Re: Jorn Andersen on Italian Socialism

[Jorn Andersen <ccc6639@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Wei En Lin wrote:

> Greetings to Jorn Andersen from Wei En Lin.

Thank you - and also a welcome on the list from me.
Just a few comments to your - too - kind reply:


> Of course the phony left is no better than the self-proclaimed right.

I don't hope you have read this out of my post ... ;-)
I would always side with the left - however "phony", reformist
etc. - against the right. (In Denmark the Social Democrat
government has made severe cuts which the previous bourgeois
government couldn't. Still I would side with them against
the neo-liberal, reactionary parties of the right.)


> But at least it will feel some pressure to compromise, to allow
> the real left more breathing room.

I don't think there is much historic evidence to support this
claim. Reformists in government usually spend a lot of their
time and efforts to try to check the "real left". When they're
*not* in government they usually "allow the real left more
breathing room" as long as it is within a safe electoral frame.

What really gets the "real left" more breathing room is mass
opposition *against* reformist as well as outright bourgeois
governments.


> I see opportunity where you perhaps see the same old story.
> You know the situation better than I do, so I admit
> it may be wrong to hope here that a window may open.

First, I am far from an expert on Italy.
Second, I also see opportunity and hope - but maybe we would
look to different places to find it? :-)

What I wanted to emphasize was not doom + gloom, but rather
that stakes are higher today. "The same old story" - yes,
but the context is changing.


Yours

Jorn Andersen

IS
Denmark



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