Note to Readers: The bulk of what follows is not my writing, but rather is that of my friend Dustin Slagle, who runs a blog called The Hong Se Sun. I have made substantial edits, removing contents I disagree with and adding some general thoughts in place of them, to more closely reflect my own perspective. This is part of a collaborative project we are doing. The original piece can be found here. Okay, here goes:
This blog post and general idea [in Dustin's case -- MQ] was pulled/inspired from a blog posted by a supporter of the RCP-PCR here.
If someone really wants to know why there is no (progressive) revolutionary consciousness in the US to speak of, one factor they might consider, in addition to decisive objective factors like the virtual non-existence of an American proletariat, is the political nature of the majority of the "socialist" groups in the US. How are even the few more progressive-minded Americans suppose to develop a revolutionary mindset when all these groups who claim to be revolutionary support nothing but reformist tactics and attack any groups directly calling for revolution as ultra-leftist? How is directly advocating revolution ultra-leftist? How is calling for revolution while denouncing revolution and participating in imperialist elections anything but reformist and social-democrat-esque?
Nearly all "left wing" groups in the America are fakes and paper tigers. They use the call "revolution" for opportunist reasons only. In reality they support this capitalist-imperialist system by organizing people around the demands of exploiters and on the terms of the imperialist enemy. One of the ways these groups help this system is by legitimizing it in people's minds; by trying to reform it from within rather than destroy it from without. I would argue that even just by participating in bourgeois elections, they accomplish this feat. Their participation legitimizes the bourgeois electoral process in people's minds. This obviously sends the wrong message to an important group coming into progressive circles, and that is the young people. The number of young people who say things like "we are real revolutionary socialists" followed directly by "wanna buy our paper or a book or some stickers or pins, how about a donation, vote for this person" makes me so sick to my stomach. That's especially true when you see these hypocrites wearing Mao shirts and hear them quoting the likes of Marx, Lenin, and Mao, yet then tell you how narrow and dogmatic you are for directly advocating proletarian revolution. Here's a good and relevant quote by Marx such people seem to have missed: "The communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution." (That's from The Communist Manifesto.)
I think it obvious that communists should not be participating in elections in which the only possible outcome is more of the same: more imperialism, more plundering, more exploitation, more oppression, more misery for the world's vast majority. We need to be providing an alternative ideology to this fake democracy that is bourgeois democracy: democracy for the world's oppressing and exploiting minority, not for its oppressed and exploited majority. There is no good reason to give the illusion that these elections give those who would work on behalf of the international proletariat any real chance at creating positive change. Boycotting an election may not be in itself revolutionary, but it is, I believe, a correct tactic for any group claiming the world needs a new and much better system.
Just think for a moment about the whole history of all those communist parties and groups that went astray and strove to lead a proletarian transformation of society through electoral avenues. It is nothing but the history of failure, revisionism, betrayal, right wing coups, and horrific bloodbaths. Indonesia. Chile. Columbia. Nicaragua. Nepal. I don't even have to explain. You know to what I refer when I bring up those countries in connection to "communist" reliance on electoral avenues. And these are but a few of the examples that could be cited in this connection. Joining capitalist elections leads to nothing but betrayal at best (either on our own part or on the part of our enemy) and unfathomable disaster at worst. Never has this strategy succeeded. Never has it even gotten anywhere as a tactic that I can think of. The more you try to change the system from within, the more instead it changes you. Or finds an opening to destroy you.
Written by: Dustin Slagle
Edited by: Monkey Queen
(1) http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0781453.html (their source is the turnout for elections sided with population of people 18 and older)
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