I think Socialist Alternative has been involved in the DSA for years. On Fri, Apr 2, 2021, 12:33 AM Dayne Goodwin <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 31, 2021 at 12:00 PM Richard Modiano <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > > "If the Left is to succeed where past generations have failed, it can’t > allow sectarian organizations to operate as parties within a party.” > > > > "The recent announcement of the Trotskyist organization Socialist > Alternative (SAlt) that its members were coming aboard, followed by a > similar declaration from its leading member, Kshama Sawant, has simply made > public a process that has been underway for some time — that various > marginal Trotskyist organizations have infiltrated the DSA in a practice > known as entryism.” > > > > > https://inthesetimes.com/article/dsa-socialist-alternative-entryism-socialism-marxism > > > On Wed, Mar 31, 2021 at 12:04 PM Steven L. Robinson <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > > Hardly surprising this came out, although I was expecting something to > this effect much earlier. What role or influence, if any, do the signers > still have within DSA anyway? > > > On Wed, Mar 31, 2021 at 1:49 PM Michael Yates <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > This article in In These Times is just dreadful. Red-baiting for > certain. One of the authors is an old Cold Warrior, Leo Casey. Now who > would you rather have in your organization, Leo Casey or Kshama Sawant? Who > is the sectarian here? Has anyone noticed when certain DSA and Jacobin > magazine types talk about cooperation with those to their left, they just > assume that we will move toward their position. Never the opposite. Never. > > > On Wed, Mar 31, 2021 at 2:38 PM Andrew Pollack <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > > For the history and politics of the 1930s fight, see > > > https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/ni/vol04/no01/editors4.htm > > See also Cannon in his History of American Trotskyism > > > > Michael Yates 'hits the nail on the head' describing this *In These Times* > article as classic red-baiting. IMO it is a case of 'Old Guard' DSA > leaders (including some whose histories go back to the pre-DSA, DSOC and > NAM organizations) taking the initiative to form a right-wing faction to > fight against revolutionary socialist developments within DSA. The growing > post-2016 multi-tendency DSA has been open to a variety of *caucuses* of > different political tendencies across a broad spectrum of socialist views. > I think this article on 'the dangers of factionalism' marks the initial > development of an actual *faction* which wants to exclude left-wing > revolutionary socialists from DSA membership. We revolutionary socialists > might look at this development as an encouraging sign that revolutionary > socialist numbers are growing within DSA. > > These Old Guard DSA leaders have been extremely influential in DSA over > past decades but it remains to be seen what their influence is today. > Joseph Schwartz who is apparently the actual author of this article signed > by the others was elected to the National Political Committee leadership of > the DSA at DSA's first national convention in 1983 and was still being > elected to the NPC at the DSA's 2017 national convention in Chicago > (another signer and old guard DSAer, Christine Riddiough, was also elected > to the DSA NPC at the 2017 convention; but neither Riddiough nor Schwartz > was elected to the NPC at the last, 2019 DSA national convention in > Atlanta). Another signer of this *In These Times* factional article > against factionalism is Maxine Phillips who at least up until recently has > been a central leader of the DSA national organization. > > These Old Guard DSA authors present a false and tendentious version of the > history of entryism in the Socialist Party of the 1930s, as is exposed in > the reference Andrew Pollack has provided. In the history of the Socialist > Party in the U.S. it is typical to see reformist leaders splitting the > party to preserve their undemocratic organizational control in the face of > the growing revolutionary socialist majority membership. This was the case > in the World War I era as described by then-contemporary influential > Socialist Party activist Arne Swabeck: "Why Did the Socialist Party > Decline?" *Against the Current*, Jan/Feb 2002 > https://againstthecurrent.org/atc096/p1308/ [this is a section of > Swabeck's never-yet published afaik autobiography "From Debs to Mao" > written over several years starting in 1968]. > > Swabeck's comments are also criticism of James Weinstein's 1967 book "The > Decline of Socialism in America, 1912 - 1925" where Weinstein argued that > the Socialist Party was doing great until growing revolutionary socialist > membership (inspired by the Bolshevik revolution) became a threat to > continued Old Guard reformist leadership (the 1981 Hollywood film "Reds" > also tells this story). Weinstein was the 1976 founding editor of *In > These Times* which has long been a *de facto* organ of the reformist > Democrat Party oriented DSA leadership. Lately i thought i had seen seen > encouraging signs that *In These Times* may be editorially moving to the > left but apparently it is at least still available for use by the Old Guard > DSA reformists. > > > On Wed, Mar 31, 2021 at 1:49 PM Michael Yates <[email protected]> wrote: > >> This article in In These Times is just dreadful. Red-baiting for certain. >> One of the authors is an old Cold Warrior, Leo Casey. Now who would you >> rather have in your organization, Leo Casey or Kshama Sawant? Who is the >> sectarian here? Has anyone noticed when certain DSA and Jacobin magazine >> types talk about cooperation with those to their left, they just assume >> that we will move toward their position. Never the opposite. Never. >> >> > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#7697): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/7697 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/81756580/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
