Laura/SWP

[John M Cox <coxj@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Laura - I was in the Pittsburgh branch in '93-94, and I believe we met
a few times. It's good of you to openly state your views on the listserv
and so on, despite the difficulty in defending the SWP and the inevitable
ridicule that you invite when publicly aligning yourself with a group that
believes that eastern Germany is a workers state, among other strange
nostrums. It's even more difficult to take seriously someone who writes:
"ultimately, the best interest of all children depends
on the revolution, until after the withering away of the dictatorship of
the proletariat, then we can think about other matters."

I hope you benefit from this listserv, and that you are reading
some literature other than the Militant and a couple books by BArnes,
which unfortunately constitute the intellectual sustenance of most of your
comrades. If you haven't done so already, take a look at the marxmail
archives, especially for contributions by Louis, Jose, myself, Dave
Walters, Phil Ferguson, and a few other people who served many years in
the SWP or one of its affiliates. Some of us, including me, were in close
enough proximity to Barnes and other leaders to witness some things that
were quite inexcusable in a 'revolutionary proletarian leadership.' But I
won't begin to get into that here, as it would take quite a while; so
check out the archives, consider some of the arguments not just about
party organization but about SWP positions on S. AFrica, eastern Europe,
Ireland, etc., and perhaps your enthusiam will dim a bit, although I'm not
too optimistic.