Date: Wed, 29 Nov 1995 12:16:53 -0500 (EST)
From: Louis N Proyect <lnp3-AT-columbia.edu>
Subject: Re: Socialist Labour Party


On Wed, 29 Nov 1995, Adam Rose wrote:

> Now, in terms of organised, politically coherent forces on the
> left, there is the SWP and nothing much else. We are the left
> opposition. Arrogant ? - maybe. But it is the truth.
> 

Louis: More noxious super-sectarianism from Adam. Don't you understand, 
Adam, that these are the sorts of things you are supposed to say at 
internal meetings to pump up your membership, sort of like the type of 
things that goes on in locker-rooms before a football match. On a list 
like this, it can only make a potential "recruit" steer a wide berth from 
your cult.

Furthermore, you should get out of the habit of saying things like "as 
Trotsky said" when you talk about the united front as you did in another 
post. The SLP is not a united front, it is a proposed party Trotsky was 
talking about demonstrations, not parties. 

The best thing the SWP and Militant could do is shut down their dead-end 
"vanguard nuclei" and try to help bring a broader formation into being. 
This does not mean withdrawing from politics, going home, drinking beer 
and watching the tellie. It means mixing with a wide assortment of 
folks--such as exist on *this list*--and working to create a true 
vanguard, not a caricature of one. The idea that "state capitalism" 
theory is a defining one for English revolutionary socialism is sheer 
madness. I have my own ideas on the former Soviet Union, so do people 
in England who think like me, or the co-thinkers of Scott Marshall over 
there. You want a party that has millions of people walking around 
accepting Tommy Cliff's interpretation of Soviet history? That won't 
happen. Sorry.



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