Date: Sat, 17 Feb 1996 16:26:25 -0500 (EST)
From: Louis N Proyect <lnp3-AT-columbia.edu>
Subject: Re: SWP


On Sat, 17 Feb 1996, James Miller wrote:

>    Recently Lisa Rogers posted a message asserting that
> SWP members were required to choose companions or marriage
> partners from within the SWP or YS. This is not true. There
> are many SWP members who have wives, husbands, companions
> or partners who are not in the SWP.
>    People who disagree with the SWP would make a better
> case if they avoided slander of this type. It only reflects
> on the slanderer.

The greater truth is that the SWP is a cult. Nobody "requires" 
anything of SWP members except that they attend meetings, pay dues and sell 
the newspaper.

Underneath the formal strictures, however, are never-ending and onerous 
demands on people's lives and individuality that are typical of religious 
sects like the Unification Church.

I can give you one example that hits home. My own.

I was told that unless I took a factory job in 1977 that "the 
contradictions" of being a computer programmer in a "proletarian" party 
would continue to mount until people would start to resent my presence at 
meetings.

I shrugged my shoulders, quit my programming job, and trucked off to 
Kansas City where I took a job as a spot welder. It was a disaster and I 
quit the SWP, which I had been a member of for 11 years.

A regional coordinator of the party flew to Kansas City and asked me to 
work with the local branch leadership to keep my resignation a secret 
since news of my departure would "demoralize" the branch.

So I just disappeared. I became an unperson. I thought that this act of 
self-abnegation would help to build the party. What my act really 
represented was the effort of a cult member to sustain the cult even 
after breaking formal ties.

I have never forgiven those bastards or myself for going along with such 
a disgusting and degrading act. As a matter of fact, I let that putz Jack 
Barnes know what I thought of him when I saw him once in the 
expensive seats at the Metropolitan Opera, "Spending membership dues on 
the opera, Jack? Where's your top hat and tails?" Proletarian, my foot.

I figure Jim Miller has either gotten closer to this sect or even joined 
it since the last time we heard from him.

Jim, listen closely to me. I generally don't pay much attention to this 
outfit except in a broader historical context. But if you anticipate 
acting as their attorney here, you will have to put up with something 
much worse than slander and that is the truth. I know the truth about the 
SWP after having spent 11 years in it and this time I have no intention 
of keeping my mouth shut.

Louis Proyect


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