Left Margin
Surprise: the Left is Not Going Away
By Carl Bloice, BlackCommentator Editorial Board
Black Ccommentator: October 8, 2009
The reported demise of the European left has been greatly exaggerated.
In fact, with the results of Sunday's balloting in Greece a case can be made
for the opposite conclusion.
"A specter is haunting Europe - the specter of Socialism's slow collapse,"
wrote Steven Erlanger in the New York Times. "Even in the midst of one of
the greatest challenges to capitalism in 75 years, involving a breakdown of
the financial system due to 'irrational exuberance,' greed and the weakness
of regulatory systems, European Socialist parties and their left-wing
cousins have not found a compelling response, let alone taken advantage of
the right's failures," wrote Erlanger September 28. That line has been
conspicuously repeated in articles in the major U.S. media over the past few
weeks, the thread being that even amid the severe economic crisis voters in
the major industrialized countries are moving to the right. However, the
evidence for this shift, for Erlanger's contention that the left is being
"trounced," across the continent simply isn't there.
That is, unless you start confusing categories like "socialist" with "social
democratic" and "left." It's true that the fortunes of the mainline social
democratic or labor parties have declined (but even that is not a severe as
it is being portrayed). It's possible to see it that way if you ignore how
well some of the "left-wing cousins" are doing.
Let's look at some of the recent election tallies:
a.. Germany. Three parties increased their votes in the September 27
parliamentary elections; two of them are on the left. Andrea Merkel will
remain as chancellor in coalition with the pro-business (but socially
liberal) Free Democratic Party). But her party the Christian Democratic
Union hasn't done so badly in 60 years. Its sister party, the Christian
Social Union in Bavaria was indeed trounced. The biggest gainers in the
election were the left party "Die Linke" (11.9 percent) and the Green Party
(10.7 percent) and the FDP. As John Palmer noted in the Guardian (UK),
almost as many Germans voted for parties to the left of the Social Democrats
as for the SPD itself.
a.. Norway. Norwegians returned their Labor-dominated government to
office, and, in the words of the New York Times, narrowly endorsing the
government's "pursuit of expanded public services and rejecting angry
demands by some of his opponents to crack down harshly on immigration." A
three-party left-wing coalition won a total of 86 seats in the 169-seat
Parliament. Labour remained Norway's biggest party, winning 64 seats with 35
per cent of the vote, the results showed. Its junior partners, the Socialist
Left and the Centre Party, each won 11 seats. Of the opposition parties The
Progress Party led with 23 per cent of votes and 40 seats
a.. Portugal. Portuguese voters returned the Socialists to power in national
elections, but the party fell slightly short of the absolute majority it
needed in parliament to carry out its program alone. The Socialists (37
percent) won 113 seats, three short of an absolute majority and only one
more than they held in the previous 230-seat parliament. The conservative
Social Democrats declined to 84 seats, down three from the previous
parliament. The Communist-Green Party coalition captured over 30,000 more
votes than in the last election while the Left Bloc, an alliance of former
Maoist, Trotskyist and other left groups secured 16 seats (10 percent) and
the Communist Party won 15 seats. The conservative Popular Party, (10.5
percent) garnered 21 seats. The fact that nearly 30 percent of the vote went
to parties to the left of the ruling Socialist can be attribute to a series
of reforms it has instituted which have upset the countries unions such as
raising the civil service retirement age from 60 to 65 and sharp cuts in
social welfare services.
("In France, the Socialist party also lost many votes in the last general
election to factions to its left, although their failure to offer a united
progressive alternative meant that the political impact of these votes was
greatly diminished," observed Palmer in the Guardian. " In Denmark, the
Social Democrats now find themselves running almost neck and neck with the
left wing - but generally pro-European - Peoples' Socialist party. One
reason why the Portuguese party only narrowly scraped back into office in
the general election was the loss of votes to parties to its left.")
a.. Greece. The Socialists PASOK scored its largest margin of victory ever
(43.7 percent) and will have commanding majority in the new parliament. The
conservative New Democracy party was indeed trounced (34.6 percent). The
Communist Party (7.54 percent), the far right-wing LAOS (5.63 percent) and
the Syriza Left Coalition (4.9 percent) retained their representation in
parliament. At 2.5 percent, the Greens will not make it into the new
parliament.
And so it goes. The much touted decline of the European left turned out to
be pretty much of a mirage. The continent's politics are being realigned not
in spite of but because of the economic crisis. And the much of the gain has
gone to the left - taken as a whole.
***
From: Dick Platkin
What: Fund raising benefit for the Israeli Committee Against House
Demolitions (ICAHD) and its director Jeff Halper
When: Sunday afternoon, October 18, 2009; 1 -3 PM
Location and Parking: 4th Floor Penthouse on Venice Beach at 8 Brooks
Avenue, Venice, CA. Free parking with shuttle busses to fundraiser from
nearby beach parking lot.
Featuring: Brief presentations by Rev. Darryl Meyers and Prof. Chuck
O'Connell.
o Screening of Homes and Homeland, a 30-minute film by Ed Gaffney and
Alicia Dwyer that features Jeff Halper and the ICAHD story. Filmmaker Ed
Gaffney will be present to discuss his film and the work of the ICAHD.
o Music, refreshments, and catered food
o Premiums based on level of contributions beginning at $50 level.
Sponsors: LA Jews for Peace, Friends of Sabeel, and Jews for Peace between
Israel & Palestine
Endorsed by: Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles
***
----- Original Message -----
From: Carmen Vega
To: cvpoema@hotmail.com
Sent: Monday, October 12, 2009 12:44 PM
Subject: Mio Peace Rally - Galvanized Kin
Hola,
Inspired by the opposition I received for attending a peace rally, I
got inspired to put this together.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxO01IFqoBk
My poem to a montage of my shots with a little inspiration from Woody
Guthrie.
Take a look on youtube.
Much luv!
: )
Peace
La Poeta
Carmen V.
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