RUMOURS of the death of social democracy are greatly exaggerated. Writers on the right and the cent months to proclaim its demise. Left wing critics of the Labour Party have accused Blair and his cohorts "reformists without reforms", of going so far to the right as to go over the edge.
But we said this of Smith before him. And Kinnock before that. They had little more to offer in the way of reforms Who was it that began the austerity drive in the 1970s? Not Thatcher. It was the Labour Party's very own Dennis It is the case though that Blair is a lot bolder than his predecessors, going further and faster. He has ruthlessly used the apparatus of the party to bully, cajole and splinter all opposition.
The new Road to the Manifesto proposals for decision making by plebimaking-hand picked researchers will write the policy, the clique around Blair will vet it, and then it will be handed to the party for complete acceptance or veto.
Just like the clause four process the party rank and file will have no chance to make amendments and the leader will chur out the "back me or sack me rhetoric to turn up the heat The speed and extent of the latest right wing offensive has led some on the left to conclude that the party bas fundamentally changed. Some have even extended the analysis to include all the social democratic parties in Europe.
This is a mistake. It rests upon a mis-reading of social democracy's past. eft have rushed with a little too much haste in re. e Social Democracy has always been completely pro-capitalist. Not once has it sought to challenge the rule of capital, indeed it has invariably relied on support from sections of the bourof family values and hetro-sexuality championed by the shadow cabinet is Was it not that "left winger" Wil. son who sent the troops to Ireland, tried to smash up the National Union of Seamen, backed the brutal US war in Vietnam and tried to introduce in Place of Strife to shackle the trades Similarly, the social democratic parties in Europe retain mass working class support. It was astounding how well PSOE did recently in Spain. despite Gonzalez's disgraceful recent record in office.
The continuity is as striking as the chanses, It is the situation that has che basic nature of che parties.
Social Democracy's new range of options has however, led it to refashion some of its ideology. This is an important political development.
John Gray's recent pamphlet After Social Democracy published by the Demos thinktank is one attempt to give it sense of direction.
Gray, like so many social demo: cratic and liberal writers, rationalises the new predicament and the need to implement austerity in terms of global. isation and the disappearance of the MAin cass, "The class basis of social-demo. It was astounding how well PSOE did recently In Spain. The continulty is as striking as the changes. It is the situation that has altered more than the basic nature of the parties.
cratic parties, not only in Britain but throughout Europe. has been eaten away by economic change" he writes, "insofar as it was embodied in a labourist movement, social democracy is now a political project without an historical agent". The evidence for this disappearance Socialist Campaign Group MP Dennis Skinner was one of only two Labour NEC members who opposed Blair's manifesto proposols is nowhere to be found of course. It is still very much with us—-indeed one of the biggest problems faced by European capitalism is the continued organ. isational strength of the western Europcan workers moycaical.
But the crisis of its leadership has deepened. Support for the market and the neo-liberal offensive the rhetoric of full em. ployment these days. None of them pretend to be fighting for so. cialism anymore.
Mitterand's attempt at economic expansion in the early 1980s was probably the last attempt to implement the traditional Keynesian governmental economic strategies of investment through deficit financing. The favoured Swedish model fell apart in the early The new Europe has been a big blow for social democracy. Those who have been under the illusion that Maastrict would bring a northern European style order of civic welfare and cosmopoli. tanism have heen harshly disanpointed.
This shift poses genuine problems for socialists. The more the leaders of the workers' movement back austerity.
But this articurry docs not mean we should give up the struggle. The mass social democratic parties remain the only posstole govermental artemaive to the parties of the bourgeoisic.
They continue to be central to the workers' movement and important in determining the nature of struggle. We write them off at our peril.