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Labour vs Socialism - What's the difference?

labour | socialism |

As a proper noun labour

is (short for) the labour party.

As a noun socialism is

(marxism) the intermediate phase of social development between capitalism and full communism in marxist theory in which the state has control of the means of production.

labour

English

Alternative forms

* labor (US)

Noun

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada)
  • Effort expended on a particular task; toil, work.
  • * 1719, (Daniel Defoe), (Robinson Crusoe)
  • That which requires hard work for its accomplishment; that which demands effort.
  • * (Richard Hooker) (1554-1600)
  • Being a labour of so great a difficulty, the exact performance thereof we may rather wish than look for.
  • (uncountable) Workers in general; the working class, the workforce; sometimes specifically the labour movement, organised labour.
  • *, chapter=22
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=In the autumn there was a row at some cement works about the unskilled labour men. A union had just been started for them and all but a few joined. One of these blacklegs was laid for by a picket and knocked out of time.}}
  • (uncountable) A political party or force aiming or claiming to represent the interests of labour.
  • The act of a mother giving birth.
  • The time period during which a mother gives birth.
  • (nautical) The pitching or tossing of a vessel which results in the straining of timbers and rigging.
  • An old measure of land area in Mexico and Texas, approximately 177 acres.
  • (Bartlett)

    Usage notes

    Like many other words ending in -our''/''-or'', this word is spelled ''labour'' in the UK and ''labor'' in the U.S.; in Canada, ''labour'' is preferred, but ''labor'' is not unknown. In Australia, where ''labour'' is the usual spelling, ''labor'' is nonetheless used in the name of the , reflecting the fact that the ''-or endings had some currency in Australia in the past. * Adjectives often used with "labour": physical, mental, technical, organised.

    Synonyms

    *

    Derived terms

    * (The act of a mother giving birth) labour pain

    Verb

    (en-verb) (UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada)
  • To toil, to work.
  • To belabour, to emphasise or expand upon (a point in a debate, etc).
  • I think we've all got the idea. There's no need to labour the point.
  • To be oppressed with difficulties or disease; to do one's work under conditions which make it especially hard or wearisome; to move slowly, as against opposition, or under a burden.
  • * Granville
  • the stone that labours up the hill
  • * Alexander Pope
  • The line too labours , and the words move slow.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
  • to cure the disorder under which he laboured
  • To suffer the pangs of childbirth.
  • (nautical) To pitch or roll heavily, as a ship in a turbulent sea.
  • (Totten)

    socialism

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • (Marxism) The intermediate phase of social development between capitalism and full communism in Marxist theory in which the state has control of the means of production.
  • Any of several later political philosophies such as libertarian socialism, democratic socialism and social democracy which do not envisage the need for full state ownership of the means of production nor transition to full communism, and which are typically are based on principles of community decision making, social equality and the avoidance of economic and social exclusion, with economic policy should giving first preference to community goals over individual ones.
  • * 1978 , , The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism , Basic Books, page xii:
  • For me, socialism is not statism, or the collective ownership of the means of production. It is a judgment on the priorities of economic policy.. the community takes precedence over the individual in legitimate economic policy. The first lien on the resources of a society therefore should be to establish that "social minimum" which would allow individuals to lead a life of self-respect, to be members of the community.

    Derived terms

    * socialist

    See also

    * capitalism * communism * Leninism * Maoism * Marxism * Stalinism * Trotskyism