If the entire Marxist left from the PSL through the DSA to the WSWS is as bad as you say it is, John, you as an individual can do little about it.
It seems to me that if the contemporary Marxist left is ever going to overcome its tendency towards bitter recrimination and division and splits, it will have to learn to distinguish between those issues which pose life-and-death questions of power - and we are a long way from that - and those which do not. We come from a tradition where a premium was placed on self-discipline in more fraught circumstances than our own. We can debate the class character of China, the roots of the Ukraine war, and the nature of imperialism without it having much consequence for practical activity beyond our small circles. Even on domestic issues which are more consequential because they involve interaction with the broad masses - such as, for example, the orientation to the union-backed left-centre parties - we should be able to organize as factions and make our opposing views publicly known. Denouncing others as unprincipled, cowardly, or guilty of betrayal has been on balance destructive. It has served as a pretext for splits and the formation of innumerable hapless splinter groups cluttering the landscape of the contemporary far left. On social media such as marxmail, it has fostered a toxic environment which inhibits rational discussion and the clarification and potential reconciliation of opposing views and has very likely alienated serious outsiders and lurkers from participating. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#43216): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/43216 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/120904093/21656 -=-=- 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]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
