>Franco-German lurch to the Left isolates Blair
quoting amongst other things:
>Last night, EU diplomats predicted that Mr Blair would be appalled by the
>emphasis on neo-Keynsian remedies and pressure for more co-ordination at EU
>level of economic and employment polices. One official said: "It will look
>to him very much like 'Old Labour'. They are talking about policies that
>were the stuff of Jacques Delors in the 1980s."
>
>The idea of a new European loan to boost trans-border transport projects in
>the EU has been floated in recent days by Mr Jospin. Similar ideas are
>supported by Mr Lafontaine, who believes in loosening the government and EU
>purse strings to give Europe's economy a Keynsian shot in the arm. Mr
>Lafontaine also supports reviving the concept of "social Europe", with more
>protection and rights for workers at EU level, another notion opposed by Mr
>Blair.
An effusive supporter of Blair like Anthony Giddens would probably answer to this as following:
"The more recent appropriation of 'third way' by Bill Clinton and Tony Blair has met with a lukewarm reception from most Continental social democrats, as well as from left critics in their respective countries. The critics see the third way in this guise as warmed-over neoliberalism. They look at the US and see a highly dynamic economy, but also a society with the most extreme levels of inequality in the devloped world. Clinton promised to 'end welfare as we knoe it', seeming to echo some of the attitudes of the neoliberal conservatives. On coming to power, his critics say, Blair and New Labour have persisted with the economic policies of Margaret Thatcher.
"My aim in what follows" [i.e. in A. Giddens: The Third Way. The Renewal of Social Democracy; published by Polity Press on Sept 11th 1998] "is not to assess whether or not such observations are valid, but to consider where the debate about the future of social democracy stands. I shall take it 'third way' refers to a framework of thinking and policy-making that seeks to adapt social democracy to a world which has changed fundametally over the past two or three decades. It is a third way in the sense that it is an attempt to transcend both old-style social democracy and neoliberalism."
Blair is not as myopic as the Daily Telegraph might wish. Nor is Lafontaine, neither Schroeder. Hence a major division within the European Social Democracy is unlikely to occur not only this weekend but also in the years ahead when pushing further the integration of both the European market and the political Union.
It's trendy to underestimate and caricature the new figurheads of a newly formed bloc of social forces - as it was trendy to caricature both Thatcher and Kohl in the early 80ies. While the birth certificate of the 'neo-liberal era' is sticked to September 11th, 1973, and to the general election in Britain, May 1979, it is not unlikely that New Labour's landslide victory of May 1997 will have marked the birthday of a new social democratic era.
"New Labour" or "The Third Way of a 'renewed' Social Democracy" will be a challenge to both the trade union movement and the socialist left unrivalled in times of 'moderate development' of class affairs in capitalist metropoles - no matter there will be a period of low economic growth or a severe crisis accompanied by the crash of the financial markets.
Hinrich Kuhls