The question of how to spot a reformist Left group shall seem perhaps strange to new leftists, especially those emerging from the moraß of parliamentary left-Liberal circles. We seasoned leftist soldiers of the revolution, however, have this question always in the back of our minds. Many leftist organisations fall on a line of radicalism, or a scale, and some poßeß curious features which defy claßical categorisation.
Now, in the interests of brevity, to maintain interest at all, I shall attempt to refrain from entangling this article in organisational specifics. For instance, I will probably entreat the Democratic Party USA at some point here, but I will not be going into, say, Trotskyist or Marxist-Leninist tendencies or parties.
The first warning sign of a reformist as opposed to a radical (notice: not neceßarily revolutionary) political formation is the level to which they have an organised, consistent, widespread publication. Bigger in this case is not always better: a one-hundred page newspaper or journal that most readers only bother twenty pages of is eighty pages despoiled, and an oddly luxurious publishing house unbefitting a small group may hint to potentially shadowy, undesirable patrons with ulterior motive from that of the membership exercising influence against the general will. But an organisation without a publication of any sort (videlicet the Democrats) suggests a party which is in power, whether secretly, openly, by agreement, by opportunity, and thus is uninspired by public support or appeal.
A second signal of an organisation's political standing is its involvement in electioneering versus direct action. If a party participates nigh exclusively in the former, then you can reasonably aßume either that it is a reformist party, or that it is an intellectualist party, which is a certain kind of party whose designation is in reference to its style of activity, not in relation to its area between reformism and radicalism (though to be sure the extremities of the two seem to harbour most of the intellectualists).
These are two important things to look out for when determining where a political organisation stands on the reformist-radical axis. I kenna full well that this list was a bit short, but I took explicit care to make it acceßible, rather than dragging it on with what might be unjustified speculation or refraining kennage which is already bespoken of.
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