I take issue with his agreement with Lou's statement that a Revolutionary party would have to expel Melvin.
What I said is that if Melvin made remarks at a branch meeting like he made here, he'd be brought up on charges. I know for a fact that lots of older SWP'ers, especially factory workers, felt threatened by woman's and gay liberation but they had the common sense to keep their prejudiced remarks to themselves. Sadly, it was only in the late 1970s after the SWP made its infamous "turn" that members' private thinking began to become an issue. This is what helped to destroy the CP in fact. In the late 1940s, as the witch-hunt took shape, they made a big point of hounding out members who might have had "weak" understandings of the woman or Negro question despite remaining silent on those questions in party meetings, etc.
Louis Proyect, Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org
