Entryism

[StartToday]

Okay, this might be a stupid question, but I'm still learning, so bear with me....

Why is entryism frowned upon? Most people spend all of their time working, taking care of kids, etc. They're working class, but they don't have the time to protest, or the means to contribute less to capitalism (growing their own food, making their own clothes), or even to just read about communism/socialism/anarchism. I've talked to a lot of people who disagree with capitalism, but because they spend so much time on other responsibilities, they have no idea that there are other options, and immeadiately write them off ("That'll never happen; it would never work"). These people are determined to vote for change.

What I'm saying is, if people like you (people on this site), with the proles' best interests in mind actually ran, they could vote for you, and you could use your power to abolish politics and capitalism.

Seems like it would work faster than getting the entire working class to ever so slowly join the ranks of anti-capitalists, so why not?

[Vargha Poralli]

Entryism is basically means entering a already exixting liberal party despite of the idealogical difference to make a strong faction within it and gain political gains out of it instead of creating a mass movement independently . It has been tried by CPC under the direction of Stalinist Comintern and Indian Trotskyists under the direction of FI when the members joined KMT and the left wing faction of INC initially and JPN's CSP later. It miserably failed as the once the that particular party gained power and used it to crush the communists while Chinese communists barely escaped from it and the Indian Trotskyists were annihilated completely during emergency period.There is also danger of being completly incorporated in to the folds of that party and lose all the credentials.

IMO instead of trying entryism it is better to start out with an Independent Organisation and gaining support of workers from grass root level.


What I'm saying is, if people like you (people on this site), with the proles' best interests in mind actually ran, they could vote for you, and you could use your power to abolish politics and capitalism.

There are much more practical difficulty in "destroying capitalists from within the system" a lesson Salvador Allende learned in Chile. But IMO that should not be used as an excuse to do nothing by true socialists.Until people revolt we have to be in touch with them and elections in bourgeoisie democracies provides us an excellent opportunity for it and there is nothing wrong in doing it.

[StartToday]

Originally posted by [email protected] 05, 2007 08:22 am
Entryism is basically means entering a already exixting liberal party despite of the idealogical difference to make a strong faction within it and gain political gains out of it instead of creating a mass movement independently .
I should have specified... What I meant by entryism is using the political system in any way, in this case by creating a new party... a couple anarcho-syndicalists I've discussed this with completely discourage any use of political parties, even as a means to an end.

Good response though, I appreciate it :)

[Vargha Poralli]

I should have specified... What I meant by entryism is using the political system in any way, in this case by creating a new party... a couple anarcho-syndicalists I've discussed this with completely discourage any use of political parties, even as a means to an end.

I have answered this later I think. The farceness of bourgeoisie democracy should not be used as an excuse for us to do nothing.

BTW it is also better to join an existing socialist parties like SWP,SEP in US, and SWP,CWI parties in UK etc to start a new one.It is better to adopt to different strategies in different places though.

[Xiao Banfa]

Entrism is not necessarily a tactic for (immediately) grasping the reins of power.

It is also a way of keeping socialist demands in the political mainstream.

I don't think it's so relevant today.

[Janus]

It sounds like a pretty good idea in the beginning but it's usually very difficult and by the time that it is actually a success, the party would've split by then thus reducing the power that one originally sought to attain. Furthermore, in order to gain a solid backing in a bourgeois party, one would also have to reduce their revolutionary platoform quite a bit and compromise to the extent that they are no longer revolutionary. But as far as using this tactic to simply gain recruits then I don't see why it should be a problem.