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| '''Social-imperialism''' is a term commonly used by [[Ultra-leftism|ultra-leftists]] to suggest that [[Actually existing socialism|socialist states]], such as the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Soviet Union]] after [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]] and the [[People's Republic of China]] after [[Mao Zedong]], had ceased to be socialist and instead became [[Fascism|fascist]] and [[Imperialism|imperialist]].
| | {{Message box/ideologicaldeviation}} |
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| == History ==
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| As a term, "social-imperialism" originated in a 1916 quote by [[Vladimir Lenin]] where he describes the [[liberal]] [[Social democracy|social-democratic]] [[SPD]] as "socialist in name, imperialist in deeds".<ref>
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| {{Citation | |
| | author = V.I. Lenin
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| | year = 1916
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| | title = Imperialism: the Highest Stage of Capitalism
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| | title-url = https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/index.htm
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| | chapter = CRITIQUE OF IMPERIALISM
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| | chapter-url = https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/ch09.htm
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| | pdf = https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/imperialism.pdf
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| | quote = “Social-Democratic” Party of Germany are justly called “social-imperialists,” that is, socialists in words and imperialists in deeds;
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| }} | |
| </ref> In this context, the term is similar to "social chauvinism"; notably, the suggestion was not that such organizations were formerly socialist and had turned imperialist, but rather that they ''were'' imperialist organizations under a veneer of fake socialist phraseology.
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| Afterward, the term was not used again in any notable Marxist texts or analyses until it was reintroduced by Mao in 1964, after the [[Sino-Soviet split]], when he described the [[Nikita Khrushchev|Khrushchev]]-era Soviet Union as "a [[National Socialism|Hitlerite]] imperialist state".<ref>https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/works/1964/phnycom.htm</ref> The term subsequently saw further use in [[Enver Hoxha]]'s treatise "Imperialism and the Revolution".<ref>https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works/imp_rev/imp_ch4.htm</ref>
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| Notably, neither Mao nor Hoxha ever explained what the material basis of a "social-imperialist" state would be, and what the [[social formation]] of such a state looked like. [[Marxism-Leninism]] traditionally holds that the class character of a state changes only through [[Counterrevolution|(counter)]][[revolution]], and not through [[reform]] alone; with this in mind, it is generally accepted by Marxist-Leninists today that the theory of "social-imperialism" lacks a material explanation, and may in fact constitute a [[Left communism|left deviation]].
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| == References ==
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| [[Category:Hoxhaism]] | | [[Category:Hoxhaism]] |
| [[Category:Anti-revisionism]] | | [[Category:Anti-revisionism]] |
