[Marxism] Materialism and the decay of small Marxist groups

[Philip Ferguson <philip.ferguson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Nick wrote:
>This is a highly unmaterialist approach (the materialist approach would
be 
>to examine the social and political context the groups in question
operate 
>in and the political positions and practice of the groups in response),

>and usually asserted with little or no evidence.


Louis responded:
>I am not sure whether it makes sense to apply a "materialist" analysis
to a 
group with less than 2000 members. This, after all, is not something
like a 
trade union bureaucracy resting on massive numbers of workers or a 
parliamentary formation like the pre-WWI social democracy.

>Key to the degeneration of such small formations is the 
personality/psychology of the Leader who assumes an inordinate amount of

power based on being some kind of modern-day interpreter of what Marx or

Lenin (or whoever) really meant. Just about every one of these 
"Marxist-Leninist" groups has a mystique around the Leader who is 
understood to be the Lenin of our time. There is an implicit need to
posit 
him (or her, as in the case of the Democratic Workers Party sect of the 
1980s led by Marlene Dixon) as the infallible leader because the
Bolshevik 
Party was also led by somebody who never seemed to make mistakes.
Actually, 
Lenin made plenty of mistakes and was raked over the coals by the 
membership but you never really learn about this when you are in one of 
these groups.



I agree with Louis.  In very small left groups the
socio/psycho-pathology of leaderships are more important than "the
social and political context", which is more relevant in affecting
groups with serious social bases of support.

Small left groups like the US SWP are largely self-sustaining and can
exist and 'develop' outside of reality.

Because of this, organisational norms and Great Leader figures can
become much more important determinants of their 'development' than what
is happening in the big wide world outside.

It's disappointing to see that Sheppard sees the 1960s and early 70s
period of the SWP as so healthy.  In fact, every single tendency that
developed differences with the central leadership was drummed out during
that period.

It's rather difficult to see how what happened in the 80s and 90s could
have occurred without a culture of conformity and expulsion having
already been well-established in the 60s and 70s (and even earlier).

Philip Ferguson


PS: As an aside to Bob Gould: Bob, the SAL no longer exists in NZ.  It
is long gone.  The tiny Barnesite remnant of it which remains is called
the Communist League and probably has less than ten members.






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