Bob Malecki
Thu, 9 Mar 2000 01:36:21 -0800
In reply Hugh writes! > > I think this is very clear. And we'll be able to see just which approach > reaps most profit from the coming mobilizations, that is, which approaches > (as there will be many) organize more people into building a revolutionary > Marxist party and organizations and networks supporting the demands of such > a party. Well in the long run certainly which approach will be correct for splitting and destroying the labor party while constructing a revolutionary marxist party will become important if not vital. > > "No vote to the anti-communist Livingstone" is a complete loser. It'll take > the bullets out of the electoral gun being held to Blair's head in London, > which is at the moment one of the very best chances we've had of alienating > the mass of the workers from the political fraud of the present party > set-up and the betrayal of socialism represented by New Labour. This must > be the main focus -- the concessions to parliamentarism, reformism etc that > are constituent parts of Livingstone's politics are a secondary focus that > will come up in the discussions among the more politically advanced workers > and activists as these aspects of Livingstone's campaign become clearer, > with Livingstone doing a Lula and hobnobbing with the capitalists to show > he's a "serious" politician able to do right by "business". But the main > focus must be massive electoral rejection of Blairism and New Labour on > principles of basic democratic rights and good services for the people. > This will show people in a very concrete way that they can say no to > reactionary forces and hurt them electorally, maybe even clip their wings a > bit in refusing them certain arenas for profit-gouging. Only then will it > be possible to take up the questions of the inadequacy of Livingstone's (ie > left reformism, lip-service radicalism) policies for solving the problems > facing the mass of working and poor people. Actually this in a nutshell describes the far left at its best and most left expression when it comes to tailing the hatred which has been building up in the class over the years to the sharp right turn of Social Democracy. Hugh is correct in a sense that Livingstone represents in and electoral way a tendency to leap towards old social democratic solutions. Unfortunately those solutions were a utopia and even more so today when the destruction of the SU has closed the door for mass reformist solutions along those lines. As the the contradictions of capitalism increase and become white hot with the real danger of both wars, fascism and the possibility opf revolutions we should be looking towards not so much electoralism but patiently explaining that the era we have now entered upon is hardly one of post ww2 reforms. But renewed imperialist rivalry and war. > > Massive strike action against privatization can be argued for even during > and as part of a campaign supporting a vote for Livingstone. This is the > case even if the figure-head himself tries to oppose it, which would be > dangerous for him however as the people striking will be the ones voting > for him, because the rank-and-file union support for a Livingstone > candidacy has been enormous. Massive strike action will certainly hardly be subordinated to electoral politics has Hugh suggests here. But exactly the other way around. And in fact Livingstone is and will be and obstacle to mass mobilizations that go beyond his electoralist view of the world centered around his person and the trade union bureaucracy. The difference between Blairism and Livingstone is a tendency which can be seen throughout Europe. The boat is getting rocky especially for the trade union bureaucracy and the so called traditionalists in the party and if they want to get anything out of this it is through the line of back to the good old times. An ideology that certainly will be fertile as things get hotter in the future. However this will at best only be in order to mobilize the masses as cannon fodder in the future wars now being prepared. > > Bob had better keep us posted on the "full programme of transitional > demands" that he would support -- at the moment from the sound of his > arguments I'm willing to bet it will look just like a sectarian maximalist > programme, with nothing transitional about it that has any contact with the > living movement of the class. Well basically transitional demands are important as well as the goals of the party and the reasons why. Certainly we are not a party which hides these things in order to make the opportunist big time on a minimum program which Hugh certainly is in favor of. I guess Lenin was a horrible sectarian all is life in that he certainly fought for a full program despite the tactics up front for the masses. > > As for fighting for good demands during the campaign, it should be obvious > that that's what everybody will be doing -- from their own point of view. > So there'll be an awful lot of discussion between various groups putting > forward their own sets of demands -- and a good chance for the masses > around them to choose the ones that best match their needs and wants for > the present and the immediate future. Yeah it certainly will be interesting to watch. Especially the SLP and the docxkworkers and miners who historically have been prepared to gop out and fight. If the transport workers were to use the example of the Liverpool dockers and shut down London it would be very interesting watching Livingstone and his cohorts along with Hugh perhaps saying go back towork and vote for us. I prefer unity in struggle rather then electoral scam of unity on a very unclear single issue campaign. I guess the reaction of the left to Livingstone certainly shows how desperate they ar above anything else. > We've got a new definition of entrism here. Maybe it's the Spart definition > of entrism -- "taking part in a mass popular and working-class > mobilization". Critically tailing and entering a mass movement without your flags flying high is certainly cowardly and has nothing to do with Trotskyist History. Nor subordinating electoralism around Livingstone to mass actuion which would really sort out a lot of the trade union bureaucracy now calling for Ken's victory. > > As for critical support, Bob doesn't want to think about it, because the > concrete conditions for Lenin's "rope supporting a hanged man" have been so > unhelpful for so long. With luck, we might see a real example of the idea > at work in this coming campaign, in which case a lot of abstract argument > and poring over the historical background to Lenin's line and its relevance > for us today will become less important than just pointing to the spectacle > of Livingstone flapping about being forced one day to make more radical > promises than he would like because that's what his mass voting base wants > him to do, only to take them back the next when he goes to dine with his > business friends. We've seen this happen in the career of Lula in Brazil. > Livingstone's own personal careerist and opportunist ambitions will push > him towards this radicalism in words and he'll be caught between having to > be seen to capitulate left or right on the issues themselves. Well the only promises so far is single issue (the underground) anti communist braying and ego tripping on his parts. And the left seems to be willing to jump on the campaign wagon and ride in the shade of something that has become obsolete after the destruction of the SU. > > > >In other words if it moves support it. > > In other words, if it moves, it's alive and can think for itself, so it > must be bad -- let's kill it. Ok Doctor Dude... But pumping life into Livingstone and building illusions that this is something the workers should support is quite ridiculous. > > Except that Bob's actions at home speak louder than his words on the Net. I > think if he was in London he could actually be a valuable part of this > mobilization, despite the sectarian distortions his Spart loyalties and his > individualism constantly lead him into. People who speak their mind and > have something important to say (even if a lot of it's wrong) are the > lifeblood of real politics, and Bob has a political will that's up there > with the best of 'em. Well there is a big difference between mobilizing for action in the streets which from a united Front perspective includes the tops and confusing workers into believing that a vote for Livingstone will make life better for them. Only a multiethnic workers party in action along with the mass organizations of the proletariat can move things forward. > > Witness the immediate life breathed back into Thaxis as soon as he puts > finger to keyboard. Actually ya got a point. In fact many of our thaxians with the exception of Lew seem to be deadheads in the sense of that the best they can come up with is telling workers to get out and vote for Livingstone. Aspts by the way is crawling with these types most in the form of cliffites foaming from the mouth! Rather then explaining the putrid politics of the Social Democracy and the trade union bureaucracy who now are a little rattled because the party has shifted towards the middle class and liberalism. I think on thaxis this is expressed in meager cries of trying to find something which they can recognize as left from a preceding period of tailing social democracy from the left at best. Deep down in there hearts we got a bunch of Social democrats here..Anyhow when things start heating up some of them will either be forced on to our side of the barricades or the other. They ain't gonna be no middle way.. Over and above that we got the age thing where many of our thaxians and other leftists are aging and are looking for a peaceful garden to watch and work in as they go to thier graves. Interestingly enough amongst youth we are seeing a sharp left-right polarization because they don't feel as comfotable as our aging lefdtists after years of downsuizing and the destruction of many of the reforms coming out of the past are now dead or dying. Here in Sweden for example the spring budget is talking about cuts in the social sector connected to quite a lot of anti immigrant "reforms" that would make even Haider proud of the present coalition government of the Social Democrats, the ex Euro Communists and the Greens. Warm regards Bob Malecki ------------------------------------------------------- Check Out My HomePage where you can, Read or download the book! Ha Ha Ha McNamara,Vietnam-My Bellybutton is my Crystalball! and "Radiotime"-the Book! Now the Official International Communist League Page! Or Get The Latest Issue of COCKROACH, a zine for poor and working-class people. And now the "Black", "Brown and "Yellow" pages.. http://home.bip.net/malecki http://www.algonet.se/~malecki Email <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ------------------------------------------------------- --- from list [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---