"Leftist" Enemies of the Left

There are those who refer to themselves as "Leftist", who apparantly are of the opinion that the ruling class needs assistance in smashing the Left. By Leftist I refer to those who consider themselves to the left of liberalism. I include Leninists, Council Communists, Anarchists, Greens, and Social Demcrats. These "leftist" enemies of the Left include several types.

Anti-Organization

Advocates of this position claim  that revolutionaries should only organize revolutionary organizations when a revolution is in progress. Contrary to historical example, they believe that preparation before hand is not only unnecessary, but even potentially harmful. The extreme version of this tendency claims that organizing for a revolution is no more difficult "then calling up some friends to go to a movie."

Supporters of the liquidation of all socialist organizations, are usually former members of cadre or Leninist type revolutionary organizations. For the most part, they're people who are doing quite well, economically. They dominate the Unrepentant Marxist website and Grumpy Old Man Mail (aka Marxmail) discussion list. These petit-bourgesoie dilettantes, keyboard warriors, and talk shop revoltuionaries are "leftist" enemies of the Left and should be treated accordingly.

Stop the Right

This tendency argues that the only option the Left has is to "stop the right" which is accomplished by lobbying elected officials and electing Democrats.  They describe the right as those forces who favor escalation of the war against the poor, the destruction of labor unions, who oppose a massive jobs program, and support the expansion of  US military bases overseas. Supporters of this tendency appear to have significant support  from the membership of Committees of Correspondence for Democratic Socialism, and Progressive Democrats of America.

They prefer nott being remindedl that it was during the administration of a Democrat Bill Clinton, that the escalaltion of the war against the poor, in the form of Welfare Reform passed. They seem forgetful it  was Bill Clinton who pushed through NAFTA,  that cost union jobs in the US. They prefer not to be reminded it was this same Bill Clinton, who supported financial deregulation, which in turn contributed to the economic meltdown of 2008. They fail to acknowledge, that the number of US military bases overseas, increased during the Obama administration, and that Obama, himself is opposed to a massive jobs program, to alleviate unemployment.

The Stop the Right types, are opposed to the policy of single issue coalitions, such as those engaged in anti war or strike support actions, having a non exclusionary policy of membership. What is meant by non exclusionary,  is that all who support the goals of the coalition are allowed to participate, regardless of their position on other issues.

These coalitions usually have a non electoral policy. The Stop the Right advocates, are adamant that coalitions organized around specific demands have an electoral and lobbying perspective, and demand the expulsion of anyone who disagrees. They're not big on the democratic process. Supporters of Stop the Right are "leftist" enemies of the Left and should be treated accordingly.

Trash the Poor and the Unemployed

This trend denies the existence of involuntary poverty and unemployment among native born workers. Advocates of this position tend to be older, usually people who radicalized during the 1960's and 1970's. This position has the strongest support among Anarchists over age 50 in the San Francisco Bay Area, and a few adherents among the membership of Progressive America Rising. They occasionally post on the Kasama Project website.

One especially insulting and reactionary claim by these types, is that the poor and unemployed have themselves to blame for not using their computers to come up with some sort of self employment "$20-$60 per hour" scheme. Such people are "leftist" enemies of the left and should be treated accordingly.

Third Worldist

This tendency, with the exception of a few Anarchists, for the most part tend to be supporters of Maoism. They justify their position by claiming, "no manner how bad off the economically disenfranchised in the developed countries are, people in the developing world are worse off. How do the poor in the US think their complaining sounds to the international proletariat?" Their words, not mine. This is another group that seems to have found a home at the Kasama Project.

I would not advise telling someone who has just had their house forelcosed,  or are still unemployed after exhausting their unemployment benefits,  how well off they are. These find joy in your poverty, types are "leftist" enemies of the left and should be treated accordingly.

Conclusion

My own personal opinion is that the only solution to reversing the 40 year offensive against working people, is a mass upsurge, up to and including insurrection. In preparation, the Left will have to purge the 'leftist" enemies of the Left, from it's ranks. If this fails we can expect the US to go the way of Italy and Germany between the two world wars.  Rosa Luxemburg got it right when she described our options as "socialism or barbarism." There is no middle ground.

New Perceptions For Socialism: Don't resist and God Bless America

New Perceptions for Socialism is a leftist discussion group on Facebook. These "new" perceptions appear to be that any fight back is doomed to failure, because the state has a repressive apparatus, and even more surprisingly, the left must adopt US patriotism.

Down with Resistance! Up With Voting!

Angie Delacroix the moderator of the group asks, apparantly rhetorically,  "are we going to see an uprising?" She then proceeds to answer her own question. " No we won't! The idea of a vanguard party taking the streets is blatantly idiotic-almost laughable. Signs, fists , sticks, rocks vs. helicopters, tanks, assault rifles---well guess who would win? Anarchists are usually idealistic, clueless folk into a culture of revolutionary pretense, disorganized into fearing necessary hierarchy and whose military prowess is pathetic. They can yell real loud, make romantic style set designs, bang drums,  pass joints, take down a website, and act as agent provocatuers getting any real socialist shot. " Angie manages to trash Anarchists and revolutionary Socialists, simultanously. She also reveals a woeful ignorance of the history of struggle and social change. 

Angie goes on to say, "however if people voted for 'soft-socialists'  who outlawed multinationals and placed strict laws on corporations and banned political collusion with corporations, we'd get somewhere".  Since these political platforms would be limited to "curbing the power of corporations," then are we to assume that issues such as poverty, unemployment, lack of health care, and military intervention abroad, are off the table? Sure sounds like it.

One can only assume that the recent Occupy Movement must have been her worst nighmare. I can picture here calling out to the protestors, "is everyone here registered to vote?"  So apparantly the only option for the left is electoral politics.

God Bless America

" If democratic-socialists want to take down corporate rule,then they need to consider patriotism! .......Get real and consider using USA flags at rallies rather than Red flags. ....... If you go for every ideal espoused by Robespierre or Marx, then you get nothing but killed. " Angie give us a twofer with these lines: resistance is futile, and the joys of patriotism. One can only imagine her advising advocates of racial equality in the US south during the 1950's and 1960's, to adopt the Confederate flag and the anthem, Dixie, as symbols of the Civil Rights movement.

So according to this, we are supposed to be patriotic, loyal and grateful for poverty, homelessnes, unemployment, union busting, imperialism, and all sorts of social ills. Whatever we do, don't offend anyone.

I can't help but notice, all those who oppose resistance, in favor of an electoral only perspective, are generally people who are doing well, economically, under the current economic and social system. Their perspective seems to be, as long as they're doing fine, the rest of us need to shut up. 

What is further disturbing about the so called New Perspectives, face book group, is that there are people in the group, who know better, yet never challenge the reactionary views of the moderator. 

Further reading:  The American Flag: Symbol of a Monstrous Lie

http://socialistworker.org/2001/379/379_05_Flag.shtml