Re: [Marxism] Re: assisting the work of the police

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Lueko Willms wrote:
>    This recalls me what Frederick Engels wrote in a letter to Eduard
> Bernstein between February 27 and March 1, 1883:
>
>    "One can be well be a stock jobber and a socialist at the same
> time, and hate and despise the /class/ of stock jobbers. Will I ever
> think of apologize for being a co-owner of a factory? Let them come
> who wants to reproach that to me. And if I were sure that I could win
> a million at the stock exchange tomorrow, and thereby provide large
> funds to the party in Europa and America, I would go immediately to
> the stock exchange." (my own translation from German).

Actually, it was *irresponsible* for the SWP leadership to *speculate*
in New Economy type stocks. If I were the leader of a socialist
organization, I'd have put the money into very secure investments like
municipal bonds or even CD's.

>>Jason Alessio reported that the company at the union mine where he
works in western Colorado recently held a meeting announcing attacks on
working conditions. "They told us they invested $7 million in Enron and
now we need to cut more coal in fewer hours, reduce the amount of
drinking water we take underground, and limit the number of pairs of
safety glasses we use each month--all to make up for their losses," he
said. "Naturally, workers were outraged."<<

http://www.themilitant.com/2002/6613/661350.html

The figures below are part of the portfolio of the Anchor Foundation,
the nonprofit corporation set up by the Socialist Workers Party, as
reflected in IRS Form 990 for tax year 2001, on public view at
www.guidestar.org/search/report/docs.jsp. All of these stocks fall under
the rubric of New Economy hype.

Security--------------Number of Shares----------Gain(Loss)

Ericsson L M Tel Co---------1,500--------------(19,129.05)
Global Crossing Inc-----------700--------------(15,162.21)
Cablevision-------------------500---------------(6,723.91)
Enron-------------------------220---------------(9,191.39)

>    Besides this historical reminscences, I would like to join Steve
> Gabosch in stating that SWP-bashing seems to be a very important
> endeavour to several comrades, which astonishes me especially for
> those comrades whose exit from the SWP membership goes back 20 or more
> years.

I have actually urged comrades like Fred Feldman and Walter Lippmann to
ignore the SWP here. There are far too many important topics to discuss
than to waste time on a group that occupies the outer fringes of
sectarian politics.

>    I have left what was my party here in Germany in 1990, and do not
> feel an inner urge to pick a quarrel with them at all. Well, some
> people express their real recognition of their "enemy" in that way, as
> I realize when people ask me about the Fourth International nearly one
> and a half decades after I left this orgnization.

We should never regard small sectarian groups as the enemy. Although
they are incapable of leading mass struggles, they do serve a useful
function in dispensing socialist propaganda. Even the Spartacist League
must be congratulated for selling Marxist classics from their literature
table in the dead of winter. As the late Sol Dollinger once put it:

"Frederick Engels wrote to an American that left sects perform a useful
purpose. They keep alive socialist ideology in those periods where the
class struggle is at a low ebb. For this reason I must respect the work
of the SLP, SWP, CP and a dozen other sect groups. They all are serving
a useful purpose."

--

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