A pointer for our own dear Labour Party
Libération has a contributed item by a former Mitterand minister, Paul Quilès, whose big idea for French Socialism is to go back the thick end of a century and re-read Jean Jaurès. Jaurès is one of those Frenchman they name streets after (along with Victor Hugo and Gambetta...) and it is a safe bet that there will be a Rue Jaurès in most towns and it will be fairly central.
Here he is in full flow. The flag is red, apparently:
Apart from his appeal to street namers, he is most famous for being a Socialist, founding L'Humanité (the paper, not the species) and for being assassinated for his opposition to the First World War by a killer rejoicing in the name 'Villain'. I am NOT making this up.
So, what does Jaurès have to offer today's thrusting, power suit wearing Socialistes? Lots of old school red blooded class war socialism, for example, "In effect, all socialists work for humanity’s fulfillment. Humanity doesn’t yet exist, or rather barely so: in the interior of each nation it is compromised and shattered by class antagonism, by the inevitable struggle between the capitalist oligarchy and the proletariat. Only socialism, in absorbing all classes in the common ownership of the means of labour, can resolve this antagonism and make of every nation, finally reconciled with each other, a parcel of humanity". No hint of Das Godesberger Programm there....
I suppose that would be one of guaranteeing themselves an eternity in the electoral wilderness, and I urge the Parti Socialiste to follow this manifesto, and for the Labour Party to root around in the writings of Hardie and Lansbury (one of my school's old boys) for some similar helpful pointers.
Here he is in full flow. The flag is red, apparently:
Apart from his appeal to street namers, he is most famous for being a Socialist, founding L'Humanité (the paper, not the species) and for being assassinated for his opposition to the First World War by a killer rejoicing in the name 'Villain'. I am NOT making this up.
So, what does Jaurès have to offer today's thrusting, power suit wearing Socialistes? Lots of old school red blooded class war socialism, for example, "In effect, all socialists work for humanity’s fulfillment. Humanity doesn’t yet exist, or rather barely so: in the interior of each nation it is compromised and shattered by class antagonism, by the inevitable struggle between the capitalist oligarchy and the proletariat. Only socialism, in absorbing all classes in the common ownership of the means of labour, can resolve this antagonism and make of every nation, finally reconciled with each other, a parcel of humanity". No hint of Das Godesberger Programm there....
I suppose that would be one of guaranteeing themselves an eternity in the electoral wilderness, and I urge the Parti Socialiste to follow this manifesto, and for the Labour Party to root around in the writings of Hardie and Lansbury (one of my school's old boys) for some similar helpful pointers.
Labels: Extreme Left, France, the Left
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on Thursday, July 31, 2008 at 9:38 am.
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Lansbury's a fascinating figure. A Christian pacifist who defended the Sov Union.
Er - was the Red Army pacifist? Was the Bolshie revolution bloodless? Er - why did they blow up churches and at least one cathedral?
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