DRR wrote:
> Most of Latin America, Russia and huge chunks of
Europe > would beg to differ -- they voted out neolibs
> (continental Europe never really had much of a
neolib
> infection) and voted in developmental states.
Merkel?! Berlusconi?! Sarkozy?!
I admittedly don't follow developments in Skandinavian or Benelux countries very closely, but the above named arguably represent "core" Europe, no?
At the EuroMayday demonstration in Berlin hosted by felS yesterday <http://fels.nadir.org>, it was precisely the neo-liberalization and precarization of entire social layers which was the main theme.
I agree with Doug that capitalism was not nice before neo-liberalism, and with Chris Doss that the terms should not be viewed as synonymous. I would also argue that, at least in this country, there is no mass basis for neo-liberal ideas. However, that doesn't mean that neo-liberalism isn't enforced at the level of the state.
At the political level, there are only two parties with a notable base who stand in clear opposition to neo-liberalism, one is the NPD, and it should be clear why leftist should not support them. The other is die Linke, and their programmatic opposition to neo-liberalism at the national level has not prevented them from pushing through neo-liberal reforms in Berlin and MeckPom.
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