[Marxism] What is to be done in 2008, a reply

[Anthony Boynton <northbogota@xxxxxxxxx>]

What is to be Done 2007 and 2008

I think that both Joaquin Bustelo and Lou Paulsen got
things PARTLY right, but not completely, in their
posts about "What is to Be Done."

The protest movement has dried up, because, as Jaoquin
says,

"The American people are going through an experience
-- in November of 06,
they voted massively for the Democrats to get the U.S.
out of Iraq. You have
to remember that Congressional Districts in the U.S.
are now so efficiently
gerrymandered that at most fifty seats (out of 435)
are normally considered
competitive, and that only 1/3rd of the Senate seats
are ever up in one
election. Thus the change in control of both Houses of
Congress was an
extremely strong statement of popular discontent."

But these people have not actually been demobilized,
what in fact has happened is that they have been
mobiilzed to support the Democratic Party because they
believe that party will end the war in Iraq. As Lou
pointed out, 

" Here is the basic problem.  Anything that is a
"broad sector" is NATURALLY pulled to where the masses
are, and, as you pointed out yourself in that "Absence
of Forces" post, the masses have not yet moved to
resisting the Democrats.  And resistance to the
Democrats is not the stock in trade of the sector of
the movement that you are talking
about.  They say, "We do not want to go away from the
masses and go where
those ultralefts and imperialists are.  We want to
stay with the masses and
hope something develops."  But what "develops" is
campaign rallies.  These
sectors are not "paralyzed" in the sense that they are
attempting to do
something but are unable.  They are deliberately not
getting in the way of
the Democratic applecart."

As far as both of these characterizations go, they are
correct. But where does this leave the left? 

Organizing little demonstrations against the war which
mobilize only the most committed and furtherest to the
left, doing nothing, or running its own election
campaign, or joining the Democrats and trying to make
them move further to the left.

Let's eliminate the last choice from this discussion
as a well proven failure.

Let's eliminate doing nothing from the discussion,
too. (After all, we are talking about What Is to Be
Done, not about doing nothing.)

That leaves the alternatives of organizaing little
demonstrations, or an electoral campaign.

The reason an electoral campaign is the better choice,
given the very ilmited resources of the left, is that
the masses have hopes in the electoral system. The
left should try to go to where the masses are, not to
the Democratic Party (counterproductive because our
efforts would be spent organizing for the enemy) but
to the debates, and to the ballot boxes.

Wouldn't it be better to have Cindy Sheehan on the
front page of every major newspaper a couple of times
a month in October and November, than just seeing the
faces of Hillary Clinton and Bubba Gop?

More importantly, there is every likelyhood that an
important sector of the masses of people who are
already against the war, but now have illusions in the
Democrats, will become disillusioned with the
Democrats before November 2008. They might vote for a
third party on the left if they thought it was a good
way to register their protest against the war. 

A few million votes for an anti-war third party
candidate would be the best thing that could be done
to bring about a real end of the war. Both ruling
class parties would see the writing ont he wall, get
out of Iraq, or get out of office.

It would be the best thing to build for antiwar demos
in the Spring of 2009.

And it would be the best thing to "raise the
consciousness of the masses" for all future struggles.


Joaquin got it right when he wrote, 

" The Iraq War remains the overriding issue in the
U.S. today, yet as the
article Anthony put at the end of his comments
demonstrates, that is not
going to be solved through the electoral arena. "

But the electoral arena is the place where the most
can be done, at this moment in time, to solve the
problem. That's where the masses are, that's where the
left should be, that's where the left can make a
powerful impact .- but not by building the election
campaigns of the Democratic Party who, as Joaquin
states correctly, "have squandered their mandate."

More later, Anthony



       
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