Can the Working Class Bear the “Burden” of Democracy?
Like reformism, “Left-Wing” Communism opposes the struggle for democratic rights to the struggle for proletarian power. Where the right opportunist views revolutionary struggles as a danger to “palpable” results, the “leftist” sees the struggle for democracy and reform as a diversion or trap for a “genuine” revolutionary movement. Both deny that …the awakening and growth of socialist revolt against imperialism are indissolubly linked with the growth of democratic resistance and unrest…a proletariat not schooled in the struggle for democracy is incapable of performing an economic revolution. (LCW 23, p. 25) “Leftism” on the national question within our movement has certain identifiable features. The most common is the subordination of the struggle for equality and consistent democracy–even a trade-unionist equality–to “militant” economic demands of “more” or “less.” The opposition of many organizations to busing for partial desegregation (the RU/RCP, the WVO, the Revolutionary Win
