The Economic Crisis Continues. The Left and All Anti-Capitalists Need to Consider Why We Have Failed To Take Advantage of Past Opportunities If We Are to Influence the Present and the Future

The National Association of Realtors reports that sales of existing homes fell 27% in July from the previous month. This is not good news for future economic growth and stability.  As we have pointed out on this blog (as many other people have of course) the present crisis is of historic significance.  It has changed the American psyche for a long time if not for good.  One in seven mortgages was delinquent in the first quarter of this year and Business Week reports that more than one million homes will be foreclosed on during the same period.  Homes repossessed or in default in the first quarter totaled 7.3 million and when these homes exit the process and go on the market, prices will be depressed even further adding further crisis to the economic situation.

Coupled with the savage cuts in public services as well as job losses, close to 500,000 in state and local governments and about 18 percent in construction, one wonders when a social explosion will occur. Even before the present crisis, workers have seen our living standards decline.  In the private sector, workers in auto, once some of the best paid and most secure of us have seen thousands of jobs disappear, wages cut in half and pension obligations reneged on. Teachers are among the most abused workers in the country and are under a fierce onslaught from capital; it is a “profession” that was long ago proletarianized. Privatization of everything public is being accelerated as the public sector sells assets for cash.

While we have pointed out on this blog that the main force to blame for the lack of a mass movement in response to these attacks is those at the helm of organized Labor; we have to consider the dismal record of what is called the left. One question some of us have asked ourselves is where is the left in this country?  A recent poll found that 36% of the US population has a favorable image of socialism.  American workers are as angry as we have been in a long, long time; with the rich, their political parties, and the system itself. There are thousands of activists in the US who consider themselves anti-capitalists of one type or another.  They are present in the Unions, the student movement and other areas of activity.

WTO demo: Seattle 1999

The left can hold meetings and seminars on every issue from racism and women’s oppression to the wars of US imperialism and the Writings of Karl Marx. The left can call themselves militant sounding names and drop quotes from the writings and speeches of Gramsci, Lenin, Trotsky, Chomsky and others just like the magician pulls the rabbit out of the hat; all relevant issues. But we have failed dismally to connect with the consciousness of the US working class and build a base within the working class in any serious way. Other Bloggers have raised on this site the equally dismal failure of the left in uniting to offer a political alternative to the capitalist candidates in local, state or even national elections. The left has failed to tap in to the anger that exists out there.

In short, the left, and I include part of my own history in this, needs to reflect on our own history and the failure to build a strong left current within the Unions, the student movement and US society as a whole.  It is not the fault, as many leftists claim, of the “conservative” nature of the US working class.

One of the main reasons for the left’s failures is left sectarianism.  Many of us have witnessed this in the different movements we have been involved in.  In my many years of activity in the Labor movement I saw it and pretty much disassociated myself from any left organizations that I felt were unable to connect with the consciousness of ordinary working people which is most of them.  Part of that experience was a failure of my own as I belonged to a group that used to call ourselves the “Genuine Marxists”, it was a way of separating myself from these elements so my intentions were justified in some ways but you can’t get more elitist and sectarian than that.  Sectarianism is placing the interests of one, normally tiny, organization above the interests of the class or any social movement one is involved in.  It is most common and all movements suffer from it, the Union rank and file included.  The myriad of groups all jockeying for position and trying to recruit a few members more than their rivals are avoided like the plague by workers and students alike. Many that become involved are either destroyed politically or leave in disgust.  The world is littered with ex leftists, people who have withdrawn from politics because of their experiences in left organizations; we are talking of thousands upon thousands of what were dedicated hard working and loyal people.

As Well as left sectarianism, another cause some of us believe is ultra leftism.  The refusal to participate in the workers’ or any movement that moves in to struggle to throw back the offensive of capital but may not be explicitly socialist. The refusal to participate in the electoral process as so many do is another example. By refusing to use the electoral process as a forum for explaining socialist or anti-capitalist ideas and building a working class movement that can challenge the established capitalist monopoly in the political arena means the ideology of the market goes unchallenged.  Are we saying that united left candidates cannot win elections in cities and towns across America?  The only thing preventing this is ourselves.

If we think for a moment of a few events: Seattle 1999, Katrina, and Katrina is in the news again as it is the fifth anniversary of this disaster of the so called free market, the BP spill in the gulf and very present and far from over economic crisis, those of us who are in left organizations or anti-capitalist in general must ask ourselves why have we failed to intervene in such times of opportunity?

I did not intend to blog about this today but I am convinced that there is more bad economic news to come. more social and environmental catastrophes.  I also saw the headline in the local paper about Katrina and I spent a short time down there after the disaster, I stayed in a FEMA camp in Algiers. It reminded me of the numerous lost opportunities, not just what I’ve mentioned here but countless strikes where workers put themselves on the line for long periods of time losing their homes in the process.  They faced the cops and the National Guard only to go down in defeat.

These are a few thoughts that myself and others have about the situation. The left’s record is a poor one and needs to be seriously discussed. We can start by condemning left sectarianism and ultra-leftism and pledging to openly fight these trends when and where they arise.