From: LeoCasey@xxxxxxx
Reply-To: pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: <pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [PEN-L:15097] Openness and Honesty in Left Politics
Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2001 13:03:59 EDT
Justin:
I think that you and I have different views on how socialists and radicals
of all stripes should participate in large mass movements. I think that
openness and honesty is essential, and that it is the failure to be open
and honest that leads to trouble, not "red baiting." "Red baiting" has the
power it does only when it catches people in deception. In the context of
contemporary American politics, if someone's politics are of the sort that
they have to hide them, then they need to change their politics, IMHO; we
are not exactly living in a police state.
As for the TDU and _Labor Notes_, I said that the founders and leaders
were, "for the most part," Trotskyists. You say, that is wrong, and then go
on to point out, in your view, which ones are Trotskyists and which ones
are not. You may have some difficulty showing how what you offer for
evidence is in any way inconsistent with what I said.
As I see it, it is common knowledge among those who have participated in
and know the history and current structure of left politics and American
trade unionism that TDU and _Labor Notes_ were born out of the efforts of
key cadre in the International Socialists some twenty years ago, and that
the main players in that effort are now members of Solidarity. It is also
common knowledge that Solidarity was created by the merger of various
remnants of the Trotskyist movement, and that while it does not require
adherence to Trotskyism from its members, it is a soft 'Trotskyist'
organization. This is really not any different than the knowledge that the
Reuther leadership of the UAW came out of the Socialist Party and defeated
a faction aligned with and led by the Communists, that the AFL-CIO's
international operations pre-Sweeney was run by a series of vociferous
anti-Communists who were Lovestonites [members of the 'right
opposition'/Bukharinites of the Communist Party] and Shachtm!
an!
ites ['Third Camp' Trotskyists],
and so on. Pretending that this is not true, in the name of avoiding 'red
baiting,' is, in my view, engaging in the type of deception which has
haunted the work of the left in the American trade union movement.
This was a lesson I learned very quickly on in my participation on the
American left. As a working class teenager from Queens who opposed the war
in Vietnam, I invited a representative from the Student Mobilization
Committee Against the War to speak at my high school. At the meeting,
someone accused the SMC of being a front group for the Socialist Workers
Party and Young Socialist Alliance. The speaker adamantly denied that this
was the case, and then told me after the meeting that although he was a
member of YSA, they were under instructions not to admit such matters. As
soon as anyone raised the question, cry 'red baiting.' Is it any wonder
that an organization which worked in that way lacked all credibility?
Leo Casey