Labour Party and the Unions

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Mon Aug 2 09:40:16 PDT 1999


Jim heartfield wrote:


>Max and Seth both ask what I'm for.
>
>Socialisation of the means of production - what G Lukacs called
>'societal self-determination'.
>
>The problem with the Labour Party was that its programme was against
>socialisation, for nationalisation. Since it's been tried in practice we
>know that that is no academic distinction. Nationalised industries
>exploited, abused and finally dismissed their employees just as readily
>as private ones. In fact, the National Coal Board's record of deaths at
>work is second to none in Britain.
>
>The difficulty with the left is that it is caught between two
>alternatives that are both defined by capitalist society: the free
>market and the state. Both are specific to capitalism, both need to be
>overcome.

This all sounds wonderful, but just what do you mean by socialization? lnp3 at panix.com says he's for the socialization of the MOP too, and you two don't agree on anything else.

Doug



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