The Guardian

Can you be a socialist and rich? You asked Google – here’s the answer

Every day millions of people ask Google life’s most difficult questions. Our writers answer some of the commonest queries
‘The suggestion that you cannot have socialist values without dressing in hessian and self-flagellating whenever you buy a latte is absurd.’ Photograph: Michael Jenner/Alamy

In the mid-20th century, a socialist movement began to develop in many parts of colonial Africa and the Arab world. In Arab countries, the goal of the socialist movement was, broadly, liberation through fighting imperialism, opposing the ruling classes and fighting for social justice. The social-economic component, although important, was seen as directly related to the wider issue of nationalism and freedom from colonial masters and their associated domestic elites.

The movement, although successful in galvanising disparate members of society, was often scorned by socialist ideologues for not adhering strictly to the tenets of socialist thoughts, as these were countries that still had not reached such a level of industrialisation

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