Re: SWP and MIA

[Adam Levenstein <cleon42@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- Philip Ferguson <plf13@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> It's interesting isn't it how a remnant of the
> Healyites is far more
> helpful to the MIA than the Barnesites?

Well...Part of that might be the organization's own
issues, but I think the primary reason is that most
SWPers don't know the MIA exists. Technologically, the
SWP was always fairly neandertal. I first put up the
YS page on my own, and argued myself blue in the face
for the national leadership to control it and give me
some kind of support.

In 1997, they actually flew Josh Carroll down from
NYC, to Pittsburgh, and the branch there drove him out
to State College (about a 2.5 hour drive from
Pittsburgh) so that he could tell me IN PERSON to take
it down. Why? Because the National Executive Committee
(the YS' version of the Political Committee) couldn't
control it. Translation that was pretty obvious: The
NEC didn't WANT to control it. Too much of a bother
for technology they didn't understand. They still
don't have a YS website.

But this sort of scene repeated itself a number of
times. Every time I argued about the potential use of
IT to build the movement, it was resisted tooth and
nail. At one point I even was able to download a .wav
of Trotsky reading his greeting to the founding of the
SWP in 1938 and played it at a meeting with an NEC
rep. to show the kind of stuff that's out there ("why
the hell aren't we?" were my exact words, IIRC). Hell,
just compare themilitant.com to workers.org (or even,
since we're talking about the SEP wackos, wsws.org)
and see the difference of how the SWP decides to use
technology versus other groups.

> I
> doubt whether many of
> these people have any idea about Pathfinder's
> lawyers' letter.  I am
> starting to let any of these peope in NZ I know
> about hear of this.  But
> most of the ones in the States are probably
> completely oblivious.

Probably - and SWPers' general incapability on the
technology front is part of that, but the main reason
is that the national leadership simply didn't make it
public. (Yes, that IS a more polite way of saying
"they covered it up.")

I remember checking the Militant for the next few
weeks after I heard about it to see any mention of it.
Had the Party decided to take that action for
political reasons, surely they'd've mentioned it.
Nothing. Nada. Which makes me wonder exactly what was
going through their heads.

> BTW, who made protests to Pathfinder over this apart
> from Broue and Marie?
> What response, if any, did they get?

*cough* *cough* *wheeze*

> Well, I'll certainly raise it with cult members who
> have literature tables
> at Canterbury University each week.  But they are so
> whacked here, that
> they don't acknowledge me when I speak to them.
> They look away and start
> rearranging stock on the table like I'm not there,
> even though I'm lloking
> right at them and talking to them.  They really are
> freaks, but I'll still
> make an effort.

Actually, I think they're probably just sick of you,
Philip. No personal insult intended - but put yourself
in their place for a minute. Some guy comes to your
table every time you set up, and starts yakking at you
about organizational issues in your party - something
you really shouldn't be discussing publicly, anyway.

When I was staffing tables at demonstrations and
larger events, I got harrassed by just about every
Trotskyist tendency out there - and even by the
Shining Path once (I'm actually rather proud of that
one). It was the rare guy that I *didn't* have the
urge to bonk over the head - and it's not a question
of whether they were right or wrong, because my
opinions regarding some of them haven't changed much
even if they were correct (politically speaking). Most
of them were contemptuous, condescending, and
"commier-than-thou." You don't make friends like that.
Nor do you gain respect for your ideas.

Adam


=====
Adam Levenstein                          cleon42@xxxxxxxxx
ICQ: 17125158

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