From:    Louis Proyect 
To:      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







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