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D.G. writes: <On the other hand, we are not yet at a consistently anti-monopoly/corporate strategic stage of struggle either, given the challenges facing the country and the world, the continued presence of the extreme right and its reactionary corporate backers, and the level of consciousness of the American people.> Notice the assumption that the only corporate backers are among the extreme right. What about the "level of consciousness" of democratic "corporate backers" sitting in the White House and in Congress? <Thus, our strategic policy is neither one nor the other. It’s an unstable mixture of both. This isn’t surprising given the fluid and transitional nature of this period.> In other words, what strategic policy? <And yet as the process of democratic reform (democratic ownership of the financial sector or a worker/community base industrial policy, major expansion of union rights, for example) deepens, the class, anti-corporate, anti-transnational nature of the struggle will come to the fore more and more at the economic, political, and ideological level.> What planet is this guy living on? Things are going very quickly in the other direction. EFCA is a dead letter, and the private sector is "deepening" its control over health care, education, and even the disbursement of unemployment checks. <With this in mind, our strategic policy seeks to extend and deepen a coalition of political actors that stretches from President Obama to the core forces of the people’s movement, and also includes small and medium sized business, working-class people who are influenced by the right, big sections of the Democratic Party and even sections of corporate capital.> So when do we begin to see evidence that Obama is actually going to begin to do something for working people, and even the middle class, besides screw them at every turn? If there is no evidence, doesn't that mean the strategic policy has failed? <“Whoever expects a ‘pure’ social revolution will never live to see it. Such a person pays lip service to revolution without understanding what revolution is.”* It would be a profound mistake to distance the working class not only from the other core forces, but also from temporary and even unreliable allies. In fact, this diverse alliance is the strategic cornerstone for progressive and radical reforms. Separately, neither the president nor the people’s organizations nor the working class can win. But united, they pack a wallop! Many get this, especially labor and the other core forces. And the African American people have always practiced it, as have other racially and nationally oppressed peoples.> Purity is one thing, delusion is another. The only thing I see happening is the democrats once again using union money and bodies, and the voluntarism and good will of students and other citizens, to get out the vote during elections, and then ignore these "core" sectors ( core for the cp, marginal for the democrats) when the time comes to implement policy. To expect the office holders to repay the favor is not purity, it is rational expectation. And as Chomsky remarked recently during a Q & A, it sure looks like African Americans collectively stand to be worse off under Obama, not better off. <Luckily, the core forces — all of whom interpenetrate with one another thereby giving them a deep community of interests and enormous power — are in motion, but — and it is this that we should note especially — not yet to the degree that is necessary to enact a progressive agenda. How to increase the role of precisely these forces is the key task for every activist.> Oh, so you ask people to toe the line in support of the democrats when you do not have the leverage to get that party to enact any semblance whatsoever of a progressive agenda. Why then do you expect people to support you in the first place? Why on earth would people hitch their cart to a dead horse? <We feel anger at the injustice and immorality of capitalism. Our opposition to racial, gender, and other forms of oppression and our insistence on equality and unity is a matter of principle. Our sense of solidarity is worldwide in its reach. Action is at our core and Marxism is our guide to action. And our enduring commitment is to peace and socialism. The above distinguish us from others — although we don’t have a patent on radical thinking and politics — but what makes us unique at this moment is our strategic insights and our struggle to practically apply them. Those who say we are no different from Democrats, other activists, and others on the left reveal a simplistic understanding or no understanding of our strategic policies — not to mention other features of our Party.> Whoa. In other words, when people point out that the only difference between you and the democrats is the delusional nature of your thinking, then you resort to paternalism. It would be good to know what other features you are discussing? It sounds like you're trying to pull a bait and switch and sell me a car without an engine by telling me it runs well while moving downhill. Greg ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
