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Article: From "Old Left" to "New Labour"? Eric Hobsbawm and the rhetoric of "realistic Marxism".(Labour Party)
- Article from:
- Labour/Le Travail
- Article date:
- September 22, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Canadian Committee on Labour History. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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THE RISE OF TONY BLAIR and "New Labour" has generally been understood as the result of the 18-year-long hegemony of Conservative Party rule under Margaret Thatcher and John Major, from 1979 until 1997, wherein the Labour Party was forced to make fundamental changes to its program and values, ditching shibboleths and apparently "unpopular" policies, to make itself again electable. This process, however, involved deepening divisions within the party until the defeat of the Labour Left and the rise of "New Labour." The latter's takeover of the Labour Party could not have happened without the abandonment or modification of its traditional policies. It was the debate launched ...