In a letter to Friedrich Sorge, dated December 2, 1893 Friedrich Engels made the following points concerning the failure of a mass socialist party to emerge in the US at that time:
1. the Constitution, which favors the two-party system; "the American," he wrote, "...does not want to throw away his vote [on minor parties with no chance of winning]";
2. immigration, which introduces numerous ethnic conflicts within the working class - for example divisions betwen native-born and foreigners, and the latter in turn are divided up into Irish, Germans, as well as Czechs, Poles, Italians, Scandinavians etc. Then Engels noted the racial division of the American working class in terms of whites and blacks.
3. the prosperity associated with the domestic tariff system and the steadily growing domestic market.
Jim F.
On Mon, 09 Feb 2004 11:44:10 -0800 Brad Mayer <Bradley.Mayer at Sun.COM>
writes:
> Ulhas writes:
>
> "Why the US doesn't have a strong Left or social-democratic
> tradition?"
>
> The long answer is very long; the short answer is "because of
> racism."
>
> Joanna
> ---------------
> Well, here's the intermediate answer, in rough outline:
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