Thanks for the reply, Tony. I can’t prevent you from reading into my previous comments what you will and ascribing your own interpretation to them.
.Here's more grist for the mill. 1. I’m not a campist, although I once was. Let me explain. The concept originated with your tendency when Max Shachtman and the Workers Party declined to support the USSR against the Nazis in WW II and then against US imperialism during the Cold War. It described the Soviet Union as a new form of class society ruled by “bureaucratic collectivists” and “state capitalists” rather than a socialist or workers state. On this understanding, it stood apart and declared itself a “third Camp" defending “neither Moscow nor Washington” though Shachtman and some of his followers wpuld later join the US camp. I plead guilty to once having been a “campist” in that I defended the Soviet side until its demise. Now I find it more than a little ironic then the charge is being levelled against those like myself who oppose both sides by those like you and others who support the Ukrainian/NATO axis in a war which is inimical to the interests of the workers in both camps and globally. 2. I’m not opposed to the Leninist model of party organization. I’ve noted previously that even in its present incarnation it provided me and other young. radicals with the sustained activity, political education and organizing skills so sorely needed today But I believe the model was meant to conform to historical circumstances - more tightly disciplined and centralized with respect to program and strategy in repressive societies, especially when the question of power was posed, more loosely-structured and decentralized with full freedom of public expression for dissenting factions in more open bourgeois democracies. Today's small groups which draw their inspiration from Lenin and the Bolsheviks often accept the distinction but in practice typically impose top-down discipline and ideological conformity on the pretext that even though the revolutionary crisis has has not arrived, it must be prepared for much as fundamentalist Christians prepare for the judgement day. 3. Your model does not appear to differ from that of the many other self-described revolutionary Marxist groups - in particular, from the Tempest Collective, whose tradition and program is consistent with your own. Assuming you don't have any principled differences with that group, it's incomprehensible to me why you do not simply join it and ask others to follow suit rather than proposing the formation of yet another competing organization on the fragmented and marginalized Marxist left. 4. You cite as the basis of unity for your new organization - agreement with your views on Ukraine, China and Russia This is a litmus test that many on this list from different Trotskyist and ML’ist traditions (eg. Mark B., David W.,Charles A.,Hari K.) would easily pass. Such a politically heterogenous group would not make for the more homogenous membership you favour. In the Lenin caucus model which I described above, diverse views would be welcome. The DSA has to date notably allowed its factions - some primarily composed of Leninists - to publicly express their often conflicting views on international and domestic issues. It has not torn itself apart, likely because the policy acts as a safety valve preventing the destructive splits and expulsions so characteristic of the small sects it has outpaced on the left. 5. Finally, you undoubtedly subscribe to the view that the Marxist left has failed to win the allegiance of the masses primarily because of a “crisis of leadership” which your model is designed to correct How so? As you know, my rejoinder has always been that if Lenin’s Bolsheviks were to reappear in Brooklyn tomorrow they would not outperform their imitators because they would be confronted by the vastly different and less favourable objective conditions. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#42291): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/42291 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/119987077/21656 -=-=- 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. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
