Five parties with “Socialist” or “Socialism” in their names ran their own presidential candidates in 2012. Generally these parties ignore the existence of the other socialist parties, in their campaign literature, and their periodicals. But the Freedom Socialist Party’s most recent newspaper, the February/March 2013 issue of “Freedom Socialist”, breaks with that tradition, and explains the political differences with the Party for Socialism and Liberation. See this article by Megan Cornish.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
Last month the unaffiliated socialist blog, The North Star, carried several essays regarding the Kshama Sawant/Socialist Alternative state legislative campaign in Seattle, and the lack of solidarity from the International Socialist Organization, And the posts discuss electoral politics and socialist activism.
These are the three posts on this topic at North Star that I found the most interesting:
http://www.thenorthstar.info/?p=4428
http://www.thenorthstar.info/?p=4990
http://www.thenorthstar.info/?p=5005
I think it is important for socialist political parties to get over their obsession with secrecy and “vanguardism” if there is ever to be a viable Leftist electoral campaign, at any level.
Interesting column, but it is silly for Cornish to compare Roseanne to Qaddafi and Bashar al-Assad.
Which gang of folks are more extreme —
the leftwing STATISTS (Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Castro types)
or the rightwing STATISTS (Hitler, Franco types) ???
P.R. and nonpartisan App.V.
Getting back to the topic, I really respect the FSP even though I am a member of the Socialist Party, USA. My opinion of the PSL has decreased greatly because of this article.
Typical of all the “Leninist” and “Trotskyist” socialist and communist parties is their focus on Russian and East European socialist histories. If only they concentrated on the history of the American Left they might get somewhere!
5 –
Ahh yes, the American Left is where “socialism” lives now.
Do you think funding the DOD is socialist? Seems to me the American right is on board with a collective and socialist approach to common defense. And how about the first (Republican conservative backed) TARP bailouts of major financial institutions? How about public funding of the SEC to protect the investments of the rich? Socialist. Department of Homeland Security? Socialist. FTA FDA? Socialist. The next time you bite into a hamburger without a care that it might have been made from dog meat, thank a “socialist.”