Socialists in the Capitalist State

Subin, why do you think electoral politics has been such a key part of the left's strategy today?

Yeah, it's interesting because historically, of course, it was a component of left strategy, but never as central as it is right now in the United States.

And I think the reason is that the other vehicles for working people and for ordinary citizens to press their claims on the political economy, chief amongst which were trade unions, but also other working class organizations and centers, all of those have been dismantled.

They're all gone now.

Mm-hmm.

So what remains is the electoral arena.

And given that, until we rebuild the other class organizations, what you have available to you is the elections, and it's quite remarkable how far and how fast the gains have come in that domain.

But make no mistake, it's basically because nothing else is available.

Hmm.

And so it should, if it works, if it's be- to be a long-term strategy, it should be the first step in rebuilding those other institutions as well.

So when you say nothing else is available, are you kind of implying that this is a last resort, or?

You could say it's a first resort-

[laughs]

... or the last resort.

Right now it's the only resort.

[laughs]

You know, whichever way you count it.

But it, this is all that there is.

And it's important to understand, left strategy is a euphemism.

What we should be talking about is class politics, class organizing, and class struggle.

Right.

Now, all of those things, the word class is important because it suggests that the class needs to be organized to be able to fight for its interests, and the class we're talking about here is the working class.

Mm-hmm.

Now, for the working class to be able to pursue its interests, it's really important to have independent organizations of its own.

It's important because capital doesn't need them.