Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 12:13:46 +0200
Subject: M-G: Re:  Gramscian revolution in UK


Chris B writes:

>I think what has just happened in the UK is not just an electoral
>victory magnified by a winner-takes-all electoral system, but
>is the nearest thing we will see to a Gramscian revolution,
>by which I mean a seizure of hegemony in the superstructure.

Dream on ...


>One set of intelligentsia has replaced another, and the new set is
>very confident that it can run the country pleasantly, effectively
>even humourously.

"Intelligentsia" is a misleading characterization.

As for the "pleasant, effective and humorous" style of the new mob -- some
joke!


>Is this just a revolution of a government? Am I promoting parliamentary
>cretinism based on the peculiarities of the electoral system?

Yes.



There is, however, one thing that *might* happen as a bit of an internal
bourgeois watershed in British parliamentary politics, *if' the Tories fail
to regroup and just rot away into their component juices, and that is that
New Labour might become the party of government, the bearers of the regime,
as Social-Democracy has been for so long in Sweden. But we're not there
yet, and a lot more has got to happen to the union movement before we get
there. Also we're at the wrong conjuncture historically speaking.

Cheers,

Hugh




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