--- On Mon, 6/8/09, Yann Morvan <ymorvan at cs.tcd.ie> wrote:
> The only thing the numbers show is that there is still a
> lack of a
> credible alternative to business-as-usual parties.
>
[WS:] There is no dearth of alternative parties, IMHO. The problem is that there does not seem to be any alternative to capitalism as the mode of production.
The meteoric rise of the USSR as a world superpower was a testimony to socialism as a viable alternative to capitalism. Whether this socialism was "real" or qualified in any way is beside the point here - in the eyes of many, including detractors, there was an alternative to capitalism and its property relations.
Today, such an alternative does not seem to exist, the rhetoric of various "alternative" parties notwithstanding. Solutions offered by these parties do not seem more feasible than, say, the prospect of colonisation of Mars.
What can offer an alternative is deeds not words - a non-capitalist economy that not only prospers but also attracts popular imagination, as socialism once did.
Wojtek