[Marxism] About Chui Choy and Sío, the SWP, Babylon 5, the antiwar movement, and some other stuff

[Joaquin Bustelo]

Luko says: "But you certainly remember, that in every even year, when
elections were on the agenda, electoral cretinism sucked many activists out
of the committees for mass action into the electoral activity."

"And you also remember, and live thru it these days too, what an increased
effort is needed to keep the course towards mass mobilisations; nevertheless
they have always been smaller in election years then in others."

Luko goes on to develop this theme of counterposing electoral activity and
mass protests at some length, going as far as to say that "every mass action
carries with it the germs of an insurrection" and saying that running for
office is a "diversion from tackling the class dictatorship of capital."

As I see it, this is a purely abstract way of posing the question that blurs
the distinction between Marxist tactics and anarchism.

Elections are just one more weapon in the struggle. An elected office --used
correctly-- is a position conquered from which to continue to fight under
better conditions. Marx and Engels even raised the possibility of a
revolution via the ballot box in Britain (because, among other factors,
England had no standing army at that time).

As for mass demonstrations carrying the germ of insurrection, that may have
been true in Europe before WWII or WWI, but in relation to the mass
demonstrations held in the United States nowadays, and I suspect not just
the U.S., it is an abstraction far removed from reality.

An insurrection needs a political subject, a collective actor. That is
precisely what we have not got. And that is precisely the point of a
coalition or alliance to challenge the bourgeois parties under conditions
where there is no labor party or other mass workers party and there is no
strong movement of the workers as a class that can become a class-political
movement and draw around it the other social movements.

It is a much greater leap to go from a single issue protest rally to a
taking of power than from a coalition, alliance or party that is already
presenting itself as an overall POLITICAL alternative.

As for the elections sucking away activists from mass protests, that is
certainly true. But that is precisely my point: what are you going to do?
Stand on the sidelines preaching or fighting also in the electoral arena?

Joaquin