Re: [Marxism] Popular Front

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

> CB: The Abolitionists were radicals in this era."We" were Abolitionists in
> this period. See Herbert Aptheker's book _Abolitionism: a Revolutionary
> Movement_. The Aboloitionists had  national organizations , like the
> Underground Railroad,  and national strategy.
>
> However, the point on this thread is not so much did the Communists/radicals
> have a national organization in the 1860, but did they form an alliance
> with, join with, whether joining the party  or otherwise, a _bourgeois_
> party, as precedent for the Communists doing the same in the 1930's, 40's.
> That's why I brought up the radicals in , around and through the Republican
> Party in this period.
>
> The notion that all examples in American history from the 1800's taught
> Communists in the 1930's not to front with bourgeois parties is contradicted
> by the radical-Republican front/alliance of the mid 1800's.

Charles, I don't see much point in trying to persuade people that the CP
was correct in backing FDR 65 years ago or so. Even if I agreed with that,
which I don't, it is almost of academic interest. We are faced with a
situation today in which the CP, one of the larger groups on the left,
STILL ADVOCATES an orientation to the DP. This is a party that bears about
as much relationship to the New Deal as I do to Brad Pitt. Bill Clinton
said that "we are all Eisenhower Republicans". His wife advocates
escalating the war in Iraq. They voted for John Roberts for the Supreme
Court. They presided over the dismantling ADFC, which left poor Black women
and their children in deep distress. They allowed big corporations to
deepen their assault on the environment. Despite all this, the CP attacks
initiatives to the left, like the Nader campaign. This is not a
revolutionary outlook. I think that the CP has done some good things in its
past, things to be proud of, but this continuing relationship to the DP is
harmful to our movement. It is a ball-and-chain on the class struggle.


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