RE: SWP policy, as I recall it, on travel to Cuba

["David McDonald" <dbmcdonald@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:owner-marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Juan Fajardo
Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2003 12:34 AM
To: marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: SWP policy, as I recall it, on travel to Cuba

Juan Fajardo wrote:

Breaking the law by defying the
US-imposed travel ban and embargo, while having organizational ties to
the SWP, potentially puts the party at legal risk, and thus must be
cleared by the party, just like joining a sit-in or blockading a
building must be.

David McDonald replies:

In 1980 or 1981 The SWP in Milwaukee basically forced a comrade to resign
from the YSA because he wanted to go to Nicaragua for revolutionary tourism.
The issue raised with me (I was the Milw. organizer at that time) was party
control of how it would appear to revolutionary leaderships in Central
America. When the cde. returned, after having resigned unwillingly, and
asked to join the SWP, his membership application was denied. Personally, I
waffled on this but decided (what the hell!) to go with the hard guys. A
mistake.

There were no laws against going to Nicaragua, so that little bit of
formalism cannot be the reason. It was and is a gotcha. The SWP simply, in
my view, did not trust people to be on their own where revolutionaries whose
opinion they valued might be watching and noting. Not a pleasant or
ennobling thought, but there it is.