29.09.2004

Overcoming division

Phil Hamilton assesses the websites of the Socialist Party USA

As if the US presidential elections were not depressing enough, there are at least six candidates to the left of the Republicans and Democrats. Matters are not helped by having four campaigns standing for independent working class politics. The problem for communists and revolutionary socialists is not merely choosing which campaign to support, but determining who offers the best path out of the sect ghetto.

The Socialist Party USA seems a good place to begin, possessing a 100-year-long pedigree of campaigning for democratic socialism (www.sp-usa.org). Unfortunately the first logical port of call (‘About us’) does not make clear where the party stands. Featuring instead an account of the party’s fractious history, it gives an impression that the party is one of faction fights rather than socialist struggle, and would have been better used in conjunction with a general statement of principles. The ‘News/info’ section helps fill some of the gaps, linking to The Socialist (the party’s occasional journal), a few party statements and a three-year-old cache of press releases (incredibly nothing about September 11, let alone the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq has been archived).

Far more useful are the downloads available from the literature section. Its statement of principles, ‘Socialism as radical democracy’, should really be the first thing viewers see when visiting this site. In one fell swoop it answers the questions and objections most leftists will be familiar with concerning the nature of socialism, while setting out a socialist strategy built around an understanding of extreme democracy. The main problem with the document is that not enough emphasis is placed on class struggle - a weakness which does not make clear that working class interests and the fight for consistent democracy are identical. Still, the more economistically inclined amongst us could do worse than give it a critical look.

www.votesocialist.org is the campaign site for comrades Walt Brown and Mary Alice Herbert, the SP’s presidential and vice-presidential nominees, and overall it serves as a better introduction than the party’s online home. The platform’s preamble is uncontroversial enough, but once again the two words, ‘class’ and ‘struggle’, are missing. For example, its ‘Labour’ section begins with: “The Socialist Party stands for worker control of all industry through the democratic organisation of the workplace” and makes a series of pledges supporting union drives, militant action, etc, but does not state that socialism is an outcome of the working class organising collectively to pursue its interests in the class struggle. Perhaps I am being too harsh, because the implication is there. Class struggle may not be spelt out, but the platform remains more radical than the electoralist fare offered by Respect and the Scottish Socialist Party on this side of the pond.

The main problem with this site is the lack of material about comrades Brown and Herbert themselves. Viewers are invited to the “official campaign site”, but the link turns out to be blind. If this was not bad enough, another link to an interview of comrade Herbert turns up a (non-affiliated) page with bad connections of its own. If the web team have not got enough time to set up a dedicated site, adding a couple of biographies could partially make up for this shortcoming.

Of a number of SP platforms the Debs Tendency (www.debstendency.org) will be of most interest to communists. ‘About us’ is the introduction letter announcing the platform’s formation. It identifies a number of problems hindering the party’s work (those hardy leftist perennials of introversion, revolving-door membership, and a semi-permanent core of leaders), but argues for partyist solutions. Building on ‘Socialism as radical democracy’, ‘Points of unity’ locates “the primary task of the DT is the development of the SP as a revolutionary democratic socialist political party of the working class”. The points in all essentials are a restatement of basic Marxist principles concerning class, class struggle, the revolutionary party and extreme democracy. There is also an appeal to the disparate ranks of the fragmented US left, arguing that a unified multi-tendency party is the most able to pursue the class struggle.

Finally, the DT’s Appeal to Reason (www.appealtoreason.org) is worthy of mention. Though only one issue old, its debut sets a high standard in both design and writing. Obviously, as the first edition of a factional journal, it prioritises party news and the DT itself, but Martin Schreader notes in his editorial that it must also turn outwards to recruit people to the party. If the DT comrades manage this, it has every chance of becoming a major asset to both the presidential campaign and the party.