Date: Sat, 01 Mar 1997 00:42:14 +0000
From: Nick Holden & Kate Ahrens <glengate-AT-foobar.co.uk>
Subject: M-G: Re: M-I: Labour means class - was RE: Labour means  business


Adam Rose wrote:
> 
> Chris is wrong to present Labour's by election victory
> in this way.
> 
> Listening to newsnight, the reasons that people gave
> for voting Labour were to do with the Health Service,
> Education, perhaps privitisation. The reasons given for
> voting Tory were because of fears that Labour might
> put VAT on private school fees, for instance.
> 
> The shift toward Labour in this byelection shows a shift
> towards working class politics on the part of millions
> of people, DESPITE not because of labour's shift
> towards business. I think this trend is particularly strong
> in places like the Wirral, where there are plenty of people
> who voted Tory in 1992 and  have regretted it ever since.
> 
> Not understanding this as a shift to the left leads to a
> tendency to write these people off, and to an unwarranted
> pessimism about the prospects for socialists under a
> Labour government.

And to believing that socialists should ignore the mass ranks of Labour voters and hide themselves away in a 
sect. Which strangely enough is precisely what Adam does, despite recognising, correctly, working class 
political interests intertwined with Blairism in Labour.

Adam, how can you write "not understanding this as a shift to the left leads to a tendency to write these 
people off" and yet remain in the SWP, thus 'writing off' the vast bulk of the working class?

Nick

Nick




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