FES BRIEFING INTERNATIONALISM AND THE GOOD SOCIETY Clive Lewis April 2020 PREFATORY REMARKS Discussion and debate on the future of social democracy be­tween British and European colleagues and comrades is vital, now more than ever. We in the UK appreciate the solidarity, care and interest of our European colleagues and comrades. It will be remem­bered. It will be reciprocated. And when that crisis is resolved it will not be because Europe and social democracy have been disentangled. On the contrary, social democrats need a strong Europe and Europe needs strong social democrats, thinking, working and winning together. KEY ARGUMENTS Against this backdrop, I want to say a little more about friend­ship and solidarity – about our continuing commitment: The crisis of social democracy has been under way for a long time. And it is linked to wider changes we have yet to grasp fully. –– to each other, across Europe, –– to the cause of social democracy, –– and to the idea of a Good Society. –– For our social democrat forebears the agent of political change was the working class. And it was the organised working-class that gave social democracy power. INTRODUCTION –– Production was organised by big bureaucratic firms and that gave social democracy a clear focus for change. I am a committed British social democrat. I am a committed European. I am a committed internationalist. –– That also gave rise to a form of government, playing a role in brokering the class conflict and using its own bu­reaucracy to do things for people. And I have learned a lot about how to act on those commit­ments from debates about the Good Society. And I understand that internationalism is of fundamental im­portance to the Good Society – because the Good Society is one that rises to and does not duck the challenges of climate change, the digitalisation of work and the effects of global markets, and because those challenges can be met only if we work together. And for that reason it is important that – in the face of Brexit – we renew and refresh relationships: between Britain and Germany, between Labour and the SPD and between Europe and social democracy. The crisis of Europe and the crisis of social democracy are in­tertwined – the one begets the other. But almost all of that is gone: –– our societies are not homogenous and the working class is no longer a united political force; –– production has become multinational, dispersed along complex supply chains and thus hard to govern; –– and people are suspicious of both the capabilities and the intent of government agencies who say they want to help. Our societies are individualised and lack cohesion. Social democrats exist to get the market to serve people and to free them from servitude to the market. But because of all these changes, our capacity to do that – and people’s belief that we can – has been weakened. 1