Re: DSP and expulsions

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Ben wrote:
>Well I don't know what the party was like when Steve was a leader of it,
>that was before I was even a member. But I can say that in the period
>I've been in the party (ten years) I'm not aware of any expulsions. I've
>had quite heated disputes within the Melbourne district organisation,
>over for example a proposal to divide into two separate branches.

Ya gotta be careful on that branch-splitting stuff. It is a scratch that
can turn into gangrene if left unattended. In fact, my understanding is
that James Burnham wrote a document for the NY branch of the Trotskyist
movement in 1939 advocating that a separate Greenwich Village branch
orienting to the bohemian community be set up. Cannon, rightly suspecting
that this might anticipate a wider ideological brief, dashed off a letter
to Trotsky in Coyoacan asking for his advice. Trotsky wrote back:

Dear Jim,

I quite concur with you on the danger of Burnham's proposal. It is
symptomatic of the hostility of the petty-bourgeois intellectual toward the
proletariat. One must demand that Burnham recruit a proletarian within the
next week or two in order to establish his bona fides. A bus driver would
be good, an elevator operator even better. Give my regards to Rose and tell
George that the bagels were delicious.

Yours fraternally,

L. TROTSKY
July 13, 1939

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



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