Quote:
I recommend putting aside differences as to how to make revolution, what that revolution would look like, who should lead it, etc. and concentrating on what we all want to see accomplished.
Thoughts?
Sounds real nice but it could never work. Why? Because the differences between the various small left groups over what we all want to see accomplished are *much bigger* than the microscopically small differences between, say, Democrats and Republicans.
Do most left groups really want to make a revolution? In theory, yes, but in practice just about all left groups think revolution is a good idea in theory, but will never happen, so meanwhile they want to get some things done. Like trying to elect Obama instead of somebody like Sarah Palin for example. Or whatever.
Why are things this way? Because the human race made one big attempt to establish socialism. That was in Russia, in 1917. It failed, and all the leftists have been arguing ever since about why, and what to do about it next time around.
Until said arguments are resolved, it's all pretty hopeless. Like Santayana said, those who don't understand history are doomed to repeat it.
The most important task leftists have is to figure out how and why things went wrong in Russia, and how to avoid this next time. Till this is done, nobody is ever going to take the left seriously. Anyone who says hey that's old hat, let's look to the future and forget about all that, is part of the problem and not part of the solution.
Who has the correct analysis? IMHO, the Spartacists and absolutely nobody else. They're really small, and they are not perfect, but they are the only left group which is really any good. Most left groups are crap one way or another, and people know that, which is why the left is so unpopular.
-M.H.-