Cannon joke

[Philip Ferguson <plf13@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Walter wrote:

> The joke Nigel told was cynical and
> I heard a better joke directly from
> Cannon's lips, one I still appreciate.
> (Exact quote not quaranteed.)
>


I think Brian's joke (his name is not Nigel) was not at all cynical.  It
was what happened.  I've heard it before.  In fact, I read it just
recently somewhere, I think in Bob Pitt's journal 'What Next?'

I've noticed that British and North American Trotskyists have a somewhat
different view of Cannon.  To many in Britain Cannon is primarily
remembered as the guy who built up and foisted Gerry Healy on the
British movement.  Personally, I admire Cannon as a staunch working
class fighter, but I think a number of aspects of his 'party-building'
projects leave something to be desired - in the US and Britain.

Still, according to Myra Tanner Weiss, Cannon told her in the early '60s
that the SWP was not the party he had set out to build.  And he didn't
mean that in a good sense.

Philip Ferguson

~~~~~~~
PLEASE clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.