Re: [Marxism] The "Social-Imperialist Workers Party" sinks to a new low

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

> I am weary of all these cheap sectarian jabs and figthing at ghosts etc. 
> If people have political differences, lets discuss them. But I have seen 
> nothing out of the Militant or the SWP that points in the direction they 
> support the war. They have been quite sectarian, and I would conduct my 
> politics quite diferently from them, but they are far from social-imperialist.
>
> Find something relevant to critique them on.
>
> sks

Well, the article is typical from what you get out of the Militant. An 
editorial includes the obligatory anti-imperialist boilerplate:

"The labor movement must follow the example set by workers at Point Blank 
and oppose the employers? profit-driven efforts to sacrifice the safety of 
soldiers through shoddy production. At the same time, it should campaign 
for bringing all the troops home now from Iraq, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, 
Korea, Haiti, Colombia, and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba."

But it is odd to see an article about war-profiteering in this context. 
This is not WWII, after all. We are dealing with a political situation in 
which many liberal supporters of the war have called attention to 
inadequate preparation and war material. For a Hilary Clinton or a John 
Kerry, it is easy to make demagogic points about the lack of proper armor 
plating for Hummers, etc. This essentially is what the Militant is saying, 
although they are far too slippery to come out and say it clearly.

For people like David Altman who spent many years in the SWP, there is an 
inevitable tendency to get pissed off about these sorts of things since 
they sold the Militant themselves and are angry about what the newspaper 
and the group have become. For myself, I have developed a more detached 
attitude suitable for somebody who left 27 years ago.

My recommendation is not to take the words of this minuscule sect so 
seriously. It is not as if it had thousands of members confusing antiwar 
activists with their shitty politics. In fact, if their newspaper was not 
online, nobody here would give it a moment's notice. That is one of the 
consequences of having the Internet, even when you are dealing with a group 
that has little engagement with it.

The best way to look at the Militant and the SWP is as if they were brand 
names. For example, in the 1980s there was a thoroughly rotten personal 
computer company called Packard-Bell whose products fell apart after 6 
months or so. But the name belonged to a prestigious radio company from the 
1930s and 40s whose products were synonymous with quality. So the computer 
company paid some money and bought the brand name of the defunct radio company.

That's kind of what's going on here.









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