> On Mar 13, 2016, at 4:41 PM, Marv Gandall <marvga...@gmail.com> wrote: > > >> On Mar 13, 2016, at 4:34 PM, Louis Proyect <l...@panix.com> wrote: >> >> On 3/13/16 7:22 PM, Marv Gandall wrote: >>> No need to fast forward, Jim. Thomas’ political trajectory was an >>> outgrowth of the antipathy between the reformist and the >>> revolutionary left which, as we know, was evident in the 1930’s and >>> well beyond, predating their formal split into two rival >>> Internationals following WWI. As a social democrat, Thomas came into >>> conflict with the Communist Party and the smaller Trotskyist movement >>> on ideological and practical grounds since all three political >>> currents were competing with varying degrees of influence for the >>> same working class constituency. >> >> People have strange ideas about Norman Thomas. You need to read "Not >> Automatic", Sol Dollinger's book about the Flint sit-down strike. Thomas >> saw eye to eye with the left wing of the SP that had considerable >> strength in the area, including Genora Johnson. In terms of him voting >> to expel the Trotskyists, if I had been around back then, I would have >> voted for booting them. Anybody with political experience would no that >> they were simply on a raiding party. The idea of building a purely >> revolutionary party based on some "program" (namely a bunch of ideology >> cobbled together from various holy texts) is bunkum as Henry Ford put >> it. For better or for worse, revolutionary parties are never pure. They >> will always include a right faction because that reflects the realities >> of class composition in the proletariat. Lenin battled with Julius >> Martov worse than fights I've had with people on the Internet but always >> considered the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks as belong to the same party. >> Pham Binh and Lars Lih got that right, whatever else they got wrong and >> that’s aplenty.
There’s a contradiction in what you write. Few, including myself, would disagree with the lip-service you pay to an inclusive party - certainly in a period like the present when the theoretical differences between the squabbling left-wing sects and intellectuals have no practical consequence given their distance from power. You even go so far as to propose that the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks should have stayed in the same party when their differences, particularly in 1917, were immense. However in the next breath you say you would have supported Norman Thomas in “booting out” the small and troublesome Trotskyist faction from the relatively insignificant Socialist Party where the stakes were less than trivial by comparison. Apart from being inconsistent, this is turning things on their head. The split between the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks was unavoidable as it derived from diametrically opposed conceptions of Soviet power which ultimately pitted the two factions against each other in the civil war. On the other hand, the Trotskyists should have been confronted politically rather than expelled, even in the full knowledge they were conducting a short term sectarian entry to take over the party or to augment their forces if they fell short. The social democratic leadership decided on a purge only because it did not have the confidence to politically confront the Trotskyists who were making rapid inroads, particularly among the youth. I’m neither a Trotskyist nor a social democrat but I believe I could have coexisted with both factions in the same party in the same way I do so on this list and in the groups in which I’m active. My litmus test is support for the objectives of the trade unions and social movements, which unites the broad left and demarcates the central political division in the society. Despite your internet advocacy of an inclusive party, I doubt you would long tolerate the Naimans or Creegans or others with whom you disagree in your big tent. Your endorsement of the Thomas purge of the Trotskyists is further evidence of that. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list pen-l@lists.csuchico.edu https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
