I was recently asked to participate
on a panel regarding the Left and electoral politics. I declined.
For many people this may seem strange since I have been a very strong proponent
of the Left looking at electoral politics strategically. Well, that is
all true but I have encountered a problem and maybe you can help me resolve it.
Most Left “debates” on electoral
politics take a very predictable
route. It looks something like this:
.
Electoral politics will not bring
about socialism and freedom.
.
The Democrats have consistently sold
us out. They are the party of the rich.
.
The Republicans and the Democrats are
two wings of the same evil bird of prey.
.
We need an alternative.
.
Therefore, either:
Abstain
from electoral politics and wait till the masses, in their millions rise up
against capitalism, or…
Create
a pure, anti-corporate (if not anti-capitalist) third party right now and start
running in elections even if we do not have a snow-ball’s chance in hell of
winning.
What I have found striking about this
line of thought, and the so-called debates that unfold around it, is that they
are actually un-political and lack any sort of concrete analysis.
Let’s be clear so that we do not have
a needless exchange. Electoral politics under democratic capitalism will
not result in our freedom. Second, the Democrats are not the party of the
working class. So, now that we have that out of the way, what do we do?
Electoral politics is a field of
struggle. It is an arena. On that arena, however, we on the Left
can do two things: participate in the struggle for popular power and
raise issues that have the possibility of gaining greater attention. Much
of the Left focuses on the latter and ignores the former. Many who focus
on the struggle for power, however, abdicate being Left altogether.
Therein exists the challenge.
Given the undemocratic nature of the
US electoral system, a concrete analysis of the USA (rather than other
countries) means that we have to grapple with what it means that in most
elections independent, third party candidacies fail and are viewed as
spoilers. There are certainly historical exceptions, but those exceptions
prove the general rule. This means that a concrete examination of US
electoral politics must focus on the notion that a third party movement on the
Left will more than likely result from an “insurrection” within the Democratic
Party and a major section of its base (with the character of such an
“insurrection” being more of a united front rather than a pure, Left
challenge). This is to be counterposed with the idea that such a party
arises out of nothing, or to put it in its best case, out of generalized
popular discontent.
So, if we on the Left really want to
discuss electoral politics we must examine a concrete question: what do
we do in the USA given the nature of the electoral system? If your answer
is to simply raise the red flag of radicalism to see who salutes, with all due
respect, you are not serious about politics; you are stuck in the world of pure
ideology.
The larger challenge for the Left in
electoral politics is conducting the fight, in and through our mass
organizations, for the recognition of the need for an independent, progressive
program that represents the interests of the downtrodden and the
dispossessed. We should not start with organization in the abstract, but
with program. We then need to figure out under what conditions we run
people within Democratic Party primaries and under what circumstances we run
independently. Always, I should add, recognizing that this is a fight
within the context of democratic capitalism for structural reforms, thereby
laying the basis for the longer-term struggle for socialism...
…That is, if we are interested in the
fight for power rather than just being ‘correct.’ But, alas, it will mean
that we will need to get a bit untidy in the alliances we will need to build.
Show me a ‘purist’ revolution and I
will show you a bridge that you can buy for almost nothing.
Bill Fletcher;
Bill Fletcher, Jr., is a longtime labor, racial
justice and international activist. He is an Editorial Board member and
columnist for BlackCommentator.com and a Senior Scholar for the Institute for
Policy Studies in Washington, DC. He is the immediate past president of
TransAfrica Forum and a founder of the Black Radical Congress.
Fletcher is the
co-author (with Fernando Gapasin) of Solidarity Divided, The Crisis in
Organized Labor and A New Path Toward Social Justice (University of
California Press). He was formerly the Vice President for International
Trade Union Development Programs for the George Meany Center of the AFL-CIO.
Prior the George Meany Center, Fletcher served as Education Director and later
Assistant to the President of the AFL-CIO.
Fletcher got his start in the
labor movement as a rank and file member of the Industrial Union of Marine and
Shipbuilding Workers of America. Combining labor and community work, he was
also involved in ongoing efforts to desegregate the Boston building trades. He
later served in leadership and staff positions in District 65-United Auto
Workers, National Postal Mail Handlers Union and Service Employees
International Union (SEIU).
Published in Bill Fletcher
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