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Louis, I think it's useful to draw a line of distinction between the Sanders campaign and the Democratic Party. Many people on this list I am sure share the sentiment: "fuck the Democratic Party!" I am squarely in that camp. The Sanders campaign, on the other hand, has done what the left has not been able to do in a very long time, probably since the 1960s. Namely, shift the terms of political debate in a new direction that points to the federal government as a force for improving people's lives through concrete public policies. Two of those policies are government funded higher education at public universities and health care--the main pieces in his platform. If Sanders did not run as a Democrat, he would not be getting the national attention he has gotten thus far. The way that the Sanders candidacy has brought these issues to the forefront at the national level is proof that there's a potential constituency in the US that is ripe for organizing against elite rule. (After all, the way I see it, our goal is to engage in a struggle to take over the state.) Looking at the final Democratic Party primary vote count in the Bronx, where I live, for example, I think is instructive. Over 41,000 people voted for an old, white, Jewish, self-identified socialist (whatever one thinks of that), from Vermont! The organizer in me sees 41,000 people I can have a conversation with about American politics and what it means to act in solidarity to bring about social change for the better. In struggle, Douglas> Subject: Re: [Marxism] Great articles over at nonsite.org: Against Ultraleftism > To: [email protected]; [email protected] > From: [email protected] > Date: Thu, 26 May 2016 16:44:53 -0400 > > On 5/26/16 4:35 PM, Douglas Medina via Marxism wrote: > > Introduction to Against Ultraleftism: > > http://nonsite.org/editorial/introduction-to-against-the-ultraleftists > > > I don't think this article is so great. It was co-written by Adolph > Reed, Walter Benn Michaels and Todd Cronan. It states: > > "Our little group of papers, however, is more directed toward what it > still makes sense to call the ultraleft: from those who think that > Sanders should never have run as a Democrat to those who, disdaining > electoral politics, don’t care who runs as what, from those who think > that socialism is insufficiently attentive to the particularities of a > universe of paramecially fissioning identities to those who sign up for > TIDAL under the impression that corporate mass culture is revolutionary > popular culture. Maybe the most impressive of all are the ones who spend > their time analyzing Breaking Bad or Beyoncé videos while waiting for > the rate of profit to finally bottom out; when it gets low enough, they > hope, horizontal organizing—it’s the Mass Strike, Elizabeth!—will happen." > > Well, I don't think that Sanders should have run as a Democrat. That > position is not particularly ultraleft. It is consistent with what Green > Party leaders argue, hardly capable of being mistaken for the Spartacist > League. > > In terms of "paramecially fissioning identities", that's obviously > something that either Michaels or Reed cooked up or maybe they coined > the term collectively. It is basically their way of saying that the left > should be based on class and not those "divisive" identity issues like > affirmative action or reparations. You could have heard the same thing > from Gus Hull on how feminism and Black Nationalism are diversions from > the class struggle but at least he wouldn't have phrased it as if it > were a plenary talk at the ALA. _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
