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On 02.02.2012 20:53, Louis Proyect wrote:
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Later that day I told some close friends who were about as alienated
from the party leadership and its idiotic "turn" as I was that I was
saying things I did not believe. I just wanted to fit in. Here I was, a
rebel from the age of 13 censoring myself. Nobody tortured me into
making a fool of myself. I did it all on my own.
Unbelievable.
I'm sorry to hear about the distorted political heritage you stumbled
into, Louis. But your attempts to generalise from your limited
experience just don't work.
During all my years in the British IS/SWP and since in the various
incarnations of the tradition here in Germany I've never experienced
anything like this.
Only during my mercifully brief encounter with the British SLL (later
WRP) - admittedly at a distance since I was in Ireland at the time - did
I encounter anything like this - but luckily I got out before I was
embittered by the experience - although it did put me off joining an
organisation for a number of years.
I would hazard a guess that these practices popped up in a number of
organisations from various political tendencies - including possibly my
own in a number of countries - but I don't think this means that such
tendencies are inherent in any particular political strand claiming to
have Leninist roots. Indeed I've come across similar tendencies among
anarchists and other non-Leninist socialist traditions too.
I tend to think that such practices have roots in adverse objective
circumstances and attempts to force the pace through voluntarist action.
Formal political theories may strengthen or weaken such tendencies, but
they aren't the cause.
Einde O'Callaghan
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