There is evidence that the “red liberal” tendency within left politics is now being directly assimilated into the Democratic Party itself. We have reason to believe this because the People’s Forum, which is part of the same NGO network as PSL and ANSWER, has hosted three Democrat or Democrat-adjacent figures; those being the pro-Democrat streamer Hasan Piker, the neocon politician Kat Abughazaleh, and the Iran regime-changer Robab Vaziri. This act of class collaboration by the PSL’s circle is something we need to take serious note of; not because PSL itself is the main focus of what I’m saying here, but because this shows us how the pro-imperialist “socialists” are consolidating into a unified front. To rescue socialism from being absorbed into the Democratic Party, we must refute the arguments that the collaborators use to rationalize their opportunism, and to bring developing socialists into the wrong alliances.
One justification that these red libs use for engaging in such collaboration is that Marxists need to make inroads with the DSA crowd. Which is true, but the red libs are abusing the notion of going into the masses. Platforming neocons and reformist gatekeepers has a purely negative impact. Any attempt at building a unified front with those who actively propagandize for the empire’s wars, or who work to funnel socialists into reformism, can only assist in these agendas. Lenin explained why this is:
There can be no unity, federal or other, with liberal-labour politicians, with disruptors of the working-class movement, with those who defy the will of the majority. There can and must be unity among all consistent Marxists, among all those who stand for the entire Marxist body and for the uncurtailed slogans, independently of the liquidators and apart from them. Unity is a great thing and a great slogan. But what the workers’ cause needs is the unity of Marxists, not unity between Marxists, and opponents and distorters of Marxism. And we must ask everyone who talks about unity: unity with whom? With the liquidators? If so, we have nothing to do with each other.
But if it is a question of genuine Marxist unity, we shall say: Ever since the Pravdist newspapers appeared we have been calling for the unity of all the forces of Marxism, for unity from below, for unity in practical activities. No flirting with the liquidators, no diplomatic negotiations with groups of wreckers of the corporate body; concentrate all efforts on rallying the Marxist workers around the Marxist slogans, around the entire Marxist body. The class-conscious workers will regard as a crime any attempt to impose upon them the will of the liquidators; they will also regard as a crime the fragmentation of the forces of the genuine Marxists.
In accordance with this principle that we need unity between Marxists, the American communists who refuse to tail the Democrats have announced that they’re willing to work with all anti-imperialists inside the different left orgs. We are willing to work with PSL, DSA, or anyone from any other left org that opposes this war; this position of ours hasn’t changed just because of the People’s Forum incident, because we already knew that the leaderships of these orgs were Democrat tailists. The purpose of our calling for unity between socialists is not to appease these opportunist leaders, but to provide allyship to the members of these orgs when their own leaders have betrayed the cause.
It’s because of this contradiction within the predominant American socialist groups, where the leaders can be counted on to go against the anti-imperialist values of their own members, that we can also say today’s reformist U.S. “socialists” have defied the will of the majority. The American socialist movement is at this time much smaller than the socialist movement in Russia from Lenin’s time was, but the bulk of the movement’s card-carrying members are in ideological conflict with the higher-ups. Therefore the higher-ups are going against the wishes of the majority in that sense.
Moreover, there’s a fundamental disconnect between the “soft” Zionist ideology of the bourgeois reformists, and the beliefs of the base that they’re seeking to maintain. Sana Saeed points out how even though certain figures among this reformist camp have gained great popularity (such as Mamdani), no amount of charisma from these leaders can rectify this problem:
By choosing to operate within a political party that oversaw, supported, denied, and continues to obfuscate the crime of genocide in Gaza, Mamdani stands in direct opposition to the movements he once claimed. What grounds that opposition - what renders it a betrayal - is his continued (and unnecessary) acquiescence to the Party’s need to be resuscitated among a base that is increasingly unwilling to engage any elected official who refuses to commit to, at minimum, a total arms embargo on Israel and an end to funding the apartheid state.
The wave is turning toward the very politics that brought Mamdani to power, even as the Democratic Party works to redirect it. And in that tension, Mamdani increasingly finds himself not as its representative, but as its mediator; he has become a sort of piper, similar to Barack Obama, who not only funnels the disenchanted back into the Democratic Party but also offers electoralism as the best and necessary route of accountability for genocidaires, for fighting against the influence of pro-Israel lobbies and influence.
Will this attempt at redirection succeed? It depends on how many among the pro-Palestine base we manage to show a compelling alternative. This will require the sacrifices that come with staying principled as communists, in a time when state repression is advancing exponentially. Without a doubt, part of why the People’s Forum’s leaders have made an alliance with neocons is because they see how fast the crackdown is happening. This existential peril is the ultimate justification for becoming a class collaborator, and selling out all socialist values is exactly how the enemy wants socialists to respond to the counterinsurgency.
Our task is to draw the socialist movement’s official ranks, and the broader class-conscious masses, into an organizational effort that will never bow out of fear or corruption. That will lead the masses towards resisting this war, building an independent working-class organizational structure, and overcoming the Washington banker occupation. If we fulfill this mission, the high-sounding phrases of the imperial “socialists” won’t be able to keep the people within the reformist camp.
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