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SWP expulsions and squabbles

J Ed said:
Well go back to what we are talking about. Usama Husan faced a protest and calls for his talk to be cancelled because he is a member of an organisation in which a member, who is Muslim, tweeted a pretty innocuous cartoon. That Muslim, Maajid Nawaz, has faced death threats and a political campaign has been waged against him to get him deselected as a PPC.

At the very, very least it makes no sense for the left to intervene ON THE SIDE of the bigots who are trying to enforce their interpretation of Islam on other Muslims, which is what happened in Plymouth.

I would agree that Islamophobic racism is an issue that in terms of importance outweighs the attacks on moderate Muslims by a minority of bigots but the cool thing is that you can be against both.
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Think you might have got ahead of yourself here mate-Ive spoken to my mate in Plymouth about why the protest happened and it wasn't about cartoons.
 
The protest - we have eye-witnesses. Does that change the whole thing? None of which is about cartoons but about social control. What was it in your mates telling?
 
KeeperofDragons said:
Looking back it beats me :facepalm::(
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Here's the likeable Cleatus:
http://static1.wikia.nocookie.net/_...ns/images/c/c4/Cletus_e_Brandine_Spuckler.jpg

He might also feel as you do, having been a member for 8 long years. (But he does have the compensation of Brandine - & their piglet.) This is what he said a moment ago about the ISO:

"If you don’t control who is in the head of your organization, and you don’t control your finances, what do you control? The two key things that absolutely need to change in this organization are:
1) Abolition of self selected slate elections
and
2) Financial transparency and accountability.

"I also didn’t know CERSC staff was making that much money. Maybe they should make that much… but it sucks being a student living on ramen, paying dues and putting together fundraisers instead of reading the books you went into debt to buy, so that people in an organization you support can make $45,000 a year. Certainly if their talent and time is worth that much, they should have to be subject to periodic performance reviews, as in any organization.

"No one is going to trust any group to lead us to 'socialist democracy from below' when the current capitalist state has a higher degree of financial accountability and, might I say, fluidity in its executive composition.

"I very much respect the members of the ISO, their work, publications, and demonstrations. I was part of the group for 8 years and I support the work of many of my friends who still are part of it. But some changes have got to be made here."
http://externalbulletin.wordpress.c...-the-iso-and-cersc/comment-page-1/#comment-55

General Q: if people are to be judged for what they do shouldn't socialist & anarchist org'ns learn from the rulers & adopt for themselves the despised performance culture? How can we have adequate transparency & accountability without also devising performance benchmarks & targets for our managers? We really do need to develop a science of performance management for our org'ns. But does anyone recognise that an over a hundred years of failure really does warrant some scientific & systematic thinking about all this? Probably not. Welcome to the next 100 years.
 
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I'm quite surprised by (a) how big those ISO leader salaries are and (b) the fact that there are significant differences in compensation levels.

It's not that the salaries are enormous by the standards of "normal" jobs. It's simply that they are paid as if they were "normal" jobs, which in my experience is pretty much unheard of amongst socialist fulltimers. And very expensive.
 
Nigel Irritable said:
. . . It's not that the salaries are enormous by the standards of "normal" jobs. It's simply that they are paid as if they were "normal" jobs, which in my experience is pretty much unheard of amongst socialist fulltimers. And very expensive.
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Ahmed Sehrawy's on $45 228 gross a year, which @ today's 61p a $ = GBP 27 590, 530 a week. (Haven't looked thru the CERSC public filing doc. to see if there are other payments, such as pension & expenses. Have you seen any?)

Do SWP & Bookmarks have a salary scale, an employer's pension scheme, annual increments, London or urban weighting, bonuses, special payments (sending upsetting emails, nocturnal doorstepping, practising revenge in the Student Office [sorry, Jo probably paid to do that])? How do salaries in the provinces for organisers compare with those in the metropolises (organisers or Delta Towers functionaries)? Has there ever been a history of disputes between grades, in defence of differentials, for example?

There was even talk in the IBs of no longer getting the taxpayer to fund them, JSA & all that.

Being strapped for cash have they ever used tax havens, or tried to earn interest above the going rate? What about any trust funds of members or the org'n? Do they have an 'ethical' investment policy like the ISO (& perhaps the CERSC)?

And thinking about it, has anyone anywhere in the world ever seen a financial report from the International Socialist Tendency - or does it just live off air like the famed Luftmensch?


Added, having read the Federal return:

1) Ahmed (Prez & Secretary) also got "$13 948 benefits" (Statement #12, p.23 of the pdf, year ending 31 Aug 2012). Same page also says he works 40 hrs a week for CERSC. So that's a total of GBP 36 000 gross a year, 700 a week.

2) Ahmed got a surprisingly high proportion of "benefits": 22% of the $63 505 total (Statement of Functional Expenses, p.29 of the pdf). Looks pretty much like China to me: Mr 22%. But maybe he's the closest to retirement.

3) Strangely cash held at year end (31 Aug 2012) was just over 4 times what it was a year before: $329 034 compared with $81 298. That's odd (pdf pp.4 & 30). Hope no-one's about to buy a one-way ticket to Cuba - but they're state cap . . . so where the hell would anyone go??

4) "Significant Concentrations": and there are: "One donor represents 36% and 33% of direct public support revenue during the years ended August 31, 2012 and 2011. One customer represents 30% and 38% of accounts receivable as of August 31, 2012 and 2011" (pdf p.35). Guess they find it hard to spread their risk.

5) Seems the $45 000 salary is a well-established thing: Ahmed seems to have got that in 2000/01, so in real terms he's getting a fair bit poorer. Join a union, Ahmed! Get organised! Put your politics into action! Fight your boss! Recruit your underlings!
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/12/306517.shtml
This article is by Walter Nef, who says, "In the left, all one has to do is follow the money, to see who controls the politics . . .", then a lil unfairly, at least given their present financial structure, he speaks of them being "trustifarians". Babylon!
But when he says, "Thing is, who's on the rest of their payroll is not a matter of public record. And it would be too much to expect an organization for the workers to actually tell the workers who is on the payroll", nothing has changed - the best part of a decade on.
 
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Nigel Irritable said:
It's worth pointing out that CERSC salary figures may or may not reflect what their employees actually keep. It could easily be that they are expected to make substantial donations to the ISO, ie that relatively high salaries are a legal way to move money from CERSC to the ISO. There isn't enough detail in that blog to be sure.
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Back in the day of SOGAT and NGA house agreements for typesetters and printers, that's how the SWP did it.
 
J Ed said:
That sounds positive, what did he say it was about?
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That the protest was called because they didn't want Quilliam to send speakers to the university, not because of cartoons but because its a government funded org that's attempting to legitimise Yaxley-Lennon and his anti-Muslim views and put the blame for islamophobia on Muslims. He didn't seem to think the Muslims involved were Islamists, just Muslims, a fair few are students at the university. Cartoons were not mentioned.
 
butchersapron said:
What a bunch of idiots. And what defensive waffle sf. Don't think I need you defending me before I get to make up me own mind.
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Defensive waffle? Don't talk shit. He was there, and those were the reasons he gave for being there. If you disagree with them fine but don't act like I'm desperately trying to legitimise some grave political error in a tiny student protest.
 
SpackleFrog said:
That the protest was called because they didn't want Quilliam to send speakers to the university, not because of cartoons but because its a government funded org that's attempting to legitimise Yaxley-Lennon and his anti-Muslim views and put the blame for islamophobia on Muslims. He didn't seem to think the Muslims involved were Islamists, just Muslims, a fair few are students at the university. Cartoons were not mentioned.
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Going from what is said here, it seems that is not denied that the cartoons were one of the reasons just not the sole reason. And furthermore it wasn't just because they showed Mohammed but they showed Mohammed engaging in non-Islamic behaviour. I have no idea whether Bob Pitt was on or involved in the demonstration, although he seems to be speaking with some authority about the motivations of the organisers.

Also you can find the facebook page of the Plymouth University Islamic society quite easily and they seem quite clear the protest is about the cartoons

ATTENTION ALL STUDENTS!! ...... MASS DEMONSTRATION ALERT!

The university has decided NOT to listen to the concerns of hundreds of it's British & international students regarding banning the Quilliam Foundation event this Wednesday!

Maajid Nawaz (the chairman of QF) has recently posted offensive cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad and Jesus (peace be upon them) from a comic strip called "Jesus and Mo" which features them drinking at the bar, in bed together and other filthy behaviors. This is as offensive, if not more than the Denmark cartoons which caused a worldwide response in 2005. The Chaplaincy have invited Usama Hasan a senior lecturer who is due to speak at PLYMOUTH UNIVERSITY THIS WEDNESDAY has shown support for Maajid Nawaz's actions.

We are calling upon ALL STUDENTS to join us to demonstrate against QF:
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Combustible said:
ATTENTION ALL STUDENTS!! ...... MASS DEMONSTRATION ALERT!

. . . has recently posted offensive cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad and Jesus (peace be upon them) from a comic strip called "Jesus and Mo" which features them drinking at the bar, in bed together and other filthy behaviors
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ATTENTION EVERYONE!! ...... MASS SENSE OF HUMOUR FAIL!

Back in the day Phil Evans (peace be upon Him) would have helped do that comic strip, & use it in a IS/SWP pamphlet in defence of socialism as a rational idea, & advocating that the pious, of any religion, need to develop a sense of humour suited to the age of the internal combustion engine, electricity, & nuclear fission.

Once more, believers, & this time with feeling?
 
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Combustible said:
Going from what is said here, it seems that is not denied that the cartoons were one of the reasons just not the sole reason. And furthermore it wasn't just because they showed Mohammed but they showed Mohammed engaging in non-Islamic behaviour. I have no idea whether Bob Pitt was on or involved in the demonstration, although he seems to be speaking with some authority about the motivations of the organisers.

Also you can find the facebook page of the Plymouth University Islamic society quite easily and they seem quite clear the protest is about the cartoons
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Hmmmm, it certainly was for at least some of them wasn't it? In addition it seems embarrassingly over-excited. I've no idea who Bob Pitt is though. Anyway, I've passed on what my mate said, make of it what you will. Worth putting this part of the blog here I think though.

As the Quilliam Foundation NOT welcome in Plymouth Facebook page makes clear, the objection to Usama Hasan’s appearance in Plymouth was also wider than a complaint about a single cartoon. The organisers of the demonstration opposed Quilliam for having promoted the far-right extremists “Tommy Robinson” and Kevin Carroll, and for having “provided lists to the govt of alleged extremist sympathisers which included the Muslim Council of Britain, the Muslim Safety Forum and even the Islam Channel”.

Plymouth University ISoc also condemned a cartoon tweeted by Usama Hasan himself, which trivialised domestic violence. They were joined by Fawcett Plymouth, who wrote to Plymouth University calling for the cancellation of the event at which Hasan was to speak.

The organisers’ appeal for support for the demonstration concluded: “We do not want the QF in Plymouth, they are a danger to community cohesion and peaceful relationships that exist here between the mainstream Muslim as well as diverse communities.”
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SpackleFrog said:
I've no idea who Bob Pitt is though.
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used to be in the WRP, & wrote a detailed account of Gerry Healy & its break-up.
http://www.whatnextjournal.org.uk/Pages/Healy/Contents.html

Passed thru Livingstone's mayoral office, then with Eddie Truman co-founding Islamophobia Watch in 2005. He split with his co-founder but both remain in the Islamo Industry: Pitt runs http://www.islamophobiawatch.co.uk/, & Truman runs http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/ (the original site, but less up to date). Like PFLJ & the JPLF, ISN#1 & ISN#2. Maybe they split up over a cartoon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamophobia_Watch
 
SpineyNorman said:
So has this Pitt character converted to Islam or is he more of a John Rees/Galloway type?
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Sorry, don't keep up with these things, there's enuf in the papers. Can't believe he would adopt religion, any of them. I'd never gone to his site until today, even though I'd known for a few years it existed (or the old one did). Someone here in the collective intel will know, I'm sure.

Does he support state bans? Doubt it. On what basis would he agree to joint actions with either any Muslim or Islamists? No idea. Guess that's two tests of who he is.
 
Yup, he tweeted that he's just been to his last council meeting an hour ago. Personal reasons, notably a sick father in law,apparently.
 
Here are the ISO 2014 pre-conference bulletins - all 19 of them!
http://thecharnelhouse.org/2014/02/07/international-socialist-organization-2014-convention-bulletin/

Additions, as & when, given the Frog's kind request:

1) The ISO is more logical than most lil org'ns in that it has twigs - when the branch is 4 or less. So a member-at-large is a leaf? Is a purge a shake-down, like at olive harvest? So a fall in the double sense. Do ex-members turn into leaf-mould, ending up spread over capitalist roses, crossing class lines, giving nourishment to the class enemy? Who's the fertiliser? Well, it used to be Professor Dark Side, Secretary of the International Socialist Tendency. One could go on.

2) It should be borne in mind that the Bolsheviks, nor the dastardly Mensheviks, never had an internal bulletin. It was instituted in autumn 1920 by the Russian Communist Party (bolsheviks) - yes, lower case in the Russian. Lenin never, ever, wrote in it. The early notable author who took advantage of this opportunity to conceal both views & analysis from the class was the headmaster-to-be, Mr Steel. Lenin, on the other hand, carried on in the traditional way, expressing his opinion in newspapers & at public meetings. Hence the title of Joaquín Bustelo's piece on the topic, 'Lenin Was Not a Leninist':
http://www.thenorthstar.info/?p=7727 (March 2013; mbr. of Solidarity [USA])

3) There'll be a final PCB, probably sent next Thursday, which will consist in docs. (i.e. articles?) & conf. motions (#19:2). Perhaps Ross will post this next week. (His blog often has fascinating early Soviet cultural items, esp. architecture, with lots of pics; it's a great relief to browse a visually engaging blog, it is one of the few - which partly explains the more than 18 000 subscribers. It even has c. 1930 Soviet erotica, an alphabet book for the literacy campaign, but this was probably done by the artist as a joke.)

The Convention is next weekend.

4) Although PCB #1 didn't have on its cover or first page a SWP-style 'DO NOT DISTRIBUTE ON THE INTERNET', it did have this:
"Please be sure, however, to limit all pre-convention discussions (and documents) ONLY TO DUES-PAYING MEMBERS OF THE ISO. If you believe that close contacts will benefit from the pre-convention discussion, then encourage them to join the ISO and take part!" (#1:1)

So Stalin's love of the IB is used as a moneymaking scheme to tempt peeps to join, 'come-on-in, see-what-we-have: secret-discussions!', filling the coffers along with the tax on earnings & the mandatory official copyrighted merchandise.

Guess, contrary to what Bolshie just said (Fri., afternoon), the openness of the 1960 version of Cliffyism has passed the ISO by:
"The party has to be subordinated to the whole. And so the internal regime in the revolutionary party must be subordinated to the relation between the party and the class. The managers of factories can discuss their business in secret and then put before the workers a fait accompli. The revolutionary party that seeks to overthrow capitalism cannot accept the notion of a discussion on policies inside the party without the participation of the mass of the workers – policies which are then brought 'unanimously' ready-made to the class. Since the revolutionary party cannot have interests apart from the class, all the party’s issues of policy are those of the class, and they should therefore be thrashed out in the open, in its presence. The freedom of discussion which exists in the factory meeting, which aims at unity of action after decisions are taken, should apply to the revolutionary party. This means that all discussions on basic issues of policy should be discussed in the light of day: in the open press. Let the mass of the workers take part in the discussion, put pressure on the party, its apparatus and leadership."
http://marxists.org/archive/cliff/works/1960/xx/trotsub.htm (@ the end)

So the ISO is securely bunkered, insulated, surrounded by a series of not-in-front-of-the-class defences.
 
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They are short, and its usually quite easy to work out what's of interest from the title. 19 editions is a bit bizarre though. A lot of it is devoted to a faction fight with a minority group of a dozen, so Socialist Party members should feel right at home.

The article about how they handled a sexual assault allegation is interesting. They seem to have made a number of screw ups in doing so, and its worth looking at the kinds of difficulties this sort of process entails away from the high profile Delta controversy.

There's a fair but about elections and the CWI menace, in the wake of the Seattle and Minneapolis council results. Some if it reminds me a bit of the Irish SWP's sudden electoral turn in the wake of the 1996 Dublin West by-election, which Joe Higgins almost won. There's a clear sense that they would much prefer if Sawant was an independent, some defensiveness about their lateness in endorsing her and a comedy article providing a potted list of the alleged crimes of SAlt/CWI, but there's also some stuff about taking a more positive attitude to SAlt.
 
Fascinating reading Sharon Smith on intersectionality and how to stop the baby disappearing down the plug hole with the SWP's dirty anti feminist water. A circle she fails to square.

Her and the rest of the ISO leadership's problem being that no matter how much they rubbish Cliff they are seen by the ankle biters as Cliff's creations.
 
bolshiebhoy said:
Fascinating reading Sharon Smith on intersectionality and how to stop the baby disappearing down the plug hole with the SWP's dirty anti feminist water. A circle she fails to square.

Her and the rest of the ISO leadership's problem being that no matter how much they rubbish Cliff they are seen by the ankle biters as Cliff's creations.
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The last part above is completely wrong and stems from your own immersion in and attachment to "Cliffism" and "the IS tradition", rather than a reasonable assessment of the ISO's environment. None of the people the ISO work with or want to recruit have the slightest idea who Tony Cliff was, nor would they give a shit if you told them. The problem Smith et al have isn't that they are seen as "Cliffites", but more straightforwardly that they have a lot of SWPish arguments of their own on their resumes. But even that's quite a minor consideration, because the ISO isn't high profile enough for its theoretical history to be known to any notable number of people.

Now, you are of course right that abandoning a long settled orthodoxy creates all kind of potential problems, as people work out exactly how far they are traveling in a new direction, try to synthesise previously eclectic ideas and try to work out new boundaries. And I agree that Smith's piece doesn't achieve a coherent synthesis.

The ISO does have the problem that many of the "ankle biters" take it as a given that Marxist groups are sexist, just as "white feminism" is racist etc. But that stupid opinion applies across the board and isn't particularly focused on Cliff's epigones. At least in so far as they aren't using "feminist" as a hostile epithet, something that simply isn't a runner on US campuses in 2014.

As a side issue, its interesting that there is fuck all about building on campus in their "pre convention discussion", which is odd given the ISO's long term orientation.
 
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