What's the Spartacist League up to these days?

[eoin_k]

A Spart once branded me a demagogue for accusing him of behaving like a parasite for selling his paper outside a squat in east London.

 

[Idris2002]

A Spart once branded me a demagogue for accusing him of behaving like a parasite for selling his paper outside a squat in east London.

In fairness, the man had a point.

 

[likesfish]

To be fair it's his entire identity.

check your privilege some people have very little brain and seldom use it

 

[PTK]

On a slightly less serious point. when I was SWP, at the LSE freshers week thing the Sparts came over and "engaged us in comradely discourse". This involved an American Spart thumping our table and shouting at us. I pointed out that he was in danger of breaking a copy of Mike Carter's double A side single "Brixton/Ordinary People" that we had for sale at which point he apologised profusely and went away.

I was 19. It was my first "interaction" with Sparts, and I won!

That was me! I am not American. I hope that I did not damage the record. I wish I had bought a copy of it some time, as it was a good record

 

[PTK]

It's OK, kenny g, I also get the Fear when fit birds try to flirt with me.

Anyway, back when Jeffrey Epstein (didn't) kill himself last summer, all the talk centred around the breaking of his hyoid bone, this being the tell-tale sign that another hand was behind that one.

This reminded me of an Irish Times thing I'd read back in the early 90s about an American Spart in Moscow who'd been sent to organise the post-Communist proletariat, but was instead found dead in her apartment. She'd been stabbed, but her hyoid bone was also broken. . .

Here's an LA Times article about the poor woman: Who Killed Martha Phillips? : Was it an assassin, a former lover or a thief? The death of the onetime Oakland activist is a Moscow mystery.

The whole thing is desperately sad, and a terrible waste.

I think that it was a disgrace to send this comrade into such a potentially dangerous situation.

 

[PTK]

Did he refuse to get divorced?

Most of his books are well worth reading. I recommend particularly The Star Fraction and The Execution Channel.

 

[Idris2002]

"Such a party, formed by splitting..." You can't leave us hanging there, Idris. Splitting a taxi to the Marx Memorial Library?

Splitting the base of the Labour party from its leadership.

Reducing Workers Hammer frequency

 

[Idris2002]

Most of his books are well worth reading. I recommend particularly The Star Fraction and The Execution Channel.

Son, have you ever kissed a girl?

 

[JimW]

Splitting the base of the Labour party from its leadership.

Reducing Workers Hammer frequency

The utter dastards!

 

[Idris2002]

The utter dastards!

Brendan Behan had a story about his da reading something from the paper which described certain people as "dastards".

Behan: "I suppose they wanted to write bastards, but had to change it?"

Behan's da: "no, anyone can be born a bastard, but to be a dastard you have to work at it".

 

[mx wcfc]

That was me! I am not American. I hope that I did not damage the record. I wish I had bought a copy of it some time, as it was a good record

I still have the sleeve, but can't find the record. What year was that?

 

[PTK]

I still have the sleeve, but can't find the record. What year was that?

I think that it was 1982, but it could have been 1981. It was not at the Freshers Fare, I think. The SWP had a lunchtime stall in a kind of foyer area.

 

[PTK]

Splitting the base of the Labour party from its leadership.

Reducing Workers Hammer frequency

As opposed to the current situation, in which the leadership of the Labour Party is splitting from its base; or should that be, spitting on its base?

 

[PTK]

Splitting the base of the Labour party from its leadership.

Reducing Workers Hammer frequency

I was perusing an online edition of Workers Hammer a few months ago, (I think that such activities may be a side-effect of the pandemic) and I was disgusted to read that it called for an abstention in the December 2019 General Election. It argued that it could not call for a vote for the Labour Party because Labour was not anti-EU, being in favour of a second referendum. This line, of course, leaves those members of the Labour Party who opposed EU membership high and dry.

It is interesting that the paper admits that there are very few members left, and that they are getting too old to be very active. If they actually interacted with the real world, perhaps they might discover why their position was unviable.

 

[Matt Kelly]

That was me! I am not American. I hope that I did not damage the record. I wish I had bought a copy of it some time, as it was a good record

That was a fairly regular occurrence. By a certain point people expected to hear American accents and so heard them, whether they were American or not. One Italian member was mightily chuffed upon being told he was an American - he had worked for years to improve his English! Most of the 'Americans', especially in the early days were Anglo-Canadian.

Admittedly, the Spartacists did rely on the musical chair principle of party-growing, but the 'accusations' of being an American also reflected anti-American views on the British left. For my part, one of the things that attracted me to them was that they were American communists.

 

[Pickman's model]

As opposed to the current situation, in which the leadership of the Labour Party is splitting from its base; or should that be, spitting on its base?

hardly the first time

 

[Matt Kelly]

Even in Coatbridge, just outside of Glasgow, there was a yank Spart.

She was Irish . . .

 

[Matt Kelly]

I think that it was a disgrace to send this comrade into such a potentially dangerous situation.

I visited her in Moscow and we had to count thousands of Rubles in coins of paper sales money to deposit in a bank. Probably worth at least €10. Every time her dormitory flatmate came into her room we had to jump on the bed because she was an extremely right-wing woman from Orange County getting Russian lessons on the cheap from some US Government agency. And I agree, she should have been better looked after, though it was her idea to go there to work off the political disgrace she had accumulated in the US section.

 

[Matt Kelly]

They also just lost their Polish section, which translates as 'they expelled two blokes for not adhering to democratic centralism'.

PS - Somebody made - what I thought was - the funny joke on Facebook that he hung on another week so that he could witness the ISO dying before he did.

They accuse the pair of antisemitism. However, that isn't what got them expelled, it was their alleged breach of 'democratic centralism' as you say.

 

[Shechemite]

to go there to work off the political disgrace she had accumulated in the US section.

Do you understand how grim that sounds?

 

[nogojones]

I visited her in Moscow and we had to count thousands of Rubles in coins of paper sales money to deposit in a bank. Probably worth at least €10. Every time her dormitory flatmate came into her room we had to jump on the bed because she was an extremely right-wing woman from Orange County getting Russian lessons on the cheap from some US Government agency. And I agree, she should have been better looked after, though it was her idea to go there to work off the political disgrace she had accumulated in the US section.

Wow. What sort of political disgrace gets you exiled to Russia?

 

[PTK]

They accuse the pair of antisemitism. However, that isn't what got them expelled, it was their alleged breach of 'democratic centralism' as you say.

"What's your line on Poland?" was once regarded as a biting criticism of ex-members in the 1980s. The SL/B had a very American attitude to resignations. People were never described as "resigning" but as "quitting". The term implies that everything in life is some sort of competition, and if you do not want to play any more than you are deficient in some way.

I remember once, when I was a member, that another member told me that a comrade had quit because he was "afraid of being tortured" should there be a revolutionary situation, and he was arrested by the other side. I pointed out that being frightened of being tortured was a quite unexceptional fear.

 

[PTK]

That was a fairly regular occurrence. By a certain point people expected to hear American accents and so heard them, whether they were American or not. One Italian member was mightily chuffed upon being told he was an American - he had worked for years to improve his English! Most of the 'Americans', especially in the early days were Anglo-Canadian.

Admittedly, the Spartacists did rely on the musical chair principle of party-growing, but the 'accusations' of being an American also reflected anti-American views on the British left. For my part, one of the things that attracted me to them was that they were American communists.

Have you any information on the current political stance of any ex-members of the SL/B.? I still regard myself as a Marxist, and am a member of the Labour Party. Have any become Tories?

 

[Matt Kelly]

Do you understand how grim that sounds?

Indeed I do, but it remains an accurate statement of fact.

 

[Matt Kelly]

"What's your line on Poland?" was once regarded as a biting criticism of ex-members in the 1980s. The SL/B had a very American attitude to resignations. People were never described as "resigning" but as "quitting". The term implies that everything in life is some sort of competition, and if you do not want to play any more than you are deficient in some way.

I remember once, when I was a member, that another member told me that a comrade had quit because he was "afraid of being tortured" should there be a revolutionary situation, and he was arrested by the other side. I pointed out that being frightened of being tortured was a quite unexceptional fear.

I don't believe that they were a cult, but there were some cult-like elements to them. For instance, their attitude to 'quitting'. Many 'quitters' were later reported to have gone off the rails, having lost the stability to their lives brought by membership. One member who quit quickly started to believe in the presence of UFOs - her brother (who remained a member) told me years later that this was crap. Another member went off to campaign against a gypsy site near his housing estate. Again this turned out to be a lie. One American ex-comrade, who I have no good thoughts about quit to pursue homeopathic medicine as opposed to vaccination. As bad as he was, I do not believe this is true.

Seeing a pattern?

 

[Matt Kelly]

Wow. What sort of political disgrace gets you exiled to Russia?

From memory it was some infringement of internal democracy, such as not allowing someone to speak in an internal meeting. I wouldn't swear to that, though.

She was learning Russian in the US, she was under some pressure to go to the USSR anyway where the Sparts were carrying out political work, and finally she agreed to go. In that respect, it wasn't exile.

 

[Matt Kelly]

Have you any information on the current political stance of any ex-members of the SL/B.? I still regard myself as a Marxist, and am a member of the Labour Party. Have any become Tories?

I'm in regular contact with a number of ex-members spread over a few countries, all of whom remain Marxists and broadly agreeing with Trotskyism. I'm not aware of anyone joining the Conservative Party. That franchise seems to have been bought by the RCP.

If you tell me when and where you were a member I can probably diagnose your political sins!

I was on my way out for a long time before finally quitting during the miners' strike. Despite carrying on working with them for years afterwards as a sympathiser, I was diagnosed as someone who had no faith in the ability of the working class to struggle (since a quit has to teach a lesson to remaining members and has nothing to do with the reason(s) for quitting).

 

[Matt Kelly]

They were right about Khomeini, to give them their due. Not bad for a group that were like something out of the 1930s, and not in a good way.

Internally, the Communist Faction in the IMG was considered a disaster, whatever the SL/B might have said in public. I know a number of ex-members of that group who went on to join the SL/B. Ken Macleod was never a member of the SL/B, nor was he a member of the Communist Faction. The latter was so badly run that he may have had the impression that he was a member, but he wasn't!

 

[Matt Kelly]

In 2009, the Guardian recommended going to Syria to look at carpets.

View attachment 133743

Alexei Sayle once said that Syria was like East Germany with hummus . . .

 

[Matt Kelly]

Ah lads.

"The Sparts built their organisation in Britain on splits engineered firstly in the WSL, and then the IMG. Prior to these, they relied upon good old “primitive accumulation of cadre”. For reasons which have always escaped me, I was the subject of two such approaches, both (as I recall) in 1976/77.


The first occurred when I was introduced in London to an American woman doing post-grad research into rank-and-file movements in the building trade. This having been my field of activity for several years, I was invited to interview and assist with research. I was happy to do so and found we got on well at both the working and personal levels. Arrangements were made for me to come down to London for a weekend and stay with her to continue work.


We had an enjoyable supper and then retired, whereupon my companion revealed herself to be a plenipotentiary of the International Spartacist Tendency, authorised to bring me into its ranks. An uncomfortable night concluded with the end of our research and relationship."

Expulsion of the Communist Faction

Ian Parker’s amusing take on the Spartacist League reminded us that this organisation’s British section was largely built, in the late 1970s through stimulating splits in other revoluti…

redmolerising.wordpress.com

The American woman you refer to is still a member, though the PhD was never completed - possibly your withdrawal didn't help. They did have some 'unique' recruitment practices, but setting up a PhD programme was generally not among them . . .