By SJ Otto

It wasn’t long ago that I wrote an article slamming factionalism and all the fights that come from those “isms.” I don’t pretend to not oppose factional fighting, especially among Maoist groups. I dislike it and I dislike it intensely. What is more, in the case I’m presenting now, I understand the argument well. I have had it among various Maoist people and groups. The factional fighting can be very intense. That is especially true when it comes to the argument as to whether we Maoist should take part in elections, in any capacity at all. In this case, a group calling itself The Tribune of the People: has blasted the Communist Party of the Philippines for congratulating the US people for voting to get rid of President Donald Trump.

An example of the Tribune’s argument:

“To Celebrate Biden’s Victory is Incompatible with Anti-Imperialism: An Open Letter to the Communist Party of the Philippines

By the Editorial Board

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) is a Mao Zedong Thought-influenced organization which has been waging armed struggle since 1969, with ebbs and flows, advances and setbacks along the way. While their struggle for New Democratic Revolution as part of world revolution is deserving of defense, the fact that the CPP wages such a remarkable armed struggle makes the type of revisionism and liberalism they promote all the more dangerous.

The run of the mill US revisionists carry little weight due to their minuscule impact and lack of credentials, when they speak many do not give it credence. It is another matter when a legitimate organization, leading armed struggles, starts to spew out the same backward and incorrect ideas as the US revisionists.

In a recent statement issued by the CPP on the US elections, the comrades take a position totally alien to Maoism when they state that, “The American people deserve praises for voting against US President Donald Trump in the recently concluded presidential elections and preventing another four years of Trumpian fascism, militarism, racism, misogyny and bigotry.” This is a concentration of their political line and so it must be deconstructed."

And for their part, the Communist Party of the Philippines said:

“Comments on Tribune of the People’s “Open Letter” to the CPP

Last November 13, a website that calls itself the “Tribune of the People” (TOP) published as its editorial the article “To Celebrate Biden’s Victory is Incompatible with Anti-Imperialism: An Open Letter to the Communist Party of the Philippines.”

The “Open Letter” deserves critical repudiation by the CPP, especially since it was authored by a group that claims to be Maoist and anti-revisionist. It must be exposed as ultra-“Left” phrase-mongering that has nothing to do with Maoism. Beneath the revolutionary rhetoric, it actually wants to push the CPP and other Maoists to give up the task of arousing, organizing and mobilizing the broad masses through linking-up and winning over the middle section and taking advantage of the splits among the reactionaries and the imperialists. Following the line of analysis the TOP will cause the separation of the proletarian revolutionaries from the broad masses rendering the vanguard communist party isolated and ineffective.

1. The TOP article denounces the CPP as “revisionist” for recognizing the results of the recent US elections as an expression of the American people’s repudiation of the Trump regime. The TOP dismisses the fact that the electoral defeat of Trump, who represents the ultra-Right section of the US ruling classes, is an important victory for the American people, as it boosts the people’s struggle against Trump’s anti-people programs. It does not appreciate the Trump defeat in the US elections as a byproduct of the widespread mass protest movement of Blacks, workers, women, immigrants and other sectors who have mobilized in large numbers over the past few months. In an assertion that smacks of Trotskyism, it considers as non-progressive and unrevolutionary any democratic struggle (or the legal struggle for reforms)–falsely equating “democratic struggles” with the “democratic revolution”–as these supposedly fall short of their call for “socialist revolution” and does not help advance the “people’s war.”

I have had this argument with other Maoists here in the US. Many have condemned taking any interest in US elections. They either won’t recognize any difference in the parties, or they feel that the differences are insignificant and/ or they feel it amounts to some type of support of the system. Another argument is that taking up such interests in elections takes away from the task of revolution. In this case I support the Communist Party of the Philippines. They point out that Trump “represents the ultra-Right section of the US ruling classes.” And he did. Trump was a nightmare, who took away badly needed heath care for the poorer working class. He destroyed much of the environment and much of that destruction is irreversible. It is so bad that it either can’t be fixed for a very long time, or it can’t be fixed at all. To be real blunt, I had to live in this country under Trump. Day after day I had to watch this man on TV belittle all of those to the left of his far-right ideology. He was disrespectful to his political opponents. He favoured far right groups who are racist, homophobic, anti-women and fascist leaning. That stuff is hard to just ignore and I was not able to ignore it. Trump was obnoxious and repulsive. He was very hard to stomach for those of us who had to live under this guy.

As for myself, I’m not so stupid as to believe that voting for Joe Biden ushers in a new era where the US is a benevolent force of good in the world.

Here in the US we have the same arguments between Marxist people or groups and left-wing people or groups who have worked hard to get RID of TRUMP!

In Jacobin:

“Joe Biden Is Filling His Cabinet With Pro-War Hawks

By SARAH LAZARE

If you were hoping for a change of heart from Joe Biden after a decades-long career as a hawk, we've got bad news: his incoming team helped shape some of the most militaristic policies of the Obama administration.—Anthony Blinken- I believe.

There was no reason to think that a Biden administration would be to the left of the Obama administration when it comes to foreign policy. Biden comes with a long political career of supporting the wars of the United States and its allies, from the 2003 invasion of Iraq to Israel’s aggression against Palestinians to the protracted occupation of Afghanistan.”

So I am not surprised at all. After all, I can remember when Biden laughed at the idea of healthcare for all. In many ways he is no different from Trump, especially on foreign affairs. He is a centrist and not a leftist. Voting Trump out had little to do with making the US a better place in the world. People on the left as me will have to struggle against Biden, in some ways, just as hard as we had to do against Trump. But Trump was an outrageous near-fascist. He was directly an affront to all of us on the left—Marxist or otherwise. One thing that Trump did was to try and destabilize or completely get rid of the socialist leaning governments of Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua. Those countries may fall short of the socialist ideals some of us have, but seeing an imperialist leader remove them does not help us at all. It helped the imperialists and the capitalists who want to get their paws on those countries and change them into the kind of nightmare Trump created for us here.

Many Marxists will argue there are principals here. And yes there are. But there is also a need to survive. Sometimes voting a monster out of office is a simple act of survival. After Trump got elected, I lost my health insurance. That was a serous problem for me as I was 63 at the time and I really needed health insurance. Or should I say; I needed health care and a lot of it. Obamacare (Affordable Care Act) had a lot of flaws, but it was slightly better than nothing. Even imperialist capitalist leaders have some differences. That is not to say they are good, but some are worse than others. So this argument is sure to rise up again. My main point is that there are times when voting, for some of us, is just a tool of survival. No one is forced to vote. Those who oppose it are free to keep opposing it. Some of us will take part in elections if the results will affect our livelihoods. So we deserve a little respect and tolerance.