Date: Fri, 16 Feb 1996 15:00:08 +0100
From: m-14970-AT-mailbox.swipnet.se (Hugh Rodwell)
Subject: Re: Fascism and "lesser evil" politics. Local Elections.


Carrol C wrote:

>    My problem is arguing against those who claim that this, that, or the
>other local congressional candidate is "different." (Cockburn notes that
>the Democrat who won in Oregon was in fact not all that different.) Our
>local instance here is a woman (running against a fairly extreme case of
>Republican slime for congress) who has a good record on women's issues,
>labor, etc. She also (her progressive supporters !boast!) has a recordcord
>for fiscal responsibility. (Their boast, I guess, is intended to indicate
>that we should chip in bucks because that fiscal responsibility enhances
>her chances for election!) My current feeling is that "Fiscal responsibility"
>is on a par with Right to Life, Family Values, and Willy Horton, and that
>any one who makes that claim is directly contributing to the savaging of the
>U.S. working class.
>
>    Any comments?

All these 'difficult' choices originate in the lack of a strong, organized
party working for a society run in the interests of the working people and
against the interests of international capital. It's like the recent NAFTA
confusion with its age-old slugging match of free trade versus
protectionism (check out any of Marx or Engels' writings on this from 1847
or 1848, you can find them in the Collected Works vol 6, one is printed as
an appendix to the Progress Publishers' edition of The Poverty of
Philosophy) - in spite of all the fireworks and the appeal to union
interests it's never anything but an internal dispute amongst the
bourgeoisie. A revolutionary Marxist position refuses to take the side of
any faction of the exploiters and stands for an independent policy based on
the national and international interests of the working class. It's a
position of principle that has nothing to do with electoral conjunctures -
and this is the difficult bit, as electoral conjunctures are always used to
pressure socialists into abandoning a principled position in the name of
'practical politics'.

The solution to the problem is to build a party with principled
internationalist working-class policies that will become a force in
national politics - including electorally, though this is not the main
goal. While building, participation in election debates will then involve
presenting this position and criticizing the various bourgeois etc
alternatives being put forward to fool the workers and their class allies.

Cheers,

Hugh


Cheers,

Hugh




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