Good evening my readers. As we wait for all of the primary results to come in, I’d like to take a moment of your time to point out something that is truly despicable. I’d like to direct your attention to a leaflet circulated by the Socialist Workers Party a day after the Chicago protests ran Donald Trump out of their town. This shameful screed is titled “Championing the Right to Speak Out And Organize is Crucial For The Working Class” In it, there are all manner of distortions as to the nature of the events of this past weekend. One, the flyer said that the cancellation of the event was a “blow to free speech”- obfuscating the issue of the right to spew hate speech that has been cultivated by the Trump campaign. Two, the leaflet also says that the effort to shut down people the left and liberals don’t agree with was “thuggish” As readers of this blog know, that word is just code for the N-word, and Black people.
The SWP leaflet also claims that the workers movement was “set back” with this action. Which workers are the SWP referring to? I wonder. See, things like this are the reason why Black people are not so quick to trust the far left. It seems that they can’t understand that what happened Friday evening was a step in beating back the forces of reaction. When people are getting attacked at rallies for no reason, it’s a little difficult to understand the context in which the SWP is focusing its ire at the protesters. Political isolation is dangerous, and can lead to wrongheaded appraisals of the situation on the ground, much like what is exemplified in this leaflet. In case it was not clear, this post is a denunciation of the SWP for siding with right-wing forces, against working class people of color. Despite what is said in the rest of the piece, it seems as though the organization is more about defending the right of white, racist workers to have a public “two minute” hate-fest disguised as a rally.
These are some of the obstacles that Black and other people of color face when we speak of dealing with the left, and building among its ranks. I welcome your commentary.
It seems that Alyson Kennedy’s sight is short, and her focus is narrow, which causes her to privilege workers’ rights over human rights without ever pausing to reflect on and acknowledge how the two are inextricably linked.
You are dead on, Max. She can’t seem to see that Black Lives Matter along with other groups have to fight on the front of human rights, and the right to be.
She’s not interested in workers rights either – she’s interested in CAUCASIAN NATIONAL RIGHTS – with the White workers taking a back seat to Caucasian “middle class proprietors and others” – the core of Trump’s base (especially those “others” – that is, rich people)
There’s a word for that – “National Socialism”
See Hitler, A.
Sounds about right, Greg.
While I am politically opposed to #BlackLIvesMatter from the left it is elementary for socialists to defend those protesting against Trump in Chicago in the struggle against racism and fascism. The Socialist Workers Party, however, which at one time was an honorable and revolutionary party, can today hardly be judged by normal political standards. It cannot in any sense be considered “leftist.” It has a long history of police penetration dating back to the assassination of Leon Trotsky in 1940. This was exposed in the Gelfand Case in 1979, in which a SWP member took the party to court on the basis that government agents cannot determine the membership of a socialist organization. A recent open letter has been issued by genuine socialists to a scholar who is obscuring these very issues: Security and the Fourth International, the Gelfand Case and the deposition of Mark Zborowski: An open letter from David North to Susan Weissman https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/11/10/weis-n10.html
The SWP seems to be evolving into an openly “White-oriented” political party:
http://www.themilitant.com/2016/8012/801203.html
“. . .The next day Kennedy campaigned door to door in the Chicago suburb of Elmhurst. While much of the discussion was about Trump’s rally being broken up, topics ranged from police brutality to Syria to the effects on working people of the breakup of Yugoslavia. . .”
I was curious about the racial breakdown of Elmhurst, and found this on Wikipedia:
“. . .The racial makeup of the city was 93.40% White, 0.94% African American, 0.06% Native American, 3.67% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.97% from other races, and 0.95% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.02% of the population. . .”
also:
“. . .According to a 2012 estimate, the median income for a household in the city [Elmhurst] was $88,236, and the median income for a family was $122,890.[10] Males had a median income of $57,193 versus $37,087 for females. The per capita income for the city was $44,601. About 1.9% of families and 2.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.6% of those under age 18 and 3.3% of those age 65 or over. . .”
Interesting where the SWP’s priorities are these days. I wonder how they’re doing winning over the “Caucasian Trumpite Proletariat” to their cause
Thanks for the comment. The SWP is not what it used to be. We have to judge organizations by what they do today.
Smh.
But also by their origin and development. This filthy position of the SWP didn’t come out of nowhere and is connected to a deliberate effort to destroy the movement that Trotsky founded by the agencies of imperialism and Stalinism. It plays a role in today in being a smear on all socialists.
The SWP has *evolved* away from Trotskyism for a long, long time. They are adapting to the far right, which as late as 2003 they were denouncing.
Sandy English’s slanders of the SWP notwithstanding, this has zero to do with anything from the SWP’s past, 50 or more years ago, but everything to do with them in their old age dottage (average age of the SWP is now close to 67) and demoralization.
[I should add the entire world Trotskyist movement categorically rejected the wsws.org position back in the 1970s where her, Sandy’s current, started a campaign against the leadership of the SWP falsly accusing them of being “FBI *and* KGB” agents. Don’t let her drag you into this nonsense.]
Please, David. Most participants in the infamous the “Platform of Shame” in 1977 acknowledged that they had not even read the facts of the case against Hansen and the SWP before they issued their condemnation.
I have posted a detailed and factual summary of the case. If you object, I ask you to respond relevantly. Perhaps *you* would like to answer the material presented in the letter to Prof. Weissman. Better yet, perhaps you like to open a discussion forum for this issue on marxists.org.
Many who opposed the ICFI’s accusations now acknowledge the role that KGB agents played in the SWP. “This has zero to do with anything from the SWP’s past, 50 or more years ago” What an incredibly complacent statement! The exposure of police agents — including the relationship of Joseph Hansen to the FBI and the historial autopsy of the GPU murders of Trotskyists and police penetration of the SWP has *everything* to do with the struggle against Trump’s racism and massive and pervasive state surveillance agains the world’s population today.
The SWP’s orientation toward the Trump “movement” is unique on “the left.” There is not necessarily something unprincipled about this. It would be wrong to write off every one of his supporters as a racist or fascist. Still, it is odd for a tiny little “party” of less than a hundred souls to devote its meager resources to this. Wouldn’t Bernie’s rallies be a more fruitful arena for selling The Militant or finding potential recruits?
But there is evidence that this is no accident, and that the SWP’s orientation is increasingly toward the white (or as they quaintly call it, the “Caucasian”) working class. One could point to their championing the cause of reactionary Oregon ranchers (who are actually not part of the working class at all, but bona-fide members of the “petty-bourgeoisie.”) There is also the fact that the SWP’s Philadelphia branch just moved its headquarters from black North Philadelpia to Mayfair, an area of the city that is 95% white.
I have a feeling that when the SWPers set up their literature tables at Donald Trump rallies, they’re not promoting books by Malcolm X.
Good evening, John B. This information about the SWP’S movements in Philadelphia is telling of their trajectory. Thanks for sharing it. The left needs to be rebuilt.
You can be politically opposed to the approach of BLM but it is a reflection of the inherent failure of the left, especially ultra left sectarians like the WSWS that they can proclaim their opposition with pride. They are terrified their isolation might be threatened or polluted by entering a movement that they can’t copntrol. Movements don’t come ready made.
Good point, Richard. Thanks for your commentary.
I tried to post the piece I put on our blog to your FB page Marc but I didn’t see it. It’s here if this format takes links. https://weknowwhatsup.blogspot.com/2018/10/driving-trump-from-chicago-was-magic.html