Wednesday, 24 December 2008

Why New Zealand Labour is no longer social democratic

This article originally appeared in UNITY journal issue 2, in February 2006. The conclusion of the article reflects hopes for the Workers Charter as a political project which did not pan out as we hoped. Nevertheless, we think this article's analysis is still sound, and deserves reprinting as a contribution to an ongoing debate on leftist blogs. All those who support social and environmental justice have to be careful not to be sucked into the quicksand of the Labour Party's ongoing capitulation to neoliberalism, even when they're in opposition. The journey to social liberalism by Daphne Lawless and Grant Morgan Over the past century, socialists worldwide have often called for a "class vote" for social democratic and Labour parties. That's because these mass reformist parties, while elitist and pro-capitalist, were profoundly influenced by the union hierarchy and did in a distorted way embody workers' hopes for a better world.

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