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The ISO Versus Socialist Alternative
Sectarian Delusions on the American Left
by LOUIS PROYECT
Another International Socialist Organization Internal Bulletin has been
leaked to the public over on the External Bulletin website, home to a
group of former members. It contains an article written by long-time
leader Todd Chretien that targets Socialist Alternative (SAlt)—the group
that is rightfully proud of their comrade Kshama Sawant being elected to
the Seattle City Council and for her role in the passing of a $15
minimum wage.
I have been partial to Chretien in the past because of his close ties to
the late Peter Camejo, whose gubernatorial campaign in California he
helped organize in 2003. I worked closely with Camejo in the early 80s
and confess to having stolen all my best ideas from him.
The ISO’s chief criticism of Socialist Alternative’s electoral strategy
is that it is “triumphalist”, a musty term from the Marxist lexicon.
Specifically, Chretien regards SAlt’s call for a hundred independent
candidates to run in the 2014-midterm elections as an “overblown
perspective”. In his view, her victory did not necessarily mean that
political conditions had ripened to the point where such a large number
of candidates would be forthcoming. Such “triumphalism” might even be
catching–to the point where ISO’ers would be seduced into believing that
it was feasible to form a new “broad” party in the near term, or that
regroupment of the far left was the order of the day. Heaven forefend.
full:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/07/04/sectarian-delusions-on-the-american-left/
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