Campaign for a mass labor party - left sectarianism, ultra leftism and opportunism.

international | worker & community struggles and protests | opinion/analysis Thursday September 02, 2010 17:32 by john throne - labors militant voice loughfinn at aol dot com

WIL. meeting in minneapolis.

The group the WIL is holding as meeting to launch a campaign for a labor party in the USA. This article questions why this group has taken this initiative on its own and why it has not sought a united front approach. It raises the issues of left sectarianism, ultra leftism and opportunism and how these have damaged the workers and left and radical movement in the USA and internationally.

Sent: Wed, Sep 1, 2010 10:38 pm
Subject: [oct24coord] Campaign for a Mass Labor Party. Left Sectarianism, Ultra Leftism, Opportunism.

The group called the Workers International league has organized a meeting for a mass Labor Party in Minneapolis. I would like to thank this group for this initiative but also make a few points in response. They are as follows.

Sean.

Dear Comrades, Thank you for your initiative on a mass labor party. However i would like to raise a few points. As far as i can see this initiative is launched only by your own small group. There are many other groups which agree with the need to build a mass labor party. Why Comrades have you chosen to launch this initiative on your own rather than trying to bring together these different forces and as many union and community groups as possible, and why Comrades have you chosen to launch this initiative at such short notice? For these and other reasons unfortunately your initiative seems destined to be of limited success.

Comrades the left movement in this country is severely affected by left sectarianism, that is putting the interests of one group before the interests of the movement. I am sorry to say that this initiative of yours seems to reflect this left sectarian method which is so damaging to the left and workers movement. One small group launching a campaign for a mass labor party without trying to involve union locals and community groups and also involve other left and activist forces is a left sectarian approach and will be damaging. It is likely to mean your initiative unfortunately will be still born.

Take a few recent events. Katrina, the financial collapse, the BP gulf oil catastrophe, the continuing increasing unemployment and declining wages, the wave of home foreclosures, all these have resulted in rising anger in the working class against the corporations and their corrupt criminal capitalist system. Arising from these developments the left and radical movement has to ask itself a few questions. The main question is this. Why has the anger rising out of these events not been channeled into a mass fighting workers movement against the corporations and their capitalist system. Why has the road been left open for such right wing nuts as the tea party movement.

Of course first and foremost the union leaders have to be condemned for their refusal to act. They are the main problem. It is the union leaders who are mainly responsible. They control the unions with their millions of members but they use this control to hold any emerging movement down and instead to support capitalism and their capitalist party the Democrats. The union leaders have forfeited their right to lead the movement. A radical fighting opposition to capitalism and for democratic socialism has to be built in the work places, the unions, the schools and colleges and the communities as an alternative to these union leaders.

But while the union leaders are the main culprits we in the left and radical movement also have to take our share of the blame. Yes the main reason a radical mass movement has not been built out of these crises of capitalism is because the union leaders will not give leadership. In fact they consciously hold the movement back. But that is not all. There is also the role of ourselves in the left and radical movement. Polls show that over 30% of Americans favor socialism over capitalism. Even if there is confusion about what is socialism this is an incredible figure given the fact that there is no mass force campaigning for socialism. Given these figures why are the left and radical forces so weak and lacking in influence.

In just about any big American city there are hundreds of members, ex-members and potential members of left and radical groups. Where are they in this situation. Where are they when it comes to these opportunities being missed. I repeat again, Katrina, the financial collapse, the gulf oil disaster where the corporations came under such heat, the rising unemployment and falling wages and the loss of homes, why have the different left forces not been able to come together in united fronts of struggle around a program to defeat the capitalist offensive and through mass direct action and linking up with the broader workers movement thrown this capitalist offensive back and opened up a workers offensive to take on the corporations and improve working peoples lives.

I believe this failure of the left has been for a number of reasons. One is the left sectarianism I have already referred to. This is where the majority of the left groups and also I have to say individuals act in a left sectarian manner, that is continuously jostling to secure their own interests at the cost of the wider working class movement. This makes it impossible for the many left and radical forces to work together effectively and also it repels the many activists and potential activists from taking organized united front action with the many left forces. Left sectarianism is a serious problem in the movement and damages the movement. All left groups have practized this. Personally speaking I have done so also. Left sectarianism has to be recognized for what it is, a serious problem which damages the workers movement and left and radical movement and it must be openly identified and openly opposed and campaigned against both in general and in any organization we ourselves are part of.

But it is not only left sectarianism that has been a problem for the left and radical movement. There are other problems. Ultra leftism is one. This is where elements of the left and radical movement does not take into account the existing consciousness and balance of forces in the workers movement and continues to speak and organize and orient as if the movement was at a higher stage of consciousness and organization than it is. The result is that the left and radical movement cuts itself off from the rising anger in the workers movement and leave a vacuum for reactionary forces to fill. I repeat again. Were the socialist and radical forces able to articulate the anger and put forward a clear alternative during Katrina, the financial collapse, the fall in wages and rise in unemployment, the continuing wave of foreclosures, the gulf oil catastrophe which exposed so clearly the profit addicted nature of the corporations and their criminal capitalist system. They were not. The left and radical forces have in the main been unable to connect with the consciousness of these waves of anger and this has been mainly but not only because of a combination of left sectarianism and ultra leftism. The section of the left and radical forces to which I am now referring have sought to leap in with ultra left terminology and formulations which have not connected with the workers consciousness, and on top of this have tended to avoid mass direct action fight to win tactics which could have helped the workers involved win victories.

The left and radical movement is of course not uniform. Nor does it act the same way every day. It is not always ultra left. It is usually always left sectarian. But sometimes it is not ultra left rather it is opportunist. When it is in its opportunist mode it is also unable to connect with the workers movement because it wishes to build or maintain good relations with the union leaders or the liberal wing of the union leadership who in turn wish to maintain good relations with the capitalist Democratic Party and also as they do not believe there is any alternative to capitalism and as they do quite well out of capitalism they wish to maintain good relations with capitalism. So there are times when the left and radical movement in their efforts to maintain good relations with the liberal wing of the union bureaucracy hold back the rising workers movement from fighting and in this way help to disperse this movement and throw it back and disillusion it. In this situation the left and radical movement consciously holds the rising movement back in order to try and fit into the wishes and program and approach of the union leaders. This prevents the rising workers movement finding its feet and moving into determined struggle. Again we have the left and radical movement doing damage to the movement, this time in the form of helping the union leaders to block radical fighting struggles and the building of radical fighting socialist oppositions in the unions and workplaces.

It would be good to discuss some of these issues at the coming meeting of a campaign for a mass labor party. Incidently would it be worth considering that the new mass workers party should be called a "Working Peoples' Party," given the relative lack of attraction the word labor now has as a result of the refusal to the union/labor leaders to fight for working people?

Sean.

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