Leftist Coalition - uniting a front against the right

[Dick Wolf]

this summer i am releasing a zine in which an essay is about creating a united leftist coalition. this coalition would be for all revolutionary leftist parties and would be organized and productive (more than i can say about most of the american leftist parties). one day i got pissed by how many damn revolutionary parties there are. if we come together with one powerful voice, people might take the left seriously. don't get me wrong, i am a strong believer in dissent but separatists are more concerned with party loyalty than tangible change.

give me feedback. what do you think?!

[Lardlad95]

The main problem is the division of beliefs. Leftists bicker way to much to form a coalition

[apathy maybe]

Lardlad95 is right. we have the Spainish cival war as an example of this. (The communists where acting on orders from Moscow).

However, there has been some attempt at this in Australia where the various socialist parties have formed a united front to stand at elections and so have recieved far more votes and publicity then they ever did seperatly.

[Palmares]

The Australian Socialist Alliance is modelled on the same very concept from Scotland. This is something to marvell at, unity! However, sectarianism is far too strong among dogmatic parties, and unity is resisted vigourously.

When I first came to this site, I shouted unity! I would not accpet people saying that they were anything other than communist. Not Marxist, not Leninist, not Stalinist, not Maoist, etc, etc. Like Che agreed, the correct term is COMMUNIST

Nowadays such a thing seems somewhat beyond possibility, but if there are others that beleive it is still possible, I will give my absolute support.

[Dick Wolf]

thanks for the info/feedback

keep it comin'

[CubanFox]

I should go to some obscure little island and set up the Communist Party of Wherever then we can have another commie country.

[Dick Wolf]

yes you should. maybe this time we'll get it right.

haha.

[redstar2000]

I don't think it will happen any time soon and that's probably a good thing.

What???

Yes, I don't think it would be a good thing. Why? Because it's predicated on the assumption that a "united left" would win a sweeping majority in parliament and proceed to pass legislation to establish "socialism".

(The American Communist Party once seriously proposed that capitalist private property could be abolished by constitutional amendment.)

That perspective has a whole bunch of things wrong with it, starting with the idea that the working class can use the capitalist state machinery for its own purposes.

The unity of an "anti-parliamentary left" would be better, but I don't know how much. The umbrella term "left" covers up a lot of very serious disagreements, a fair number of which have shown up on this board. When people come to the "left", they bring a fair amount of "baggage" with them...ideas that they've picked up along the way, mostly from pro-capitalist sources (or worse!).

It seems to me that "tactical unity" is the best that we can hope for in the immediate future...the anti-globalization and anti-U.S. imperialism movements being the prime examples. Going beyond this requires a lot of theoretical and practical experience that just hasn't happened yet.

And what are we going to do about all these Leninist cargo cults...who see everything in terms of recruiting for their own microbrew of pet nostrums? I've had the experience of "working" with them in mass organizations and their irresponsibility has to be seen to be believed. Once they're convinced that it's impossible for them to "capture" the mass organization, they gather their new recruits and "jump ship" without regard for the consequences; even worse, of course, is if they do gain the leadership roles...they immediately become a bunch of "mini-Lenins" with an arrogance that even Lenin would have blushed at, and in a few years, run the big organization into the ground like any ordinary overpaid CEO.

My hope is that these cults will gradually fade away over the coming decades and be replaced with real communist groups without any silly "vanguard" illusions. The prospects for unity are a lot brighter once people have moved beyond the thought of competing over who gets to be the next "Stalin" or the next "Trotsky".

But, realistically, I think it will be "touch and go" for quite a while yet.

:cool:

[Blackberry]

I agree with RedStar2000 on the need for a non-parliamentary alliance. He gives the reasons.

Getting back to the 'left unity' subject, not all is well in the Australian Socialist Alliance.

http://members.optushome.com.au/spainter/I...signations.html (http://members.optushome.com.au/spainter/ISOresignations.html)
http://members.optushome.com.au/spainter/Pearn.html
http://members.optushome.com.au/spainter/Socalt.html

[BOZG]

I don't oppose Alliances in general but they're not something which can be just decided upon, there are subjective situations to be taken into account before a mass party is formed. If a mass party is formed on the wrong lines and ends up slitting, which is a great possibility, this can weaken the entire left.

[革命者]

we should use capitalist state machinery-- only to sabotage it in favour of better machinery.

[Dick Wolf]

excellent points. i'll have to seriously re-write my essay.

keep the ideas commin'

[Dirty Commie]

I love the idea of uniting leftist parties, but like several people mentioned, it would be too sectarian...however, if a party is truly revolutionary, than the members would accept compromise for the greater good.