[lbo-talk] European Socialist Parties

Wojtek S wsoko52 at gmail.com
Mon May 23 11:39:59 PDT 2011


Ken: "What is annoying is that there is not even the pretense of trying to replace capitalism by a socialist system."

[WS:] Yeah, they must have taken Thatcher's TINA spiel too seriously. But frankly, I think it goes beyond electoral politics, as Jim suggested. The Greens are more anti-capitalist than socialists and and still manage to function within the electoral politics framework. My conjecture is that these people have nothing to offer anymore. The old master frame of socialism became bankrupt with the downfall of the USSR and no new master frame emerged. What we have is a hodge podge of movements that in the past would fit under the umbrella of socialist master frame but today they have their own smaller frames, such as environmentalism, civil rights, local development, etc. Old socialist parties became an empty shell populated by middle class professionals and technocrats who became increasingly attracted to neoliberal ideas. Working class, otoh, became increasingly attracted to the right wing parties, whose agendas typically combine nationalism, cultural conservatism and social welfare.

Wojtek



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