Liberals as Social Democrats, or Social Democrats as Liberals

Ideology 1 Minute

John Clarke, former major organizer of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP), recently posted the following on Facebook:

Dear Capitalists:

Your pursuit of vast profits is causing appalling working conditions, poverty, hunger, extreme inequality, the threat of war and environmental destruction.

I and many other like minded people are asking you to temper your drive to accumulate wealth with a greater sense of fairness. I must very frankly state that failure to heed this advice may cause my present strong indignation to develop into full blown outrage.
I hate to raise such a horrible prospect but I must in conclusion ask you to consider the possibility that your reckless exploitation and oppression of working class people might lead to uprisings and the overthrow of your system. This is something none of us want so let’s please be sensible.

Yours truly,

Liberalism
The above could easily have been signed: Social Democrat (or Social Reformer). However, neither the liberal nor the social democrat would admit that exploitation and oppression are inherent aspects of a society dominated by the class of employers and the associated economic, political and social structures. Liberals and social democrats paper over such inherent characteristics of such a society with cliches, such as “fairness,” “fair wages,” “decent work,” “fair contracts,” “free collective bargaining” and similar phrases.
What is the left doing to expose such cliches as ideology? Not much, at least in Toronto (and probably elsewhere).
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Published by The abolitionist

I come from a working-class background. My lost paid job was a teacher, substituting for a number of years before obtaining a permanent position. I obtained my doctorate in 2009. I am an unapologetic critic of capitalism and the way in which various institutions and ideologies reinforce it.

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