[Marxism] The SWP--when it was good, it was very, very good

[<lshan@xxxxxxx>]

BY JOHN STUDER  
NEW YORK?Mirta Vidal, a long-time member and supporter of the Socialist
Workers Party, died January 3 in New York City after a lengthy illness. She
was 55. 
______

I only knew Mirta Vidal slightly. and I had no idea how important her
contribution was. There is no apt quote to pull you into reading this
excellent article, so I hope that you read it all.

http://www.themilitant.com/2004/6803/680353.html

However, there was a section that jumped out for me:

"In the fall of 1973 Vidal joined SWP leader Ed Shaw on a trip to Argentina
to cover the presidential campaign of the Partido Socialista de los
Trabajadores (PST?Socialist Workers Party), with which the SWP in the United
States had fraternal ties. At that time, in the wake of massive struggles
throughout the Southern Cone and the recent military coup in Chile, a
prerevolutionary situation existed in Argentina. The Argentine rulers had
decided to call elections for that year and brought back former Argentine
leader Juan Perón from exile to run for president. Taking advantage of this
opening, the PST ran former Socialist Party leader Juan Carlos Coral for
president and won a wide hearing for its revolutionary perspectives among
working people. 
. . .
"In a message to a 1995 memorial meeting celebrating the life of Shaw, Vidal
wrote that she was tempted during the trip to Argentina, her native country,
to remain there. She said her experiences on the trip and discussions with
Shaw helped her decide that she could make a bigger difference and would
receive better training and education in communist politics and
party-building as a member of the SWP if she returned to the United States?a
decision for which she said she had 'always been grateful.'"
______

Like Louis Proyect, I believe that the revolutionary work and history of the
SWP was intertwined with serious flaws in practice and culture. However, the
exemplary life of Ed Shaw (and I am adding that of Paul Montauk as another
example) can provide a correction for overly-critical comments regarding the
period between the SWP¹s early formation and successes in the 30s and 40s
and the period of the 1960s and 1970s with its outstanding work in civil
rights, defense of the Cuban Revolution, and above all the struggle against
the Vietnam war.

These outstanding revolutionary figures (and others of their generation)
held the SWP together during the 1950s and inspired and provided guidance to
the new members that entered it in the 1960s and 1970s. Without them, the
history of American radicalism, the United States, and the world, would have
been very different. Their deeds wrote our history, and the world gained
from their strength.

Ed Shaw
http://www.themilitant.com/1995/5944/5944_5.html

Paul Montauk
http://www.themilitant.com/1998/6236/6236_19.html and
http://www.themilitant.com/1998/6239/6239_23.html

from Brian Shannon


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