Tony Blair gets into government and declares he is not for socialism, but for a brand new 'Third Way'. Alexa McDonough tours Europe to discuss with Danish bankers and Blairite enthusiasts and comes back to Canada preaching friendship with Business. In a recent article Alexa calls for "A Third Approach to Change". Workers and youth looking to the NDP to change society want to know exactly what kind of change is proposed and what it means for them.

In Britain, the ending of 18 years of Tory government and the landslide victory of the Labour Party was met by general euphoria. People had rejected the market ideology and cronyism of the Conservatives; on polling day 54% came out in favour of re-nationalization of the privatized utilities and 74% wanted redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor. Instead of using this groundswell of popular support to put through socialist measures to improve the lot of working class people, the Blairites talked of "unreasonable expectations" and began creating the myth that Tony Blair (who thought he would end up in a coalition with the Liberals) was entirely responsible for the victory.

Strategy

Blair has two strategies to achieve his aim of removing the last trace of socialism from the Labour Party. In the Labour Party power is being concentrated around the ruling clique and eroded from party members and affiliated trade unionists. Only MP's and members that shower praise on the leadership are allowed to speak at the party conference, resolutions have been banned, and trade unionists (irrespective of how right wing they may be) are pushed out into the cold. All this in an effort by the leadership to "appear strong" and please Big Business. This lack of democratic accountability of the leadership to the members also leads to corruption. When the head of Formula 1 motor racing donated Can$ 2.5 million to the Labour Party, Formula 1 suddenly became exempt for the proposed ban on tobacco advertising. When the scandal broke Tony Blair gave the money back, but the exemption remained! Business can definitely say Blair is good value for money. Further corruption scandals are an inevitable outcome of the erosion of democracy.

On the other front, Blair has united with Clinton to push the supposedly new philosophy of the Third Way. He sells it as compassion with a hard edge, a dynamic market economy with community values. Nowhere is this Third Way actually defined, we have to accept it on trust. But what do these buzz-words really mean, and why has Alexa McDonough fallen for it?

Speaking on this new direction, NDP parliamentary caucus chair, Nelson Riis, said that the success of the private sector is "absolutely crucial" to the country's well being and the party will make bridge-building with business a priority. Bob Rae, former NDP premier of Ontario, added that socialists have lost the economic argument! "Speak for yourself, Bob," is the reply that springs to mind.

Struggle

Correctly, left-wing MP Svend Robinson has spoken against such moves and has called for a struggle for the heart and soul of the party. Buzz Hargrove, president of the Canadian Auto Workers, got right to the point, saying, "The last thing we need is another voice for business". If the federal NDP leadership believes it can emulate New Labour's success by moving to the right, it is sorely mistaken. In fact, it could lead to the electoral annihilation of the NDP. Canada already has four parties of Capitalism; why would anybody bother voting for the fake version when the genuine article is in overabundance?

Tracking this change in direction gets even more complicated if you read Alexa's latest pieces. She criticizes the free market for leading to "higher health costs, lower incomes, more poverty, more crime, less hope, crumbling infrastructure, an untrained workforce [and the] spectre of an ugly, diminished, compassionless society". If McDonough believes capitalism is as bad as all that, then it seems surprising that she is reaching out to the people responsible for this mess. In reality she is using the same tactics as Blair, employing left wing terminology to keep the members happy.

Alexa concludes that the NDP must come to terms with change and globalization. Reported in The Globe and Mail, 21st September 1998, she says, "Part of what the party has to come to grips with is that globalization is a fact. Globalization is not by definition some kind of disaster. Globalization is a reality". Socialists are well aware of globalization, and have been since Marx and Engels predicted it 150 years ago in the Communist Manifesto. Globalization is an inevitable consequence of capitalism. The world market ensures that regional crises end up in global catastrophes. The NDP leadership's move to the right ignores the fact that people's ideas can change very rapidly. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the defeat of Mulroney's Conservatives support that. The coming global slump will inevitably lead to the questioning of market ideology and push socialist ideas to the fore. Where will the NDP be then?

Elite

McDonough believes that the Third Way "can make this change work for people as well as for society's elite Our challenge is to find a third approach to this world of change, one that embraces change and channels it in a way that benefits all." And again, "A third approach is a way out of that sort of thinking. It is a way for everybody to win."

But can everybody win? Can the millions of unionized workers and the youth of this country get a fair deal from the few thousand bosses and bankers who control the Canadian economy? The Third Way accepts the market and with that accepts everything that goes along with capitalism. A factory recently closed in Tony Blair's constituency with the loss of 900 jobs. His reply? "You can't buck the world market". Capitalism is not a panacea, the free market destroys communities in Britain, America, Indonesia, Japan and Canada alike. Bosses don't attack wages and conditions because they are inherently evil. They push down wages for extra profit to beat their competitors, because if they don't they go bust. The interests of Labour and Capital are therefore directly opposed.

Billionaire financier George Soros says that capitalism is coming apart at the seams. The Economist, a respected right wing magazine, sees no hope in sight for the world economy. Yet, the leaders of Social Democracy decide to embrace the market as the almighty savior. It is high time that the leaders of the Labour Movement start representing the interests of the downtrodden, the youth and the workers with the same zeal the Tories, Liberals and Reform support Big Business. We need socialist policies and an end to the "Third Way".