[Marxism] An open letter to our Cubaholic [was: Cuba policy as a U.S. domestic political issue]

[David Thorstad <binesi@xxxxxxxxx>]

Joaquin Bustelo wrote:
> "Supporting" foreign revolutions played a most negative role in the
> degeneration of the SWP from 1978 on. Mindless cheerleading for the "three
> giants of the Caribbean" --Cuba, Grenada and Nicaragua-- was the opium of
> the cadre, distracting them from what SHOULD have held their attention,
> which was the way the SWP was losing hundreds of people and becoming
> completely isolated by staying outside such progressive social and protest
> movements as existed. 
>
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I find much of Joaquin's contributions insightful and intelligent, so 
this latest one piqued my curiosity. He seems to believe the SWP's 
"degeneration" got going in 1978. (I apologize if I'm surmising too much 
here, but he gave the date of 1978.) I've given some thought to this 
question, but am not committed to my own views, and am curious to know 
how he picks 1978 as the turning point date of degeneration.
    I do not disagree that the SWP degenerated, but suspect it began 
much earlier. I wonder if people who remained members of the SWP until 
they either were expelled in the early 1980s (I know a number of such 
people, from various tendencies) or decided short of expulsion (e.g., 
Peter Camejo) that the party had become a has-been under the one-armed 
bandit Barnes see the degeneration as having begun shortly before they 
saw the light or were shown the door.
    The Spartacists, for example, trace the degeneration of the SWP way 
back to prior to times I myself joined (1967), and some of the documents 
they have published, going back to the 1930s, are illuminating in this 
regard. In some ways, I think they were prescient about the future 
degeneration of the SWP, surely after 1965, with the adoption of the 
antidemocratic, bureaucratic, Stalinoid organization resolution and 
policy attributed to Farrell Dobbs. It was that policy, in my 
understanding (I'd be happy to be disabused by persons who might know 
more than I do about the subject)--which was never, to my knowledge, 
ever presented and critiqued and analyzed in any SWP educational while I 
was a member (1967-1973)--that ultimately led to the expulsion of many 
members, including some top and longtime leaders of the party (e.g., 
Frank Lovell, George Breitman...), grotesquely, by the Barnes clique and 
the remaining many hand-raisers. Some, perhaps most, of these people 
themselves participated in earlier expulsions of comrades whose 
violations of Barnes's or Dobbs's norms were no more demonstrable than 
their own. Not only that, many later expulsees raised their hands 
enthusiastically to support things like the ridiculous "Memorandum" on 
homosexuality adopted overwhelmingly by the convention in 1973. I myself 
saw that as a sign of degeneration and dishonesty and arm-twisting and 
violation of alleged party norms (no "buttonholing" of other comrades 
during preconvention discussions, for example, something that the SWP 
Barnes clique majority did all the time without any censure or concern 
by the majority comrades, who looked the other way, until years later it 
came up to bite them in the ass), and quit the party in 1973.
    I raise this merely because it seems relevant in view of Joaquin's 
date fixing for the degenerative process.
    In a few days, I will have posted my polemic against the SWP from 
1979--"The Socialist Workers Party vs. Gay Liberation (or The Cuckoo 
Builds a Strange Nest)--and will send a link to the list for those who 
might be interested. The article addresses issues of degeneration, the 
"turn to industry," which in my view was part of the degeneration, even 
though it wasn't much, if at all, challenged within the party at the time.
    These issues may not be of earth-shaking importance, and the SWP is 
now irrelevant by any measure, but they are interesting and pertinent, 
as Joaquin's comment makes clear.
David


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