[lbo-talk] "A Labor Party Based on the Trade Unions"

[Bhaskar Sunkara]

Not to mention that at a time when even the "real" labor parties of the
world---- Labour in the UK, the SPD in Germany--- are at best "bourgeois
workers parties" (to use Lenin's parlance) with operative social liberal
politics, one has to question what the point of building a party of this
nature would be.  If the social movements were strong enough to allow for a
social democratic party (or the Green Party) to succeed within our SMPD,
Presidential-election system, the neoliberals wouldn't have control of the
Democratic Party to begin with.  Build a new party to manage the capitalist
state and you get a capitalist party.  Build a socialist opposition movement
and you might get something different.  Either options are pretty
damn inconceivable at the moment, but only one of these roads is worth
taking.

On Mon, Apr 12, 2010 at 3:30 PM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:


>
> On Apr 12, 2010, at 11:11 AM, Max Sawicky wrote:
>
>
>> http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/seiu-launches-third-party-in-north-carolina.php
>>
>> Expecting a Trot migration to NC.
>> Hell, I'd vote for them.
>>
>
> A NC friend in the know says that, sadly, there may not be much here. The
> guy behind the move is Dana Cope, director of the State Employees Assoc. of
> North Carolina, who's been steadily drifting to the right. Most recently, he
> supported an effort by affluent white families and public school
> privatization types to eliminate a school diversity policy in Wake County.
> (For more, see <http://www.bluenc.com/tags/dana-cope>.) It's not clear
> that national SEIU is putting anything into this - which is important,
> because NC has one of the most restrictive ballot access laws in the U.S.
> You'd need something like 70,000 sigs to get on the ballot, which isn't
> going to happen without a major, well-funded effort.
>
> Doug