AW: Barnesites, revolutionary parties etc

[Kurt Lhotzky <kurt.lhotzky@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Comrades,

I follow this discussion with a certain uneasiness, because I just knew one
American comrade better - a Comrade who came to Austria in the 70ies to
defend here the positions of the then LTT. He was a teacher from profession
and a travelling cadre for the SWP. He suffered from leucemia, and he did a
lot of hard work here in Europe, the heart of the International Majority
Tendency,  often treated as a pariah, to defend the SWP´s position. He
stayed with me an with my girlfriend, even though I was a hard "Mandelist"
in these times. He couldn´t convince me, but at least (against the
resistance of the Austrian USEC-ledadership) I managed that this American
comrade could expose the LTT line at our membership meeting. When he left,
he gave his copy of Trotskys "Permanent Revolution" to me. I never heard
from this comrade again, but I always will salute the memory of honest Cde.
Benson from the SWP (this was, at least, the name he gave to me).

Of course - looking back to all our errors, factional fights, splits,
quarrels - isn´t it easy to tell silly anecdotes, to tell about ridiculous
peopel and oudated debates? But, comrades - when we were actively
participating in this struggles - wasn´t it for us the struggle for the
defense of revolutionary marxism, the struggle for a better world?

I understand all the bitterness for the time we wasted - but it was our
lifetime, and we choose our actions volutarily. You see: I could at lenght
expose all the criticism I had in the 70s and 80s against the SWP
leadership. I think, man of this criticism would still hurt some of the
comrades on this list. I do not object to put this questions on the table
when there are discussions relating to these differences. But I just wanted
to appeal to Your historical fairness in discussing past events.

It is very dangerous to portry whole periods of your life as living on the
"lunatic fringe". It easily could be turned against You, as being lunatic
Yourself.

Kurt, from Vienna