[Marxism] Towards A Left

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>]

The scattered leftists and  leftist groups in the U.S. are entirely
helpless to bring any pressure on t he u.s. government or to affect the
slaughter now going on in Gaza.

So what do we do. We rage at Israel. We forward hair-raising news
account to the list.

;We can't really do anything else.

That is the present. But there will be other horrors in six months, a
year. We will still be raging in our corner. Dinky left groups will
issues statements of solidarity or outrage. A few random petitions will
be circulated. Because there still will not be a coherent left in the
u.s. that can make a difference.

There are probably 10s of thousands, perhaaps 100s of thousands of u.s.
residents who more or less see and condemn u.s. foreign and domestic
policy; the kind of people who would belong to or actively support A
Left if one existed. But only scattered individuals and small groups
exist.

It seems to me that on a marxist list a far higher proportion of posts
ought to be exploring, however tentaively the kind of *coherent* left we
want or -- rather -- must have, and how current activities could be
directed towards the creation of such a *coherent* left. Raging at evils
is a spectator sport.

I am using the label *coherent* left because I honestly don't know what
an actual left would look like or be organized, but that too needs
discussion and debate. I _do_ assume that A Left in the U.S. will NOT be
characterized by a single hegemonic party but rather by a some number of
more or less cooperating separage organizations. The Left in the sixties
was actually far more coherent than the various pareticipants in it
realized or (the more sectarian participants) were willing to
acknowledge. There might have ben 7 different theories of what the big
demo should be, but the result was always the demo was held. And
thousands of indivduals and local groups thought and acted in a way
which seemed to them in concordance with the general left directions of
the time. It actually worked pretty well. (The SWP's single issue line
didn't succeed in stopping people from developing politically on their
own or raising their own hell in this or that corner of the country.)
I'm not repeat NOT arguing for a repetition of the '60s; I'm just saying
that we need a flexible sense of what a coherent left would be. At least
we ought to be spending less time giving reviews of the latest show the
enemy puts on for us and more time talking about a road to the future.

Carrol


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