From: Louis ProyectTo: marxism-international Subject: M-I: Jesse Jackson and reformism Date: Thursday, April 09, 1998 11:26 AM Carrol's point about Jesse Jackson was well-taken. 10 years ago when he was running as a Rainbow candidate in the primaries, many of us held out hope that he would break with the Democrats and run as an independent. He disappointed us, however, and remains more deeply entrenched in the Clinton machine than I would have dreamed possible. The more notable reformist challenge to the system today comes from Ralph Nader, whose bid for the presidency on the Green ticket last go-round was less inspired than any of Jackson's campaigns, but more important because it was outside the framework of the 2 bourgeois parties. The Green Party is exactly the sort of reform-oriented formation that Marxists have to pay more attention to. While the leadership has no commitment to socialism, there is an anti-capitalist logic to green struggles that can possibly take this party in interesting directions. Their congressional candidate in New Mexico did surprisingly well in the last election. Part of the problem in discussing alliances between revolutionaries and reformists in the US today is that there is no revolutionary movement. The cult-sects have absolutely no significance. 20 years ago there were at least 10,000 Maoists and Trotskyists raising hell across the American political landscape. Today they are virtually extinct, like dodo birds. This means that the reformists have a clear field and are under no pressure from the left. The DSA can do and say virtually what it pleases, from supporting NATO intervention in the former Yugoslavia to kissing Clinton's ass. In other countries, these sorts of questions have much more of a palpable reality. For example, what attitude should the Zapatistas have toward the Cardenas candidacy? In Colombia, the guerrilla movements have periodically spawned new electoral formations that seek to operate as reform parties within the system. Should they be regarded as the enemy? These are not simple questions to answer. In general, the relationship to reformists is not a problem for ultraleftists, who do not consider the possibility that they have an obligation to think these matters through tactically. The classic expression of this form of politics was the faction in the German Communist Party led by Ruth Fischer. Lenin's rejoinder to her and her ilk is contained in "Ultraleftism, an Infantile Disorder." Lenin reminds us that Marx and Engels identified a petty-bourgeois, opportunist labor aristocracy leadership between the years 1852 to 1892. This leadership was always going over to the side of the bourgeoisie and betraying the masses. From this general observation, the ultraleft communists drew the conclusion that it is a fairly simple matter to denounce the leaders and the masses will break away. Lenin says that "to go so far, in this connection, as to contrast, in general, the dictatorship of the masses with a dictatorship of the leaders is ridiculously absurd, and stupid." What is particularly amusing to Lenin is the slogan "Down with the Leaders!" In reality, the job of breaking down reformist consciousness is a difficult and time-consuming chore. The working-class in general does not go beyond a reformist consciousness. This explains the existence of reformist leadership, not naked repression. When a worker is offered a choice between a reformist leader and a revolutionary leader in normal day-to-day circumstances, he or she will vote for the reformist. This makes perfect sense. What is critical is to offer a revolutionary alternative in *prerevolutionary* periods, or periods of deepening class confrontations, that makes sense to the average worker. The last time in the United States when we had this kind of opportunity, the revolutionaries shot themselves in the foot by trying to mechanically replicate the Russian or Chinese revolutionary movement in auto, steel and garment factories, etc. in the most foolish manner. The most successful effort at reaching the workers is the example of the IS'ers who went to work in the teamsters union and helped to get rid of the Hoffa gangsters. Their story is found in Dan La Botz's "Rank and File Rebellion", a labor struggle classic. Louis Proyect --- from list marxism-international@lists.village.virginia.edu ---