One history professor recently noted in a lecture that minority groups historically excluded from the system have typically fought to become included. The recent increase in Black voter registration is one noticable example. At the same time, in striving to gain greater participatory rights for themselves, these groups have expanded the base of the very system they were once excluded from.

The mainstream options available to Americans today--to become a Republican or Democrat--seem particularly limiting in light of the slim pickings remaining after presidential primaries. The distinction between both parties blurs when one considers that Democrats--the so-called party of the have-nots--have historically led this country into war; wars fought by the same "have-nots" the Democrats claim to serve.

Communism may not be the answer. But the existence of the Spartacus League and its derivatives magnifies the realization that the spectrum of conceivable political options should be expanded.

The Sparts are optimistic ideologues who believe that American society will experience revolutionary change, much more significant than the Civil War. The anti-Spart mentality that accompanies their existence on campus shows that American society is not ready for any from of revolution.

Yet they remain undaunted, in their own obnoxious, agitational, annoying way preparing for revolution:

We stand in the revolutionary tradition of the anti-slavery fighters John Brown and Frederick Douglass. To complete the finished demoratic tasks of the Civil War, we look to the multi-racial American working class. In this period of imperialist decay, there is no longer a radical or "progressive" wing of the capitalist ruling class; the whole system stands squarely counterposed to Black freedom. Forward to the Third American Revolution, a proletarian revolution by a Trotskyist vanguard party with a strong black leadership component. Finish the Civil War--for Black Liberation in a workers' America!!!!

I added the last four exclamation points, because the language seemed to call for it.