What's the Spartacist League up to these days?

[Matt Kelly]

I remember seeing him speak in New York for Socialist Alternative about 10/11 years ago.

I remember encountering a couple of Sparts outside Brooklyn College when my wife was a student there. Both Sparts were German.

Tom was a decent bloke, all the more surprising that he joined a group who think that cops and prison guards should be in unions.

He was an ex-member from Boston when he fetched up at Trinity in Dublin, but he attracted a group of people at the university who went on to form the short-lived Dublin Spartacist Supporters Group later morphing into the Dublin Spartacist Group.

At one point the German group was in disgrace and members were exiled to the four corners of the Earth to learn what Spartacism was all about.

 

[Idris2002]

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 . . .

Quotation marks are important in this post. See how many you can spot.

 

[PTK]

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!

Ken was a member of both the CF and the SL/B. I attended a number of SL meetings with him.

 

[charlie mowbray]

PTK, you're very forthcoming on the past of the Sparts, but provide no information on the state of them post-Robertson.

 

[PTK]

An ex-member of the Spartacist League known as Ian Donovan became Judeophobic, and for the past five or six years has been publishing articles claiming that the “Zionist” members of the bourgeoisie are a vanguard of that class that is responsible for neo-liberalism, and other such crap. Jewish people who form anti-Zionist groups are, according to Ian, demonstrating a belief in their own moral superiority. So the anti-Zionist Jews are bad too., according to this reprobate.

Ian D was driven to a mental breakdown by the Spartacist League, but that was back in the late 1980s, and does not explain his current political position, and is not mitigation for his political crimes.

 

[PTK]

PTK, you're very forthcoming on the past of the Sparts, but provide no information on the state of them post-Robertson.

I cannot provide information about that which I do not know.

 

[charlie mowbray]

A very evasive answer.

 

[Pickman's model]

I cannot provide information about that which I do not know.

that's not a very urban attitude

 

[PTK]

that's not a very urban attitude

I have no more information on the current state of the Spartacist League/Britain than is available in Workers Hammer, which I perused a while back. As previously mentioned, I was dismayed that it called for an abstention in the last General Election, on the basis that the Labour Party was calling for a second referendum on the EU.

 

[PTK]

that's not a very urban attitude

There is a rumour (which I initiate here) that Robertson's daughter is trying to become the new Chair of the US section, but that she is being opposed by Robertson's widow.

 

[Pickman's model]

I have no more information on the current state of the Spartacist League/Britain than is available in Workers Hammer, which I perused a while back. As previously mentioned, I was dismayed that it called for an abstention in the last General Election, on the basis that the Labour Party was calling for a second referendum on the EU.

ah yes, corbyn - running dog of the eu

 

[Pickman's model]

There is a rumour (which I initiate here) that Robertson's daughter is trying to become the new Chair of the US section, but that she is being opposed by Robertson's widow.

that's more like it. now you only need to embellish it and you'd have something worth reading.

 

[PTK]

that's more like it. now you only need to embellish it and you'd have something worth reading.

A member of the Spartacist League/US once addressed a convention of the National Rifle Association, as it agreed with their opposition to gun control. Now that the NRA is under criminal investigation in New York State, then perhaps the SL/US will be forming a defence committee.

 

[Matt Kelly]

There is a rumour (which I initiate here) that Robertson's daughter is trying to become the new Chair of the US section, but that she is being opposed by Robertson's widow.

Robertson had no daughter to my knowledge. He has two sons, one of whom is pre-harem and so far as I know was never involved in politics. The other, Kenneth, was in politics and was in the Mexican section some years ago. Present whereabouts unknown to me. The woman currently in charge of the SL/US is Skye W, a forty-something acolyte who seems to have gotten on his good side by praising Robertson's early Byzantine coin collection and taking used cans to him for recycling. Bizarre, but reported by the woman herself in her obituary statement to the Great Leader in their esteemed organ.

 

[Pickman's model]

Robertson had no daughter to my knowledge.

PTK's rumour improves with every minute

 

[Matt Kelly]

A member of the Spartacist League/US once addressed a convention of the National Rifle Association, as it agreed with their opposition to gun control. Now that the NRA is under criminal investigation in New York State, then perhaps the SL/US will be forming a defence committee.

I think that they are correct in their position on gun control - in places like England it has historically been used to make sure the lower classes are unarmed in the face of repression. So far as I am concerned that's just fact.

The National Rifle Association is a separate question.

Supposedly Bob Mandel once 'disrespected' workers' democracy in a public meeting of another left group in the Bay Area. On reporting his escapades in the office, Al Nelson put him in a headlock and pulled a handgun on him. When the assembled comrades threatened to disarm him for a period of time, he complained that he needed the weapon to defend his family.

 

[JimW]

...Robertson's early Byzantine coin collection...

Interest in the Byzantine must have come in handy

 

[PTK]

I think that they are correct in their position on gun control - in places like England it has historically been used to make sure the lower classes are unarmed in the face of repression. So far as I am concerned that's just fact.

. . . although the Bill of Rights gives Protestants in England the right to bear arms. The US Constitution only gives people the right to belong to a militia, not to hold arms for personal use. Perhaps the SL/US should campaign for the abolition of the standing army, and its replacement with a militia.

 

[PTK]

Interest in the Byzantine must have come in handy

I have been trying to entice people since the `1970s with my etchings, without success. It seems clear to me that I have should have invested instead in Byzantine coins. I saw a couple of Byzantine coins once, but could not make any sense of the writing on them; it was all Greek to me.

 

[Matt Kelly]

PTK, you're very forthcoming on the past of the Sparts, but provide no information on the state of them post-Robertson.

Robertson had a very delayed and low-key sending off by his erstwhile comrades. This was unexpected - I half-imagined his ashes being distributed and carried round the various sections with pieces of cloth which had touched the great man being sold to the believers. He was active in the ongoing factional infighting over the national rights of various white nationalities, etc, right up until he died.

Could they have discovered something about his past after his demise? Here's an intriguing page from Clare Cowen's 2019 book "My Search for Revolution".

Anyone have anything constructive to say other than sarcastic comments about the old goat?

 

[Matt Kelly]

. . . although the Bill of Rights gives Protestants in England the right to bear arms.

I wouldn't try exercising that right today if I were you - Her Majesty's Constabulary would probably take a dim view.

 

[PTK]

I wouldn't try exercising that right today if I were you - Her Majesty's Constabulary would probably take a dim view.

Because I'm not a Protestant? The British Bill of Rights also forbids a standing army in peacetime. According to one source, Parliament has to pass an Armed Forces Bill every five years because of this, although I am doubtful of that claim.

 

[PTK]

Robertson had a very delayed and low-key sending off by his erstwhile comrades. This was unexpected - I half-imagined his ashes being distributed and carried round the various sections with pieces of cloth which had touched the great man being sold to the believers. He was active in the ongoing factional infighting over the national rights of various white nationalities, etc, right up until he died.

Could they have discovered something about his past after his demise? Here's an intriguing page from Clare Cowen's 2019 book "My Search for Revolution".

Anyone have anything constructive to say other than sarcastic comments about the old goat?

View attachment 228102

Now that I am older and wiser (or a traitor to the beliefs of my youth, if you prefer) I cannot see the justification for ostensible [good Spart-type word-usage there] Marxists being fragmented into all these different groups.

If you can set up your own group, you can create quite a nice life for yourself and some of your comrades. Most of us do politics in our spare time, but the full-timers are able to get paid for indulging in their hobby full-time. Most full-timers in these groups do not get a huge income, but that is not the point. Robertson appears to have had a very privileged life.

I think that the low-key approach to Robbo’s demise may be because the followers do not know what to do now that their guru has gone. The French group known as Lutte Ouvrière, seemed to have an extremely low-key approach to the death of their numero uno. His death was apparently not announced for more than a year after it occurred.

 

[Idris2002]

Interest in the Byzantine must have come in handy

Only 1453 kids will get this.

 

[PTK]

Does anyone who ever had any contact with the Spartacist League of Britain remember a “Barry Tompkins”? It was claimed a few years ago that a police officer infiltrated the Spartacist League using this “nom de cop” between 1979 and 1983.

The name “Barry” did not ring any bells when first I read of the “revelation”, but there is one person who was a candidate member for a few months who I think, upon consideration, may fit the bill. He may have been called Barry, but I am not sure if my memory is playing tricks.

It may be a double bluff, and perhaps the Sparts never were infiltrated. Perhaps the cop got paid per group he infiltrated, and over claimed.

 

[Larry O'Hara]

Having crossed paths with (American) Spartacists in the Midlands many years ago, I thought they were more likely infiltrators themselves. Their presence certainly seemed to be at least an abstract argument for immigration controls...I was in the too sophisticated for its own good Big Flame at the time, indeed remained till it sadly dissolved.

 

[PTK]

Having crossed paths with (American) Spartacists in the Midlands many years ago, I thought they were more likely infiltrators themselves. Their presence certainly seemed to be at least an abstract argument for immigration controls...I was in the too sophisticated for its own good Big Flame at the time, indeed remained till it sadly dissolved.

How do we know that you are not an agent, whose aim is to spread lies about other left-wing groups?

 

[Larry O'Hara]

How do we know that you are not an agent, whose aim is to spread lies about other left-wing groups?

To paraphrase the great Brian Labone, those who know, know. Those who don’t know, don’t matter. You might start by glancing at my website & extensive back catalogue. Though it does deal with ideas that were gestated after 21/8/1940 so might be a bit taxing for you.
Oh, one other thing: while I have no problem with U75 people using pseudonyms, I am one of the few on here who doesn’t.

 

[PTK]

To paraphrase the great Brian Labone, those who know, know. Those who don’t know, don’t matter. You might start by glancing at my website & extensive back catalogue. Though it does deal with ideas that were gestated after 21/8/1940 so might be a bit taxing for you.
Oh, one other thing: while I have no problem with U75 people using pseudonyms, I am one of the few on here who doesn’t.

To paraphrase the great Brian Labone, those who know, know. Those who don’t know, don’t matter. You might start by glancing at my website & extensive back catalogue. Though it does deal with ideas that were gestated after 21/8/1940 so might be a bit taxing for you.
Oh, one other thing: while I have no problem with U75 people using pseudonyms, I am one of the few on here who doesn’t.

Where is the evidence for your claim that members of the Spartacist League were state agents?

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[Larry O'Hara]

Where is the evidence for your claim that members of the Spartacist League were state agents?

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Where is the evidence for your claim that members of the Spartacist League were state agents?

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Not got a sense of irony or humour have you? I was referring to the fact that the Sparts I met (who happened to be American not that I dislike Americans) were so tedious, sectarian and humourless they certainly had the effect of alienating all they met from progressive politics. Hence the quip about immigration controls. God, I bet you’re a dull fucker in real life as well as online. Get a life.