******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ********************
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*****************************************************************
I thank my friend Louis for recognizing that I have been consistent,
albeit not in the way he means.
I can't remember how many times I've said for many, many years that what
one does in relation to "bourgeois-democratic electoral farces" is a
tactical question. I've evolved, however.
I'm sure that I never said before the last couple of years what I now
believe: that the Democratic Party has become one very important arena
of a movement by working people to constitute ourselves as an
independent political force. I never said it because I would have
rejected it automatically without a second thought, as I think Louis
does (and most comrades on this list, especially those who shared at
least part of my political journey since the end of the 1960s).
I say it now not because it is something I've ever expected or
advocated, but because I think it is an accurate description of reality.
That reality emerged during the first months of Bernie's primary
campaign against Clinton, when what was clearly intended to be a
symbolic challenge to raise important issues was transformed into a very
real fight by this motion among working people.
Whether it is a mistake, something that can never work in a million
years and will wind up being a trap are things I've thought long and
hard about. But I really and truly believe that is what is going on
--working people groping their way towards cohering as a "class for
itself"-- and even if this way of doing it is 1,000% wrong, the role of
Marxists is not to denounce the contradiction but to work in and through
it to a resolution.
I think Engels's comments on the Henry George campaign in the 1880s are
applicable here. I wrote a couple of posts explaining how and why I
think that a few months ago and they are here:
Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, superstar: what Engels would have said about it
http://hatueysashes.blogspot.com/2018/08/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-superstar-what.html
The Democratic Socialists, the Democratic Party, and the tactic of
critical support
http://hatueysashes.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-democratic-socialists-democratic.html
* * *
Louis also sent a second response quoting something I wrote 11 year ago
saying I expected Obama to deliver on immigration reform, as he was
promising during the campaign, but how much he would deliver was up in
the air. Clearly, I was wrong. I think Louis's post is mean to show I'm
not sure what on what is going on around Bernie and AOC today.
I now think that the ruling class has adopted the de jure status of the
undocumented as a sort of untouchable *caste* as an enduring part of
neoliberal American capitalism. I wish I could say I've figured this all
out but I haven't. But the main reason I've drawn that conclusion is
that, *on the ground* the Bush, Obama and Trump policy towards the
undocumented use essentially the same methods seeking to create the same
effect, as I explain in more detail here:
Trump's real program: not deporting immigrants, but keeping them 'illegal'
http://hatueysashes.blogspot.com/2018/11/trumps-real-program-not-deporting.html
And, BTW, this all started under Clinton.
I think there is a need for a lot more thought an analysis about what is
going on, in terms of the structure of U.S. society and its working class.
On 3/4/2019 7:41 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote:
If nothing else, Joaquin is consistent. From 2008:
_________________________________________________________
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at:
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
