File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1997/97-03-01.214, message 31


From: Adam Rose <Adam-AT-pmel.com>
Subject: M-I: RE: Re: Minimalism and Reforms
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 1997 11:22:06 -0000



Rob says I am being "Predicable but fair" .
Complements will get him nowhere.

I agree, socialists must defend the reforms won in the past.
We need to argue that the rich should be taxed to pay for
a health service, social services, education, etc. We need
to fight tooth and nail against privitisation, since this means
job losses, pay cuts, reduced services and higher charges.
I spend most of my time as a socialist arguing along these
lines. I do my best to polarise discussions where I work with
the Tories on one side and me and the Labour voters on the
other. I have spent quite a lot of time recently petitioning
against the 9% budget cut in Salford council - they're shutting
old peoples' homes, making "voluntary" redundancies, etc.

However,  I do not think I am being unreasonable in arguing
that it is not possible to defend the reforms won in the past
if you stay in the reformist tradition. During the polarisation
I talked about above, it is simply not possible to stay within
the boundaries of reformism. When I argue with the Tories, the
Labour supporters stay quiet, because the arguments against
the market and so on are precisely those arguments which
the New Labour parties explicitly reject. Tony Blair understands
that in order to maintain profits in Britain, not only must he
not promise anything, he must also attack workers when he gets
in. Reformism depends on making profits, some of which are
given back to workers. But when capital is not making sufficient
profits to allow the reforms, the reforms can go hang. It is
necessary to be able to argue that if we have to make serious
inroads on their profits ( by pay rises or corporate taxation, for 
example ), then so be it.

The cuts I talked about in Salford are being implemented
by a Labour council, not a Tory one. Blair has promised to
continue them when Labour get in. The labour left are silent.
In Italy, the Olive Tree ( ie, the ex CP ) government is implementing
cuts, and the government is supported by the Refounded Communists.
In Greece it is PASOK, ie a socialist party government,
attacking workers and provoking a massive workers response.
Everywhere you look, Reformists are attacking their own reforms,
and the left wing Reformists are either helping them or staying
silent. Politically speaking, reformists are eating their own 
children.

It's only if you look outside parliament, to the sort of resistance
we have seen in Korea, France, and now Greece, that the left
has any chance of stopping the anger and resentment being
channelled toward the extreme right. These battles show the
way to fight to defend the reforms won in the past, how
to unite workers of different races and nationalities, and
show the concrete beginnings of a complete different way
of organising society.

Adam.

Adam Rose
SWP
Manchester
Britain.




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