Date: Thu, 7 Nov 1996 15:30:45 -0500 (EST)
From: Kevin Cabral <kcabral-AT-freenet.columbus.oh.us>
Subject: Re: M-I: Mandelson on US elections


On Thu, 7 Nov 1996, Chris Burford wrote:

> I imagine that the majority of subscribers to this list
> who know the name
> of Peter Mandelson, the election 
> campaign manager of the (British)
> Labour Party, dislike 
> him. What is more interesting is whether the
> following passage
> from an article in today's (London) Times, under the 
> headline "We will emulate Clinton", conforms to reality.

> Chris Burford

> >>The new Democrats and new Labour are part of a world
> wide
> movement of left-of-centre parties which have
> reshaped their policies for
> the modern world. State control
> of industry and hostility to markets have
> been replaced
> by a desire to work with industry to help it to compete
> more effectively, and to empower people through 
> investment in education
> and training. 
> Clinton's vow to heal this country's fractured society
> is also the centre-piece of new Labour's vision. But the 

	Unlike the Labour Party the Democratic party has never come close
to representing the working class as a whole in the United States. It's
always been prone to racism, and has always mingled with big business
openly. The commitment to socialism, even in words, or at least something
like a simple social democratic rhetoric has never existed either. The
closest to that may have been George McGovern or Eugene McCarthy, but that's
stretching it. 
 
	My point is that a comparison between new Labour and new Democrats is
dubious. President Clinton and Tony Blair may have swapped advisers to
talk about public speeches, and personality/valence issues; but even new
Labour is to the left of the Old Democrats simply because of their
commitment to national health care, and union rights. Remember the
Democrats favor Taft-Hartley, the famous anti-union bill in the US, and
could care less about repealing it; same with the AFL-CIO leaders who sent
40 million to Clinton this year. At least the Labour Party still talks
about making it illegal to scab, lockout workers, physically intimidate
striking workers, etc. The Democrats, with perhaps the exception of all
small handful like Wellstone, could care less about these sort of things. 
 
Kevin
Cols, Oh





     --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---