[Marxism] In Defense of Harrington and American

[Bhaskar Sunkara]

The march to the right of the Democratic Party has to do with the march to
the right of ALL parties after the 1970s and the collapse of keynesianism
and the social democratic consensus.

The strategy's focus isn't so much on realignment, but fostering a division
along ideological lines.  The weakness and failure of small numbers of
socialists to do this, doesn't show us that this isnt a more probable way to
build a mass party.

Labor parties aren't built from nothing, mass socialist parties aren't built
from nothing---- they are formed from where workers are.  Die Linke came
from SPD.  During May in France 1968, workers went to the already
established parties of the left-- same in Portugal in the 1970s, in Spain in
the 1930s--- workers don't go over to a small sect that gets bigger over
time.  Revolutionary parties like the Bolkseviks come from a mass
organization-- they aren't borne through slow and steady recruitment, a good
line and a revolutionary newspaper (the ISO method, the SWP method)