[PEN-L:9394] Re: The discussion about social democracy

[Elaine Bernard <HTUP@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well, I'm going to weigh in with my buddy Sid, especially
when he quotes Tony Benn.

There's a concrete example of what he's talking about here
in the US.

For years, Lane Kirkland (anyone remember him!) said that
labor needed to elect a democratic president with a democratic
congress and we would get labor law reform, and the revitalization
of labor.  So, we did that -- in 1992 and got NAFTA, Welfare
elimination, you name it....

However, when labor mobilized in 1995 (with a Republican
Congress) and our barely Democratic congress we finally get
an increase in Minimum Wage.  It wasn't on Congresses
agenda, but "America Needs A Raise" was on labor's agenda,
and the mobilization, actions of unions forced it onto
Congresses agenda.

I';m not arguing (nor do I think Sid is arguing) that
we should all turn into anarcho-syndicalists and worry
only about direct action and the mobilization in the
streets -- but by the same token, we need to combine
legislative action with mass action if I could be so
blunt.  And there is an inevitable tension (which is
why you need both a labor party and unions, and why
they spend so much time fighting with each other) between
those in the legislature and those in the streets.

As an old NDP MP use to say, "its not just power that
corrupts, it's also the avid anticipation of power
which corrupts."

The main problem I have with social democratic governments
(and I've worked with a few) is that they don't understnad
the difference between BEING IN GOVERNMENT and BEING
IN POWER.  When the people elect you, you may be in
Government, but Capital is still in power, and it
takes much more than an election to significantly
transform power.  To do that you need mobilization,
action, and lots and lots of confrontation.

"Let me give you a word of the philosophy of reform.
The whole history of the progress of human liberty
shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims,
have been borne of earnest struggle.  The conflict has
been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the
time being, putting all other tumults to silence.
It must do this or it does nothing.  If there is no
struggle there is no progress.  Those who profess to
favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation, are men who
want crops without plowing up the ground, they want
rain without thunder and lightening.  They want the ocean
without the awful roar of its many waters."

        West India Emancipation Speech, August 1857
        Frederick Douglass


We need legislative action, and political action,
and we need to construct a mass, democratic membership
party -- accountability and democracy are not genetic
predispositions, they are tough processes which we need
to work on.  But we need to ROAR in the streets too!

Elaine Bernard