I'm not proud. I've written three posts that are labelled Cults, which are the ones that these search terms select among. I've said in all three posts and I'll say it again--I don't think the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) is a cult. If I thought so, I wouldn't write about them at all. I think the best way to characterize them is as a social club with a mission, rather like the Elks or the Knights Of Columbus. Weird? Perhaps. Cult-like? No way.
For all I know, the Spartacist League is a cult. The fact that my passing reference to them in a single post shows up at the top of the search does seem to indicate the irrelevance of that rather pathetic organization.
Anyway, these searchers are not really interested in politics, but instead gossip. I call it Party Porn, analogous to the ruin porn so popular in Detroit these days. Were I a real reporter, I could probably earn a living digging up dirt on Barnes, Mary-Alice Waters, Steve Clark, Barry Sheppard, etc. Fortunately for them I'm not. I just repackage what I read elsewhere on the web, but apparently that's sufficient to earn me a high ranking on some popular Google searches.
So what is it about Jack Barnes that generates so much prurient interest? That's easy--everybody hates him.
Not everybody, of course, but a lot of people. Perhaps there are 20,000 people alive today who were at some point in their lives members of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). Most of them left because they simply fell away. My good friend from that era now has no interest in politics whatsoever. So he doesn't really hate Jack Barnes. He's just not interested.
Others were members of groups that split from the Party. There are probably still a few Schachtmanites around, along with Cochranites, Wohlforthites, International Tendency folks, and then not to mention the whole Socialist Action (SA) crew. Even old-timers, such as Barry Sheppard, have left, as, apparently, has my old comrade, Mike Taber. These people are often vitriolic in their hatred for Mr. Barnes, a trait I attribute to envy.
Many, such as Louis Proyect, left the Party but retain their belief in Marxism, and continue to be politically active. Mr. Proyect famously published the speech Jack Barnes should have given in 1974--a speech that to me looks very much like the program for Solidarity. A consistent Marxist, he has refused to personalize the decline of the SWP, even to this very day, which instead he attributes to "objective forces." As such, he doesn't "hate" Jack Barnes as much as disagree with him. But he is not above calling the SWP a cult.
Many others left because they could no longer stand the rigors of being "worker-bolsheviks", whatever that means. For many years in the late 90s, the Party had a dual-track membership. Full members could vote, but so-called sympathizers had the right to contribute money and do work. Does anybody recall the name Ruth Cheney? I never met her, though I gather she was a comrade of mine in the 70s. In the event, she co-organized the Pathfinder Project in the 1990s as a sympathizer. These sympathizers have all fallen away, and I'm sure there are lots and lots of hard feelings. I suggest most of them "hate" Jack Barnes.
Many others left because they could no longer stand the rigors of being "worker-bolsheviks", whatever that means. For many years in the late 90s, the Party had a dual-track membership. Full members could vote, but so-called sympathizers had the right to contribute money and do work. Does anybody recall the name Ruth Cheney? I never met her, though I gather she was a comrade of mine in the 70s. In the event, she co-organized the Pathfinder Project in the 1990s as a sympathizer. These sympathizers have all fallen away, and I'm sure there are lots and lots of hard feelings. I suggest most of them "hate" Jack Barnes.
So Mr. Barnes elicits a lot of schadenfreude, which drives traffic to my blog. Could a college be successful if they inspired so much animosity among their alumni? Certainly not--the president would be fired long before it ever got that bad. And likewise, the SWP leaves a lot of money and talent on the table by alienating so many of their former comrades.
Unfortunately, few of Mr. Barnes' competitors would have done any differently. Certainly neither the Workers League nor the Spartacist League are any better when it comes to openness. And neither are many ex-comrades, such as Barry Sheppard. Mr. Proyect is correct--it isn't a failing on the part of a single individual. It is, instead, baked into the democratic centralist cake, at least as implemented by the SWP.
But there is one person who probably could have saved the SWP: Peter Camejo. He had the commitment, intellect, and personality to pull it off. He remained a Marxist up to the very end. He was a very smart man (MIT grad). And his personality was both charismatic and intellectually open.
I had an e-mail exchange with Mr. Camejo before he died. I wrote him with a reminiscence, saying that I was his chauffeur around Chicago and Milwaukee during his 1976 presidential campaign, and that was a job I very much enjoyed. I also said that, while my personal politics had changed, I still very much admired him as an individual.
Mr. Camejo wrote back--a very nice e-mail apologizing for not remembering me, and (jokingly) hoping that nobody I vote for will win the election. He also mentioned that he had cancer.
Compare this big-hearted response to that from Socialist Action. I wrote them (twice) asking for copies of the convention documents that they announced on their webpage would be distributed for free to all who asked. I asked, politely. And politely also a second time. They answered neither e-mail. This is sad.
Mr. Camejo would have been able to keep Party alumni involved with the organization, and on good terms. In a Camejo world, my blog might still be successful, but Party porn wouldn't be a traffic driver.
Further Reading:
But there is one person who probably could have saved the SWP: Peter Camejo. He had the commitment, intellect, and personality to pull it off. He remained a Marxist up to the very end. He was a very smart man (MIT grad). And his personality was both charismatic and intellectually open.
I had an e-mail exchange with Mr. Camejo before he died. I wrote him with a reminiscence, saying that I was his chauffeur around Chicago and Milwaukee during his 1976 presidential campaign, and that was a job I very much enjoyed. I also said that, while my personal politics had changed, I still very much admired him as an individual.
Mr. Camejo wrote back--a very nice e-mail apologizing for not remembering me, and (jokingly) hoping that nobody I vote for will win the election. He also mentioned that he had cancer.
Compare this big-hearted response to that from Socialist Action. I wrote them (twice) asking for copies of the convention documents that they announced on their webpage would be distributed for free to all who asked. I asked, politely. And politely also a second time. They answered neither e-mail. This is sad.
Mr. Camejo would have been able to keep Party alumni involved with the organization, and on good terms. In a Camejo world, my blog might still be successful, but Party porn wouldn't be a traffic driver.
Further Reading:
No comments:
Post a Comment