[van-discuss] Re: [van-announce] Educate, Organize, Mobilize! Re-building the Left from the ground up!

[Eric R.]

On August 11, 2003 at 8:38 AM (PDT), <announcements at resist.ca> (on behalf of
the Bus Riders Union) wrote:

Subject: [van-announce] Educate, Organize,Mobilize! Re-building the Left
from the ground up!


>
>
> Educate, Organize, Mobilize! Re-building the Left from the ground up!
>
> Re-inventing Left practice from the ground up; an event on the innovative
direct-contact
> organizing work of the Bus Riders Union.
>
> Featuring a multi-media presentation, stories of first-hand experiences
> organizing on the bus in Vancouver, and participatory discussion on
> 'on-the-ground' organizing as a means of re-building a Left movement
> relevant to the lives of the working class in the region.
>
> Come learn about the Bus Riders Union campaign 'End Transit Racism!', and
> discuss the centrality of a campaign to fight racism in our work to build
a
> truly revolutionary working class movement.

But, it seems necessary to ask, what exactly IS "... a truly revolutionary
working class movement", as opposed to what might be called a "radically
reformist" working class movement. Obviously, by "radically reformist", I
mean something well to the left of the NDP today, in fact, well to the left
of the NDP at its leftist most point in its history (whenever that happened
to be).

While it may appear that my raising this question is merely a matter of what
some might call "ultra-leftist sectarianism", the fact is that there is
today no widely accepted understanding today of what a truly revolutionary
working class movement is. Instead, there are various "competing"
interpretations of that concept. Perhaps someday more than just a segregated
few  of those who do indeed aspire to help construct a truly revolutionary
working class movement -- that is, one which aims at the permanent
eradication of capitalism, i.e. all capitalist social relations -- will get
around to the difficult task of discussing and debating what will be
necessary to achieving it.