Reply to Comments by Anthony and Alan Bradley

[aabdo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Tony Abdo)]

Anthony wrote-
<I do not condone Tony's broad brush, and I think tony should burn that
brush and stick to articulating his own views, rather than
mischaracterizing those of others.>

My reply-
Thank you, Anthony.     I know what you say is right.    I do have a
tendency to touch on too many subjects at one time, in too brief and too
superficial a manner.    This is what comes off as undiplomatic.

Alan Bradley also wrote-
<Do we do as much as we could? No. But we do a respectable amount.>

My response-
Alan, I'm sorry if I was seen as implying that DSP was somehow lacking
in 'internationalism' or lacking in its defense of immigrants from
attacks by the Australian government.      This is not my opinion at
all.      I want to emphasize that.

I had wrtten-
You and other DSP- Australia members are going to deny it emphatically,
but you have co-thinkers here in the US.     And I don't desire to
run either DSP, or them, through the mud.   And I won't get into a
polemic about whether they exist, or not?   Or to what degree?

To which Alan replied-
<About four of them, and they don't agree with us on everything. There
may be lots of others with similar attitudes to us on many questions,
but that's their problem.
They don't answer to us, and we don't answer for them.

"The current that DSP is connected with" is meaningless. Don't hold back
on any sections of the US left on our account....

If you want to bucket sections of the left for slackness on the question
of Immigration, you should target your attacks more accurately, and
provide evidence to demonstrate that your attacks are justified.>

My response is-
I have already said that I am not going to  debate on the marxism list
about  DSP influence or not in US politics.

One reason is simply,  that I do not view DSP as some sort of horrible
monster that must be struggled against unremittantly.     Overall, I
think that DSP has had a positive influence here, anyway.

If the DSP does have US cothinkers, they are still responsible for their
own actions.    And if there are defects, all of these cannot be stacked
up against the DSP of Australia to use in a sectarian manner.    I am
not trying to do that.

If I paint with a broad brush here, it is only to find fault with the
American Left (ALL tendencies) in their relations with jointly building
working relations with their Mexican cothinkers (ALL tendencies).

By and large (that big paint brush again), the Mexican and American
Lefts ' organized tendencies,  have stayed away from their tendencies'
co-thinkers and operated in their own little sphere's of operation.   A
current manifestation of this, are the wildly divergent activities of
the Mexican Greens and the US Greens.

This is a historical trend that has to be mentioned and fought in our
movement.    The binational business interests have come together, and
fight together against us, on a much more unified basis.     Even the
churches are able to overcome many barriers and operate with a more
common front, than the Left has hitherfore done.

We should take note, and do the same.    Not to do so is to run the risk
of being totally irrelevant in the politics between the two countries.
This is something that will take work and conscious effort on the parts
of both Mexcan and US comrades.      We need better bridges here, not
worse ones.

Once again to the DSP comrades, I am sorry if I have appeared to be
launching into a personal attack against a supposed non-internationalist
attitude, or lack of strugglle, on the part of DSP.
Far from this, I welcome the internationalism and solidarity that DSP
constantly manifests in its activities.

I welcome the input and comments that Alan or other DSP comrades have in
regards to the situation that is developing in Latin America, and along
the US/ Mexico Border.     I think that any dialog on US/ Mexican
affairs would be a most positive contribution.

And above all, I think it is a great accomplishment to have both the DSP
and Workers World talking and contributing together on one list.

Comradely best wishes, Tony