No Litmus Test but Class Struggle (Paul Duke’s reply to Greer’s article, itself in reply to Democratic Left) brings us back to a fundamental problem for any progressive labor movement: what is the relationship of the movement to reactionary and conservative workers? (Diluting our politics to appeal to them is clearly unacceptable.) The simple answers to this question are to welcome them uncritically (the Prodigal Son) or exclude them pre-emptively (the damned sinner), and neither is a workable answer if we are to have a movement with both mass support and liberatory politics.
Duke takes the view that unless there is a “serious reason to think someone is being opportunist or cynical” they should not be excluded from the DSA for failing a political “litmus test”, reasoning if they are seeking to join it shows a change in view. I think this is largely the correct approach if we aspire to be a mass organization. However, there is a very important factor missing: that of political education.
Shopfloor struggles alone are not sufficient to get people to question and overcome their reactionary beliefs. Indeed, those struggles can reinforce and spread those beliefs if they are isolated from the broader socialist movement. There are numerous examples in history and current events. The frequent use of super-exploited communities as strikebreakers (particularly African-Americans and migrants), or even just their presence as competitors in the labor market, creates fertile soil in which reactionaries sow their bigotry. Possibly the most demoralizing example of this is the United Farm Workers’ position towards undocumented immigrants under Chávez, resulting in an alliance with the forces of reaction.
Duke is correct that we need to “[create] organizations that allow people to overcome their reactionary viewpoints”, but incorrect to identify shopfloor struggles alone as force enough to accomplish that. It is political education in conjunction with class struggle that forms the socialist movement. Lived experience of class struggle alone is not sufficient: if it were then we’d be living under communism already. Class consciousness must be built outside the shop as well if those shopfloor struggles are to come together and culminate in socialism.
For that reason I believe that while a political “litmus test” to join is undesirable there should be some requirements for continuing to remain a member, and not continuing to spread reactionary beliefs should be prime among those. Neglecting political education in the belief that lived experience alone will substitute is a disastrous path to take.
Solidarity,
Abner Dalrymple
