[lbo-talk] "A Labor Party Based on the Trade Unions"

[Somebody Somebody]

Yeah, I don't really get the whole "sustainability" argument. Look, welfare states have been nibbled at and compromised for the past 30 years, but it's not as if we've returned to the 19th century. Thatcher couldn't abolish the NHS. Sweden still has free higher education. Germany after Schröder still has work councils. 

On the other hand, the former communist countries really have returned to capitalism. Which is more sustainable in the end, social democratic reforms that keep private property in place, or extensive nationalization of the commanding heights of the economy, which seems inevitably to lead to a return to capitalism? The golden age has passed for both social democracy and socialism. But, given the fact that social democracy has a more vigorous legacy in the year 2010, I would say it's highly debatable that it should be rubbished in favor of the same old leftist dogmas.