la revolution

Rosser Jr, John Barkley rosserjb at jmu.edu
Mon Aug 24 15:00:52 PDT 1998


Germany and Austria (and Switzerland) are the weird special cases. The more vigorous of the social democracies, not just Sweden which is currently a mess, have all been way ahead of virtually the entire rest of the world with regard to women's rights, with the possible exception of a few communist states. But with the higher living standards in the SD's women's quality of life has been certainly best in them. Barkley Rosser On Mon, 24 Aug 1998 14:36:32 -0700 (PDT) Dennis R Redmond <dredmond at OREGON.UOREGON.EDU> wrote:


> On Mon, 24 Aug 1998, Rosser Jr, John Barkley wrote:
>
> > The European social democracies "did not offer much to
> > women"? Then why do we find UN Development Reports
> > consistently listing Scandinavian social democracies as
> > having the highest quality of life for women in the world?
> > And on what grounds are you calling these governments
> > "authoritarian"? Or have I just misread you?
>
> I'm talking about social democracy in its classic form (1950-85). Yes,
> Sweden was ahead of the curve, but indisputably Soc Dem countries like
> Austria were (and are) horribly sexist, and the trade union movement
> throughout Europe, just like the US, was geared to skilled male workers.
> Something like 95% of the Facharbeiter of skilled workers in Germany are
> male, even today; these folks are the backbone of IG Metall and of the SPD
> generally. Women had to go and fight for their social and economic rights
> without much help from the comrades, alas; it's only relatively recently,
> under pressure from Green parties and the post-68 micropolitics, than Soc
> Dems have changed their tune here. And all of the Soc Dem regimes
> were indeed authoritarian, though much less so than, say, Thatcherite
> Britain: they joined NATO, spied on their own citizens, and in general
> kowtowed to the dictates of industrial accumulation. Which in some ways
> was a good thing, of course, but you pay a price for organizing your
> society like a gigantic factory.
>
> -- Dennis
>

-- Rosser Jr, John Barkley rosserjb at jmu.edu



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