“European Left”: Pious wishes and right-wing policies
By Lucas Adler and Peter Schwarz
6 June 2009
The wave of corporate bankruptcies of recent months has dealt a shattering blow to the free market ideological nostrums of the bourgeoisie. Even conservative European politicians are paying lip service to the need for “social responsibility” and state regulation, in order to maintain some sort of credibility with their electorates.
Under these conditions, it now appears likely that the main losers in the European Union parliamentary elections to be completed this weekend will be Europe’s social democratic parties. This is bound up with the fact that the previous government in Germany, headed by Social Democratic Party (SPD) leader Gerhard Schröder, the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and the Socialist Party government of José Zapatero in Spain have all been trailblazers for deregulation of financial markets and the destruction of social welfare programmes. They all claimed that such free market policies would ensure future economic prosperity.
Millions in Germany have suffered the consequences of the Hartz IV anti-welfare laws and other social democratic “reforms.” The results have been similar in the rest of Europe.
There are many indications that the election result at the weekend will, in particular, be the death sentence—or at least a huge nail in the coffin—for the British Labour government.
Seeking to fill the political vacuum left by these parties is the “European Left—a combination of parties that describe themselves as “socialist” or “communist” and currently have 41 deputies in the European parliament.
The main organisations in the group include the German Left Party, the Communist Party of France, the Italian Refounded Communism (PRC) and the Greek Synaspismos. The chairman of the European Left is Lothar Bisky, a leader of the German Left Party alongside Oskar Lafontaine. Bisky replaced Fausto Bertinotti (PRC) as head of the European Left in November 2007.
The European Left has published a joint platform for the European election. The declaration resembles a large department store with a huge variety of products under a single roof. It contains a series of lofty promises on every conceivable topic: enduring economic development and social justice, peace and cooperation, equal rights for women, democratic participation and solidarity, anti-fascism, anti-racism, civil freedoms, human rights, etc.
HIER gibt es ein Personen- und Sachverzeichnis dieses Weblogs. Es soll als zusätzliche Orientierungshilfe zu den "Ressorts" und der Suchfunktion dienen.
hier was von meinen trotkyistischen freunden ueber eure wahlen
“European Left”: Pious wishes and right-wing policies
By Lucas Adler and Peter Schwarz
6 June 2009
The wave of corporate bankruptcies of recent months has dealt a shattering blow to the free market ideological nostrums of the bourgeoisie. Even conservative European politicians are paying lip service to the need for “social responsibility” and state regulation, in order to maintain some sort of credibility with their electorates.
Under these conditions, it now appears likely that the main losers in the European Union parliamentary elections to be completed this weekend will be Europe’s social democratic parties. This is bound up with the fact that the previous government in Germany, headed by Social Democratic Party (SPD) leader Gerhard Schröder, the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and the Socialist Party government of José Zapatero in Spain have all been trailblazers for deregulation of financial markets and the destruction of social welfare programmes. They all claimed that such free market policies would ensure future economic prosperity.
Millions in Germany have suffered the consequences of the Hartz IV anti-welfare laws and other social democratic “reforms.” The results have been similar in the rest of Europe.
There are many indications that the election result at the weekend will, in particular, be the death sentence—or at least a huge nail in the coffin—for the British Labour government.
Seeking to fill the political vacuum left by these parties is the “European Left—a combination of parties that describe themselves as “socialist” or “communist” and currently have 41 deputies in the European parliament.
The main organisations in the group include the German Left Party, the Communist Party of France, the Italian Refounded Communism (PRC) and the Greek Synaspismos. The chairman of the European Left is Lothar Bisky, a leader of the German Left Party alongside Oskar Lafontaine. Bisky replaced Fausto Bertinotti (PRC) as head of the European Left in November 2007.
The European Left has published a joint platform for the European election. The declaration resembles a large department store with a huge variety of products under a single roof. It contains a series of lofty promises on every conceivable topic: enduring economic development and social justice, peace and cooperation, equal rights for women, democratic participation and solidarity, anti-fascism, anti-racism, civil freedoms, human rights, etc.
Jaja,