[Marxism] Communism and Support for Bourgeois Parties

[Austin, Andrew]

-----Original Message-----
From: marxism-bounces at lists.econ.utah.edu
[mailto:marxism-bounces at lists.econ.utah.edu] On Behalf Of Carlos Petroni
Sent: Tuesday, October 31, 2006 5:49 PM
To: marxism at lists.econ.utah.edu
Subject: RE: [Marxism] Moderator's note

You do have lots of ideological commitments to the Democratic Party,
otherwise you would not support it at election time. 

...

And of course, your protestations notwithstanding, you are NOT a
communist.  A communist is a member of a historic movement of the
working class whose fundamental aim and objetive is to mobilize the
working class and its allies, independently of its class enemies (i.e:
bourgbeoisie, Democratic Party), etc in order to take power and destruct
the existing political/economic system and start building a socialsit
society run by the democratic institutions of the working class. Voting,
supporting, even tactically, for one election, puts you squarely outside
the aims and objectives of a communist movement.

* * *

No, I really don't have any ideological commitments to the party,
Carlos.  My vote is purely strategic.  It is, in fact, and I haven't
decided whether this is ironic or not, those who argue that there is
never a reason to vote for the Democratic Party that have an ideological
commitment, although it doesn't seem to be to communism.

You write that a "communist is a member of a historic movement of the
working class whose fundamental aim and objetive is to mobilize the
working class and its allies, independently of its class enemies," and
then you single out the bourgeoisie as one of those enemies.  By this
standard, Carlos, Karl Marx was not a communist, since he
enthusiastically supported the Republican Party - a bourgeois party - in
the 1864 election.  By implication, Marx supported the class enemy.  But
Marx was a communist.  So obviously you are wrong in your definition. 

Andrew