Re: [Marxism] The Dead End of Anybody But Bush

["andypollack@xxxxxxxx" <andypollack@xxxxxxxx>]

Two problems with Josh's argument.
1. As others have pointed out we won't convince many activists who see some 
difference between Bush & Kerry that it's not a qualitative difference, and 
that we sabotage our own struggles by supporting the lesser evil. But we have 
to take the risk of being relatively isolated for another couple months and 
argue strongly on this so that if Kerry wins, and when he starts attacking us 
as Clinton, Carter, etc., did, they'll more quickly join our efforts to build 
independent political action (because you know the ABB logic will spill over 
into "yeah he's attacking us but give him a chance"). I'll leave aside the 
large numbers of activists, including workers, who think Kerry's a rich white 
joke.

NOT arguing with ABB activists doesn't educate them and even makes us look 
hypocritical if it seems like our criticism of an elected Kerry comes out of 
the blue after a year of silence. (The fear of being isolated by the way has 
once again motivated a wing of Solidarity to argue for not taking on the ABB 
phenomenon.)

We need to remind everyone DURING this campaign of how bad Clinton was. I 
remember a very vibrant anti-welfare "reform" struggle during those years, with 
labor participation, as well as labor protests around NAFTA and many other 
issues. And let's not forget the founding of the Labor Party came during the 
Clinton years.  I can vividly remember Tony Mazzochi explaining to an LP 
convention how Clinton had sabotaged the single-payer movement and how pro-DP 
union officials and movement organization heads refused to rock the boat 
against him, and how this proved the need for the party. (see 
http://dbacon.igc.org/Unions/08labpty.htm for quotes from the LP founding 
conference).

2. Josh is wrong to be so categorical about the absence of the left, including 
Marxists, in mass struggles.  Referring back to my labor examples above, the 
problem is not so much the absence from this movement but the inability or even 
unwillingness of Marxists to cohere an alternative pole of attraction (as 
opposed to a loose network of reform groups) which would propagandize for the 
LP and for Nader.  That, again, is why last year's TUEL discussion and this 
year's MWM are so important.
-- Josh Saxe <joshsaxe@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
But there is no arguing to a union activist that getting government
protection for card-check would not open up huge vistas for union
growth.  In the broader sense there is no arguing there is a
correlation between Republican dominated states and right-to-work
states.  Where in his article does Arnove address the thousands of
militant shop-stewards whose consciousness of these facts will lead
them to vote for Kerry and support the DP?
Arguments that the Democrats and Republicans are the same, while right
in one sense, can seem sort of crazy to dedicated activists who are in
the trenches not just organizing protest marches but actually trying
seriously to win reforms.  I could not have convinced any of the
dedicated organizers in SEIU with the argument "the D's and R's are
the same, look how bad the Democrats are." To someone embroiled in
reformist politics those statements and arguments are obvious and
rudimentary.
Like I have said in previous posts, the NGOs and union bureaucrats are
(usually reluctantly) leading struggles from which the Marxist left is
totally absent.  So the Marxist left has no roots amongst the people
who actually _do_ fight the effects of capitalism, because we are not
in a material sense fighting capitalism, and so we don't know what
their concerns are.  _______________________________________________
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