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"The key difference between a reformist Labor Party and the Democratic Party is based on class." There is a shibboleth in the Trotskyist movement that this is from Lenin, but it's not actually what Lenin argued. He said "the Labour Party is a thoroughly bourgeois party" ( https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/2nd-congress/ch13.htm -- and this is just one example). There's a history to arguing that a "bourgeois labor party" is a party based on the workers but with bourgeois leadership and that that was Lenin's concept. However, as one can see reading this https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/oct/x01.htm <https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.marxists.org%2Farchive%2Flenin%2Fworks%2F1916%2Foct%2Fx01.htm&t=YWY0ZGVjMTEyZjExY2JmNTY3ZmZkOTlmNTNkOGY0Mzc5NDdkZjRiMixKSFBTa3dzSg%3D%3D&b=t%3AixQiVj4rMOrvM8QdJAtsjQ&p=https%3A%2F%2Fjasonsocialist.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F161239759454%2Fresearch-on-the-history-of-the-four-internationals>, in context the term Lenin used was “bourgeois Labor Party”, i.e. “the Labor Party is a bourgeois party” (note the capitalization--which can be inconsistent in various editions but again, in context this becomes clear). One can make an argument for this idea of voting or working with based solely on the class-basis of parties and ignoring everything else, but it should at least be made with the awareness that this isn't what Lenin argued and I haven't seen anyone do that: he was for the CP working in and voting for the British Labor Party and he thought that party was a bourgeois party. For Lenin, the class-basis did matter in that that was why he urged the building of a separate working-class political organization, but it did not tie down his thinking from considering a range of tactical and strategic options--including working within and voting for--in relationship to other parties, including bourgeois ones. -Jason _________________________________________________________ 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
