For fellow Socialists/Social Democrats in the world

[Antonio the Sixth]

I don't know the situation of each party in detail, but most political leaders need to do a single thing : wake up. For three decades, left-wing leaders have gradually abandoned any kind of principled position in order to embrace a vague and pseudo-pragmatist aproach. It's as if they had forgot the even reason why they existed : establishing a just society, regulating the excesses of capitalism, ensuring that every people, regardless of its gender, ethnicity or economic situation, are entitled certain inalienable rights. All this was dropped in the name of "efficiency", with the idea that politics weren't anymore about choosing between alternative visions of society, but about choosing the most "competent" manager of a pre-established and fundamentally unalterable system. In some way, they have made theirs Thatcher's "there is no alternative". The reasons they did are multiple and it would take lots of time to detail them, but the consequences are disastrous, as shown by the left's electoral and cultural decline throughout the West. They have allowed neoliberalism to reach an almost absolute cultural hegemony, and have proven unable to even counter the reactionary "reforms" enacted by the right. Even worse, they have let the working class down and allowed it to fall in the arms of populist and xenophobic parties, thus weakening the left's electoral base even more.

What they need to do now ? Just to look back at the past decades, see what went wrong, and stop doing the same mistakes all over again.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I don't know the situation of each party in detail, but most political leaders need to do a single thing : wake up. For three decades, left-wing leaders have gradually abandoned any kind of principled position in order to embrace a vague and pseudo-pragmatist aproach. It's as if they had forgot the even reason why they existed : establishing a just society, regulating the excesses of capitalism, ensuring that every people, regardless of its gender, ethnicity or economic situation, are entitled certain inalienable rights. All this was dropped in the name of "efficiency", with the idea that politics weren't anymore about choosing between alternative visions of society, but about choosing the most "competent" manager of a pre-established and fundamentally unalterable system. In some way, they have made theirs Thatcher's "there is no alternative". The reasons they did are multiple and it would take lots of time to detail them, but the consequences are disastrous, as shown by the left's electoral and cultural decline throughout the West. They have allowed neoliberalism to reach an almost absolute cultural hegemony, and have proven unable to even counter the reactionary "reforms" enacted by the right. Even worse, they have let the working class down and allowed it to fall in the arms of populist and xenophobic parties, thus weakening the left's electoral base even more.

What they need to do now ? Just to look back at the past decades, see what went wrong, and stop doing the same mistakes all over again.

It would be very interesting if you tried. Globalization and the fear that businesses and capital just move if you irritate the corporate interests plays an important part, but its more complex than that.

I agree the phenomenon is going on all over the Western world. The "inevitability" dynamic is strange. In Denmark we have had an SD and a Democratic Socialist party (SSP) pushing them from the left. Now both parties are in government allied with a Liberal party and follws an austerity course without much (open) criticism from the supposedly left wing SSP.

Globalization and the resulting loss of faith in the primacy of politics is one of the main explanation, of course. Another very important one is that many left parties believe that adopting left-wing policy planks would make them unelectable, and thus tend to base their campaign on the "triangulation" principle. This is, however, an awfully counterproductive strategy, since it makes the entire political landscape shift toward the right, making right-wing parties more and more extremist (just look at the evolution of republicans before and after the election of Clinton and Obama) and further delegitimates left-wing ideas, leading left-wingers to "triangulate" again, etc... Basically, left-wing politicians have forgotten than the role of politicians is to shape the public opinion, not to adapt their views to the (perceived) median voter.

[Antonio the Sixth]

[Antonio the Sixth]

Al, you really didn't need to bother considering the kind of person who said that.