Date: Fri, 7 Feb 1997 10:24:54 +0100 (MET)
Subject: M-G: Re: breaking with democrats is a "PROCESS"


Chris D. writes;

>James, I would like to suggest that you consider the idea that we have
>embarked on a process, and I emphasis the word "PROCESS." The "business
>unionism" school of organized labor is not going to change over night.

"PROCESS" in capitals Chris! I will  translate into practical reality for 
you without the capitals Chris. What your "PROCESS" means is opportunism of 
the lowest despicable degree and a tendency by the right wing of the LP to 
find and excuse to their cowtowing to the Democratic Party and are acting 
like a priviledged layer (a caste) with its own *real* interests to defend! 
And you are doing it at the expense of poor and working class people! Every 
LP activist should read Chris's letter and my reply. Because the opposing 
sides in this debate and in *reality* could never be clearer then as it is 
expressed here!

In Sweden as in America their is a real process going on and it is certainly 
expressed in the same opportunist way that you are presenting the list 
albeit the pressure is in exactly the opposite direction!

We have a trade union bureaucracy here just like the Americans have a trade 
union bureaucracy! Here in Sweden the trade union bureaucracy has been loyal 
to the Social democratic Party for decades. Just as in America the trade 
union bureacracy has been loyal to the Democratic Party. We have in both 
cases a trade union bureaucracy that is in fact a caste which has been fed 
with a silver spoon for years in both cases! In fact I think that the 
simularities could be recognized in many advanced industrial countries today..

Today as imperialist rivilry grows and the chase after more profits in a 
shrinking International market forces capitalism to declare war on its own 
working classes by mass unemployment,downsizing, moving all factories and 
industries to countries with cheap labor etc. (And the measures already 
taken will not be enough!) The trade union bureaucracy who's position 
nearest to the working class is beginning to squirm under the pressure. No 
longer able to bring even measly reforms as in the period of the post war 
boom and the cold war against the former Soviet Union (both are connected by 
the way) in a booming post war economy but have to defend parties like the 
Social Democracy which has deserted the working class and in America the 
Democratic Party which gave far less in reforms then any Social democratic 
Party here in Europe in a period where these parties no longer or never 
fought in the interests of even reforms find themselves in a pretty 
difficult situation. In fact the right wing shift in the Democratic Party 
can be seen in Clinton and the Democratic Parties and Republican parties 
"welfare reform" as a good expression of a leap to the right under American 
conditions..

In Sweden it is the Left wing parties both the Euro-Communists and various 
"Trotskyist" formations that are growing and making their voices heard. And 
the trade union bureaucrats under the pressure from the left and the working 
class who realize now that something is horribly wrong with the Social 
Democratic Parties they have always voted for and it is forcing the trade 
union bureacracy to either moving to the right and becoming even more loyal 
to the Social democracy or to the left and being forced to take iniatives in 
the interests of poor and working class people that 10 years ago they never 
would even dream of along with the left!

In America it appears from a distance that the formation of the LP with the 
so called "left" wing of the trade union bureaucracy is in motion. Very slow 
motion but moving. However, the trade union bureaucracy which has been fed 
with a silver spoon both in Europe and America during the good times are 
hardly interested in doing anything more then they are forced to do by the 
objective situation. Thus here in Europe the "Left" is much larger and the 
reformist trade union bureaucrats are forced to confront this. But it is 
foremost because the working class is beginning to wake up and move that 
these contradictions are evident in the trade union bureaucracy.

In the United States where the left is smaller and the working class less 
organised and politicized is expressed in the present debate going on here 
on the LP list. And at present what we see is only the various fake lefts 
and trade union bureaucrats trying to keep the ties to the Democratic Party 
and its silver spoon that has fed them all these years. But I doubt if these 
people are representitive of what is really going on in the United States or 
Internationally. Because what is going on are the preperations for a new war 
against the working class and all the reforms that came out of world war 2 
and the cold war. But also jockeying of the various imperialist powers 
before a new show down to redivide the shringing pie...

Your process is only a whining defense of the present trade union 
bureaucrats and pro Democratic party advocates who have taken a little tiny 
step to let us no that they are alive. But not prepared to do anything to 
fight in the interests of poor and working class people. In fact they do not 
give one dip shit about what is really going on with all the cuts and 
telling poor people to basically starve to death! that Clinton and the 
democrats campaigned on. They and you are only interested in doing as little 
as possible to keep up a good front in front of the workers that they do 
represent. It is the most conservative element of the entire workers 
movement that is being defended by you with your process. You are really 
saying that I want to suck up to the bureaucrats and the left wing of the 
democratic party because who wants to cut off the mouth that feeds them. And 
in this case historically it has been a trade union bureaucracy which has 
been fed with a silver spoon! But never the less it is only their interests 
you are defending with this line of PROCESS. In fact poor and working class 
people are moving much faster then both the right wing of the LP and the 
Social democracy here in Europe. They are beginning to feel the real 
situation that these politicians and their line represent in hungry 
stomachs, unemployment and for some starving to death. Just wait and see 
what happens when the new "welfare revolution" that the dems and pubs are 
cooking up take effect. Then you are going to see some real action. And you 
are going to see a bunch of whining politicians and trade union bureaucrats 
doing all kinds of high wire acts!

The funny thing about this stuff is that it is not funny at all. It is 
criminal! And the right wing pro democratic loyal LPers and trade union 
bureaucrats are in fact a priviledged caste defending their own silver spoon 
interests against poor and working class people In reality you are trying to 
get people to accept the new situation of mass unenployment and starve to 
death line.. While keeping the loyalty and lines   open to the Democratic 
party. Well for serious militants and poor and working class people there 
should be only one answer to those who in any way are defending a line of 
not breaking with the democratic party. That is to turn your backs to them 
and get out their and build a real Independent labor party with a program 
that fights in the interests of poor and working class people. There is no 
other way. 

I left the rest of Chris's letter on the end here. Read it again. It is just 
one big excuse for the those " poor" little trade union bureaucrats who are 
so confused and have not realized yet that they were wrong shit. Bullshit 
Chris! Trade union bueaucrats know exactly what they are doing and who feeds 
them with the silver spoon! 

On the other hand a *real* labor party will go bravely forward with a 
program and a call for a break with the twin parties of capitalism! They 
will find new and young leaders both men and women in the unions and the 
communities. Who will be willing to go forward and fight for a new LP which 
with its program counterposes itself to the twin parties of capitalism. It 
is along this road and this road only that any serious person who wants to 
fight in the interests of poor and working class people must travel. This is 
the ONLY REAL way forward.

Finally as I said in my first letter on this subject.

Better to have this out now and get rid of the basic contradiction between 
to fundemental lines that can not be united in one party. Because if you 
don't there will never be and Independent Labor Party. But just a collection 
of fundemental opposing lines jockeying for position in something that will 
never help the poor and working class find a way forward.. 

Finally as a Trotskyist I would like to say that the LP if it wants any kind 
of critical support from the left who want to go much much futher then most 
of the present left of the LP today then you had better get your act 
together. Your political capitulation time and again to the pro demo 
saboteurs of any kind of independant alternative makes the present situation 
in the present fake LP a joke. Because in fact the present LP in tactics, 
program and strategy is not INDEPENDENT at all but and appendage to the 
Democratic Party. And to say that it is anything else is just a pipedream. 
And anybody on this list who really wants to build a INDEPENDENT alternative 
should say exactly that both here and everywhere else. I as a trade union 
activists try to tell the truth to the workers as i see it. And in this case 
the LP at present is and appendage to the Democratic Party and deserve NO 
support what so ever! Better to vote for the Democratic Party! Then a fake 
Labor Party that is kissing the ass of the Democratic Party!

That would for me be the truth today. February 6th 1997.

And if you continue along this course should be condemned as a rotten block 
of fakers who will never do anything at all for poor and working class 
people. And deserve no support what so ever from any left organisation.

Break with the Democratic Party!

Until then,No support for these Fakers calling themselves "The Labor Party"!

Instead of an LP of Democratic Party Asskissers!

For a *real*Independent alternative to the Democratic Party!

Bob Malecki
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Below is the rest of Chris*s letter...

>To quote the late Prime Minister of Grenada, "
>"Revolution is not an instant cup of coffee," and neither is the
>extraordinary change that is in its infancy now in the labor movement.
>It is a change that is exemplified by the realization on the part of
>most union leaders that what they have been doing for 61 years in lue of
>a real labor political strategy, that is, giving billions of dollars and
>hundreds of thousands of volunters to the Democrats, has not worked in
>our interests. It's just basic human nature that they would be hessitant
>to move away from a failed policy, even after discovering that it is a
>failure. They know it is a failure, but they mostly don't know of any
>workable alternative. Our job is to show them, and the entire
>memberships of the unions, that there is a reasonable alternative, one
>that has already worked in every other industrialized country with the
>same kind of electoral system as we have in the United States, a Labor
>Party. Most people in the labor movement still have never even heard of
>the LP, much less had the time to actually consider all of the
>advantages of a labor party to the unions and the working class.
>It will take time. It's a process. But while the members of the unions
>and their jleaders are considering our pitch, I think it would work
>better if LPers weren't trashing them at the same time, as some on this
>list have a habbit of doing. On our side, we have the evil Democrat
>Party that never fails to supply the labor movement reason to want
>anoother alternative. On our side we have the fact of a 61-year failed
>relationship between the labor movement and the Democrats in which labor
>gave a lot and got deeper and deeper anti-labor legislation in rturn. On
>our side we have the arrogant anti-labor stance of the Republican Party
>that is just a shade worse than the arrogaNt anti-labor stance of the
>Democrat Party. On our side we have the fact that the overwhelming
>majority of the working class has boycotted elections for years out of
>pur disgust with both parties of the rich and the bosses and owners. On
>our side we have a rich history of a century and more of labor parties
>around the world finding out how to win a better place for the working
>class within capitalist economies, not the place we deserve for the work
>we do, but relatively better than we have here in the United States
>where working class people are treated like the lowest part of society
>instead of an equal part of society like we should be.
>I is going to be a process.
>In solidarity,
>Chris Driscoll





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