[lbo-talk] Third Party Solutions (was Re: Lieberman)

[Jon Johanning]

I think that it's a bit of an exaggeration to say that there is no Left 
in the U.S. But for most of the twentieth century, most of the American 
Left seems to have operated on imported models, either from Europe or 
the Third World. European models include the revolutionary type (a la 
the Bolsheviks) or the reformist type (a la labor parties such as the 
German Social Democrats or British Labour), and various models have been 
imported from the Third World (Maoist, Cuban, various National 
Liberation Fronts, etc.). But all of them suffer from the defect that 
the U.S. does not closely resemble either Tsarist Russia, or European 
countries with parliamentary systems, or pre-revolutionary China, Cuba, 
Vietnam, etc.

Surely it is high time to junk these models and come up with something 
more appropriate to our specific conditions. Leninism, Kautskyism, 
Maoism, etc., appeal to well-read radicals with specialized radical 
educations, but for most Americans, politics is essentially Republican 
or Democratic -- take one or the other of these alternatives or sit out 
the game. I think that this is not necessarily an indication that their 
"consciousnesses" are sufficiently "raised," but very possibly that they 
have a pretty realistic view of the possibilities of politics under the 
existing conditions in this country. For example, the U.S. labor 
movement did not develop an independent party, as in many European 
countries, because the U.S. political system does not favor developing 
such a party, but instead concentrated on having as much effect as 
possible on the two existing parties (more on the Democrats, since they 
proved to be more amenable to being pushed from the left).

Since Republicans are not likely to be very cooperative with us, that 
means that our activities have to be focused on influencing (or, in our 
wildest dreams, taking over) the Democrats. It is fine to talk about 
organizing independent mass organizations, and I’m all in favor of it. 
Certainly Democrats don't do anything useful unless they are pushed into 
it by mass organizations. But in twentieth-century history, those 
organizations which have accomplished anything -- the civil rights and 
peace movements of the 60s, the feminist movement, the environmental 
movement, etc., as well as the labor movement -- have done so by working 
on the Donkey Party. So I am still looking for an explanation of how 
ignoring the donkeys, love them or hate them, makes practical political 
sense for the Left.

Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org
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How good bad music and bad reasons sound when we march against an 
enemy. -- Nietzsche