The Revolutionary Alternative to Workerism: Broad Politics and Integrated Struggle
Against Lutte ouvrière's workerist 'economism'
Navigating the complexities of revolutionary strategy requires a clear understanding of potential pitfalls. Among these, economism is a particularly insidious opportunist method. To fully grasp this concept and its implications, excerpts from "lutte ouvrière ou la tendance prolétarienne" prove exceptionally insightful and hold enduring lessons for socialists today. This document offers a detailed critique of a specific organization's practice, illustrating the concrete manifestations and consequences of economism in a way that feels highly practical and relevant for contemporary political work. It moves beyond abstract definitions to show how such an approach plays out on the ground, offering valuable warnings for anyone seeking to build a revolutionary movement rooted in genuine class consciousness and broad political engagement.
Economism: A Narrow Focus on Economic Struggle
Economism is characterized as a deviation that "transforms politics passed through the deforming prism of economism." It is seen as an approach that essentially avoids sharp political questions of the class struggle by reducing the revolutionary task to "propaganda within the working class and intervention solely in economic struggles." This means concentrating on the direct relationship between workers and employers while neglecting the vital need for a political critique of the regime and engaging with non-proletarian sectors of society.
A core belief associated with economism is that revolutionary class consciousness will arise spontaneously from the workers' economic struggle and their workplace exploitation experiences. The Fourth Internationalists present this as a "radically false postulate." Instead, they argue that political class consciousness must be brought to the worker "from the outside," specifically from outside the economic struggle and the employer-worker relationship. The knowledge necessary for this political consciousness is derived from examining the relations of "all classes and the state."
Economism is described as substituting comprehensive revolutionary politics with "practical politics" or focusing narrowly on "bread-and-butter issues." This results in a strategy deemed "atemporal and anti-dialectical," lacking a necessary understanding of the full scope of political strategy.
The Consequences of an Economistic Approach
Adopting an economistic perspective leads to several detrimental outcomes:
Adaptation to Average Consciousness: A major consequence is the tendency to "adapt to the average level of consciousness of the 'average worker'." This is contrasted with the revolutionary principle of always being "one step ahead of the masses." By abstracting the worker and positioning itself at this perceived average level, economism effectively "marches in step with this self-created abstraction."
Downplaying Political Differences: Economism contributes to downplaying the need to discuss crucial political and theoretical differences among revolutionary groups, often under the pretext that "the workers wouldn't understand" these distinctions. This hinders the essential work of educating advanced workers and clarifying the practical implications of political differences.
Absence of Political Strategy: Stemming from its narrow focus, economism leads to a "total absence of political strategy." Action becomes confined to patient work within enterprises rather than developing tactics based on broader political shifts.
Neglecting Broader Struggles: By focusing narrowly on the economic sphere, economism fails to engage with crucial social and political struggles in areas such as ecology, justice, health, etc., leaving these important areas vulnerable.
Fitting within Reformism: Ultimately, the economistic focus on economic demands within the existing system, without linking them to the struggle for state power, "can easily fit within an economistic and reformist vision of social change." By accepting the system's logic, it limits the potential for fundamental transformation.
Downplaying and Excusing Reactionary Ideas: Economism involves downplaying and failing to effectively combat prevailing bourgeois or reformist ideologies within the working class, such as nationalism or chauvinism. The Fourth Internationalists note that Stalinism, for instance, acted as a "principal defender and principal vector of bourgeois ideology and the worst bourgeois prejudices in the working class," citing examples like denouncing "the German Cohn-Bendit" and the PCF's focus on "national interests" and "wallow in the tricolour." They explicitly state that "chauvinism is a mentality that is infinitely easier to spread than to combat." While economic struggles are seen as necessary defensive battles, revolutionary theory asserts that "no lasting improvement is possible within capitalism"; the fundamental task is the overthrow of the bourgeoisie and the destruction of the capitalist state. This approach contrasts with the understanding that capitalist society fragments life, creating a separation between private existence and political engagement.
The Revolutionary Alternative: Broad Politics and Integrated Struggle
The Fourth International advocates for an alternative that rejects the limitations of economism. This alternative recognizes that political consciousness must be brought to the workers through a comprehensive analysis of societal relations. Key aspects of this revolutionary alternative include:
Broad Political Intervention: Revolutionaries must intervene in "all sectors of the class struggle." Revolutionary politics is inherently "broad," encompassing all questions of life and connecting them to the fundamental struggle against capital. This means engaging with diverse social movements and issues arising from the contradictions of bourgeois society.
Bringing Consciousness from Outside: Political consciousness is not found within the economic struggle itself but must be "brought to the workers from the outside" based on analysing the relations of all classes and the state.
Raising Consciousness and Clarifying Lines: Revolutionaries' roles are to educate advanced workers, clarify the political differences between revolutionary and reformist lines, and build a clear revolutionary pole of attraction. This requires using tools not just for general agitation but also for in-depth political explanation and demarcation.
Transitional Demands: The strategy involves advancing transitional demands that link the immediate needs of the masses to the goal of socialist revolution. Such demands should challenge capitalist control (e.g., control over hiring, work organization, prices) and can lead to dual power situations, exposing the conflict between workers' interests and capitalist profit.
Fostering Self-Organization: While engaging with existing unions, revolutionaries must encourage workers to "take their affairs into their own hands" and gain control over their struggles through democratic forms like strike committees and general assemblies. This actively combats bureaucratic control.
Building the Party: The revolutionary party, as the "intellectuel collectif," is central to developing strategy and providing leadership. Unity is not spontaneous but must be actively built through struggle against division.
Combating Oppression and Division: Revolutionary struggle must actively fight against divisions within the working class and the ideologies that cause them. While not explicitly ranking oppressions, the Fourth Internationalists stress the need to engage with the struggles of diverse groups. The goal is not to separate struggles but to understand how they are bound together within the contradictory whole of capitalism. The party should act as a "tribune," relating to "all political struggles against tyranny."
In conclusion, the Fourth Internationalists emphatically present economism as a fundamental impediment, a form of opportunism that limits the working class's struggle within the confines of capitalism and obstructs the development of revolutionary consciousness and organization. The alternative necessitates a sharp, comprehensive political approach integrating all aspects of the class struggle and social contradictions into a unified fight for socialist transformation.