[lbo-talk] Left Strength and Weakness

[Carrol Cox]

A recurrent topic on lbo-talk is the question of "Why is the Left so
weak?" There is am implicit premise in such discussions that is seldom
if ever made explicit. The assumption is that left weakness NEEDS
explanation. But this is quite false. It is as though someone were raise
the question of why so few people were killed each year by asteroids
crashing on earth. It's a nonsense question.

The normal state of affairs is the weakness or virtual non-existence of
A Left. What demands explanation is the occasional existence of periods
in which the left is strong! That is not normal, and explaining that
abnormality ought to be a central concern of left theory.

Given this fact (and it is a simple empirical fact of history), there is
a second phenomenon that needs explantion. Why do so many left theorists
devote themselves to a false and misleading effort to explain left
weakness rather than attend to the crucial task of explaining occasional
left strength.

Carrol