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On 12/04/2010 15:26, Louis Proyect wrote: > You can't have it both ways. Groups like the American SWP and the > British SWP are consumed with the question of "revolutionary > continuity", showing that they are the true successors of Marx, > Engels, Lenin and Trotsky. Just read Tony Cliff on "Trotskyism > after Trotsky" to get a feel for how important pedigree is: > > http://www.marxistsfr.org/archive/cliff/works/1999/trotism/ch06.htm > > I propose dumping this kind of junk, but my message is directed > more to the young unaffiliated Marxists who read my blog or > subscribe to Marxmail rather than members of such groups who would > regard me as a "liquidationist" or worse. > > I'm curious to know how exactly it is I mean to "have it both ways"? You didn't explain that. At any rate, your statement is a non-sequitur. I am aware of your position regarding Trotskyism and such, but it doesn't actually follow from the previous discussion, which concerned a bit of silliness and show-boating on the part of one of my former comrades regarding the language of socialism. Another way in which what you've said is a non-sequitur is that there is no such entity as "groups like the American SWP and the British SWP". They are apples and oranges as regards their way of organising, their internal culture, their relationship with others, etc etc. You have experience of one, and not of the other, and I recommend that you don't confuse the two. The party I joined and have been a member of for over a dozen years now has /never/ evinced any obessesion with "revolutionary continuity" as long as I have been around, and we do not pretend to be the "true" successors to Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky (and Bukharin and Gramsci and Luxembourg and various other interesting thinkers and revolutionaries) - at least, if any member of the SWP has ever made such a silly claim, I trust they are suitably embarrassed by it. -- Richard Seymour Writer and blogger Email: leninstombb...@googlemail.com Website: http://www.leninology.blogspot.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/leninology Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Seymour_(writer) Book: http://www.versobooks.com/books/nopqrs/s-titles/seymour_r_the_liberal_defense_of_murder.shtml ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
