*Why I left Socialist Action Andrew Pollack
Some of you know, either from reading my articles or from informal discussion, that I had been in Socialist Action (US). This note is to explain why I resigned on October 3rd. My disagreement with SA centered on differences over antiwar and solidarity work, and the party-building opportunities flowing from them. I won’t claim that my choice as an individual in this matter carries much if any weight in the historical balance, but I felt I should make the record, even if only so that SA is not associated with words and deeds of mine that it clearly doesn’t agree with, and which in fact it has insisted that I desist from. SA views its work against imperialism as necessarily revolving solely around work through the United National Antiwar Coalition, and in that context to consist politically only of pushing the demands “Out Now” and “Hands Off [name of country].” It believes it has no duty, as one would in a traditional united front, to criticize in its own name members of that united front such as Workers’ World Party who have promoted the virtues of neocolonial dictators such as Qaddafi, Ahmedinejad, and most recently Assad, with whom WWP and friends had a most pleasant tea while his troops and allies were butchering Syrian revolutionaries. What’s worse, SA is opposed to doing solidarity work with the Syrian and other Arab revolutions. This is stated most bluntly in this new article:http://socialistaction.org/2013/10/threat-still-looms-of-u-s-attack-on-syria/ The leading bodies of SA have made clear that I as a member would not be permitted to disseminate information about such solidarity work, nor to share articles by other revolutionary groups about those revolutions. The groups under such a ban include, among others, the ISO here in the US, the Revolutionary Socialists in Egypt, the Revolutionary Left Current in Syria – even the seven Arab revolutionary socialist parties who jointly issued a statement calling for support for the Syrian Revolution, and even though some of the signers and authors of that statement are members of the same Fourth International of which SA is a sympathizing organization!http://www.al-manshour.org/en/statement-by-rev-socialists-marxists-on-us-attack-on-syriaSA has also forbidden promotion of union solidarity and anti-repression campaigns promoted by the UK’s MENA Labor Solidarity Network (http://menasolidaritynetwork.com/ ), allegedly because they, like others named here, were too critical of the Muslim Brotherhood! One doesn’t leave a revolutionary organization lightly, and normally a disciplined communist whose perspective had been defeated would stay in the group and bide his or her time until an opportunity arose to try to change the group’s line. That’s why, for instance, Paul Levi, while correct politically, was wrong organizationally (seehttp://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1924/reminiscences-of-lenin.htm ). On a movement level the same willingness to be disciplined and accept disagreeable tasks exists; I’ve often appreciated, for instance, the anecdote in Draper’s history of the CPUSA describing Bill Dunne telling communist delegates to a garment union convention, after they had walked out declaring their intention to form a new union, that they were to return to the fight within the union, even if it meant crawling on their bellies to get back in. Those considerations however are not the most relevant in this situation. SA is one of several Trotskyist organizations in the US, and sympathizes with the most important revolutionary socialist International. But it is not THE revolutionary party in the US. And its sectarianism and abstentionism means it is cutting itself off from a chance to aid in the building of that International through support for the growing revolutionary parties throughout the Arab world. SA is also defaulting on its elementary responsibility to organize solidarity with that region’s revolutions. In this situation, working in joint movement and partybuilding activity with those Arab revolutionaries takes precedence, in my mind, to waiting for SA to change its line. For those interested in opposing war and building solidarity with revolutions, and in engaging in comradely discussions with fellow revolutionaries doing such work, see https://menasolnetus.wordpress.com/andhttps://www.facebook.com/MENASolidarityUS Hopefully soon I will see more SA members involved in such work. Andrew Pollack*
