On Fri, May 3, 2024 at 09:24 PM, John Edmundson wrote: > > We've had 100 years of failure by these parties. Yet people still want us > to support them. Why?
The short answer is because the working class masses still prefer them to the right-wing parties which they view as the greater threat to the social and political gains acquired through struggle over generations. They identify the Democratic, Labour and other left-centre parties with the advent of the welfare state and the conservative parties with having resisted it and wanting it dismantled. > > > If there's a Marxist I'll vote for them even if I have major differences > with them. > It depends. I’ve also voted for Marxist and other left-wing activists who stood no chance of winning - most recently in the last federal election in Victoria Centre which is a safe NDP seat. When there hasn't been a candidate from the left running against the NDP in one of its strongholds, I’ve sometimes not bothered to cast a meaningless vote. When the seat was contested, I've voted for the NDP against the Liberal or Conservative candidate. The unhappy choice confronting all of us since there are no longer any mass socialist parties is whether to support the liberal pro-capitalist and pro-imperialist party against the conservative pro-capitalist and pro-imperialist party or to sit out the election. The answer ultimately depends on whether or not you accept that there is a significant difference between the parties. I never thought the case for Tweedledum and Tweedledee was as strong as Louis Proyect and others on the list made out but it was at least aguably stronger when Clinton ran against Dole or Gore ran against Bush or even when Obama ran against McCain. It’s much more difficult to defend that position today when US society has become so much more polarized and the proto-fascist right led by Trump has taken hold of the Republican party. We participate in electoral politics not from individual self-interest but with the interests of the working class and allied movements foremost in mind. From that standpoint, there is little doubt that however much we might abhor the policies of the Biden administration, especially lately in relation to Palestine, a Trump administration will almost certainly have a more dangerously aggressive foreign policy in Asia and the MIddle East and more repressive and reactionary domestic policies at home. If I were in the US, that would be reason to join with trade unionists, people of colour, feminists, LGBT+ activists, environmentalists, and others who believe likewise in calling for a Biden vote to block Trump. Unless, as some have suggested, it were in a secure Democratic district where the issue was moot. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#30217): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/30217 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/105891162/21656 -=-=- 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/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
