[Marxism] Peter and Cuba and the GP

[Alex Briscoe <obeynow20001@xxxxxxxxx>]

I sat across from Peter at a dinner at the 2004 Socialism Conference (ISO), as 
the guest of someone else.  There, he praised the ISO for being so active and 
dynamic and working to build the GP.  He did take time to point out that he 
disagreed with them on their position on Cuba, he told the members and 
leadership that he disagreed with them fundamentally on Cuba, but that he 
didn't let that get in the way of the fact that they had been stauch allies of 
GDI, and a fundamentally positive organization in publicizing socialist ideas 
in the U.S.  He then related a very moving anecdote about how Cuban fighters 
came to Nicaragua and showed the FSLN comrades how to overcome their fears by 
leaping out from cover and charging the contra lines under fire.

As someone with half of my family originating in Belarus and a quarter of it 
dying there by the Einsatzgruppen, because of their semi-colonial origins, 
there is a part of me that identifies viscerally with Cuba and other colonial 
struggles for self determination, and conversly, that is very angered when 
western intellectuals dismiss these struggles, as imperfect as they may be.

On another note, I did want to say for the record that there was criticism of 
Peter in his role in the CAGP.  I was not there and I've heard this second-hand 
so I'd like to see others written accounts, but in the wake of the 2004 
debacle, it seemed that Peter was not untouched by his time in the SWP.  He 
seemed at times suspicious, accusatory and overly-factional.

Of course the dem-friendly wing of the GP and CAGP did far worse, manipulating 
the national conven, pushing Nader away, pushing underhandedly for fusion.

I think that the sour notes in Peter's life in the GP show that, as one comrade 
said to me, suffering doesn't necessarily make you a better person.  And it 
doesn't make for better organizations.  The point is to find a way to end the 
suffering.  Unfortunately for Peter and for the rest of us in and out of 
organizations, conditions in the U.S. have not been very conducive to finding a 
mass partnership in ending the suffering.

Despite this, despite any flaws, Peter was an exceptional and gifted comrade 
who has left us a valuable body of work and a valuable legacy.  I eagerly look 
forward to reading his memoir.  It is a damn shame that he was not passed the 
baton by the old SWP leadership in the early 1970s.  The U.S. left would be 
much stronger today had he led the SWP instead of Barnes.

Alex Briscoe




Here in the United States Peter applied those non-sectarian ideas
to his activity in various political contexts. None of that good
work and positive example he provided, as an incomparable example
of how to popularize complex socialist ideas, were invalidated by
his speaking on the platform of the ISO. He was simply that kind
of person, and he set a positive example for others in doing so.
He knew what the ISO's positions on Cuba were, and there isn't
any evidence to show that he agreed with them. He simply seems
to have ignored them, and he used his connections with them, 
and his speaking for them, to demonstrate what he did the best:
popularize complex socialist ideas in an understandable way.


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http://www.votenader.org
http://www.ilgp.org
http://www.northsidegreenparty.org
http://www.greenallianceusa.org
http://www.labornotes.org
http://www.solidarity-us.org
http://www.internationalviewpoint.org


      

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