Sandwichman wrote: > > On Sat, Dec 6, 2008 at 4:51 PM, Louis Proyect <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > A Historic Moment: > > > > Indeed, comrade Petras! In the immortal words of comrade Ernst Th�lmann, > > "In his pamphlet on the question, How will National Socialism be > Defeated?, Trotsky gives always but one reply: 'The German Communist > Party must make a block with the social democracy...' [clip] > > Down with the social fascists! After McCain/Palin, the Revolution!
I only browsdd in the Petras piece, because I really think there are more interesting topics of conversation than the Obama Administration. As to theparallel suggested with Germany, there are a number of problems. In Germany there was a real Communist Party. In Germany there was a real Social-Democratic Party. That is, it made sense to argue about what The Left should do there. There was an entity that couldpotentially do things. There is no Left in the United States. There is no entity or collection of cooperating entities that can presume to make alliances or blocs. There are I believe tens of thousands of leftists, who might make a difference were they even loosely united. But to speak now of leftists making a bloc with the (non-existent) social democrats or the existing Obama Administration reminds me of an old joke from the '50s: What is the height of arrogance? A flea approaching an elephant with intentions of rape. Leftists have nothing to offer Obama however anxious we might be to serve him or bloc with him. He could care less. The strategy we need is one by which 10,000 people, most of whom have no way of communicating with each other, can form into a few groups which in turn can cooperate with each other. (Incidentally, I think some of your programmatic suggestions make sense as a way of building a left. But they are irrelevant to national policy because there is no political force to raise them at a national level.) Carrol _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list pen-l@lists.csuchico.edu https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
