> On 13 Jul 2019, at 7:53 am, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
> I understand where this sort of thing comes from, but these critiques are written by people whose political tradition has accomplished approximately nothing in many decades. It’s not like they have a record of success to counterpose.
>
Yeah, but even if we accept your implied premise that none of the gains of the last 150 years can be attributed to “communists” and instead give all credit to the social democrats, the 'gains of social democracy' are now being rolled back so fast that we are almost back to the times of the Communist Manifesto in terms of distribution of wealth and power between the classes. At this rate we will be enduring conditions akin to pre-revolutionary Russia within a generation.
But, I don’t think what Engel had to say about the perception of “socialism” applies quite so much to the USA?
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas