Blairism and the war of persuasion

Labour's passive revolution

Deborah Lynn Steinberg and Richard Johnson (eds), Lawrence and Wishart, 256 pages, paperback, £17.99

This book tackles the crucial question of the distinctiveness of New Labour and specifically of Blairism in modern politics. It seeks to differentiate Blairism from both Old Labour and from Thatcherism.

The authors argue that Blairism is not a rebranded version of Thatcherism, but a new political formation. Although both have promoted neo-liberalism, Thatcherism was socially authoritarian whereas Blairism uses the state to impose and manage our way of life; it also uses the language of social progress while subjecting us to the disciplines of global capital.

While the book is a coherent analysis of Blairism, it lacks the perspective of what can be done to shift New Labour in a more union-friendly direction.