[Marxism] Kovel, Greens, ultra-right/fascist danger

["jacdon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <jacdon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>From Jack A. Smith

There is no political need to mount a united front of left and bourgeois
elements against fascism in the 2004 elections ? particularly one
subordinate to the Democratic Party ? because there is no fascist threat at
this time. 
 
The objective conditions simply do not exist: The capitalist ruling class
does not fear imminent displacement by the revolutionary left, the U.S.
economy is not on the verge of collapse, intra-capitalist rivalries are not
about to overthrow Washington's leadership, and fascism has no significant
social base in our country. All of this could happen some day, but it is not
today's reality.
 
George Bush is an arrogant and ignorant reactionary, motivated and
manipulated by a draconian clique of neoconservatives who themselves have no
social base.  Two things make the Bush administration more dangerous than
the Reagan administration of the 1980s: The implosion of the USSR and the
gravitation of the "opposition" Democrats from the center to the
center-right of the political spectrum.
 
The U.S. left is weak but still functions within the parameters of bourgeois
democracy and is thus still capable of mounting an independent struggle
against the far right, thus building itself in the process, without mounting
campaign dependent the Democrats, weakening itself still further while
building the center-right.  If it is not now possible to construct a broad
left party or win elections, it is entirely possible ? right now ? for the
left to build progressive social movements against war, racism, inequality
and injustice, steps leading toward such a development.
 
Elements of the U.S. left have been advocating radical support for the
Democrats to defeat the right-wing and/or "fascist" danger for many decades.
A near panic overtook some left forces at the prospect of Goldwater's
candidacy in 1964, Nixon's in 1968, Reagan's in 1980 and 1984. Each time,
these sections of the left strengthened the Democratic Party, even as it
moved further to the right.
 
Joel Kovel's critique of the Greens and their relationship to Ralph Nader is
probably correct. But the alternative of tailing the Democrats would only
accomplish discrediting the Greens as a third party, strengthening the
anti-left stranglehold of the two-party system, and providing the moribund
Democratic Party with one more injection of left support to increase its
rightward momentum.


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