>That's just as unhelpful as reckless deployment of the word fascist.
>It's as if the struggles of the last several centuries for civil
>liberties and the right to vote don't count for anything. And it's as
>if nothing is being lost by their relentless erosion either. There
>are a lot of ways in which the American form of capitalist repression
>is different from the European. Britain fighting the IRA, France the
>Algerians, Spain the Basques, Italy the Red Brigades all abused civil
>liberties in the name of order. But there's something different about
>how the U.S. goes about the business of repression - there's more
>reverence for the military, more God and flag (no other remotely
>democratic country has a pledge of allegiance, right?), more
>religious lunacy. Sure that's always been part of the culture, but
>there's more of it now, and pressure for even more. And it's pretty
>damned scary.
There is also the argument that not only is the defence of democratic rights an essential part of the struggle for socialism in a capitalist country, but their extension, whenever possible, from bourgeois democratic rights to social rights, is of strategic significance.
"A democratic republic is the best possible political shell for capitalism" (Lenin - S&R) but whenever economic and political contradictions sharpen sections of the bourgeoisie will wish to revert to arbitrary repressive measures and appeal to populism to do it. Therefore the non-stop fight to defend and extend democratic rights is fundamental to the struggle for socialism, and far more important than the economic struggle.
It also embraces, when made the struggle for social rights, the struggle against oppression by gender, ethnic group, sexual preference, age etc.
Chris Burford London