http://groups.yahoo.com/group/marxist/message/4888
Duh, forget to add the URL link this time to pen-l like I did here,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/marxist/message/4886
http://csf.colorado.edu/pen-l/2001III/
http://csf.colorado.edu/pen-l/2001III/msg00629.html
Get some lateral communication going comrades. I'm not the nodal point!
Though I do like to fwd. stuff along to various left fora. I thought the
internut was supposed to facilitate non-hierachical discourse
mongering...Could throw in some postmodernist lingo ala Hardt and Negri
"Empire" but I'll
give that thread a rest...
Context? Ask Leo, it was probably started offlist between Leo from DSA and
Justin from Solidarity. Leo is at a AFT convention
in Washington, D.C. so don't expect an immediate reply.
Michael Pugliese
---- Original Message-----
From: "Chris Kutalik-Cauthern" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, July 13, 2001 12:26 PM
Subject: Re: [marxist] Fw:Openness and Honesty in Left Politics
I suppose as a member of Solidarity's National Committee I should answer
these remarks. First the standard disclamer, my remarks are meant as my
remarks as an individual and in no way are the intended as the collective
expression of Solidarity.
To put it bluntly Solidarity's relationship to TDU and Labor Notes is no
great secret. This theme has popped up at many times and places especially
on the internet and there is this kind of implied notion that Solidarity
secretly and nefariously controls these organizations. Yes it is true that
Solidarity members have played leading roles in both groups since their
inception and probably will continue to. As a matter of principle though we
do not set policy in these groups; we don't look on them as recruiting
grounds or in any other way treat them as front organizations.
Our political work inside of movements flows from our perspective that the
US Left needs to build a broad new layer of working class activists and that
this can only be accomplished by a sincere committment to building these
movements on their own terms. We are thus glad that TDU and LN have lives of
their own with many diverse participants from all over the political milieus
(and yes ordinary rank and file workers) and value their autonomous growth
over the subjective needs of our group.
As far as a few members holding back their identities it is also no real
mystery. Labor work is a real touch-and-go situation in this country and in
this period. The analogy made to front groups in the Vietnam anti-war
movement is simply not equivalent -- movements and mileus predominately
composed of left-wing activists are much "safer" spaces for open radicals
than the labor movement. Labor work takes a careful and reasoned approach
that in organizational terms translates to a need for differing levels of
openly claiming that you are a socialist. This decision is made flexibly on
a local or individual basis and leaves a great deal of wiggle room. I for
one, while not banging people over the head with it, have always been an
open socialist in my several years of serving in various offices in my local
union (Amalgamated Transit Union) and there are a number of our members who
do the same.
The charge that we are not honest or open is totally senseless and really
absurd given that our internal regime is one of the most pluralistic,open
and tolerant in the US. As specifically regards our work and perspectives
on labor activism you can see where we are coming from ourselves in our
literature, most of which is posted on our website: www.solidarity-us.org.
In fact in a couple of weeks were are coming out with a large pamphlet
called Radicals at Work that includes a section of first-narratives on how
radicals can work in the unions.
Salud,
Chris Kutalik
BTW I would be curious to know where this post orginates from (PEN-L maybe)
and what their context was/is on this list.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Pugliese" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, July 13, 2001 1:00 PM
Subject: [marxist] Fw:Openness and Honesty in Left Politics
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Friday, July 13, 2001 10:03 AM
> Subject: [PEN-L:15097] Openness and Honesty in Left Politics
>
>
>
> Justin:
>
> I think that you and I have different views on how socialists and radicals
> of all stripes should participate in large mass movements. I think that
> openness and honesty is essential, and that it is the failure to be open
and
> honest that leads to trouble, not "red baiting." "Red baiting" has the
power
> it does only when it catches people in deception. In the context of
> contemporary American politics, if someone's politics are of the sort that
> they have to hide them, then they need to change their politics, IMHO; we
> are not exactly living in a police state.
>
> As for the TDU and _Labor Notes_, I said that the founders and leaders
were,
> "for the most part," Trotskyists. You say, that is wrong, and then go on
to
> point out, in your view, which ones are Trotskyists and which ones are
not.
> You may have some difficulty showing how what you offer for evidence is in
> any way inconsistent with what I said.
>
> As I see it, it is common knowledge among those who have participated in
and
> know the history and current structure of left politics and American trade
> unionism that TDU and _Labor Notes_ were born out of the efforts of key
> cadre in the International Socialists some twenty years ago, and that the
> main players in that effort are now members of Solidarity. It is also
common
> knowledge that Solidarity was created by the merger of various remnants of
> the Trotskyist movement, and that while it does not require adherence to
> Trotskyism from its members, it is a soft 'Trotskyist' organization. This
is
> really not any different than the knowledge that the Reuther leadership of
> the UAW came out of the Socialist Party and defeated a faction aligned
with
> and led by the Communists, that the AFL-CIO's international operations
> pre-Sweeney was run by a series of vociferous anti-Communists who were
> Lovestonites [members of the 'right opposition'/Bukharinites of the
> Communist Party] and Shachtm!
> an!
> ites ['Third Camp' Trotskyists],
> and so on. Pretending that this is not true, in the name of avoiding 'red
> baiting,' is, in my view, engaging in the type of deception which has
> haunted the work of the left in the American trade union movement.
>
> This was a lesson I learned very quickly on in my participation on the
> American left. As a working class teenager from Queens who opposed the war
> in Vietnam, I invited a representative from the Student Mobilization
> Committee Against the War to speak at my high school. At the meeting,
> someone accused the SMC of being a front group for the Socialist Workers
> Party and Young Socialist Alliance. The speaker adamantly denied that this
> was the case, and then told me after the meeting that although he was a
> member of YSA, they were under instructions not to admit such matters. As
> soon as anyone raised the question, cry 'red baiting.' Is it any wonder
that
> an organization which worked in that way lacked all credibility?
>
> Leo Casey
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> >Pretending that this is not true, in the name of avoiding 'red
> >baiting,' is, in my view, engaging in the type of deception which
> >has haunted the work of the left in the American trade union
> >movement.
>
> My understanding is that Solidarity people are extremely coy about
> revealing their affiliation, to the point where people whose names
> appear on the masthead of Against the Current don't want their
> membership mentioned in the context of their union work. I won't name
> names, because the last time I did, I got a heated email from a Soli
> person saying I was undermining the union work by mentioning this.
>
> Doug
>
>
>
> "[C]apital comes dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood
and dirt."
> --Marx, Capital, Vol. 1, Chapter 31
>
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"[C]apital comes dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and
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--Marx, Capital, Vol. 1, Chapter 31
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