Internal differences

[Redmau5]

With so many differences within the Left (Marxists, Leninists, Trotskyists, Stalinists, Maoists, Anarchists etc.) is there any hope of a united front in which the Left could actually be effective ?

Or is the Left doomed because of our ideological differences ?

[bolshevik butcher]

I disagree i think that to be honest most people on the left are reasnobly unified, communists and anarchists and socialists regularly work together.

[redstar2000]

I suspect that many of our differences stem from the fact that we are very weak in the present period.

All of us want to see things "get moving again" on a major scale...and thus we argue (sometimes vehemently) on the "best way" to "make that happen".

When things do "get moving again", we may still argue -- because "now it means something" -- but the "we are doomed unless" argument will have lost most of its impact.

There are two ways to look at arguments on the left. One is that they're all meaningless sectarian squabbles by people who will never accomplish squat.

And the other is that arguments on the left reflect our vitality and diversity as part of a historical movement that continues to live.

Sometimes, it's both.

http://www.websmileys.com/sm/cool/123.gif

[shadows]

There seems no common vision for that amorphous swamp termed 'the left'. From reform to revolution, from anti-globalization to socialism, the terms vary and the ideologies and actors vary accordingly. Yet, certain common denominators occur, like commitment to equality, justice, and peace. Roads differ, perhaps by class as well as by identity. The variety of Trotskyists, Maoists, Hoxha-ites (are they still around?), Stalinphiles, 'historical' socialists, ex-revisionists, et al. phrase their analyses differently, as if linguistically 'different'. Class is what differentiates these one from the other.