Can we craft a stronger economic justice message WITHOUT throwing anyone under the bus?

[Ken Burch]

24. And every ''center-left" party in Europe is in long-term and irreversible decline.

None of them fight elections on programs that are remotely "center-left"-they all back austerity and "labor market flexibility''(i.e., the end of job security for working people). Those parties sometimes run behind parties to their left.

What, exactly, is there to LIKE about those parties? In what way are they different from the plain old center-right? It's not as though it matters whether it's a center-right or center-left government slashing the welfare state or attacking the power of the labor movement. All austerities are the same.

(Oh, and virtually no one on the actual European Left....the socialist and left-Green parties whose support has actually been increasing..is anywhere close to a Stalinist...Stalinism is an extinct political tradition in the world today. Nobody is paranoid about "the Reds" anymore, because there's no reason TO be.)

(Meanwhile, Francois Hollande had to withdraw from the presidential race because he had virtually no remaining public support. His party will, at best, finish third in next year's presidential election and go on to lose most of its seats in the next National Assembly elections...largely because Hollande abandoned every non-conservative policy he ever supported and has ended up to the right of the Gaullists on economics.)