Date: Sun, 8 Jun 1997 13:25:04 +1000
From: Rob Schaap <rws-AT-comserver.canberra.edu.au>
Subject: Re: M-I: Victory in Europe: To rejoice or not to rejoice? That is


[G'day all,

Gary goes along with Bob Santamaria (and me) in arguing:]

>So the logic of Santamaria's argument is that what we saw was not a move to
>the right in Australia when Labor was defeated, nor a move to the left in
>Britain when Major was thrown out of office.  Rather what is at work in all
>these instances, including the French one, is a reaction to the "general
>impoverishment" brought about by the dominance of market imperatives.

>Blair & Jospin will betray all.  A veritable festival of cynicism and
>despair lies ahead because they will do nothing to confront the
>rapaciousness of a class whose very existence they deny ... As a
>consequence of >their failures to confront the dominant class, Blair and
>Jospin will sharpen >the forces of fascism-from-below.  It is worth
>remembering here that the >Prussian social democratic government was
>absolutely crucial to the growth of >Nazism because of the Social
>Democrats' refusal to aid the starving peasantry.
>
>I believe that, because the Communist Party has gone into coalition with
>Jospin, they will be discredited and blamed for Jospin's betrayals. Thus it
>is the fascist Le Pen who will be the ultimate beneficiary.

[This nightmare scenario is, I think, the crunch we've been facing for
twenty years now (corresponding to the dissipation of the 'sovereign nation
state' that is so central to the Keynesian model).  It may indeed be a
crunch we have to have.

Either western social democrats pursue their avowed policies against the
harsh judgements of 'the markets', which may not be technically impossible,
even at this late stage, as a concerted, conscious and strategic joining of
forces by SocDem governments across Europe must surely still represent
substantial clout.

But I don't think it will happen - opportunists like Blair, committed as he
is to the ideological blight that has infested the Anglo-Saxon world, will
perceive short-term advantage in holding the neo-classical line against the
'wogs' (who start, as Tony Hancock reminded us, at Calais).

Capitalists must, as Marx reminds us, compete.  We have framed the
nation-state as just another competitive entity (which is strange as they
buy from and sell to  each other and must necessarily cooperate - not at
all like true competitors, like second-hand car dealers), and national
governments are up against untold structural and cultural forces to better
'the opposition' in exports, growth and, of course, tax cuts.

That means European socdems will be deprived of the clout they need.  And
Gary's analysis becomes that bit more compelling.  Which puts lefties in a
hell of a spot.  We need at once a 'legitimate' presence in discourse and
bourgeois institutions (to afford the system's victims a visible
alternative to an institutionalised and 'legitimate' far right - lest the
latter thrives while what is left of our voice slips from human memory) and
an almost incompatible need to avoid a lingering stain of betrayal.

As you all know, I'm all for, inter alia, the establishment of left-wing
parliamentary parties which *stay out of, or leave, coalitions* where their
integrity is threatened.  If the French communists have coalesced with
Jospin's mob, I think they must be prompt in leaving that coalition if
European solidarity does not come about or if Jospin begins to break
pledges.

Cheers,
Rob.]





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