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What's new at Links: Social democracy & neoliberalism, NUMSA, Podemos,
red-red-green gov't, Lenin & Kautsky, 'pink tide', Ukraine, Thailand,
Karl Liebknecht
* * *
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* * *
Social democracy and neoliberalism: victim or vanguard?
<http://links.org.au/node/4183>
By *Damien Cahill*, Sydney
December 4, 2014 --Earlier this year Ed Miliband, leader of the British
Labour Party, addressed a specially organised gathering of business
leaders with the following words: "I would be a prime minister who
champions the rights of the consumer and the rights of businesses to
succeed and make profits in a competitive market at the same time." That
such sentiments could be expressed by a Labour leader in the neoliberal
era is unremarkable. Social-democratic parties have been falling over
themselves during the last few decades to reassure capital that, not
only have they jettisoned their socialist inheritance, they are also
firmly on board with the neoliberal agenda.
* Read more <http://links.org.au/node/4183>
South Africa: NUMSA rejects dirty tricks campaign, bogus document
<http://links.org.au/node/4180>
The *National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa* (NUMSA) responds to
the "Exposed: Secret Regime Change Plot to Distabilize South Africa"
document
December 3, 2014 -- Over the last 10-days, a document that alleges that
NUMSA leaders are involved in an underground plot to destabilise South
Africa has been doing its rounds. The document which is entitled
"Exposed: Secret Regime Change Plot to Distabilize [sic] South Africa"
names two elected national officer bearers of the National Union of
Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), Irvin Jim and Karl Cloete as the
kingpins of the plot.
* Read more <http://links.org.au/node/4180>
Pablo Iglesias (Podemos) on working-class consciousness and politics
<http://links.org.au/node/4188>
Spanish leftist leader *Pablo Iglesias*, from the political party
Podemos, explains his approach to the masses. During its campaign for
the 2014 European election, Podemos was criticised by some on the left
for avoiding traditional terms such as "class struggle", "bourgeois",
"proletariat"...
Germany: Red-red-green government in Thuringia
<http://links.org.au/node/4187>
By *Victor Grossman*
December 7, 2014 -- Political parties in Germany are represented by
colours: the Christian-Democrats (CDU), due to clerical ties, are black,
the Greens of course are green, the Social Democrats (SPD) are
traditionally red. When the redder Die Linke (Left) party came along
critics said the SPD should switch to "pink". But it didn't, so the new
government in the eastern state of Thuringia is a "red-red-green
coalition" -- the very first in Germany with the Die Linke on top! A
true sensation! The coalition squeezed to victory -- by one single
wavering vote.
* Read more <http://links.org.au/node/4187>
Lars Lih on Lenin and Kautsky: 'The strange case of the closeted
Lenin' <http://links.org.au/node/4186>
December 4, 2014 -- According to some comrades in the Socialist Workers
Party (UK), Lenin was a hypocrite who did not say what he thought. In
this article, based on a speech to a London Communist Forum, *Lars T.
Lih* puts the record straight.
* Read more <http://links.org.au/node/4186>
Latin America: Why predictions of an ebb in the 'Pink Tide' proved
premature <http://links.org.au/node/4184>
By *Federic Fuentes*
December 7, 2014 -- Since the start of the year, numerous newspapers
have dedicated article after article to predictions of a looming demise
of the so-called "Pink Tide". The term is used to refer to the wave of
left-of-centre governments elected to power in Latin America during
recent years. A number of these governments were up for re-election this
year, and pollsters and commentators alike argued that for many, their
time in government was up.
* Read more <http://links.org.au/node/4184>
Ukraine: A year after Maidan, 'nothing has changed for the better'
<http://links.org.au/node/4182>
By *Andriy Manchuk*, translated by *Renfrey Clarke
*December 5, 2014 -- On November 21, 2014, Ukraine triumphantly
celebrated the first anniversary of the "Euromaidan", which not only
changed the situation in our country fundamentally, but also
substantially altered the agenda of world politics. In November 2013,
when the protests in Kiev had barely begun, few would have expected
their consequences to become so massive.
* Read more <http://links.org.au/node/4182>
Thailand's official religion is not Buddhism but 'Monarchy'
<http://links.org.au/node/4181>
By *Giles Ji Ungpakorn*
December 5, 2014 -- As far as the Thai ruling class is concerned, the
official religion of the country, which they are forever trying to ram
down our throats, is not Buddhism but "Monarchy".
* Read more <http://links.org.au/node/4181>
When Karl Liebknecht said 'no' to World War I
<http://links.org.au/node/4179>
By *John Riddell*
December 2, 2014 -- During the first four months of the First World War,
no statement from German socialists appeared denouncing the war.
Government repression and the bonds of Social Democratic Party
discipline prevented anti-war voices, such as those of Rosa Luxemburg
and Karl Liebknecht, from gaining a hearing. This changed 100 years ago
on December 2, 1914. Liebknecht took a bold stand against the slaughter
as the first deputy to vote in the German parliament (Reichstag) against
allocating funds for war spending. His protest resounded across Europe
and gave new hope and energy to socialist antiwar currents.
* Read more <http://links.org.au/node/4179>
* * *
Links seeks to promote the international exchange of information,
experience of struggle, theoretical analysis and views of political
strategy and tactics within the international left. It is a forum for
open and constructive dialogue between active socialists coming from
different political traditions. It seeks to bring together those in the
international left who are opposed to neoliberal economic and social
policies. It aims to promote the renewal of the socialist movement in
the wake of the collapse of the bureaucratic model of "actually existing
socialism" in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
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