[Marxism] The Militant and What's the matter with Florida?

[Brian Shannon <Brian_Shannon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The Militant and What's the matter with Florida?

(1) The convoluted explanation of why Elian Gonzalez should NOT have 
been returned to his father by an agency of the U.S. government. 
Apparently the Socialist Workers Party was waiting for divine 
intervention

(2) The attack on Democratic Party presidential candidate Gore for his 
limited request for a recall in Florida. There was only a limited 
criticism of Bush, a comment on the disenfranchisement of black voters, 
and I recall nothing at all on on the significance of the Electoral 
College and the popular vote in the rest of the country.

(3) The confused editorials over Point Blank Body Armor in Florida, 
including the fact that it took almost a month to make the correction.

The Elian incident just seemed weird, although even then, I wondered 
whether there wasn't some group that the SWP was trying to get close 
to, one that perhaps mixed some progressive ideas with reactionary 
prejudices.

The Gore-Bush fight over Florida reinforced this with its attack on 
Gore, which was completely irrelevant from the point of view of 
educating the American people over the character of U.S. elections. 
Again there was a mixture of right- and left-wing elements in both 
concept and writing.

Now we have Point Blank Body Armor, also in Florida. First an editorial 
on how our troops were not being protected even though it would have 
been sufficient to point up the hypocrisy and profiteering of business 
during war. Then a very delayed reversal of line, with only a general 
condemnation of war profiteering, but without pointing out how this can 
be used to talk to the Point Blank Workers regarding whatever patriotic 
ideas they may have.

This latest Militant editorial asserts that:
"The earlier editorial stands in contrast to the
working-class internationalism that is and remains
the hallmark of the Militant since our first issue
more than 75 years ago. It was a political
adaptation to what communists have called
social patriotism. It echoed one of the
rationalizations used by “our own” capitalist
class to mislead working people into backing
U.S. government war policies."

I don't buy the claim that it was an adaptation to social patriotism. 
It was an adaptation to the incompetence of the present SWP leadership 
and its inability to pursue a consistent line in any endeavor. *

Are there other Florida weirdnesses?

Brian Shannon

___________
*Point Blank reminds me of the NAFTA confusion of several years ago. No 
one could figure out whether the SWP for was for against NAFTA. Nor 
could its membership. Finally, Doug Jenness wrote an article that 
claimed the SWP opposed NAFTA. Unfortunately, Doug himself contradicted 
this line a short time later and then had to make some form of 
self-serving apology.
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