The Challenge of Creating a 21st Century Left Politics - 
My Frustration with Left Electoral Politics - Bill Fletcher

My Frustration with the Left when it Comes to Electoral
Politics

by Bill Fletcher

Organizing Upgrade

April 6, 2012

http://www.organizingupgrade.com/index.php/blogs/bill-fletcher/item/205-electoral-politics

I was recently asked to participate on a panel regarding the
Left and electoral politics.  I declined.  For many people
this may seem strange since I have been a very strong
proponent of the Left looking at electoral politics
strategically.  Well, that is all true but I have
encountered a problem and maybe you can help me resolve it.

Most Left "debates" on electoral politics take a very
predictable route.  It looks something like this:

 *  Electoral politics will not bring about socialism and
 freedom.
 *  The Democrats have consistently sold us out. They are
 the party of the rich.
 *  The Republicans and the Democrats are two wings of the
 same evil bird of prey.

We need an alternative.
Therefore, either:

 *  Abstain from electoral politics and wait till the
 masses, in their millions rise up against capitalism, or...
 *  Create a pure, anti-corporate (if not anti-capitalist)
 third party right now and start running in elections even
 if we do not have a snow-ball's chance in hell of winning.

What I have found striking about this line of thought, and
the so-called debates that unfold around it, is that they
are actually un-political and lack any sort of concrete
analysis.

Let's be clear so that we do not have a needless exchange.
Electoral politics under democratic capitalism will not
result in our freedom.  Second, the Democrats are not the
party of the working class.  So, now that we have that out
of the way, what do we do?

Electoral politics is a field of struggle.  It is an arena.
On that arena, however, we on the Left can do two things:
participate in the struggle for popular power and raise
issues that have the possibility of gaining greater
attention.  Much of the Left focuses on the latter and
ignores the former.  Many who focus on the struggle for
power, however, abdicate being Left altogether.  Therein
exists the challenge.

Given the undemocratic nature of the US electoral system, a
concrete analysis of the USA (rather than other countries)
means that we have to grapple with what it means that in
most elections independent, third party candidacies fail and
are viewed as spoilers.  There are certainly historical
exceptions, but those exceptions prove the general rule.
This means that a concrete examination of US electoral
politics must focus on the notion that a third party
movement on the Left will more than likely result from an
"insurrection" within the Democratic Party and a major
section of its base (with the character of such an
"insurrection" being more of a united front rather than a
pure, Left challenge).  This is to be counterposed with the
idea that such a party arises out of nothing, or to put it
in its best case, out of generalized popular discontent.

So, if we on the Left really want to discuss electoral
politics we must examine a concrete question:  what do we do
in the USA given the nature of the electoral system?  If
your answer is to simply raise the red flag of radicalism to
see who salutes, with all due respect, you are not serious
about politics; you are stuck in the world of pure ideology.

The larger challenge for the Left in electoral politics is
conducting the fight, in and through our mass organizations,
for the recognition of the need for an independent,
progressive program that represents the interests of the
downtrodden and the dispossessed.  We should not start with
organization in the abstract, but with program.  We then
need to figure out under what conditions we run people
within Democratic Party primaries and under what
circumstances we run independently.  Always, I should add,
recognizing that this is a fight within the context of
democratic capitalism for structural reforms, thereby laying
the basis for the longer-term struggle for socialism...

...That is, if we are interested in the fight for power
rather than just being `correct.'  But, alas, it will mean
that we will need to get a bit untidy in the alliances we
will need to build.

Show me a `purist' revolution and I will show you a bridge
that you can buy for almost nothing.

[Bill Fletcher, Jr., is a longtime labor, racial justice and
international activist. He is an Editorial Board member and
columnist for BlackCommentator.com and a Senior Scholar for
the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC. He is
the immediate past president of TransAfrica Forum and a
founder of the Black Radical Congress.

Fletcher is the co-author (with Fernando Gapasin) of
Solidarity Divided, The Crisis in Organized Labor and A New
Path Toward Social Justice (University of California Press).
He was formerly the Vice President for International Trade
Union Development Programs for the George Meany Center of
the AFL-CIO. Prior the George Meany Center, Fletcher served
as Education Director and later Assistant to the President
of the AFL-CIO.

Fletcher got his start in the labor movement as a rank and
file member of the Industrial Union of Marine and
Shipbuilding Workers of America. Combining labor and
community work, he was also involved in ongoing efforts to
desegregate the Boston building trades. He later served in
leadership and staff positions in District 65-United Auto
Workers, National Postal Mail Handlers Union and Service
Employees International Union (SEIU).

Fletcher is a graduate of Harvard University and has
authored numerous articles and speaks widely on domestic and
international topics, racial justice and labor issues.]

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