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On Tue, May 11, 2010 at 3:20 AM, Richard Seymour <leninstombb...@googlemail.com> wrote: >> So again, how is that different from the Labour Party? > > I'm sorry, but that's not the same. A trade union in Britain could > easily donate money to the Liberals, but that wouldn't be in any way > commensurate with the structured links between Labour and the organised > working class. Does Democratic Party depend on the unions? No, about > 14% of its funding comes from the unions. Does it depend on working > class support? No, largely not, since most of the working class does > not vote; of those who do vote for either party, the overwhelming > majority have always self-identified as middle class. Does the > Democratic Party allow unions to have a block vote at its national > conventions? No. Does the Democratic National Committee have > union-sponsored members? No. Are there are any Democratic > congressional repesentatives or senators who are specifically > union-sponsored? No. Would the unions matter in the least when it came > to selecting Democratic leadership candidates? No, and certainly > nowhere near as much as capital, especially finance capital. At most, > the unions are a 'special interest', a lobby group that the Democrats > wheel-and-deal with, but have no basis in and no organic structured > connections to. > > Isn't this clear enough? Not really. There are structural differences, sure, but the function and the end result is the same--namely, to neuter the working class. I'm by no means an expert on Britlander electoral politics, but seems to me you're fetishizing these structural linkages. BTW, I can call myself a Martian, just like a worker can call himself middle class, but saying so doesn't make it so. Greg ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
