[lbo-talk] Re: What's at stake?

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>If you must insist on voting for one of the capitalist parties that 
>can win, then at least vote for the one that gives capitalism a bad 
>name. Tactical voting is fine, but the golden rule of tactics is 
>that tactics should be consistent with strategy. An essential 
>element of socialist strategy must surely be to undermine belief 
>that capitalism is the best possible system, so if Bush is as stupid 
>and dangerous as it appears, then he is a strategic asset. Voting 
>for the capitalist party that will better manage a capitalist 
>economy is a tactic that  seems to undermine any sensible strategy 
>to win hearts and minds for socialism.
>
>Unfortunately I don't get a vote. Except for that I'd be starting up 
>a Socialists for Bush (S.O.B.s) club.
>
>Bill Bartlett
>Bracknell Tas

Socialists support neither the Democratic Party nor the Republican Party.

It is not our job to "undermine belief that capitalism is the best 
possible system," since, even in the United States, few workers are 
really and deeply committed to such a belief anyway.

Most workers in the USA are in favor of trade unions, universal 
health care, and so on, and they would be happy to see the end of US 
foreign interventions, be they military, economic, or political. 
What we don't have is an organization that serves as an effective 
political expression of the already broadly left-wing opinions and 
sentiments of the working class here.

The task of socialists is to help create a mass political party of 
workers and our allies which is independent of capitalists' political 
control, a mass political party that uses all practical means of 
political action -- from electoral campaigns to direct actions -- to 
fight for, achieve, and defend what the working class already believe 
in.

It is impossible to create our own political party overnight, 
however, and 2004 will be a lost election year for the broadly 
defined left in the USA, as far as the US presidential election is 
concerned, even though it would have been really great to have a 
political vehicle ready to go by now.

What socialists can do now is to prepare ourselves for a fight 
against the Democratic White House that won't end the US occupation 
of Iraq.  For instance, if the US government is to resume 
conscription -- the only solution to manpower shortage if the USG is 
to continue the occupation of Iraq -- it will do so not under 
Bush/Cheney, but under Dean/Clark.
-- 
Yoshie

* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/>
* Calendars of Events in Columbus: 
<http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>, 
<http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/>
* Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/>
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/>
* Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio>
* Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>