The Spirit of New Socialism: And the End of Class-Based Politics

The Labour Party and Socialism worldwide can only hope to reverse their catastrophic membership decline and electoral support by formulating new principles to fit the needs of a society which has been transformed out of all recognition over the past 60 years. Changing the image or improving presentational techniques is just not enough! This book is about how to achieve a revived Labour Party. With desirable measures in view, it is shown how left of centre parties in the industrialised world have the potential of securing 90 per cent support of the population. But this is dependent on addressing those underlying issues of concern to most people which politicians tend to ignore. The role of New Socialism is to analyse these issues, and resolve them through a set of coherent doctrines which both unite and inspire the population at large. A successful future for Socialism is reliant on the need to recognise the reality of social change. This is something which has been ignored for too long. We now live in a multi-class society of the middle-middle majority which is so structured that the old political weapon of class struggle is ineffectual and defunct.
This is realised by most, but until now, no alternative dynamic has been offered in driving forward the cause of the majority. This book presents such a dynamic. Whilst New Socialism remains Socialist in a real sense, it calls upon all sectors of society for support, since all are similarly threatened by economic and other ills to the same degree, and this was not the case in earlier times. Consequently, the future entails a struggle against economic systems rather than against economic interest groups. This is of immense significance in designing the future style and structure of politics. Hence a new mind-set for Socialism needs to be created which is very different from that in the past. It is shown how the ghost of Marxism and class struggle (still implied in Labour's thinking) needs to be exorcised from the consciousness of the left, since they have become counter-productive to the core economic ends of true Socialism. Although the author covers most aspects of Socialism in depth, his books are addressed to the lay reader and he succeeds in avoiding the jargon found in much academic literature.