[Marxism] Re: Old YPSL Socialist Songbook online

["Tom O'Lincoln" <suarsos@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks for telling us about this. This songbook is a small but
significant part of my political life. I acquired it after I joined the
Berkeley International Socialists, descended from the Shachtmanites who
had produced it while in control of the YPSL. We sang some of these
songs with great gusto at parties.

Then I went to Australia, taking Shachtmanism and the songbook with me.
It became a big hit here too, and you had Australian socialists belting
out "Bill Bailey the Ultimate Sectarian", finishing with Bill's reply to
Karl Marx:

You may be a friend of Karl Kautsky
And a Pal of Ferd LaSalle
You may be a mate of William Liebknecht
And the First Internationale
You may have inspired every radical party
>From the Volga to the Rhein
Oh you may be a comrade of all of these folks
But you ain't no comrade of mine.

Unfortunately there is a sad ending to the Australian story. In the mid
eighties the Australian I.S. turned in what is now universally
acknowledged was a sectarian direction. A minority of us opposed this,
fought a faction fight and then left. Later there were self-criticisms
and a re-unification, but I found the majority were no longer singing
the songs. The reason is that at the height of the sectarian and
authoritarian phase, singing at parties had become part of a regimented
internal regime. The singing started at a certain time of night, as
enforced by the "Command Centre". Blech. I guess they still sang the
"Ultimate Sectarian" with no awareness of the irony.

Isn't it terrible what damage we on the left sometimes do to ourselves?


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