Date: Thu, 17 Apr 1997 03:44:54 +0200
Subject: Re: M-G: Revolutionary Regroupment or Sectarianism?


At 23:04 1997-04-15 -0600, you wrote:
>Dear Bob,
>I still maintain that entrism is still a principle that Trotskyists must
>uphold.  The arguments against entrism are essentially idealistic.  You
>appear to be just looking at the situation now and just at what people
>are saying.  Labour leaders have always been bankrupt, the membership
>has generally been old hacks EXCEPT IN MOMENTS OF HEIGHTENED STRUGGLE.

I think that I said that "entrism" is certainly a viable tactic in certain
given situations. But entrism to bury yourself in the Social Democracy by
liquidating Trotskyism and replacing it with a minimumal list of demands to
pressure the Social Democracy to the left is ridiculous.  

True, Labor leaders when push come to shove have always betrayed the
proletariat. Lenin built the third International on the basis of the there
historical betrayals consumated in the voting for war credits for there
*own* bougeoisies in August 1914.

But that is not the point we are discussing. What we are discussing is the
tactic of "critical" support to reformist bougeois workers parties. The
fundemental condition in fact is that they are reformist on a reform
program ! and have a mass working class base that supports them though the
trade union bureacracy link. Is that what is going on today in the Labor
Party of Tony Blair or The Social Democracy here in Sweden. I say no. 

In fact we have two labor parties one in power (Sweden) and one who wants
to get elected to power (Britain) who stand for anti-trade union
legislation, No reforms, cutbacks and downsizing, permatizing mass
unemployment and have in fact given over any illusions about being a
reformist party fighting in a reformist way for poor and working class
people. The party apparatus is no longer controlled by trade union
bureaucrats but professionals who never have set a foot in a workplace. And
a programatical political program which is not directed at the working
class but the middle class. Therefore I draw my political conclusions.

If I am wrong about these assumptions then argue your point and  come with
stuff which is connected to the social and political  reality
that exists today. This is what I base my position on and not a bunch of
wishful thinging about poor and working class people wanting to join the LP
in the future. If this is true why has membership at least here in Sweden
dropped to all time new low and election support so low that since the
beginning of opinion polls the Social Democracy has never been lower!

In Britain a clear alternative as developed in the SLP  deriving from the
trade unions. A clear pole of attraction that if supported can deepen and
widen this trend. You are saying lap up the Social Demicracy and save
it..Hopping that some time in the future people will join the LP and you
will be their to welcome them!
  
>We are in the social democracy for the perspective of what will happen
>in a period of heightened struggle(which is incidently just starting)
>when NEW people will enter the parties with the view to change things.

See above. This is wishful thinking of waiting for the masses to come to
you! Sort of like the fucking theory of evolution!
 
>Thats the genuine meaning of the dialectic of marxist analysis rather
>than just using marxist phraseology.  We must look at processes and
>analyse the economic and class forces at work and not just what people
>say they stand for.

Exactly, see above the economic and class forces I am talking about!
What processes? What analisis? What class forces? are you talking about?  


The role the "sects" play in relation to the
>movement is generally damaging.  The main point is though is that you
>have to apply a very long term and at the same time practical and very
>dialectical attitude to work in the mass organizations.  

In reality this is called tailing the workers movement and sucking up to
or liquidating into the Social Democracy. Well good luck Rob. I am sure
Tony Blair would love you!  

We are there
>for the future and we can't tell workers what to do, but MUST BE THERE
>WITH THEM.  If we wnat to be there when they stand up for a struggle, we
>have to be there now.  It is that plain and simple.  It doesn't matter
>how degenerate and right wing the party is, because by being there it
>gives you a position in the eyes of the active layer of the working
>class.  You can go on to a picket line and say you are bringing
>greetings from the LP or NDP, sounds better tha "I am from Sect
>NO.2456".  

The classical Bernstein arguement the movement is everything the goal
nothing! Well I might not get to throw the LP or Social Democratic name
around but I can say I am a Communist/Trotskyist Militant and I stand on
your side in this struggle. 

Our goal is to further the class struggle, and the
>consciousness of the working class.  New people will come to the
>reformist parties, and they won't be the bourgeois rich people!  The
>next time these parties fill up it will be after mass upheavals, and
>mass strike movements.  The time for the vanguard party is in a pre
>revolutionary situation!  Not now!

I think you are dead wrong on this. I think that the downfall of Stalinism
has created a vacum that will and must be filled. And it is this concrete
historical event which has made the Social Democracy leap into the arms of
the bougeoisie. 

>For critical support of mass social democratic organizations and the
>support of the principle of entrism!
>
>P.S.  History is full of examples that show entrism to bear fruit!  The
>Russian Social Democratic Labour Party being the best example!

Could you please clarify the RSDLP as being the "best" example. And connect
it to your line of today. 
Warm Regards
Bob Malecki
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