A Future That Works

A Future That Works
NO2aTory/Liberal coalition - Vote with your feet for an alternative to a neo-liberal economy and neo-conservative state Yes2aLeftFront and a Red/Green Left Alliance

Wednesday 5 October 2011

Social-democratic/Socialist Europe vs Neo-liberal/Neo-conservative Europe

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso of the Partido Social Democrata Portugal says the European Union ‘‘probably’’ needs treaty changes to cope with the economic crisis, ‘‘We may need treaty change for more integration if current (financial) mechanisms are proved not to be enough’’. Jose Manuel Barroso told a press conference Europe needed ‘‘renewal’’ to cope with the crisis, ‘‘Only through more Europe and a more committed European leadership can we renew our common capacity to act to ensure Europe counts in the world by promoting its social market economy’’.

5 comments:

  1. Social Democrat Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt of Denmark says his government will increase public spending to kick-start the country's economy and protect the welfare state after forming a coalition government with the
    Social Liberal Party, and left-wing Socialist People's Party. Thorning-Schmidt says that her government ‘‘will show the way out of the crisis’’ by spending 10 billion kroner (£1.2 billion) to renovate council housing and upgrade railways, bicycle paths and roads, adding that the government stimulus would bolster the public purse by generating ‘‘new jobs’’ thus stimulating effective demand and boosting income tax receipts, ‘‘We are very proud of our economic plan. We believe it will get us through the crisis and ensure the future of the welfare state’’ and it vowed to roll out wind power to ensure that half of the country's electricity originates from the renewable source by 2020.

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  2. There is an alternative to the Tory/Liberal vision of Anglo/American neo-liberal/neo-conservative austerity with cuts in social provisions for the people so that the wealth can maintain and increase their share of the economic cake. If the Left can gain power then there is an alternative, what is needed is the vision and will to confront the ideology of the Tory/Liberal coalition and for a Left-Labour alliance of progressive forces against the regressive alliance of the Conservative and Liberal-Democrat parties in Britain. What is needed is the will and confidence to fight the programme of austerity and cuts being implemented by David Cameron and Nick Clegg’s coalition government.

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  3. We face the greatest threat to the real gains made by class struggle in Britain and Europe since the 1930’s. It’s no good the British Left doing what they have been doing for the last thirty years, it’s obviously not working or we wouldn’t be facing the threat we are from a confident capitalist class offensive to finish what Thatcher and Reagan started. We are witness the dismantling of what is left of the welfare state and privatization of health, education and all social provisions under the pretext of the crisis of finance capital, Britain isn’t going to pull out of the European Union under a Tory/Liberal coalition or even a Tory or a Labour government.

    The reality is we have to fight the Lisbon Treaty and the Single European Act which call for privatization and marketization of health, education and social provision with the European left parties and the ETUC. That’s the theoretical and concrete historical material reality the British left faces. If the British Left haven’t the correct strategy and understanding then they will be irrelevant in the broad fightback against the neo-liberal and neo-conservative offensive of the Tory/Liberal coalition government, European Union directives and Treaties and global finance capital.

    In Denmark the Socialistisk Folke Parti (Socialist People's Party) and in France the Parti Communiste Français (Communist Party of France) now play a major role in their countries political direction which is the proposed objective of the Communist Party of Britain in the BRS when it calls for a Left Labour government with socialist and communist MP’s. If the objective of having communist MP’s as was the case in 1945 when Phil Piratin and Willie Gallacher became the communist MP’s for Stepney Mile End London and Fife West Glasgow then the CPB leadership needs to be made more visible in working with fellow left parties in the European Union and therefore increase their viability as a political as well as economic force in the labour movement.

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  4. According to the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne the Tory/Liberal coalition government has a ‘‘credible fiscal plan’’ to enable Britain to ride out the economic storm, B******s. Mervyn King the Bank of England governor warns that the squeeze on household incomes by the Chancellor's austerity measures are likely to continue to restrict spending, add to this City predator credit rating agency Moody's slashing the ratings of British banks and building societies. It’s time for Plan B or C as Plan A and A+ are failing badly, its thirty years of neo-liberal economics and neo-conservative governance that has brought Britain and the world to the edge of an economic vortex. Social-democratic Keynesian policies, Plan B could provide a temporary reprieve for capitalism as it did after 1945 up to the mid 1970’s but ultimately the only real alternative is Plan C which is to replace capitalism with socialism based on production that is for its use-value rather than profits from surplus-value for a parasitic capitalist elite.

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  5. European Left, Paris, 8th of October 2011

    ‘‘The fight against the austerity measures adopted by European governments is building resistance across Europe that is gaining strength and social support. These austerity measures include cuts to wages and public services, increased taxes for the poorest members of society, dismantling of services in areas such as education and health.’’

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