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