From: glevy-AT-acnet.pratt.edu
Date: Fri, 16 Feb 1996 16:48:52 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Re: Which Party?


Jon Flanders wrote:

> To me, the SWP's problems have flowed more from a congenital over-optimism
> about the political situation, which has led to forced attempts at expansion
> that burned people out, or forced them to stay behind, as I did with a young
> family.<snip>
>  There is also the problem of fighting the last war. Most marxist groups
>including the SWP tend to see current events in light of the upheavals of the
>thirties. Unfortunately, the dynamics of a unionized industrial working-class
> today a different than the raw rush to organize that impelled the CIO 
> forward.

I agree that the congenital over-optimism of the SWP was a problem, 
particularly, with the SWP's "turn to industry" which was based on some 
unrealistic assumptions about the state of working class militancy and 
the prospects for radicalization.
 
> A worker with 15per hour job like mine, tends to respond with a certain
> conservatism to the bosses attacks. It is a whole different ballgame.

I don't think it's a question merely of the hourly wage. When I was 
working "on the line" at a GM assembly plant, we were paid relatively 
high wages but had a tradition for militancy. Higher wages *can* 
conservatize, but class consciousness is a complex topic that can not be 
reduced to earnings or material possessions.
 
>  Now we are at the very beginning of a new radicalization of the  
> working class in the US. 

It was this line that led me to write this post. While it is true that 
there are some positive signs (of which Scott M. has occasionally talked 
about), on what basis can you say that "we are at the beginning ....?

IMHO, your assertion above is an example of *exactly* the kind of 
over-optimistic and over-simplistic rationalization that you accuse the 
SWP of making.

We need realism in periods of both radicalization and reaction. 

BTW, I don't think that Marx and Engels would have cut off one of their 
arms to be on this li*st. It makes an interesting fantasy, though: {Put 
aside your materialist convictions for a moment} Assume that Marx was 
alive today and joined the Mar*xism li*st. What would he say? What would 
Rosa say? What would Vladimir and L.D. say? What would Che say? [I think 
that you would like to hear what they would to say ... NOT].

Jerry


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