On Fri, Sep 20, 2024 at 04:44 PM, Duane Filan wrote: > > "In 1933 Trotsky called for a political revolution, not reform, to > overthrow Stalin and for the formation of new political parties to carry > through the struggle for socialism. >
True, but it was only after Hitler came to power that Trotsky’s International Left Opposition stopped operating as an underground faction in the KPD and in the other Comintern parties and decided instead to issue the call for a Fourth International. It was not then the idealist project it is today. There was already a very large pool of workers who identified with Marxism both within the Comintern and in multiple smaller parties outside of it to potentially interest in building "new political parties to carry through the struggle for socialism." But the Trotskyists failed even in that far more favourable political environment. Today, there are no longer third parties, much less far left organizations, which come anywhere near to approaching the mass workers’ parties of previous generations. To match the KPD, for example, a US party identifying with the Leninist tradition would have close to a million members - the KPD had 200,000 members out of a population one-fiifth the size of the US today - with most of them trade unionists rather than academics and other professionals. The party would have at least 100 members in Congress, the same number the the KPD had in the Reichstag, and it would be on track to win 27 million votes in the current election - the same percentage of votes as the KPD’s 6 million in the 1932 election a few months before Hitler was named Chancellor. Puts the Greens and vanguard groups like PSL into perspective, no? It’s why yesterday's factional debates and electoral strategies have no relevance for today and why furiously attacking the mass left-centre parties has been a formula for continued isolation. Better to ally with their army of supporters against the far right and in the process, as in their unions, try to win their confidence, raise their level of political consciousness, and wean them away from their current loyalties. Encouraging to see other list members having arrived at the same conclusion. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#32483): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/32483 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/108500093/21656 -=-=- 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. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
