The Labour Party of the 1920s isn't the same as the Democratic Party of 2020s. I shouldn't have to spend a post pointing this out. :-)
On Tue, Sep 3, 2024 at 8:38 PM Marv Gandall via groups.io <marvgand2= gmail....@groups.io> wrote: > On Tue, Sep 3, 2024 at 03:28 PM, Charles Rachlis wrote: > > So why would Debs, Lenin and Trotsky say its unprincipled to vote for the > Democrats...revolutionary Marxists start from what is objectively > necessary (we say what is) not from the backward consciousness of the > working class. > > But the Bolsheviks very much took into account the backward consciousness > of the class and adjusted their tactics accordingly. You’ll recall Lenin > sharply criticized Sylvia Pankhurst and the British “Left Communists” for > not wanting to support the “bourgeois” Labour Party backed by the Trades > Union Congress. And remember this was in the immediate aftermath of the > Bolshevik Revolution in a period quite unlike our own when masses of > workers in Europe and elsewhere were engaging in militant strike action and > moving to the left politically. > > In 1920, the same year Lenin polemicized against Pankhurst and her > comrades, the Bolsheviks as you say supported Debs’ Socialist Party against > the Democrats, as we all would have. The SP was the political home of both > revolutionary trade unionists who from the IWW and reformist workers from > the AFL unions. The Democrats only became a union-based party from the > 1930’s and Roosevelt’s New Deal. > > Lenin thought the British working class would soon abandon Labour for the > fledgling CPGB if the latter supported it “as a rope supports the hanged” > and Trotsky also thought the Democrats would haemorrhage their working > class support to the newly-formed Fourth International which he predicted > would win the US and global proletariat to its ranks during the pending > world war. Neither forecast came to pass, and I believe each would have > altered their optimistic perspective about the imminence of world > revolution had they had lived past WW II. > > As you may know, I don’t distinguish between the Democrats and their > kindred social democratic parties outside the US. They all have the same > program, leadership, and social base. In Canada, I support the union-backed > NDP when it is involved in a tight race with the Liberals or Conservatives > but I've abstained wherever it has held a safe seat, as it presently does > in my riding. As my earlier comment indicated, I would approach the US > election in the same way. > > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#31994): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/31994 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/108216415/21656 -=-=- 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: marxmail+ow...@groups.io Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [arch...@mail-archive.com] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
