade unions and left-wing parties (including workshops in cooperation with WISSENTransfer, the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung and Helle Panke). And she is committed to organizing resistance (a congress was organized on the occasion of the war in the Balkans and more than 100,000 signatures were collected). The magazine was a co-organizer of the »Sociopolitical Forums«, which accompanied the process of forming a new party from the Labor & Social Justice party - Die Wahlalternative (WASG) and the Linkspartei.PDS . Some editors and members of the editorial board were and are involved in the party Die Linke . The editorial team includes Richard Detje, Marion Fisch, Christoph Lieber, Bernhard Müller, Björn Radke, Bernhard Sander, Klaus Schneider and Gerd Siebecke.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Left-wing publishers will always remain in the niche . Conversation by Johannes Schulten with Gerd Siebecke and Marion Fisch in the daily newspaper Junge Welt , 17./18. March 2012, No. 66
  2. ↑ brandeins.de
  3. ↑ Heiko Asseln: Presentation and criticism of philosophical and political-sociological approaches of the "Project Class Analysis" . Cologne 1979
  4. ↑ Imprint of the journal Socialism . Retrieved March 30, 2020.