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﻿<title﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, Letter to NS - Article﻿</title>﻿

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﻿<b﻿>﻿Letter to NS

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﻿<i﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, April - May 1999﻿</i>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

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The last issue of NEW SOCIALIST contained articles on Saskatchewan's new broad left political party, the New Green Alliance, written by Jessica Peart and Colin Hall. I fear that, although each draws a different conclusion about the NGA, they both approach the question in the wrong way. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Hall notes that the NGA is not clearly anti-capitalist, but supports it anyway on the grounds that "I believe in a few of my friends... who are... involved in the party." But surely socialists can't decide our attitude toward a political organization on the basis of a few people we know who participate in it. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Peart's approach is different. She opposes support for the NGA on the grounds that it accepts the framework of electoral politics in the capitalist state, which doesn't offer a viable strategy for radical social change. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

This is a more promising approach since it starts from an analysis of how social change happens. Electoral politics in capitalist states has not proven to be an effective way for working class people to bring about fundamental changes to improve our lives. Time and again electoral victories by left-wing parties have led to disappointments and betrayals, as the economic power of employers has been mobilized to enforce a bosses' agenda and to compel (the often readily compliant) "left" politicians to turn against their supporters and abandon any pretence of seeking real change. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

But I think that Peart's analysis is also inadequate. She essentially dismisses electoral politics as irrelevant because it is ineffective. As for her alternative strategy, she writes "I can foresee meaningful revolutionary change if hundreds of organizers are planning democratic actions in the streets...[including] forms of direct action." 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

This seems far-fetched: can "hundreds of organizers" engineer a revolution in Canada? Peart, like Hall, seems oblivious to the existence and political consciousness of the millions of exploited and oppressed people in the Canadian state who want a better life for themselves, their families and communities. Consequently, neither asks the key question: how do we rebuild the kind of mass movements -- against sexism, heterosexism, racism and the employers' offensive -- which would make "meaningful revolutionary change" look to millions of workers like something that we can accomplish through collective action? 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

When we ask that question, we are forced to take a more subtle view of electoral politics, and admit that most people can't see any viable alternative to change brought through parliament and the courts. When most working class people have not experienced their own potential power, they tend to look to the power of the state for a way of addressing their grievances. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

True, the capitalist state -- which institutionalizes a divorce between "politics," which is formally democratic, and "economics," which is subject to the naked tyranny of unaccountable employers -- is not so strong as to be able to elude the power of giant corporations. But in the last 20 years few workers have experienced their own capacity to mobilize themselves effectively and win major victories. As a result, even a state dominated by the capitalist class seems to many to be a much more powerful tool for change than workers' self-organization. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Under these conditions, socialists need to respond to unrealistic hopes for a parliamentary path to change with a MORE REALISTIC alternative. That means arguing for a long term project of rebuilding mass movements based on the strategy of the self-organization of the exploited and oppressed. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Steve D'Arcy﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿


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