Hello Comrades, I have many questions.

  • How did the Nordic model work, how did they acquire the wealth to do a welfare state, especially Finland and Iceland?

  • What is the happiness index and why the hell is Finland and other northern european countries usually ranked high?

  • Additionally, wanted to know about post-colonial Ireland and its relation to rest of europe today. Vague question, I am aware. I wanted to know how they slot into the EU fold knowing they were under the british colonial oppression for a long ass time.

Would also like some book recommendations regarding this topic.

Thank you for your help comrades!

  • darkernations@lemmygrad.ml
    0·
    1 month ago
    1. HW Edward’s - Labour Aristocracy, Mass base for social democracy (there’s also a chapter specific for scandinavia)
    2. Torkil Lauesen - Unequal Exchange (comes from a scandinavian focus, the author in the RevLeft Podcast that LD recommended)

    These are not Finland specific though. There’s Jan Andersson’s Studies in the Theory of Unequal Exchange Between Nations which apparently has a Finnish focus (not read it personally).

    All the nordic countries directly integrate into the US imperialist military organisations to maintain the unequal exhange, and have enthusiatic cooperation of intelligence services to aid the flow of value from the global south.

    For Ireland, there is Austen Morgan, Labour and Partition: The Belfast Working Class 1905–23 (which I have now added to my reading list).

    I wanted to know how they slot into the EU fold knowing they were under the british colonial oppression for a long ass time.

    For this I would recommend Frantz Fanon’s work such as Black Skin, White Masks and Wretched of the Earth.

    For a quick general overview of how workers gained concessions in the West, Alice Malone’s essay on Redails is a great read - it provides pretty good immunity against socdem politics:

    https://redsails.org/concessions/

    • faith_in_strangers@lemmygrad.mlOP
      0·
      1 month ago

      Thank you for the recommendations, comrade.

      I was also wondering what the whole “happiness index shite” is about, I am assuming it is some right wing think-tank bullshit, but I would like some pointers on how to approach this topic. Especially in case someone bring up Nordic Model and happiness index as a “legitimate” example of it “working well”.

      • darkernations@lemmygrad.ml
        0·
        1 month ago

        There are different ways to tackle this such as considering WEIRD bias or analysing whether the happiness considers alienation and individualism, or what the ideological purposes of these indicies are for, or how are they considered historically, or what positivist bourgeoisie axioms they rely on etc.

        But I would consider a different approach; lean into it ie a sort of immanent critique - they are “happy” but at whose cost is their happiness maintained? How is their class as a westerner produced and reproduced? What do we understand about modern Herrenvolk democracies (https://redsails.org/lenin-and-herrenvolk-democracy/)? What is the basis for liberalism here (https://redsails.org/between-liberty-and-slavery/)?

        This is where understanding labour aristocracy and unequal exchange becomes more important and I would consider HW Edward’s book as an excellent primer (in fact if you read only one thing I would read this book). If you wanted a more technical grounding then Amin’s Law of Worlwide Value is a worthwhile reference.