Date: Tue, 23 Sep 1997 10:32:23 -0400 (EDT)
From: Louis N Proyect <lnp3-AT-columbia.edu>
Subject: Re:  M-I: Death of an American Trotskyist


On Tue, 23 Sep 1997, Doug Henwood wrote:

> Aside from the Mpls general strike, just what are the positive achievements
> of Trotskyism over the years?
> 

1) Inspiring the single-issue antiwar movement. If had not been for the
SWP, there never would have been mass demonstrations against the war in
Vietnam.

2) Theorizing black nationalism. CLR James work in the 1940s stands out,
as does George Breitman's in the 1960s.

3) Initiating the Teamsters for a Democratic Union. The "Draperites" from
International Socialism, a split from the SWP going back to 1938, were key
in getting a reform movement off the ground that led to the overthrow of
the Mafia/collaborationist teamster gang.

4) Speaking out against WWII. 38 leaders of the SWP and Minneapolis
teamsters got indicted on the Smith Act in 1943 because the characterized
WWII correctly as an imperialist war. FDR and the Dan Tobin teamster
bureaucracy conspired to get rid of them. 

5) Trained thousands of people in Marxism, including myself. If it had not
been for the education I got in the SWP, I never would have been able to
give the Nicaragua solidarity movement the leadership I gave it ten years
ago. What we need, of course, is a revolutionary socialist party that can
educate people in Marxism and mass agitation without transforming them
into cult worshippers at the same time. Ie., we need a party that
resembles the Bolshevik Party of Lenin geared to the realities of American
society.

Louis P.



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