In a Nov. 9, 1912, article on the U.S. elections Lenin wrote, "This so-called bipartisan system prevailing in America and Britain has been one of the most powerful means of preventing the rise of an independent working-class, i.e., genuinely socialist, party."
It is interesting how such words have so little importance to some self-professed Marxists today. I much prefer Marx and Lenin to Dmitroff, no matter his personal courage.
Here are some other words:
"The differences between the Churchills and the Lloyd Georges--with insignificant national distiinctions, these political types exist in all countries--on the one hand, and between the Hendersons and the Lloyd Georges on the other, are quite minor and unimportant from the standpoint of pure (i.e. abstract) communism, i.e., communism that has not yet matured to the stage of practical political action by the masses. However, from the standpoint of this practical action by the masses, these differences are most important. To take due account of these differences, and to determine the moment when the inevitable conflicts between these "friends", which weaken and enfeeble all the friends taken together, will have come to a head--that is the concern, the task, of a Communist who wants to be, not merely a class-conscious and convinced propagandist of ideas, but a practical leader of the masses in the revolution." (Lenin, "Left-wing Communism an Infantile Disorder, 1920).
He goes on in this vein further to argue for "compromises", "zig-zags", "retreats" in order to "speed up the achievement and then loss of political power by the Hendersons." Clearly his main interest is not in making so-called "principled" political points about third parties participating in elections fairly, but about how to win real political power.
Sounds like Lenin had an ABC (anybody but Churchill) policy in 1920 that roughly parallels current ABB arguments. Now if we compare this to the words you quoted him saying in 1912, can we conclude that like Doug Ireland, et al who refuse to support Nader this time, Lenin abandoned a more advanced position under the political pressure?
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