Temperance and the Working Class Part 1
Added 2022-06-18 16:22:32 +0000 UTCWe look at the history and politics of the temperance movement, a major alcohol moderation turned teetotalist social movement with international reach.
Check out Alex's article on the topic here: https://www.thebellows.org/temperance/
Comments
Well, the working class pub was a result of temperance activism. They wouldn't have existed in the form they did otherwise. New Labour "accelerated" these pubs' demise due to the fact that they liberalized alcohol restrictions. Working class movement experience spilt on a wide variety of fronts (the Bolsheviks were also spilt on the question of temperance in the early USSR), but in retrospect, we can see which political position was the most correct or not. That's not a reason not to take a line and just remain on the fence. The working class would likely be spilt on the question of vaccine mandates for instance today. Should we not take a stand against vaccine mandates? That doesn't mean that there shouldn't be a debate in a hypothetical party around issues. Our opinion, as we lay out in the shows, is that teetotalism was the correct line given the circumstance in the last 19th century and demonstrably led to various political and social improvements for the working class in the UK and throughout the world. Alex thinks that on an individual and organizational level, socialists should adopt a teetotal line. But on the question of policies we'd like to see enacted by the state, we are still thinking about it. Certainly, however, we oppose legalization of drugs (note: legalization is different than decriminalization).
William Mckay
2022-06-24 16:02:13 +0000 UTCSorry I am unable reply to the original comment thread. In fact, it was New Labour that accelerated the demise of the local working class pub – was this a positive development? We should consider why Marx identifies temperance with bourgeois socialism, precisely because it is not incompatible with bourgeois society. That does not mean to say that The Party should reject the organic temperance movements of the working class but that it should be able to accommodate all the various factions and associations that will exist within the working class, even those that appear to be worlds apart. This is where the danger lies and where we risk making the same mistakes of the past, for was it necessary that the Chartist movement split into the teetotallers and non-teetotallers? And here I will distinguish between the objective left (the working class) and the organised left which isn’t strictly proletarian ( the activists / professional revolutionaries / intellectuals) and sure I agree that the latter shouldn’t use politics like a social club. It requires serious self-sacrifice, the fruits of which are highly unlikely to bear in our lifetime. But we sacrifice ourselves so that the next generation isn’t burdened with this responsibility.
Qumran
2022-06-22 21:54:07 +0000 UTCThanks for the comment -- is your point that if drugs and drug policy liberalization is a bourgeois tool for social pacification, why hasn't drug policy been liberalized in Japan?
William Mckay
2022-06-21 14:19:37 +0000 UTCDrugs are stupid and you are stupid if you do them. With that being said the angle of this episode was pretty dismal. Japan, one of the most atomised and demoralised societies on earth, has a very strict and severe anti-drug policy. Do you foresee a workers uprising happening there anytime soon? Enough with this neo-kautskyism - Marx, the alcoholic, said it best: temperance fanatics.
Qumran
2022-06-20 23:38:11 +0000 UTC
