RE: [Marxism] Communist tasks

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

> I know I sure think it would be a good thing to have
> Bush defeated. That doesn't mean I'm endorsing any
> of the Democrats, just saying that defeating Bush
> would be a good think. I don't know why people are
> so negative about the idea that the thief who stole
> the presidency should be defeated in the upcoming
> election.
>
> Walter Lippmann

Throughout the years leading up to the civil war, there were national
elections that pitted the Democrats against the Whigs. Both parties were
based on slavery. Radical abolitionists regarded both parties as
illegitimate because they defended private property in human beings. While
there was very little in the way of a movement that defended indigenous
rights, both parties also defended the extermination of the Indian and the
theft of his land. I suppose that in any given year a Whig was preferable
to a Democrat or vice versa. I think that we have to think of our role as
new abolitionists, directed toward the elimination of wage slavery. If we
say that it is okay to vote for a party that rests on the capitalist
system, we are forsaking our historical mission if I can be so grandiose
just for the moment. In any case, I don't think that the argument is
whether Kerry is "better" than Bush--even if only marginally so. The real
argument is within the left about the role of the Democratic Party. I
believe that it is necessary to take a clear class stand and state that
working people should not vote for a Democrat or a Republican, just like
Malcolm X and Eugene V. Debs did.



Louis Proyect
Marxism list: www.marxmail.org


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