Chilling echo of the 1930s?
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Article by John Palmer, from last week's Guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/15/far-right-threat-europe-integration
Palmer was at one time a prominent member of the "International Socialism" group (and Labour parliamentary candidate when IS was boring from within the Labour Party). IS later became the SWP but he left in 1975 when it became more Leninist. He became the Guardian's European editor and then the head of a pro-EU think tank.
Is he just scaremongering? After all, the SWP has been notorious for exaggerating the "fascist threat".
This article from the Guardian a few days later to the one above presents a more measured view:http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/18/europe-angry-nationalist-eu-electionsSo you pays your money ….
No doubt these xenophobic, nationalist parties will do well in next year's elections to the European Parliament but that will be because, as the EP is only a talking shop not a real law-making parliament, people can and do use elections to it just to protest. IIt is bad that this will take the form it is likely to, but rallying round the mainstream parties of capitalism,as Palmer and the other bloke advocate, is not the answer.An actual return to the national protectionist policies of the 1930s (as advocated by leftwing No2EU type parties as well) is highly unlikely, as the capitalist class and their mainstream political representatives have learnt the lessons of that period. They are not going to dismantle the tariff-free "common market" they've worked so hard to build up over the years as they know that would only make things worse.
Not yet the 1930s: "The shock that hit the world economy in 2008 was on a par with that which launched the Depression. In the 12 months following the economic peak in 2008, industrial production fell by as much as it did in the first year of the Depression. Equity prices and global trade fell more. Yet this time no depression followed.Although world industrial output dropped by 13% from peak to trough in what was definitely a deep recession, it fell by nearly 40% in the 1930s. American and European unemployment rates rose to barely more than 10% in the recent crisis; they are estimated to have topped 25% in the 1930s."The Economist 10 December 2011 url=http://www.economist.com/node/21541388
Do real socialists of any stripe, or real liberals or progressives, jeexz dont even know what term to use, do real human rights and equality advocates, have and kind of voice (i.e. media coverage) over there in England or Europe? Any way to say that problem is NOT immigrants?IS there any way right now to 'lift all boats' a little higher, if people were willing to enact change?Thanks
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