Re: [Marxism] Camejo and Shawki/ISO and so it goes...

[Ilyenkova@xxxxxxx]

Josh writes:
>But what's worse than not really engaging this work is
inviting the labor leadership up onto the platform with
anti-globalization activists and socialists and calling that "getting
labor involved" when those leaders don't invest a penny for mobilizing
workers for those rallies and sell their members out all the time -
unfortunately, I have seen the ISO do this.  I think this just comes
out of the ISO not really having a sense of how much most
rank-and-file union members hate those union leaders they fete on the
protest platform.<

Agreed. But are there any left groups free of illusions in the labor
bureaucracy (not counting the Sparts and the SEP)? That said, you're absolutely 
right.
With few exceptions-- the ILWU, a few UEW locals-- the disconnect between
union leadership and members has never been greater in my 55 years. I consider
the District Council of my own union, of which I've been a local officer, as
little better than dues theives, an opinion shared by all the members except the
current officers who function as local agents for the DC.

Joe D writes:
>As for the ISO, their position on Cuba alone completely discredits them as
far as I'm concerned. In my experience, they spend most of their time
organising
on campuses, and in LA, despite their regular presence in oppressed
communities with newspapers and literature, their cadre remains predominately
white and
middle class. Paternalism is no substitute for real solidarity. The ISO, the
US
Left in general, is guilty of an intellectual elitism which repels workers.
The harsh but simple fact is that at this point in time we represent no one
except ourselves.<

This is too cynical by far. No doubt it's the case that the Marxist left in
the US lacks roots in the working class. You constantly harp on this truism
while suggesting that the fault lies entirely with intellectual elitism on the
part of left groups. Assuming for argument's sake that you're right, is the
antidote some kind of merging with the masses and waiting for some organic
leadership to emerge from oppressed groups, while in the meantime ignoring the
international aspects of an increasingly globalized and interconnected 
capitalism?
Is a populistic anti-intellectualism any better then a dilettantish
intellectualism?
Which brings up  the ISO. I think the verdict is still out on this tendency.
The reason we're even discussing them is their success in organizing on the
campuses. Louis isn't inventing this-- on the campuses right now, the ISO is it.
They've done an amazing organizing job around the Campaign to Abolish the
Death Penalty; the defense of the Charleston 5; and, the movement against the
imperialist invasion and occupation of Iraq. They have one foot in the reality
that you demand-- the ongoing daily struggles of the world working class and its
social allies. The challenge for the ISO is to plant its other foot in that
reality by breaking with the Cliffite state capitalism theoretical tradition.
ISO rank and filers know the theory doesn't hold water, can't account for
what's happened in the former Soviet bloc, and poses obstacles for comprehending
and relating to struggles like the one in Venezuela and defence of the Cuban
workers state. Yeah, it's neat for appealing to middle class college students 
but
from what I hear, the youth they've recruited are the 1st to know they must
break out of the campus ghetto. That takes more than an act of political will.
It takes deeper theoretical development.
Since the 1970s, the IS tendency in the US has done significant pro-working
class work. In the feminist movement and the CLUW (Coalition of Labor Union
Women) IS women were a significant presence connecting womens' issues with class
issues. The Campaign Against the Death Penalty and their work in the
Charleston dockers defense has certainly brought them into contact with the 
oppressed
minorities. Louis Proyect noted a significant prescence of African-Americans at
the recent conference in NYC. I heard from people at the workshop on the
wrongfully convicted that African-Americans outnumbered white participants.
I agree partially with Joe-- to attract people like myself the ISO must make
a genuine break with the State Capitalist tradition because it will keep them
locked into a sectarian and economistic methodology.

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