Populism

Populism is a political trend or movement which claims or appears to represent the interests of the masses of ordinary people and which uncritically adopts the views and policies which are currently most favored by its adherents.

Populism, while referring to the “masses” or the “people”, do not explicitly mention the working class or proletariat. And this is appropriate because populism typically refers to naïve mass movements which do not have a class perspective, or at least not much of one. Populist movements or parties therefore express the immediate, often spontaneous, and ideologically undeveloped and unsophisticated views and wishes of the people involved. They generally do not incorporate the wisdom and hard lessons learned by the masses in other times and places, in other countries and throughout history. For this reason, revolutionary Marxism, which does seriously and deeply incorporate this world history of mass struggle, and the lessons learned from all that into its theory and perspective, is not properly viewed as a form of populism. And this is true even though genuine Marxist revolutionary parties do in fact recognize that there is tremendous wisdom and virtues in the masses (albeit along with some shortcomings) and do believe that the masses must themselves change the world in their own real interests (though in part by also bringing forth from their midst a more enlightened leadership core).

In bourgeois society pundits refer to both “left-wing” populist movements, such as the original prairie populist movement in the United States in the late 19th century and the more recent Occupy Wall Street movement; and also to “right-wing” populist movements such as the Tea Party movement and even outright fascist mass movements like those which developed in Italy and Germany in the 1920s-1930s. What is called “populism” can indeed vary all over the political map. However, all populist movements, whether “left” or “right” are still well within the contemporary spectrum of bourgeois political activity. Even the very best of them, such as the “Occupy Wall Street” movement, and even with their glimmer of class consciousness (as when they condemn the “one percent” who rule the country), are still quite naïve in what they think can be accomplished in the limited way they are attempting. It is also true, however, that Marxist revolutionaries need to join up with the outraged masses involved in the best of these populist movements and strive to bring more light and clarity to them about how to really go about making social revolution.