RE: [Marxism] "Winning" and "losing" in Iran, the USSR and the US (was: Independence is Not Nothing)

["David McDonald" <dbmcdonald@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Lou Pa:

But you didn't say which you were opposed to: telling truth,
advancing the struggle, or not being unnecessarily divisive.
Actually, I infer that you think all three are bad policy.



Sorry for the unclarity. It is really your first sentence, "I don't think
it's reasonable to impose an 'obligation to win' on
communists" that is the death sentence. Reality poses the obligation to win
and therefore to unify. I have never seen as organization so indifferent to
winning and unity as yours, except for PSL, with whom you are tied, and the
SWP, and the Sparts, and the ISO, and the....

I am so sick of needlessly tiny demos organized by sectarians. I know for
instance, that WWP was cheerfully "uselessly divisive" when it split the
antiwar movement in 2004 in Seattle, resulting in a laughable rump ultraleft
outing led by your party grafted idiotically onto a well-attended,
liberal-run, apolitical prayer service. Why grafted? Because the people you
drove out of the room with "the truth" organized the people you should have
had your eyes on in the first place and imposed their politics on thousands
of them while your party was content to plant the flag of perfect politics.
Neither your party nor any of the other ultralefts you talked into that
charade have ever expressed the slightest hesitation or doubt, let alone
remorse, over that still-historic split. They considered it a victory that
"the movement" (read maybe 30 people in Seattle tops) had "conquered" the
task of including opposition to the Israeli occupation of Palestine in the
program and taught the liberals a lesson in how to stack a meeting. Now
there's a victory.

That's why I'm paying close attention to Yoshie's remarks. She's going
somewhere.

David



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