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

[Bhaskar Sunkara]

A lot of assumptions there.  1) That "former communist" countries
represented any sort of progress over capitalism in the historical sense
(it's late and I'm choosing my words carelessly and I'm sure I'll rue them
if this spawns a discussion on the gains of bureaucratic collectivism). 2)
that any move to collectivize the means of production will mean a re-thread
of the Soviet "model."  It's a matter of differing perspectives.  I too
respect some of the gains of social democracy, but if socialism is an old
left dogma to you, why bother with the radical circles at all?  The
left-wing of the Democratic Party has operative social democratic politics.

 For a rough sketch of post-capitalist economics *The Activist's* theory
section has a few articles of note ("On Economic Democracy" and Schulman's
rejoinder) : http://theactivist.org/blog/category/theory .

On Mon, Apr 12, 2010 at 9:03 PM, Somebody Somebody <philos_case at yahoo.com>wrote:


> 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.
>
>
>
>
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