File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1997/marxism-international.9706, message 370


Date: Sat, 21 Jun 1997 16:45:06 +0200
From: Jorn Andersen <jorn.andersen-AT-vip.cybercity.dk>
Subject: Re: M-I: Jospin's compromise


Thanks for summing up, Rob ;-)
A disagreement + a couple of comments.

At 17:52 21-06-97 +1000, Rob Schaap wrote:
>Thanks for this Jorn.  You're very right about something very important.
>
>The lessons I take from this are: (1) Take seriously what people want in
>the here and now; (2) Support for direct government-sponsored job creation
>should be complete;
Agreed on those first two points.

>(3)  Social Democrats represent a powerful voice for
>class politics at a time when the very notion of class has been at risk of
>disappearing;

Well, let's see how *powerful* they are ... We should not forget what
social democracy is about.

However:
>(4)  While revolutionary purists point to inevitable
>back-downs by socdems they fail to notice that, hitherto, just about
>everybody else has failed to notice them;

I think your're wrong on this one. On the contrary, I think disillusion
with the way socdems in most European countries tried to manage capitalism
in the 70's when the present crisis took off is crucial to understand where
we are today. This was one very important factor in the right turn of the
80's (Thatcher, Kohl etc.).

But also take a look at France, which has another history. In France
bourgeois governments had ruled since WW2. When Mitterrand got elected as
president in 1981 people were partying in the streets. When he left 14
years later people could look back at one, long history of austerity
politics. The result was not only that the right got a landslide victory at
parliamentary elections, but also that it was exactly the Mitterand years
which allowed fascism to gain a foothold in Franch politics. Before
Mitterand they were nothing - now they seem to have a stable 15-20 percent
share of the electorate on a national scale.

I think this shows very clearly that 'just about everybody else' *has*
noticed a whole succession of back-downs by socdems. The absence of a
visible revolutionary alternative has meant in France that workers swing
back and forth between the left and the right.

What is important is that what we are a facing is a situation unseen in W
Europe since the 70's: A socdem government coming to power more or less on
the back of an emerging mass movement. The december 1995 strikes were
clearly a turning point which allowed years of anger and frustration to
begin to turn into rising self-confidence. One effect of this is also a
rising confidence when it comes to fighting le Pen. This year has seen huge
demonstrations against not only racism coming from the state, but also a
70.000 demo in Strassbourg at the Front National congress. Since then there
have been many local demonstrations confronting the NF, and during the
election campaign the Socialist Party had a very anti-NF attitude.

People are aware of their history of betrayal, but when looking for an
alternative nothing seems to be in sight.
This means that since we can expect more betrayals, we may also see a
swing-back to the right - or worse: to the fascist Front National.
And it means for revolutionaries that we *should* warn against such betrayals.

>(5) Revolutionaries who visibly
>and actively struggle, as separate entity but in absolute solidarity, with
>parliamentary socdems for explicit reforms will get noticed;

Agreed. I think one should note, however, that France is almost unique in
this. Everywhere else socdems *don't* promise anything. It was the mass
movement and the resulting 'general mood', which made Jospin make a left turn.

>(6) Socialists have some reason to believe their cause is healthier today
>than it was a decade ago (not that it could have got much sicker).

No doubt about this. But it is also a situation where stakes are higher. If
we don't succeed in actually relating to this 'mood for chance' (which
exists not only in France, but in most European countries) and build
sizeable organizations from it before the next crisis, we may loose it.

It is easy to get confused when social democracy makes a tactical turn to
the left. These turns can feed illusions about social democracy, but they
can also feed into growing confidence of workers. Which will be the case
this time has yet to be fought out.

>Good stuff!

Thanks.

PS: My first reply was maybe a little unbalanced, because I just got so
sick of middle class 'greens' who totally reject any real movement in the
base of society. My point was not to let socdems off the hook. On the
contrary: Only if we relate to the hopes and desires which was expressed by
Jospins victory can we put ourselves in a position, where our warnings can
be heard.


Jorn



--
Jorn Andersen

Internationale Socialister
Copenhagen, Denmark
IS-WWW: http://www2.dk-online.dk/users/is-dk/


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