Re: [Marxism] Seven Theses on the Current Period, the War and theAnti-war Mov...

[Octob1917@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 10/3/2004 12:38:39 PM Pacific Standard Time,
cbcox@xxxxxxxxx writes:
But your phrase, "in isolation from workers, immigrants and members of
oppressed communities" is merely the left version of the classical
red-baiting formula, "Wherever you find them, Communists come from
someplace else." You seem to think that the act of becoming red
immediately changes one into some freakish form of alien life. Look
about you. All you will see are workers -- only they don't know they
are.

Well...if by Left we mean the various self-styled vanguard parties which do
exist around the country, it would tecnically be wrong to state that there is
no Left in the US. What we should say is that the Left is small, weak,
irrelevant and ineffective. And it is my contention that the reasons why they 
are such
is because in its present form - sectarian, concerned only with permitted
demos, teach-ins on campuses, holding meetings in offices outwith oppressed
communities, etc. - it is isolated from workers and members of oppressed
communities. Yes, workers are all around us, but mostly they are unorganised and
transient, due to the nature of the predominantly service-based US economy. I 
agree
with you that most workers in the US do not even know or recognise themselves
as such, which speaks to the success of the ruling class myth that such a thing
as the American Dream is a viable porposition for all and not the central
myth by which they continue to pull the wool over the eyes of the masses. Yes, I
agree with that. My point is that the various Left groups, parties and
coalitions have no presence in the workplace to speak of. Any workplace. They 
wait
until a strike or industrial action takes place, then appear with flyers and
newspapers in an effort to recruit. This can only ever result in them being
viewed with suspicion, even disdain, by the workers in question, rather than
welcomed and taken seriously. If we hope to advance our politics and proclaim
ourselves as a party or organisation or movement of the working class, it might 
help
to actually exist and function where the workers work, rather than hope they
come to us by dint of a flyer promoting a demo against the war or the coup in
Haiti or the Israeli repression of the Palestinians getting into their hands.

As I said in my last post, the upcoming Million Worker March, the movement it
heralds, is the best thing to happen on the Left in the US in all the years
I've been here. This wasn't begun as an initiative by any of our vanguard
parties, but by the most enlightened segment of rank and file workers 
themselves.
Hopefully out of this movement a new formation or formations will arise which
will be relevant and effective.

It is sorely needed.


Joe
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