RE: [Marxism] French elections

["Mark Lause" <MLause@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Joaquin Bustelo wrote, "Various attempts by Blacks and Chicanos to
constitute independent political parties failed to find even a faint echo
among broader layers of working people, dooming them to be no more than
probes or tests. This left these communities with the choice between
pursuing political representation in and through the bourgeois parties or
abandoning all hope of having any representation."

This implies that the black or Chicago community launched these parties and
the rest of the working class failed to support them.  The fact is that the
La Razu Unida Party, for example, never got more than a tiny percentage of
the Chicago voters in Texas, Colorado and other states.  And independent
black parties have never broken appreciable numbers of African-American
voters from what's been their iron allegiance to the Democratic Party.

Not facing this is to idealize the politics of the black or Hispanic
communities in the same way that various workerists have always idealized
the politics of the working class in general.  Emotionally gratifying,
perhaps, but not an understanding capable of moving us forward.

The problems posed by the two-party system run across the board
demographically.  And unlike matters of religion or the flag or other things
which people are so prone to discuss, this one--the two-party game--MUST be
addressed...and in practice.

ML











________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism