Spineless, unprincipled, constantly making excuses about why they're not doing anything, unwilling to do literally fucking ANYTHING to help the people they say they represent.
What are the underlying material conditions driving this?
Here in BC, Canada, the "social democratic" NDP government recently got a majority government, which means they can do literally anything they want. Pass any legislation they want. Pass any laws, any taxes, literally whatever the fuck they want.
And what have they done? FUCK ALL. Nothing. Not a single piece of legislation that I can think of. They're taking as long as they possibly can to implement $15 minimum wage, no paid sick days, no card check legislation, fucking NOTHING. Instead of using the pandemic as the obvious reason to pass this legislation they are hiding behind it as their excuse to avoid doing literally anything useful.
This seems to be the case all over the Western world.
WHY?
All the European socdem parties trace their lineage to the opportunist right wing of the 2nd International, the side that chose social chauvinism over international solidarity in 1914 and proved Lenin right repeatedly by doubling and then tripling down on this betrayal of the working class.
Is there anywhere i can read more about this?
Lenin has an edgy screed on it at the time, as ever https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/jan/x02.htm But unless you have knowledge of the (mostly forgotten) key players in Socialism at the time it won't make a lot of sense.
Jacobin, surprisingly, has an ok review https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/07/second-international-bernstein-rosa-luxemburg-unions-world-war
Didn't know about this one. Will have to check it out. :red-fist:
half of State and Revolution is about this, but in the context of the time, so not that relevant anymore. Still a good read!
Also Lenin shits on contemporary succdems a lot for the same reasons in State and Revolution, though you may have already read that since pretty much every tendency on this site tells you to read it.
If you haven't...set aside some time to read it, slowly and carefully. Take notes. :lenin-shining: