21st Centuary Socialism

It is a measure of how low poltical debate has sunk in the UK that we have just seen a marked swing in political support from the Labour Party to the Conservatives over two completely empty issues - inheritance tax and the EU Treaty referendum.

The media coverage - and indeed the political speeches - have been entirely superficial. Obviously the level at which Inheritance tax is set is arbitrary so there could be a sensible discussion of the level at which it should be levied, but you would never know from the current posturing that it is a tax which affects only 6% of the population and which starts at a rate of only 1% of what is for the most part a purely unearned windfall based on the inflationary rise of house prices.

Similarly the demand for a referendum on the revised EU treaty has been on slogans and flag-waving about whether or not UK "should be in Europe" a matter that is not relevant to the revisions.

I find it pretty depressing that the political future of our country is dependent on this kind of tosh.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/13/2007 02:55AM by Tom-B.

Lets face it: in the 'first world', most people seem to view politics either with cynical disinterest or complete ignorance. I do not know how bad it is in Britain, but if New Zealand (where I currently reside) is anything to go by, most people simply don't care enough about politics, and people only seem to respond to exactly these kind of petty, insignificant issues, if they respond at all. Mostly they complain a lot but do nothing. (For instance, in the local body elections that ended a few days ago, only about 25% of the countries population actually voted!)

In the two party democracies that we seem so fond of, there really isn't enough difference between the major parties anyway. And at the same time, most people aren't politically active enough to know anything about, let alone consider voting for, any of the parties who would make real changes in the world.

This is the political stagnation of the neo-liberal word. Most people don't care enough about what happens in the world. But is anything involves the word 'taxes', they'll certainly respond... with a suitable lack of understanding about what these 'changes' actually mean.

-Aidan.

>> This is the political stagnation of the neo-liberal word. Most people don't care enough about what happens in the world. But is anything involves the word 'taxes', they'll certainly respond... with a suitable lack of understanding about what these 'changes' actually mean. <<

That's true but the left has to take some responsibility for that. We have allowed even ostensibly 'left' parties like the UK Labour Party to be entirely hi-jacked by conservatives to the point where it habitually allies with employers against the Trade Unions who founded it.

Our pre-occupation has too often been the creation of ever more of the 47 varieties of socialist factions more intent on demonstrating their theoretical purity to each other than actually achieving change. The creation of the Scottish Parliament presented an opportunity to build some socialist credibility with the public. And a new party - The Scottish Socialist Party - duly emerged, made significant headway, but then promptly destroyed itself setting back the left's credibility for years in the process.

It would be interesting to have views from other members on how they see us making progress. I'm in need of something to cheer me up :-(



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/14/2007 01:19AM by Tom-B.

Personally, I have to look away from our own governments, and look at the Bolivarian Federation in Latin America for inspiration. I don't think Britain or Europe can successfully 'go left' without someone elsewhere setting the example. If Chavez and Morales and Correa (supported by Fidel, of course) can successfully create a new model for countries that exist for the people, and where the majority of the people understand, and remain interested in, politics, then hopefully other parts of the world can depart from the neo-liberal system and revive proper socialism.

Until this happens, I feel the best we, in the 'first world' can do is to stop our own countries from destroying the true left. Many governments in the first world are fearful of the return of the left, and seek to stop it, whether by military means, economic pressure, or propaganda. I believe that as socialists we must do everything we can to combat these efforts.

We can't expect a 'glorious return' of old-style socialism - that is dead now. We can't even expect a return of political awareness and the accompanying left-wing sympathy just yet. We must accept that the majority of our populations remain ignorant to, or worse, opposed to, socialism. The political scene in Britain (and elsewhere) today takes after the American one - there is no true left, the 'left' is just less right than the rest. But our democracy isn't dead, and it still has its uses. If (for the moment) we can concentrate on stopping the swing to the right that we are experiencing, then, hopefully, we will be able to set the left back on track.

A better world is possible, as Fidel said, but right now the true left is in the hands of the Bolivarians. But these are capable hands, and if we can stop our own governments from cutting them off, then they will be able to fix the world. All these other socialist factions have to accept that Fidel, Chavez, Morales and Correa are our faces now. The Soviets, the Maoists, European communists, they're no longer factors. The 'Bolivarians' are all that's left. The rest of us are still important, but that's where our hope lies.

-Aidan.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/2007 10:57AM by Aidan.

Hi Tom & Aidan.

Re: Tom's remarks on the issue of inheritance tax.

By seizing on this issue, the British Tories have managed a repeat, in opposition, of the political coup which they pulled off while in power in 1992, by creating an unfounded fear in the minds of millions of above-average income voters that the Labour Party would tax away their precious advantages.

There's an article on this site, called 'Culpability Brown' (http://21stcenturysocialism.com/article/culpability_brown_01460.html)
which looks at that episode and also the issue of tax breaks for pension funds, in a consideration of the economic & ideological aspects of electoral politics in the UK.

I have to note something which unfortunately will not cheer Tom up- though I think it does help explain some aspects of political behaviour. Karl Marx said something like: the ruling ideas of each age are the ideas of its ruling class.

I don't know whether either of you are familiar with Arthur Miller's works, but this great US playwright explored this theme in his wonderful and very sad play 'Death of a Salesman'. In the play (published in 1947), the middle-class family possess a refrigerator which, although it keeps going wrong and they can barely afford the re-payments for it, symbolises their 'success' in US society.

The inequality which is created by capitalism, though it is the focus of much of the criticism of the system, actually becomes one of its ideological strengths. People are regarded as 'winners' and 'losers'. Many people identify-up with the 'winners', even to the extent of being susceptible to the false suggestion that they will be hurt by taxes which only affect a small minority, much richer than they will ever be.

Re: Aidan's remarks on Bolivarianism. "Fidel, Chavez, Morales and Correa are our faces now". Yes indeed!

But for the current socialist movement, mainly based in Latin America, to succeed and spread, it must and will learn from the successes as well as the problems of the previous left-wing movements, including Chartism, Fabianism, Sovietism, Maoism etc.

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