Leo, we do have different ideas about left organizing. You think is
appropriate to spread unsubstantiated, untrue, and potentially damaging
rumors, and to call people who call you on it, in effect, liars who want to
run subterranean entrist campaigns in mass movements. It may be common
knowledge that Solidaity is a soft Trotskyist organization, but like many
things which are common knowledge it is not true. Soli came out of the
Trotskyist movement, true. That was a long time ago. The formaton of
Solidarity marked an abandonment of Trotskyism as a political strategy. Soli
does not hold up Trotsky as an icon; it does not teach his ideas, or those
of Cannon or Schachtman, as the key to political organizing. It is not Trot.
The activists in Soli in Labor Notes and TDU, some of whom are long timers
who came out of the original groups, are not Trots. As far as I know, there
are no Trots in Soli--well, maybe one. The overwhelming majority of the
members have never been in any other left organization; and many who were,
like me, have no Trot history. If you care to very, we have open meetings.
Come and participate; hand out with the people, watch them work. You see
see: no Trotskyism. Maybe instead of making insinuations and slurs, you
could learn from people who know more than you about things you are talking
about. You should be ashamed of yourself.
--jks
>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [PEN-L:15097] Openness and Honesty in Left Politics
>Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2001 13:03:59 EDT
>
>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
>
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