New Political International, the "Progressive Alliance"

[freefair]

Progressive Alliance
Due to the continued presence of nationalistic, corrupt and despotic parties in Socialist International, many prominent members are becoming "observer members" only and have formed a new centre-leftist alliance of purely liberal-social-democratic parties. Apparently the US Democratic National Committee have actually joined this one, due to it's more pragmatic platform. Already the Party of European Socialists has joined, as have global trade unions
Opinions on this new International and the old organisation
I always use Political internationals as the barometer of a parties ideology when looking into them, so this is a big move. It add's to SI, Global Greens, Liberal Intnl, Alliance of Democrats, Centrist Democrat Intl (Christian/Islamic Democratic parties), and Intl Democrat Union (Conservative and Libertarian-Conservative partes). That's not even counting the various commies.
http://progressive-alliance.info/en/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Alliance_(political_international)#cite_note-3

[Antonio the Sixth]

Hope it doesn't become the Third Wayite Club.

[Хahar 🤔]

Naturally, this is for white moderate heroes.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Basically an attempt to recreate the SI as it was before the pretty much entirely misguided expansion efforts.

[freefair]

Hope it doesn't become the Third Wayite Club.

The Third way is ultimately a more flexible form of Social Democracy, so it varies. There are some relatively leftist parties there- like the SPO.

[Hash]

Hope it doesn't become the Third Wayite Club.

Too late, it already is. This is basically the right-wing of the SI - SPD, Labour, PS, ALP, PASOK (lol), Danish SDs, INC, Irish Labour, Israeli Labour, PD, PvdA, Portuguese PS, PSOE, ANC complete with some moderate heroes (Dem, South Korean DUP) and some charming company (Romania's PSD, the CHP).

As for the participation of the PS, Molletism strikes again!

http://progressive-alliance.info/expected-guests/

[Antonio the Sixth]

Hope it doesn't become the Third Wayite Club.

Too late, it already is. This is basically the right-wing of the SI - SPD, Labour, PS, ALP, PASOK (lol), Danish SDs, INC, Irish Labour, Israeli Labour, PD, PvdA, Portuguese PS, PSOE, ANC complete with some moderate heroes (Dem, South Korean DUP) and some charming company (Romania's PSD, the CHP).

As for the participation of the PS, Molletism strikes again!

http://progressive-alliance.info/expected-guests/

Well yeah, PS does objectively belong in there.

Sad, but unsurprising development.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The trouble with that argument is that it rests on the assertion that the SI in its current configuration is something other than what it is...

[Famous Mortimer]

Have any of these parties left the SI?

[Famous Mortimer]

I'm also very surprised the Romanian Social Democrats are inolved. they seem like exactly the type of people this alliance was formed to exclude.  I mean, they arent socially liberal.  Aren't they still very anti-gay? You know what Romanian party would have been a better fit? The PD before it opportunistically became a EPP affiliate.

[Zioneer]

So essentially awful neoliberals? No thanks.

[politicus]

Naturally, this is for white moderate heroes.

And the moderate heroes part is clearly not in the Atlas sense.

The list includes Polisario in West Sahara, Aung San Suu Kyis NLD, the Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP) and Zimbabwe Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) among a lot of other African and Asian parties.

With a few exceptions from Mexico and Chile the Latin American left seems to be outside. Almost all Western European SDs are in.

EDIT: Moderate hero (in the non-Atlas sense) is a very accurate description of Aung San Suu Kyi

 

[MaxQue]

Surprised to not see NDP. Would totally fit Mulcair.

[politicus]

Surprised to not see NDP. Would totally fit Mulcair.

NDP would definitely fitter better in than the US Democrats. Only a minor part of the Dems can be considered progressives.

Maybe NDP will join later.

[Leftbehind]

Hope it doesn't become the Third Wayite Club.

It already is, you can just tell by the vague bullsh**t of "Progressive" title.

Sad, but unsurprising development.

Perhaps they should've just joined the Liberal International.

[Supersonic]

I still can't get over UK Labour becoming an 'observer' in Socialist International. That was hilarious.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Sad, but unsurprising development.

Perhaps they should've just joined the Liberal International.

The US Democrats definitely should have, at the very least.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Have any of these parties left the SI?

It seems to be more a case of ceasing to pay dues and getting knocked down  to 'observer' status rather than actually leaving.

[Bleeding heart conservative, HTMLdon]

As much as folks on my side of the aisle like to associate the US Democratic Party with the word "socialism"... it does still seem odd to me that the US Democratic Party is associating with openly socialist parties.  Why didn't they ever join LI?

[Antonio the Sixth]

As much as folks on my side of the aisle like to associate the US Democratic Party with the word "socialism"... it does still seem odd to me that the US Democratic Party is associating with openly socialist parties.  Why didn't they ever join LI?

Now, now. Most parties that call themselves socialist actually aren't.

[freefair]

Out and out market economy abolition is no longer a mainstream view- even the German and Swedish Lefts and SYRIZA don't advocate that. If you want real Marxist leftists, you'd need to peek beyond most electoral politics. So yeah.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Internationals (when not functionally moribund or close to it) are mostly for networking and drinking rather than great statements of ideological purity. There have been strong personal connections between parts of the Democratic Party and parts of some European social democratic parties since the start of the Cold War*; this is mostly a formalisation of a longstanding relationship, rather than the start of a new one.

Of course it's incongruous, but these things tend to be. Now for irony, note that the Democrats have (and for a while now) been a member of the 'Alliance of Democrats', which also includes the Italian PD. Who are (of course) the legal successor to the PCI.



_{*Perhaps inevitably, Sam Watson - the Durham Miners leader and Russophile Cold Warrior  - was a key figure in this.}

[politicus]

Out and out market economy abolition is no longer a mainstream view- even the German and Swedish Lefts and SYRIZA don't advocate that. If you want real Marxist leftists, you'd need to peek beyond most electoral politics. So yeah.

Market abolition is not essential to socialism, change of ownership structure is what matters.

[Zanas]

Hope it doesn't become the Third Wayite Club.

It already is, you can just tell by the vague bullsh**t of "Progressive" title.

Sad, but unsurprising development.

Perhaps they should've just joined the Liberal International.

Came here to say exactly that.

What we need though is some kind of Fifth International similar to EU's GUE-NGL/PEL.