Re: Where, oh where has the SWP gone?

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Does anyone have a notioon of what's happening inside the US SWP, as of
>late?
>
>I stopped by the Pathfinder bookshop on 23rd St. in San Francisco today
>and found it shut, the place for rent, and no redirect sign fo
>customers.
>
>The party has of course been retreat for ages, like all the marxist left
>in the US.  I wonder is there any connection?
>
>- Juan

The latest Militant reported that there were 140 ex-members at the national
gathering on the Oberlin college campus, most of whom they are trying to
organize into digitizing brigades to convert all of the Pathfinder tables.
Since the total attendance was 450 by their own admission, and since we can
assume about 50 people were there from other countries just to make contact
with the mother ship, doing the arithmetic yields a rather modest
attendance of 250 party members. There was a time when these gatherings
would draw a thousand members and 3 to 4 hundred sympathizers.

As I understand it from people closer to the party, a decision has come
down from on high to abandon urban centers like San Francisco and send
party members, mostly in their 40s and 50s, into the hinterlands. One guy I
know from decades ago is now in the coal fields of Wyoming. He is at least
58 years old. It was explained to me how he can take such big risks in
leaving one job and running off to colonize an industry where chances for a
job are by no means guaranteed. His sister is married to a multimillionaire
and will bail him out if he runs into trouble.

I think there are more people on this mailing list than in the SWP. Plus we
have more fun.

Louis Proyect
Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org/