Meeting the Challenge of Crisis and Opportunity Left Refoundation and Party Building About this paper: The Party-Building Commission The slogan of Left Refoundation arises out of our of Freedom Road Socialist Organization takes assessment of the ideological and structural crisis pleasure in circulating the following paper. Like among Leftists here in the U.S. and other parts of other socialist organizations, since its inception, the world. Four major occurrences define this crisis: Freedom Road has looked for opportunities to com- (1) The crisis of socialism, which predates the bine our own organizing with opportunities for collapse of the Soviet Union strengthening the unity and coherence of socialist efforts overall. We endorse the themes presented (2) The dismantling of the welfare state, here as an important part of our efforts in this gen- (3) The crisis of national liberation movements, eral direction. Members of our organization from and several cities worked on this paper over the last year and a half. We also appreciate the invaluable (4) The rise of neoliberalism. comments of friends and co-workers from other or- All four are connected. The rise of neoliberalism and ganizations who have seen this in draft and helped the crisis of socialism are intertwined with the de- shape it. We don't see this as the final word on the struction of the welfare state and the crisis of na- way forward for the socialist left. Nor do we even tional liberation movements. This crisis is an ideo- see it as the first word, since others have also grap- logical and structural vacuum in which words such pled with similar issues throughout this past decade. as revolution become clichés and young revolution- But we do sincerely hope it sparks interest, debate, aries seek meaning in a variety of ideological frame and action toward bringing new national political works. organization to US socialist efforts. –January 2000 On the other hand, this vacuum provides Marxists a Introduction: The Crisis Facing the Left rare opportunity for reflection and reevaluation. This period affords Marxists an opportunity to The world we live and struggle in confronts us with shape revolutionary thought by creating a strategic an immense set of paradoxes. Conditions exist vision for revolution and socialism. For success, this which should result in very favorable ground for so- vision needs to include a long-range plan for the cre- cialist activity. Yet a real socialist movement does ating of a new type of political party with the ca- not exist. pacity to stitch together revolutionary social move- There is anger stirring among the masses, particu- ments behind a strategic unity that weakens and ul- larly as their living standards implode. Yet at the timately defeats and overthrows capitalism, ideo- same time, there is widespread despair. The media logically and structurally. spreads the notion that history has indeed ended, The building of a party is our task because no such and capitalism is the only alternative. party presently exists, but also because we are in a The time has come for Left activists to confront the historical situation in which we cannot rely on the challenge of creating a revolutionary socialist party. spontaneous regeneration of Marxism and revolu- Neo-liberal capitalism’s unrelenting expansionism tionary socialist theory in order to build a new threatens humanity as a whole and the physical en- revolutionary movement. The crisis of socialism has vironment itself. The earlier vibrancy of the national inhibited that process. It has dampened, though cer- liberation struggles and the influence of vital Left tainly not stopped altogether, the emergence of Left movements in many countries has faded in the face culture and cultural opposition. It has fragmented of an invigorated post-Cold War global capitalism. the opposition to imperialism and clouded the goal the post-World War II era, on into the anti-colonial of achieving a socialist society. struggles of the 1950s through the 1970s. These countries handled a whole range of problems-- Socialism in the Era of Neo-Liberalism political democracy; the liberation and equality of The enduring commitment to revolutionary social- oppressed nationalities; the emancipation and ism worldwide, despite its deepening crisis, impels equality of women; the environment, the land ques- us all to work toward a new assessment of the pre- tion and agrarian reform--in such a manner that new sent situation. Based on such an assessment, revolu- ruling groups emerged. Overall, the role and leader- tionary socialists will need to propose a new way ship of the working class was not strengthened to forward. We believe that conditions exist for both continue the struggle against capital after the over- the refoundation of an anti-capitalist left in the next throw of capitalism. five to fifteen years, and for the creation of a new Separate but equally serious problems arose in the socialist party. We offer the following ideas con- socialist movements attempting to achieve state cerning our situation and the tasks of the Socialist power mainly, though not exclusively, in the ad- Left. vanced capitalist countries. The groups divorced Almost since the end of the Vietnam War, U.S. capi- themselves from the people and were unable, and tal has put the network of social programs known as often unwilling, to carry through the struggle for so- the welfare state under attack. While a new and vi- cialism and emancipation. cious right attacked these programs head-on, rea- In both cases, crisis steadily emerged despite often- lignment among liberals occurred as well. Clinton significant achievements in the realm of living stan- and Gore came out of this new, neo-liberal wing of dards and quality of life. the Democratic Party, full of free-market rationali- zation for trampling on rights and benefits long in The crisis of the national liberation movements is place. integrally connected to the rise of neo-liberalism, the collapse of many socialist countries, and the related Worldwide, the rise of neo-liberalism led to a back- crisis of socialism. Post World War II national lib- tracking by political parties that had supported the eration movements emerged in the context of the welfare state. In some countries, the backtracking decline of the old colonial powers, the struggle be- includes even some political parties formerly associ- tween the U.S. and USSR, and the struggle between ated with the Left. For many progressives and socialism and imperialism. An opening existed to Leftists, this turnabout has thrown into question the fight for independence and national liberation. With nature and demands of the reform struggle under the growing crisis of socialism, and particularly after capitalism. Many of us have lost confidence in ad- the collapse of the Soviet bloc, most Third World dressing economic development, public safety, pub- nations could no longer politically or economically lic education, and other issues. For the mass of maneuver between the two superpowers. A slow working people in the U.S., neo-liberalism has but steady capitulation to neo-liberalism developed meant a new façade for capitalism without a new as a main trend. leadership to confront it. Even progressive forces in the Third World found it We ignore reality if we narrow the crisis of socialism hard to resist the neo-liberal tide. In many cases, to the period following the collapse of the Soviet Left movements were unable to lead an effective bloc. Instead, the crisis of socialism emerged over challenge to the threats, blackmail, and demands of time in the course of political struggles. These strug- imperialism for so-called structural adjustment to gles arose in the whole range of countries that threw Third World economies. These attacks and demands off the rule of capital and began the transition to so- often violated the national sovereignty of the op- cialism, from the 1917 Russian Revolution, through pressed nations. And behind the bankers and diplo- 2 mats, stand planes, warships and troops. The riod of right-wing dominance, we should count United States has repeatedly demonstrated this fact "keeper of the faith" as a worthwhile accomplish- in Grenada, Panama, Libya, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan and ment. But over time, it means we settled in for a elsewhere to enforce Margaret Thatcher's slogan for whole lot less than we need. We lowered our sights the New World Order: "There is no alternative!" to fighting the good fight instead of winning libera- Contributing also to the crisis of the national libera- tion of the masses of the people. tion movements has been the emergence of ethnic To fight our common enemy, we all take risks daily. conflicts, which have deflected the focus of the To become more than the sum of our parts, we must struggle away from imperialism and its local part- take some very different kinds of risks. We can no ners. longer dance around those risks, hiding in the safety The crisis of the national liberation movements ap- of our own organizational confines. The time has plies equally to national movements within the U.S. come to put party building decisively back on the The decline of the left in the oppressed nationality table for discussion and action. A new priority on movements has been matched by a rise to ideological party building does not mean that we think some and political leadership in its place of forces repre- new nationwide revolutionary organization made up senting the professional and business classes. Like of working class fighters of all nationalities waits their counterparts in the Third World, many of just around the corner. The refoundationist perspec- these groups and individuals have accepted the tive contrasts with the party-building efforts of the framework of neo-liberalism.