social democracy

Jeremy Corbyn’s and Zara Sultana’s new party, provisionally called “Your Party”, has caused a lot of excitement among the social democratic parts of the left. This new party is being touted as an opportunity for the left to launch a counterattack against a neo-liberal order that is increasingly disintegrating into fascism. But such hope is not justified by the history of left wing political parties. This history is littered with parties that have either rejected left wing principals and objectives or kept true to them but failed to achieve political relevance. It offers precious few examples of left wing parties that could both reliably take and maintain power and use that power for left wing ends. Is Your Party likely to be any different, or will it just be a repeat of the same old trajectory of disappointment and disillusionment that has characterised so many left political parties? Why do left wing parties nearly always fail to live up to their promises?

My, my…how times have changed. For thirty years the free market could do no wrong, then suddenly all change and it’s state intervention that’s now the one true faith. Even our own steadfast leader, Mr Brown, has undergone a St Paul-like conversion. Now Mr Prudence is to be found strutting his Keynesian stuff all over the world stage, championing the idea of state intervention on a grand scale. How easy our politicians glide from one set of principles to another, hardly pausing to adjust their moral compasses.

As for the social democratic left, they truly feel their time has come. The Guardian is now stuffed with articles paying homage to the new god that is Keynesian economics. The new social democratic dawn is upon us and a land of egalitarian milk and honey beckons. The dark days of New Labour have now passed and the next election will see the state interventionist forces of good do battle against the dwindling power of the evil free market Tories.

The collective nature of the British trade union movement is gradually disappearing. Where as in the past unions saw strength through unity as the means to confront the boss class, increasingly unions are now turning to the idea of union rights enshrined in law as the way to protect workers. These changes date back to the 1980's when union leaders, faced with rapid economic change, collapsing membership and a hostile Thatcher government, decided to abandon "outdated" notions such as class struggle and replacing capitalism with some form of socialism, in favour of social partnership.

Nationalisation and the new boss class

By Tom Brown

‘DIRECT ACTION’ PAMPHLETS No.3

Victory over Toryism

THE AIR RAID sirens had hardly sounded the last all-clear when Britain was thrust into the hurly-burly of a General Election. Before the world’s first atom bombs had fallen on Japanese cities, a Labour Government with an overwhelming majority ruled the House of Commons, and when victory over Japan followed victory over Germany, a Labour Prime Minister, head of a victorious Labour Government, rose to tell a House of Commons packed to the roof with his jubilant comrades.

The road was now open, the way to the New Jerusalem was clear.