> Stepping back from the legal arguments, what amazes me is the mania on
> this
> list to avoid structural explanations of differences between the US and
> Europe and assume it was completely voluntaristic decisions by union
> leaders
> to "choose" non-state options, to "choose" decentralized bargaining, to
> "choose" not to have a welfare state.
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Unfortunately, taking into account structural constraints and the relative
strengths of the contending parties receives less attention from the
contemporary left in the advanced capitalist countries than these "objective
conditions" used to receive from preceding generations.
But I think there is a structural explanation for this phenomenon as well: the current left, such as remains, is largely isolated from mass struggles, while the old left was a product of and thoroughly integrated into the working class socialist movement, where the relationship of forces and state and employer constraints on action - through a combination of coercion and reforms - were real and everpresent concerns.
The left finds itself in this historical predicament through no real fault of its own, although the "circular firing squads" within its various chat groups and tiny organizations would have you believe otherwise, that its failures result from a paucity of "good ideas" - again, not a surprising emphasis given that the left is now centred in and around the universities and other cultural institutions rather than the trade unions and mass workers' parties.