Slightly more complicated than your making out. The organisational structure, specifically of allowing anybody and their dog to join, without vetting their politics, allows for people to hold contradictory positions at odds with your theory. Partly, the election of a slate, for the CC is a reflection that the leadership don't trust the membership or the education level of the membership. Meaning there is probably a greater gulf in political understanding, between leadership and rank and file, in the SWP than probably any other organisation on the left.
essentially I agree with you. Just nitpicking a few points.
SW argue Everybody, everybody from anarchists through to the CC of the SWP has contradictory levels of consciousness. Not only that, it's not a one-way street. Because everybody is in a dynamic relationship with the dominant ideas in society, people are pulled this way that constantly. <That point, does not negate the point you are making. Yes indeed, there will always, always be people that hold contradictory positions at odds with our theory.
Is it greater, the contradiction, in the SWP than any other organisation on the Revolutionar (R) left? Probably. Do the CC set out to create that contradiction in the way Norman suggested? PMSL no! There is quite obvious logical and less Machiavellian explanation for this.
Partly, the election of a slate, for the CC is a reflection that the leadership don't trust the membership or the education level of the membership. Meaning there is probably a greater gulf in political understanding, between leadership and rank and file, in the SWP than probably any other organisation on the left.
I've been listening to people's complaints about the SWP on here for 10 years. Because they tend to hyperbole, sociological, and Machiavellian explanations like Norman's, for someone like me, they are easy to dismiss. However, having read SWP comrades criticism of the party, I find their explanations much easier to understand. And they are not too far away from what people are saying on here, they just explain it in a more political language FMPOV, that is easier for me to comprehend.
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Comrades are basically agreeing with you, that there is too big a gap between the CC and the membership, but more importantly between the CC and reality. Between the CC and the reality of the class struggle.
I believe the CC drew the wrong conclusions from events in Manchester around the war in Yugoslavia, regarding the way forward to working with all the left wing organisations, and the working class. This manifested in our move into the socialist Alliance, and a wrong tactic. This itself compounded an earlier mistake about the "upturn in class struggle". "1930s in slow motion".
In my opinion, Another important factor is people need to be clear about what they mean when they say SWP actions contradict their theory.
(R) Anybody who would like to see an end to capitalist mode of social organisation and a transition to a classless mode of social existence.
