Certainly. Adolph Reed, Jr. said it succinctly in this excerpt from "Sectarians on the Prowl" in _Class Notes_:
"Ultraleftism is a distinct political tendency. At bottom it is a refusal to take into account the ways that existing political realities limit possibilities for action. Ultraleft politics confuses means and ends, muddles the distinctions among goals, strategy, and tactics. Historically, for instance, ultraleftists have dogmatically opposed participating in coalitions with liberals and mainstream politicians.
"This tendency severs the idea of commitment to principle from the need to make realistic assessments of the options that exist in the fluid here-and-now; to analyze tough-mindedly our strengths and weaknesses; to think seriously and instrumentally about how to build a constituency within a social base (to "unite the many to defeat the few," for those nostalgic for old slogans).
"Ultraleftism is a maximalist politics. It's much more about taking positions that express the intensity of one's commitments than about organizing or building anything. Rather than crafting language to build broad support for a substantively radical program, for instance, ultraleftists prefer potted rhetoric that asserts their bona fides, without concern for communicating outside the ranks of the believers.
"Sectarianism and ultraleftism have long histories, dating back even before Lenin's 1920 tract, '_Left-wing' Communism: An Infantile Disorder_. But most recently they have arisen as a response -- or nonresponse -- to the disappearance of radical activism's apparent social base after the 1960's. The decline of large-scale anti-war activism and black-protest mobilization put radicals in the unsettling position of developing increasingly revolutionary political rhetoric as the constituencies for that rhetoric withdrew."
Of course, Reed does precede the above with a description of how the term 'ultraleftism' is used to silence debate from the left. His example is progressive supporters of Bubba the Blubbering Baptist decrying left detractors as 'ultraleftists.'
Another essay, "Martyrs and False Populists," in the same book also addresses others radical pantomimes (for example: adulation for the militia movement) describing them as signs of the current weakness of the US left.
-- Shane
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