[Marxism] RE SA open letter to SWP

[ilyenkova@xxxxxxxxxxx]

My thanks to Adam R for posting this link. I had heard the horror
stories re the expulsions from friends who remained in the SWP through
the 1970s but was unaware of the actual mechanics of the expulsions
(i.e.) overheard conversation or random remarks construed as breaking
party discipline; rushed trials and shot-gun expulsions.

I quit the SWP in 1972, demoralized by the process used to rid the
party of sectarian oppositionists in the wake of the 1971 national
convention faction fight. Having abstained on the expulsion I
immediately achieved pariah status.

The quality and politics of those expelled in 1972 may have been worlds
apart from those veteran party loyalists given the axe at decade's end,
but the shoddy, rotten method of dealing with minority currents was
prefigured in the earlier expulsions. This is a part of SWP history that
needs to be faced by those trying to understand the process of
degeneration. It sets in sharp relief the structural sectarianism and
authoritarianism of the falsified model of Leninism implanted into the
American Communist movement by Gregori Zinoviev's acolytes.
Bob Montgomery

_______________________________________________
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism