De Leonism

File:Situationism.png

Request for Art Improvement

"Look at this disaster, time for an art revolution." - Situationism

This page's art has been identified as being unsatisfactory or missing. You can help this page out by uploading a higher quality image.

De Leonism, occasionally known as Marxism–De Leonism, is a form of unionist Marxism developed by File:DanielDeLeon.png Daniel De Leon. De Leon combined the rising theories of American File:Synd.png unionism in his time with File:Ormarxf.png orthodox Marxism. According to De Leonist theory, it seeks to push for class struggle with a File:DualPower.png dual-armed approach: industrial unions (not to be confused with craft/trade unions) will serve as the bastions of File:SyndieSam.png proletarian (working class) power to strike the File:Economy.png economic wing of Bourgeois society, and a disciplined proletarian File:Party.png party to serve as the brain of the movement with it seeking to strike the political wing.

These industrial unions will be able to bring about the File:Revolution.png revolutionary change needed to establish a File:Socialist Industrial Unionism.png Socialist Industrial File:Republicanismpix.png Republic, where the old File:Statist.png political-state will be replaced with the aforementioned industrial unions forming an industrial government. An all-industrial congress, making up of representatives from all industries, will then correlate production nationally. The party becomes unnecessary and will wither away.

This industrial administration of things will form to the establishment of communism, the basis for the association of producers.

History

De Leonism emerged in the late 19th century as a distinct socialist tendency under the leadership of Daniel De Leon, an American Marxist and labor activist. De Leon’s engagement with the labor movement began in the 1890s through the Socialist Labor Party of America (SLP), where he sought to fuse Marxist theory with practical industrial organization. He argued that the working class could achieve socialism not only through political action but also through direct control of industry via industrial unions.

By the early 1900s, De Leon was promoting the concept of the “dual union strategy,” advocating that workers form independent, socialist-oriented industrial unions rather than join mainstream craft unions, which he considered conservative and reformist. In 1905, he became instrumental in the establishment of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), contributing to the development of syndicalist organizing tactics. However, ideological conflicts over the role of political action versus direct industrial action led to De Leon’s eventual split from the IWW in 1908, after which he continued to build the SLP along explicitly De Leonist lines.

Throughout the 1910s and 1920s, De Leonism maintained influence primarily within the SLP and associated industrial union networks. De Leonist organizations emphasized the need for a socialist industrial republic in which workers would directly manage production and governance. While the movement never gained mass political power, it inspired a number of later socialist and labor-oriented groups, including sections of the IWW that adopted De Leonist organizational principles and international Marxist currents that valued a synthesis of political and industrial action.

In the mid-20th century, De Leonism persisted as a niche but ideologically coherent current, especially in North America and the United Kingdom, with splinter groups and parties maintaining the theoretical legacy. Its emphasis on industrial unionism, workers’ councils, and revolutionary political engagement has continued to influence contemporary socialist thought, particularly among groups advocating for labor-led transformation of society.

Beliefs

File:Impossible.png Impossibilism

De Leonists take an impossibilist stance on the reform or revolution question, which holds that reform under capitalism strengthens the bourgeoisie and secures their power while weakening socialist movements. Consequently, De Leonism is opposed to any form of reformism. However, De Leonists in the past did opt to run in presidential elections in the United States, but only as a means of gauging the level of mass support they had.

File:Socialist Industrial Unionism.png Socialist Industrial Unionism

De Leonists advocate for an “industrial commonwealth” revolving directly on industry, formulated around socialist industrial unionism. This socialist industrial unionism should not be confused with the industrial unionism of the IWW, which is of a syndicalist and libertarian socialist character. In contrast, socialist industrial unionism is a distinct form of organization from syndicalism. Socialist industrial unionism would operate on a model where workers elect a workplace industrial shop organization, which then elects industrial unions, which in turn elect representatives to regional associations of unions. These industrial unions are responsible for coordinating all industries and determining resource allocation.

How to Draw

File:Deleon flag.svg

Flag of De Leonism

1. Draw a circle.
2. Fill it with red.
3. Draw a yellow circle inside.
4. Draw a silhouette of a muscular arm holding a hammer in yellow (#D8C306) inside the circle and fill the silhouette in.
5. Draw the eyes and you’re done.
6. (Optional) Give the ball a muscular arm holding a hammer in yellow, with the same color as the one inside the ball.

Color Name		HEX	RGB
	Red	#C9261F	rgb(201, 38, 31)
	Yellow	#D8C306	rgb(216, 195, 6)

Relations

Friends

• File:Ormarxf.png Marxism - I am an orthodox Marxist.
• File:Erga.png Ergatocracy - Only through the socialist industrial unions can the dictatorship of the proletariat be organized.
• File:Councom.png Council Communism - We enjoy bullying syndicalists and reformists together, but my methods are superior, sorry not sorry.
• File:Impossible.png Impossibilism - My son who continues to fight against reformism.
• File:Labourism.png Laborism - While the trade union is ultimately useless in overthrowing capitalism, it is natural that the working man raises a fist to block the capitalists' blow even if futile.

Frenemies

• File:Orthlen.png Leninism - You were successful at creating the first socialist state, but it degenerated into bureaucratic despotism early on.
• File:Georgist.png Georgism - You’re on the right track but you fail to see the inherent problems of capitalism and instead place those problems on land.
• File:World.png Globalism - Free trade only works under socialism, else it rapidly expands competition and crushes workingmen.
• File:Protect.png Protectionism - Protectionism also only works under socialism, else it is the tool of big trusts.
• File:GoldStandard.png Gold Standard - Inflation does damage workingmen, but so does deflation under capitalism.
• File:SilverStandard.png Free Silver - While making money cheaper can help, the inflation you bring ruins the working class under capitalism.

Enemies

• Capitalism - The only thing you do is destroy workers lives.
• File:Fash.png Fascism - Militarism is only the natural accompaniment of capitalism fully developed. Even though we still want the same economy in the end.
• Marxism-Leninism - Bureaucratic despotism at its finest.
• Anarchism - Utopian who rejects the power of a directing authority.
• File:Left Reformism.png Reformism - You can change a poodle's appearance, but a poodle it will remain.
  • File:Left Reformism.png The ancestors of poodles once were wolves, before evolving into their current state.File:RBubble.png

• File:Bernst.png Reformist Marxism - Reformism will only strengthen capital!
  • File:Bernst.png No, with the right approach reform can eventually undo capital. Revolution is a bloody waste.File:RBubble.png

• File:Libpos.png Libertarian Possibilism - What is this monstrosity?
• Social Democracy - This is literally just the natural conclusion of reformism...
  • And what's so bad about that?File:RBubble.png

• Third Way - I think I'm going to be sick...
• File:WJBryan.png Bryanism - Your Free Silver is really just a distraction from the real problem.
• File:Blanqui.png Blanquism - Why no mass movements?
• File:Theocrat.png Theocracy - "Theology or religion is a delicate and occult thing. No man of sense and surely none of feeling will, ‘hit back’ at that tender vein. He will respect that private feeling with others, as he will expect others to respect it with him. But that is one thing, and another is to allow clergymen to extend the jurisdiction of ‘theology’ over terrestrial and civic matters, as they endeavor to do. To allow them to, and not ‘hit back,’ and hard, too, at such clerical usurpations over a domain that is purely civic, would be to allow them to walk into our encampment, take possession, and non-suit the cause of Socialism – and that indeed would 'be satisfactory to the enemy.' With Daniel O’Connell, the S.L.P. says: 'All the religion you like from Rome, but no politics.'"
• File:Synd.png Syndicalism - I am not you! You fail to lay even the slightest bit of stress onto capitalism besides on its function, and you do realize labor unions even if radicalized will never be revolutionary? And how dare you expel me from the IWW? Slum proletarian.
• File:Natsynd.png National Syndicalism - Some dumb nationalist, don't listen to him.
• File:CPUSA.png American Communism - Gravedigger of communism who slandered me as somehow an anarcho-syndicalist and a reformist.
• File:Statesoc.png State Socialism - We shall either have socialism, and and that means that the state shall have vanished; or we shall preserve the state, and then we shall have no socialism.
• File:Nooc.png Intellectuals - The "Intellectual" can not grasp the importance of Unionism. It is a case of material interests and moral and mental make-up combining. For bona fide Unionism the "Intellectual" has the feeling that a scalded cat has for water; to bogus Unionism he takes like a duck does to a mill-pond; - in short, the question of Unionism is a test that assays the "Intellectual" and proves him dross.

Further Information

YouTube

Videos

• Socialist Industrial Unionism Explained By The SLP by File:Sorel.png Pierre Tru-Dank

Literature

• Reform or Revolution? (1896) by Daniel De Leon
• What Means This Strike? (1898) by Daniel De Leon
• Socialism vs Anarchism (1901) by Daniel De Leon
• Two Pages from Roman History (1903) by Daniel De Leon
• The Burning Question of Trade Unionism (1904) by Daniel De Leon
• DeLeon Replies ... (1904) by Daniel De Leon
• Socialist Reconstruction of Society (1905) by Daniel De Leon
• Syndicalism (1908) by Daniel De Leon
• Socialist Industrial Unionism : The Workers Power (1940) by Eric Hass

Wikipedia

• De Leonism
• Daniel De Leon

Gallery

• Impossibilism
  Impossibilism
• Alt design
  Alt design
• File:Deleonism-2.png