Comments on: Zygmunt Bauman on The Progressive Future

By: SocProf

SocProf — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:30:39 +0000

And thanks for all the links and videos… very interesting.

By: SocProf

SocProf — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:30:13 +0000

Dude, don’t get me started on the Third Way or Giddens!

By: crtiticalcontexts

crtiticalcontexts — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 18:31:34 +0000

And this:

How a Swedish Social Democrat sounds like…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUaWbF8QvEc

By: crtiticalcontexts

crtiticalcontexts — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 18:14:46 +0000

Watch this :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o16I1AfT-QQ

By: crtiticalcontexts

crtiticalcontexts — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 17:40:18 +0000

Follow up:

I forgot to mention A.T.T.A.C and the Gruenen

By: crtiticalcontexts

crtiticalcontexts — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 17:34:13 +0000

I am going to find a fruitful way to be part of this discussion. I would offer a slightly different left-right spin. I guess there are a few things that Bauman might have overlooked when talking about the hidden ramifications of third way politics.He is correct to claim that many Social Democratic Parties have very few economic policy differences than most political parties from the right platforms. However,Germany and Sweden have faced serious political consequences with the introduction of third-way policies into their traditional social democratic politics. First, Gerhard Schroeders plan to bring in NEO-liberal policies AKA, “HARTZ Recommendations” into the social-democratic stream produced the splintering of the left and mobilization of the unions which produced the WASG (Wahl Alternative fuer Soziale Gerechtigkeit) that later formed an alliance with the LEFT PARTY. (((There is a long laundry list of dates th I could mention here but decided to leave out for now))) One major failure of neo-liberal politics was the attempt to completely privatize all train roads and federal train operations over to private investors which resulted in a number of strikes including the GDL “Gewerkschft Deutscher Lokomotive Fuehrer) .Interestingly, because of the recent Financial crisis and growing mistrust of capitalism the complete attempt to sell the remaining parts of German railways was placed on a freeeze. In the state of Hessen, there is now a RED-GREEN-RED Coalition being formed which will have permanent future ramifications for the German Social Democratic party to adjust with the LEFT PARTY. In Sweden, the longest EVERruling Social Democratic party was voted out of the Rikstag/ parliament and a NEW CENTER ALLIANCE took over.To be sure, Third way politics often attempted to produce (quasi) centrist approaches as first authored by Anthony Giddens who wanted to give some intellectual advise to the large Social Democratic parties in Europe ( New Labor) and in the Unitid States (Clinton).It is very important to also look at the contexts and social locations Giddens wrote this book.He wrote the book during the mid-90’s and at that time he was Director of the London School of Economics .I am going to argue that third way politics was a re-framing effort and political spin that attempted to find a centrist way to tackle the new waves of Radical/Neo-conservatism and proletarian conservatist streams of ideological politics that were on the horizon in the U.S.

By: SocProf

SocProf — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 05:41:44 +0000

You know, that’s a really good point. And so far, from what I have read (admittedly, not a whole lot), no one is offering anything remotely like an alternative. A lot of patches, yes, a lot of “the same + some regulations” but that’s about it.

I have to say that I miss real alternative economists like Alain Lipietz.

Which is why I think alternative economics will come out of the global civil society and social movements, but since these guys do not have access to the mass media, we don’t really hear about the work being done (and to be sure, these guys – such as the World Social Forum – are the masters when it comes to getting bogged down with semantics to avoid any remote trace of neo-colonialism).

Or maybe economic alternatives will come from the grassroots, from the ground up, in local initiatives, such as solidarity economics (something I have blogged about previously).

By: Dangger

Dangger — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 01:57:35 +0000

I was hearing an interview with Slavoj Zizek and he gave a very good observation. He said that giving a picture of the economic world is a job well done by the left, eg Naomi Klein. But besides describing or even explaining, where is the alternative?