[Marxism] Re: An outbreak of L-L-L-Leninism on the Australian left

[Ozleft <ozleft@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

A couple of links have been added to Bob Gould's article, mentioned in
the first post in this thread
http://members.optushome.com.au/spainter/L-L-Leninism.html

They point to the charges laid against LF. These masterly works of
L-L-L-Leninism are so good they deserve wider circulation. See below.

Wednesday Aug 18, 2004

Dear Comrade LF,
This is written notice of charges against you from Comrade RR. In
accordance with the DSP constitution, the DSP branch executive of Monday
August 16, which received these charges, voted to set up a commission to
investigate the charges. The commission voted upon is made up of
Comrades PB, SH and SM. As detailed in the DSP constitution, every DSP
member in Sydney shall be obliged to furnish the commission with any
information it may request. You have the right to submit oral or written
statements to this commission in response to the charges. The commission
shall make a recommendation to the DSP branch, which will decide upon
any action to be taken. The commission plans to report its findings to
the DSP branch on Sunday August 29. You have the right to submit a
written or oral statement regarding the charges to the meeting that will
consider the charges. If you require any clarification, please contact me.

comradely PB, on behalf of Sydney DSP branch executive

Comrade R charges that you have made continued breaches of the following
sections of constitution of the Democratic Socialist Perspective:
ARTICLE 4. RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS OF DSP MEMBERS Paragraph 2. Members of
the DSP shall have the following obligations: (a) To be loyal to the DSP
and its aims. (b) To place all of their political activity under the
direction of the DSP and to engage in the work of the DSP to the best of
their ability (c) To carry out their political activity to the best of
their ability in accordance with the decisions of the national and local
governing bodies of the DSP. (e) To conduct themselves in a manner which
does not bring the DSP into public disrepute. Comrade R has supplied as
evidence of constitution breaches the following: 1. An email written by
yourself dated Mon January 12, 2004, entitled "A letter to comrades",
sent to DSP members in Sydney, which included the declaration: "I do not
accept that I should `loyally implement' (and cease discussion of) any
perspectives agreed upon by a majority of party members regardless of
their consequences. Should I consider such a perspective to be
detrimental to the process of left unity and refoundation I consider it
not only my right but my duty to take a stand against it. In doing so I
forthrightly state that my loyalty foremost lies with the ideals of
socialism and not with any particular organisation." This email was
written shortly after the DSP congress, the highest decision making body
of the DSP, which democratically decided upon a direction and resolution
for the work of the DSP, and specifically for DSP members with regards
to Resistance. As a result of your stated unwillingness to abide by
decisions of the DSP congress, the DSP District committee of January 20,
2004 voted to de-assign you from Resistance. 2. You continue to work
outside the framework of DSP perspectives. In particular, you breached
the constitution continually through your email postings to the National
Broad Left Rebel list, a grouping involving and led by anti-socialist
students. Forces in the NBL Rebel list are hostile to socialism and to
Resistance and the DSP. Yet, as a member of an organisation committed to
building socialism, your posts (on July 15, 2004; August 3, 2004; and
August 4, 2004 - full transcript attached): a) Agree with anti-socialist
characterisations, including describing the existing socialist
organisations as "a barrier to people getting involved in the Left." b)
Argue, without any discussion or direction on any DSP bodies, and in
contradiction to the perspectives of the last DSP congress, for the
extension of the anti-socialist Rebel NBL grouping as "a pluralist left
on campus beyond the 50 odd people on this list". c) Denigrate
Resistance, the youth organisation the DSP is in solidarity with, and
which DSP members are obliged to build, support and defend. You state,
to a group already hostile to socialism, that your "oppositional group"
in Resistance was "crushed", and deride the "democratic decision making
bodies" of Resistance. Resistance is a key and vital project of the DSP.
The fact that you, or any comrade, are not assigned to Resistance, does
not in anyway make the undermining of Resistance acceptable. d) Include
internal pre-conference discussion documents of Resistance, including
one which was also an internal discussion document of the DSP. Posting
minority internal documents which attack DSP and Resistance structures,
to a hostile list, is particularly disloyal. Posting such internal
documents on a list of people hostile to socialism and Resistance and
the DSP, can only be designed to bring the DSP and Resistance into
disrepute. Disloyalty to Resistance is not acceptable for comrades
whether they are assigned to Resistance at the time or not - Resistance
is an organisation the DSP seeks to build and support. One example of
the composition of NBL Rebel grouping is DL, former president of UWS
Bankstown and current Queer officer. L has been the main person involved
in attacks on DSP and Resistance Comrade MC that included attempting to
pressure Comrade C to resign from her role as UWS Bankstown Education
officer. Your contributions, instead of defending your fellow comrade,
and the DSP and Resistance in general, assisted L's anti-Resistance
attacks. 4. This intervention into student politics disregarded clear
direction from the DSP membership through the congress, and subsequent
direction from party leadership bodies, in breach of our constitution.
You have persisted in acting in a manner that is disloyal to the DSP,
that goes against the direction of the DSP and decisions of DSP bodies,
and is calculated to publicly bring the DSP into disrepute.


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