Re: [Marxism] SWP: "U.S. troops consolidate victory in Fallujah"

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Walter Lippmann wrote:
> Dear Steve Gabosch -
>
> No progress seems to be taking place in this discussion.

I think we have reached that point long ago.

Since March of this year, there have been 138 exchanges with Steve
Gabosch--mostly around the SWP's line on Iraq and/or the antiwar
movement. That is a lot of bandwidth devoted to what can only be
described as a fringe element of the left.

This is not the ABB we were dealing with, when all sorts of good people
like Edward Herman or Howard Zinn were justifying a vote for Kerry. Nor
is it something like a division *within* the antiwar movement between
UPJ and ANSWER. Basically, the SWP has absolutely no role to play in the
movement, which it has written off as chauvinist. Mind you, this aging
sect could not play a role even if it wanted to. It simply lacks the
skills that are necessary to bring people together that it had 25 years
ago. We are not talking about rust here. It is more like petrification
to the core.

So all these polemics strike me more as driven by the need of Walter
Lippmann and others to scold people. I can understand that. I was angry
with the SWP for a good 10 years after I left. But there is also a time
to move on. When Lenin engaged with polemics against the Mensheviks, it
was in the hope that he could win sizable numbers to his perspective. In
fact, that did happen in 1917 when the party's leftwing joined with the
Bolsheviks.

In the case of the SWP, you are dealing with people who have lost the
capacity to think for themselves. This is a cult around a Perfect
Leader, a phenomenon that is sadly all too prevalent in the Fourth
International and its various offshoots. At any rate, our time is better
spent with those who are on our wavelength more or less.

--
Marxism list: www.marxmail.org


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