Brief Comments on SWP Convention

From the article entitled The Low Point of Labor Resistance Is Behind Us, by Mary-Alice Waters, we learn that

The heart of the book, from which the title is taken, is the political resolution adopted December 12, 2022, by the 49th Constitutional Convention of the Socialist Workers Party. It sets forth the course of action that has guided the party’s work and will continue to do so — the course necessary today to forge mass proletarian parties and an international communist movement able to lead the struggle to end capitalist rule.

I have ordered said book--just published--and am told by the USPS that it will arrive on Jan 30th. I will comment substantively on the political content of the report after I've read it. Parenthetically, Pathfinder is a very professional organization. Ordering was a snap. My only complaint was that shipping charges were very high. (I usually buy my books used on Amazon, or better yet, on Kindle.)

Regards specifics, we don't know where the convention was held (I suggest it was a Zoom meeting), how long it lasted (perhaps over a weekend; 12/12 was a Monday), or how many people were present. It was clearly for members only (true Worker-Bolsheviks). The size of the Party is likely between 100 and 120. Given that conventions are delegated (in my time it was one delegate per five comrades), likely 30-odd people had speaking privileges. The remaining 90 or so comrades could listen in. A Zoom call (or slightly more sophisticated software) would work fine.

I'm very disappointed that there is no hint of a change in leadership. The octogenarian troika will not be able "to forge mass proletarian parties and an international communist movement able to lead the struggle to end capitalist rule." Even worse, the Party is very (small-c) conservative, and has reverted to an ancient, timeworn version of Trotskyism. It will not attract a younger generation. I'll likely have more to say about this after reading the book.

I wish they'd also publish the Organizational Report. I'd like to know how the Party intends to change its tactics. (I suspect there will be no changes.)

Commenter Andrew Chebuhar helpfully links to two Youtube videos starring SWP comrades (Koppel and Britton, plus his own comment here). They're too long for me to listen to them all, but I did partake of the talk by Joel Britton (beginning at 13:47). I recall Comrade Britton as speaking very deliberately, and the intervening 50 years hasn't speeded him up any. But his remarks are brief and his point is clear, so it's worth listening to. But I can read 20x faster than he can talk, so I'll just wait for the book.

The SWP looks doomed. I'll probably die before they do, but it will be a close-run thing.

Further Reading:

• Wittenberg, 2022
• Wittenberg, 2021
• Oberlin, 2019