Re: Reply to Brian Cahill

["Alan Bradley" <abradley1@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: paul moloney
> Agreed but I believe a revolutionary party to become a mass organisation
> must contain different left tendencies.

I don't believe that this is necessarily true in general.  In fact, the
essential requirement for a revolutionary party to become a mass
organisation is for it to lead mass organisations.  For examples of what I'm
talking about, you might need to look outside the imperialist states to
where there _are_ mass revolutionary parties.  Of course, parties formed in
this manner will often develop a certain number of factions...

That said, starting from the present situations in the imperialist states, I
think that we are in several cases definitely going to have to go through a
stage of regroupment.  Doing that will not, however, directly give rise to
mass organisations, but merely organisations less marked by "traditional"
sectarianism, which can hopefully take the next step forward, whatever that
is.

> From: Nigel Irritable
> I don't think that any revolutionary organisation, with whatever number of
> tendencies, is going to become a mass organisation by recruiting
> independently in ones and twos. That just isn't the way it happens.

This is, of course, an opinion shared by anyone with two braincells to rub
together.  The problem is that not all groups act as though they believe
it...

> There also isn't a way of skipping ahead by welding the various sects
> together.

There is no question of skipping ahead in this manner, no.  Taking a single
step is another matter.

Part of the problem is that the existing grouplets tend to have lousy
politics.  However r-r-revolutionary they make themselves out to be, most of
them have acommodated to social democracy/liberalism to various degrees.
As a result, when you put them on the spot, they tend to start spouting
reformist nonsense.  This, I think, is a problem for the SSP, to the extent
that there is a problem.

Alan Bradley
abradley1@xxxxxxxxxxx



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