Overview
Almeidaism is a democratic socialist ideology developed by Jorge Almeida and several other colleagues from the 1960s to 80s as a response to the policy of the Rosen Republic, other leftist movements, and the Second Rosen Civil War’s underlying economic, social, and political causes. Almeidaism emphasizes collective leadership; tolerance, diversity, and community-building; the abolition of currency; and universal housing, healthcare, and sustenance.
Influences
Almeidaism was not conceived in a vacuum. Jorge Almeida’s earliest cited influence for his ideology was his mother, Elaine Soares, who was a prominent trade unionist in labor organizer. Later, colleagues at the University of São Lola like Renato Brito, a Rosen philosopher and political theorist; Lorenzo Castilho, a revolutionary communist who would be arrested during Almeida’s study; and Bartłomiej Koppa, a civil rights activist and Almeida’s future stepfather. Brito, Castilho, and Koppa all influenced aspects of Almeidaism that can be seen in the ideology today: Brito’s emphasis on collective leadership and the directory system of the federal executive, Castilho’s work in arguing for a mass movement and national general strikes to accelerate change, and Koppa’s ideals on diversity and community-building.
Contemporary contributors
Theory
Works
Throughout his career, Almeida authored and published about a dozen books, gave about a hundred speeches, and wrote hundreds of letters that shape modern conceptions of Almeidaist ideology. Included here are the major works that represented significant shifts or assertions made by Almeida that came to become integral parts of Almeidaism.
Mundo
Mundo was the first of Almeida’s works to gain traction in the Rosen socialist sphere. It was critically acclaimed by many; critics of the Rosen far-left often believed Mundo was both pragmatic and utopian in its vision for a path from capitalism to communism. Despite this acclaim, Mundo is perhaps the “furthest-left” work Almeida wrote. It was Almeida’s first iteration of applying democratic socialist ideology to Almeidaism: it appears unfamiliar to modern Almeidaism in its comprehensive critique of the bourgeois and industrial capitalism; modern Almeidaism typically avoids criticizing current ideologies and instead poses Almeidaism on its own.
Our
Our saw Almeida begin to develop his political ideology further, this being made apparent by Renato Brito’s involvement in the work. It was the only major work Almeida explicitly co-authored. Our saw Almeida develop a long, primarily historical critique of Rosen democracy. Almeida essentially poses that Rosen society has never been democratic, exemplified by political repression under the Rosen Federal Union and economic repression seen through corruption in the Republic. Our
Nova Sociedade
April 1985 Letters
Economics
Almeidaist economics envisions an anarchistic, locally-maintained market relying on contributory labor and civic obligation, creating a society where “consumers do not interact with prices and workers do not interact with wages.” Almeidaism strongly encourages a bottom-up economy and is vehemently opposed to top-down economic planning. Citing the failure of “five-year plans” in the Sayan Union, Almeida believed bottom-up economic planning combined the value of the “invisible hand” and supply and demand influences with community and human-centered priorities. Bottom-up economic planning is fostered by workplace democracy. Almeidaism envisions tiered labor unions, comprising worker councils and worker assemblies. Worker councils are small groups of workers that determine their immediate priorities and collectively advocate for their interests by electing a representative to their constituent worker assembly. Worker assemblies, in turn, determine company-scale directives like benefits and wider priorities. Almeida proposed that worker assemblies elect an executive or council of executives to represent the company and ensure it followed the directives of the worker assembly. Almeidaism is most known for its advocacy for the elimination of currency. This practice is often removed from context; Almeida did not advocate for a barter system or a new kind of currency, rather the total elimination of an exchange in the context of labor. Elimination of currency came to rely on an idea of post-scarcity, which Almeida believed could be achieved to a certain extent through a large-scale labor automation program. Automation was another core component of Almeidaism. Interestingly, it wasn’t part of Almeidaism to begin with; however, after Nova Sociedade, it became a key tenet of an Almeidaist future. Almeidaism didn’t advocate for the abolition of labor, either. Almeida saw labor as a core part of human interaction and social ability; as such, he believed labor could serve a social or civic function to prevent, in his words, “fatness and satisfaction.” In other words, labor in interesting, stimulating jobs, with menial aspects reduced or done away with via automation, created a valuable sense of intrinsic value that would allow the Rosen economy to function without wages.
Sociology
Diversity is a core concept in Almeidaist ideology. Applying Almeidaism to Rosens required tolerance
Ecology
Political architecture
Practice
Application in the Rosen Commonwealth
Application abroad
Criticism
”Reformed Almeidaism”
Poverty is not socialism. To uphold socialism, a socialism that is to be superior to capitalism, it is imperative first and foremost to eliminate poverty. True, we are building socialism, but that doesn’t mean that what we have achieved so far is up to the socialist standard.
Deng Xiaoping
Reformed Almeidaism is a term, often used in an official capacity, to describe the state of Almeidaist ideology in the contemporary Rosen Commonwealth. It functions as both a euphemism and a genuine descriptor of Almeidaist practice. Reformed Almeidaism is used as a criticism of Almeidaism because its existence, according to critics, proves that Almeidaism is infeasible and requires capitalistic reform to function properly. Proponents argue that Almeidaism was never meant to be implemented in a post-Crisis world, and so the circumstances of the Commonwealth are fundamentally different than what Almeida intended for his ideology to be built upon. In 2053, there are supporters in the Commonwealth and abroad that continually advocate for further reform. This argument points to the Rosen economic boom, which was enabled by moderately capitalistic policies at home in addition to engagement with a globalizing, extremely capitalistic foreign market. Rosen political theorist Fabiano Ferraz-Gomes argues: “Reformed Almeidaism works. Full stop. There is no need to endanger the Commonwealth’s outstanding standard of living, welfare state, or political stability for the sake of ideological purity.”