That which defined the sectarianism of the Comintern's "Third Period" was starting out on the far left, condemning the political force immediately to one's right, the political force which was closest to it as if it were no different from the political force as far to the right as one could go -- fascism -- and calling for its destruction. That is about as classically sectarian as one could be.
Oh, but the Socialist Parties were "mass working class parties," and that makes all the difference in the world, we are told. Well, the US Socialist Party was no "mass working class party." Did that make the US Communist Party's denunciation of it as "social fascist" correct? The argument that the error was not in the sectarianism per se, but in the choice of specific targets for the sectarianism, has as its logical corollary that it is okay to be sectarian in that "take no prisoners" fashion so long as the target is the right target.
My position is that such sectarianism does not build, but rather tears down, a mass movement of the left. If the sectarian force is big enough, which is clearly not the case in the US, it may be the last organization standing, but at the expense of the larger social movement of the left. Notions that a destroyed Democratic Party -- should that happen -- would be replaced by a mass party of the left are not based on any analysis of the actual political forces at work, but on wish fulfillment.
Moreover, this type of sectarianism -- which turns every political difference into a line of demarcation, and every political opponent into an enemy to be vanquished -- invariably turns in on itself. Sectarians always eats their own young.
Leo Casey United Federation of Teachers 260 Park Avenue South New York, New York 10010-7272 212-98-6869
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has, and it never will. If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters. -- Frederick Douglass --
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