Conventions

There are two conventions of note: one that has already occurred, and another that has yet to happen.

The past convention was Socialist Action's (SA) 20th biennial meeting, implying that the "Party" has been around for forty years now. The Political Report is published on their webpage here. Apart from "November," no information is given about when or where the meeting happened. I suggest the venue was Jeff Mackler's living room--probably large enough to accommodate the dozen or so remaining members of the organization.

Why I bother writing about this is beyond me. Following SA is a waste of time. I have not read the entire Report, but what I have read strongly suggests it was written by Mr. Mackler. Indeed, apart from an occasional web post from his sidekick, Marty Goodman, there is no other literate person remaining in the mini-grouplet.

I also conclude that the whole document is balderdash from start to finish. There is no point in going through it in detail--it's completely illogical. But here are a few random highlights (lowlights) harvested from my brief perusal.

Mr. Mackler begins with the old Marxist chestnut, writing

The imperialists ceaselessly aim to counter what Marx described as the “law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall.”

There are so many things wrong here: 1) the "imperialists" don't exist, and certainly don't give a shit about any alleged tendency. 2) There is no tendency for the rate of profit to fall. 3) If there were such a tendency it would be a good thing, since it would lower prices for consumers, and finally, 4) Mr. Mackler has no idea what this sentence means (assuming it means anything at all). He can't define profit, or rate of profit, and he has no idea how to measure any alleged tendency. He's an economic ignoramus.

Nevertheless, undaunted (with ignorance being bliss), Mr. Mackler proceeds to blame all the world's problems on mythical imperialists worried about a nonexistent tendency.

I really should have stopped reading here, but I didn't. So let me again mention Mr. Mackler's penchant for just making stuff up. He asserts factoids that can't possibly be true. There are no links in the Report, and no bibliography with references at the end, so there's no way to check Mr. Mackler's supposed "facts." For example, he writes

Today U.S. imperialism, with 1,100 military bases in 110 countries [Recent Congressional reports put the number of countries with ongoing U.S. military operations at 159!] reigns as “the chief cop of the world.” Its overriding objective is the subjugation and exploitation of poor and oppressed people and nations to advance the economic interests of U.S. imperialism.

How can the US have 1,100 military bases? And to what end? This makes no sense and isn't true. He cites "Congressional reports," but provides no reference where to find them. I doubt they exist. It is true that the US has embassies and consulates in most of the world's countries. Each of those embassies has a Marine guard--and I suppose if you count those as a "military base," then you'd generate a number in the couple hundreds. But then all large countries (China, Canada, Russia, etc.) have embassies around the world with attached guard contingents, so in this respect the US is no different.

Mr. Mackler writes

Tragically, comrades in Socialist Action found themselves on opposite sides of a war that today few, if any, consider anything but yet another U.S. imperialist slaughter, a slaughter that took the lives of 500,000 Syrians.

Somehow Mr. Mackler credits all 500,000 deaths in the Syrian civil war to the United States. And then claims near universal agreement that it was "another U.S. imperialist slaughter." This is absurd. Nobody outside of Mr. Mackler's living room believes the US murdered 500,000 people in Syria. To the contrary, the USA has all but kept out of that conflict altogether.

Enough already!

The future convention is that of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), scheduled for later this month. The current issue of The Militant informs us that it is a three-week issue, implying that the event will happen soon. But for now all I can do for you is speculate.

1) Previous conventions have been advertised in The Militant, inviting people interested in the SWP to attend. No such invites have appeared for this convention. This suggests that some sensitive topics are up for debate. As far as I know, this event has only been mentioned once.

2) There's some weird shit happening in the Party. They're rearranging their longstanding policy on abortion. In the most recent issue they are apparently rethinking their position on Taiwan.

3) The Party seems to be doubling down on its defense of Donald Trump. I confess I can't now find the article I'd like to cite (I'll pull a Jeff Mackler here), but I recall a phrase where they took issue with Trump Not Now voters (as distinguished from the never-Trump people). I'll admit that I'm in the Trump not now camp--he's got way too much baggage and he's caused the GOP to forfeit too many elections. I'm getting tired of losing. I think Trump was a great and transformative president, but it's time for him to retire. In a word, The Militant is more pro-Trump than I am (as hard as that is to believe).

4) I'm hoping there will be a change in the Party's leadership. The trio of octogenarians now leading the Party need to be replaced by younger people. I'll root for my old roommate, Brian Williams (who may also be the mysterious Terry Evans). OK--he's not much younger--but at least he's only a septuagenarian. And he's still active in the Party.

Anyway, we'll see.

Further Reading:

• John Studer Makes a Boo-Boo
• Wittenberg, 2022
• The Declining Rate of Profit
• Comrade Keith L. Writes About China