Re: [Marxism] ISO's conference.

[chegitz guevara <absynthe@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 3:50 PM, Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> chegitz guevara wrote:
>  > What's the point of such folks being involved with the trade union
>> movement? They don't bring socialist politics to the workers. Have you
>> ever read one article in Labor Notes ever endorsing socialist
>> politics?
>
> By this criterion, the Socialist Labor Party and the Socialist Workers
> Party are superior to Solidarity.

Yes, by that sole criterion they are. Except that the SLP and SWP go
to the opposite extreme. Rather than never saying anything to labor,
they scream at labor and never listen. If Solidarity used Labor Notes
to engage in a real discussion about socialism with the militants in
the labor movement they attract, they would be one of the most
important groups on the American left. They don't, so they aren't. The
opposite of a bad thing isn't necessarily a good thing, Louis.

I've been a member of Solidarity twice now, most recently for 16
months, ending in mid-February. They have swung hard and far to the
right from where they were in the mid 90s (when I was last in the
organization). I'm critiquing it as a person who was in the
organization, who tried to build a branch, an who was disgusted by the
patronizing, racist internal politics. The way they treated one
comrade made my stomach turn, and when I reacted, 90% of the
discussion was about the fact that I'd used the words "tear a new
asshole" rather than the fact that a Black female comrade had been
treated to as if she were a child by a white academic. A few months
later, after they attempted to blame their entire fuck up with the
Black Workers for Justice on her, I got so disgusted that I could no
longer remain a member. However, rather than let me resign, they
booted me from the organization, as I failed to pay my convention
assessment (even though I had asked about financial assistance in
order to be able to attend the convention, as I'm on unemployment),
without a hearing, and without even bothering to tell me until after I
said something about the fact I was no longer getting email from them.

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