Protest Mode, Advocacy Mode & the Loyal Opposition (X.) by X.

Most of the traditional US Left still functions either on the Protest Mode or on the Advocacy Mode (or a bit of both). That is, leftist activists take the tactic of protesting or advocating and repeat it over and over for its own sake, almost by reflex, as if it was the only possible means of struggle. In other words, they turn a useful tactic into useless strategy.

Despite their differences, both protest and advocacy modes of political work are fundamentally undemocratic in that they rarely provide many people with genuine opportunities to work together and decide together how to change society. Both claim to represent people’s aspirations, but neither is rooted in the practice of democracy and neither aim to build democratic alternatives to the current power structure. Consequently, they play the role of “loyal opposition,” either begging (advocacy) or demanding (protest) that the powers-that-be change their policies on this or that issue on account of their lobbying or protesting. The partisans of the “protest” and “advocacy” trends often criticize one another bitterly, and yet they fail to recognize that their political approaches –although different in form– are quite similar:

• Both “protest” and “advocacy” partisans are fragmented into a myriad narrow, issue-based groups and/or isolated sectarian organizations. Neither camp offers concrete or convincing proposals to build a broad-based, nationwide progressive movement that could radically change the system. Both thereby acknowledge an unwillingness and/or inability to organize the great majority of people. In fact, the very nature of their main activities is exclusive of the majority since few people can participate frequently in a meaningful way in protests or advocacy campaigns. These groups then end up simply asking people to donate money.

• Both “protest” and “advocacy” partisans elevate their tactics to the level of a strategy. Their chosen activities become the only means to be considered by the movement to effect change; they are presented as the essence of progressive action under the present system, because they are more “militant” or more “realistic”.

• Whatever their intent is, both “protest” and “advocacy” partisans implicitly or explicitly recognize and legitimize the system’s authority. Whether they are advocating for the powers-that-be to listen to their recommendations or protesting their decisions, it is clear that all decision-making power rests in the hands of the powers-that-be.

Just as "Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition" in England, the loyal opposition that dominates the US Left does not fundamentally challenge the system (i.e. capitalism): The advocacy mode because it merely reforms the system, the protest mode because -no matter how militantly- it merely criticizes the system. What differentiates Revolutionary Democracy from the Loyal Opposition is that it not only challenges the legitimacy of the system, but that it makes use of a multiplicity of tactics to organize people to practice democracy and directly challenge the ability of the powers-that-be to enforce their illegitimate control of society.