Re: [Marxism] The campaign and the debate around Obama

[Marvin Gandall <marvgandall@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mark writes:

>I think I mentioned the PDA earlier as part of the illusion.  It is
> NOT a structure of the Democratic Party and has no more influence on
> the party's course, nominations, and and candidates than the
> Democratic Socialists of America did.
>
> It is purely an external lobby. It's primary function herabouts is to
> provide a platform for all Democratic candidates as part of the means
> of getting the more progressive-sounding Democrats some sort of
> exposure.
>
> But the PDA isn't even a red herring.  More of a picture of pinkish
> blob that may or may not be aquatic, but is certainly all wet.

==========================================

Maybe, maybe not. But it would certainly move the discussion forward if Mark 
and others, rather than merely deriding US radicals who are trying to 
organize frustrated Democrats, were to provide us with some contemporary 
examples of left groups which have influenced the "course, nominations, and 
candidates" of any party in the advanced capitalist countries where 
activists from the trade unions, ethnic and racial minorities, and other 
social causes congregate. Fred's feeble illustration of Canadian leftists' 
"occasional successes" inside the NDP, and Joaquin's despairing and 
indecisive search for an alternative which sometimes explodes into nihilism, 
hardly qualifies.

Our daddies used to say "if you're so smart, how come you ain't rich?" If we 
had some positive examples of such intervention, it would make the current 
discussion more concrete and meaningful. However, I suspect that many on the 
list, despite their brave and defiant rhetoric, quitely share what Joaquin 
says openly - that it is hopeless to try to connect with American and 
European workers (of any colour) through their existing parties. Unlike 
Joaquin, they console themselves by building (or, in most cases, supporting) 
small red and green parties on the margins of mass political life, plagued 
by the unending splits and short shelf lives which such isolation produces. 
And even these little models don't match the very exacting standards of the 
list moderator, of whom it might truly be said: TINA is thyself.



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