The Evil of the Lesser Evil Focus of Some Leftists (Often at the Expense of Community and Class Organization)

John Clarke, former major organizer of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, posted the following recently on Facebook:

John Clarke

19h  · 

 

Some problems with the ‘lesser evil’ electoral strategy.

1. What we are really up against is a regressive agenda that continues to intensify. It revolves around increased exploitation, austerity, the growing threat of war and inaction in the face of environmental catastrophe. An electoral approach that is focused on levels of severity in the implementation of that agenda stands in the way of developing a strategy to fight for an alternative.

2. By extension, the notion of assisting the lesser evil brings with it an implication of being reconciled to that regressive agenda and accepting that blunting it is the best you can hope for.

3. It is all but impossible to campaign for a vote for the lesser evil without, in practice, working for it. However you cut it, you are sowing illusions in the LE and undermining the resistance you will need to take up against it.

4. The sad reality is that lesser evils have a way of becoming warm up acts for greater evils. They confuse, demoralize and demobilize our side, while emboldening the right. Propping them up only ensures the GE takes control under advantageous circumstances in due course.

5. The strategy of backing the lesser evil is linked to strategic fixation on electoral approaches. The agenda we are up against can’t be stopped on that basis. Electoral activity, while valid, needs to be subordinated to the building of movements and mass action. The lesser evil strategy is a morbid symptom of sadly reversed priorities in this regard.