The long awaited founding convention of a new socialist organization, the American Socialist Society, or ASS, was held in New York today. The stated goal of ASS is "the formation of a socialist organization, with no revolutionary pretensions, and inoffensive as possible to the general population." Noticebly absent were the usual leftist symbols such as red flags or posters with depictions of clenched fists and red stars. An American flag was prominately displayed on the stage, while at the back of the room, hung a large banner with the words, "Peter Camejo said it, I believe it, that settles it."
Louis Proyect; who served as Chairman of the convention, explained, "symbols such as red flags and clenched fists put people off, while the U.S. flag has a much more positive appeal." In the spirit of the lowest common demoninator, the conference opened, with everyone standing and reciting the Pledge of Allegience to the Flag.
In the spirit of avoiding terms such as "comrade", so as not to offend the average American, the ASSists voted to address each other as "neighbor," with the newly elected three person leadership team of Louis Proyect, Clay Claiborne, and Pham Binh, referred to as the "Neighborhood Watch." Proyect explained that this term was less offensive than traditional terms such as Central Committee, or Political Committee. Proyect was elected as Chairman, of the leadership group, effectively making him the Chief ASS.
Referring to recent events in Egypt, Proyect stated the Egyptian left was at a serious disadvantage, as a result of the name of the major socialist group, Revolutionary Socialist. Proyect denounced the Egyptian socialists by asking, "how in the hell do they expect to influence, much less lead a revolution when the word 'Revolutionary' is part of their name?" Proyect assured his audience that ASS "would refrain from using terms such as working class, revolution, or anthems such as The Internationale, which only serve to divide us as a people." The delegates began chanting "Down with The Internationale, up with God Bless America!"
There was a short debate when Proyect suggested that the July 26 Movement in Cuba and the Sandinistas in Nicaragua serve as models for ASS. One unidentified delegate raised the objection, "but both these organizations came to power by way of armed struggle." Proyect deftly parried this objection, with the slightist hint of a smile, by saying, "read Lars Lih."
A motion, calling on the U.S. military to intervene in Syria passed. One delegate objected, by suggesting the reasons for supporting US troops in Syria were the same reasons the Bush administration used for invading and occupying Iraq, and for possibly justifying a war, in the future, with Iran. Claiborne sponser of the resolution, rose to speak, shrugged and responded, "eat your heart out," apparantly referring to a recent video of a member of the Free Syrian Army, cutting out and eating the heart of an enemy fighter.
Binh called on ASS to support a resoluting prohibiting the ownership of firearms by individuals, by asking, "why do we need guns, when we have the police and the military?" Binh further explained,
"it's a well known fact that gun ownership is a gateway to eating red meat and smoking cigars!"
After passage of the gun restriction resolution Binh called for the ASS to go on record to support Democrats in primary elections. When another speaker expressed concern that this could lead to supporting Democrats in the general elections, Binh waved the objection off with, "You're making a straw man argument. Besides, are the Democrats really so bad? If it wasn't for Bill Clinton, we wouldn't have NAFTA, Welfare Reform or financial deregulation." The resolution passed.
In the spirit of reflecting American values, and being inoffensive as possible, the convention closed by standing and singing a rousing rendition of God Bless America.
DISCLAIMER: This report is a work of fiction. It is how I imagine a socialist group formed by the administrators and many of the contributors to The North Star and Marxmail would look like. The names have remained unchanged in order to expose the guilty.-Ken Morgan
Saturday, July 13, 2013
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
The North Star Run Amok
The leftist North Star web site,www.thenorthstar.info, describes itself as a "forum for discussion, debate and the ruthless criticism of everything existing." An ambitious goal, indeed. The format is an article, followed by space for comments. It's not unusual for some articles to draw over 100 comments.
The North Star is opposed to the very existence of the organized left, especially groups that describe themselves as Leninist, vanguardist, or cadre type organizations. The International Socialist Organization (ISO) one of several such groups, seems to draw the most attention, especially from the moderator of the site, Pham Binh, who is a former member of the ISO.
The North Star, and Pham Binh have received notoriety within the Left, for supporting U.S. military intervention in the Syrian civil war. The justification used by Binh and his fellow "humanitarian interventionists," is nearly identical to those who supported the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. Not content with espousing this view on the North Star site, Binh is now resorting to trolling other sites, such as the Kasama Project, www.kasamaproject.org,
Occupy
Binh was an early and enthusiastic supporter of the Occupy Movement. It's fair to say, that Occupy caught most of the Left by surprise. This was a new movement outside of the experience of most veteran activists, who were accustomed to organizing single issue campaigns, such as opposing a war, or supporting a union struggle. By opposing raising demands, Occupy was unable to organize a fight back against the conditions of austerity that resulted from the economic meltdown of 2008.
Relating to a movement, without demands, was unprecedented for many on the left. After the initial surprise most leftist organizations participated. Binh, who apparantly believes in the concept of original sin, instead of understanding the initial hesitancy of most experienced leftists, believes that everyone in the organized left is obligated to forever dress in sack cloth and ashes while repeating mea culpas.
The Organized Left, and Especially the International Socialist Organization
In the interest of full disclosure, I am a former member of the ISO, who left on good terms, for personal reasons. Most of the attacks against the organized left are directed at the ISO, by virtue of it being the largest socialist group in the U.S. While usually naming the ISO, these attacks are, in reality attacks against all socialist groups. It would seem that Binh can never forgive the ISO for accepting him as a member. Groucho Marx said, "I would never join any organization that would have me as a member." Pham Binh says, "I will never forgive any organization that had me as a member."
These anti -organization types, even suggest all member based socialist revolutionary groups should liquidate themselves, and then build a brand new group, not before, but during an actual revolution. Good luck with that one.
John Lacny
All cadre organization bashers, take great delight in a 1998 article , by John Lacny , On the American International Socialist Organization: The Joy of Sects that has been circulating in cyber space for the last 15 years. Lacny first met the ISO, while attending the University of Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania. At the time there was a strike by support staff at the university. Lacny wanted to become involved in strike support work. Much to Lacny's dismay, the only organization doing such work, was the Pittsburgh branch of the ISO, whose membership included students attending the University.
Lacny, by his own admission joined the ISO, under false pretenses. He had no agreement with the politics nor interest in building the organization. He only wanted to support the strike. Did Lacny even consider the possibility of organizing a strike support committe? I don't know what the enrollment of the University of Pittsburgh was in 1998, but latest figures show 18,000 undergraduate students, and 10,000 graduate students, which is probably similar to the 1998 enrollment. If he had made the attempt, to even recruit, let's say, one in two thousand students, that would have been an initial strike support group of 14.
While a student at Columbus College, Columbus, Ga, I helped organize a sort of generic left group of 8 on a campus with an enrollment of 4,000 in 1973. If I could organize a left group of one in five hundred students, in the south, in a city that is the home of one of the largest military bases, Fort Benning, then surely Lacny could have built an organization of 14 at the University of Pittsburgh.
The difference, was I made the attempt and Lacny didn't. The moral of this story, is that anyone wanting to get a hearing from current or former ISO members, using John Lacny as an authority figure, will doom such efforts to failure. When shaking hands with Lacny, it's always a good idea to count your fingers afterwards.
Egypt
There's a debate at North Star, as well as the rest of the left, on how to relate to the recent events in Egypt. Those commenting on North Star, while putting emphasis on the role of the Egyptian military, conveniently overlook the 17-30 million, out of a total population of 84 million, in the streets, and the 22 million who signed petitions calling on former President Morsi to step down.
My favorite, in an ironic sort of way, argument of those who support Morsi, such as Arthur Dent (a pseudonym), is that "it was wrong to overthrow a democratically elected president." What in the hell do they think a revolution in the United States, or in any country, with a bourgeois democracy is going to do? For a start, overthrow the "democratically" elected executive and legislative branches of government, and probably a lot of other institutions, in the process!
Accomplishments of the Organized Left in the U.S.
The contributions of the organized left to various anti-war, labor and human rights struggles are too numerous to list here. Just to name a few struggles where members of cadre organizations played an important role, are the labor upsurges of the 1930's, to include the Minneapolis Teamster, and the San Francisco general strikes. The Socialist Workers Party contributed greatly to organizing the anti war movement opposed to the U.S. war in Vietnam during the 1960's. Socialist Action mobilized their members to provide support for the striking meatpacker workers of Local P9, United Food and Commerical Workers, at Hormel, Austin, MN in the mid 1980's.The ISO played a key role in the Charleston 5 Defense campaign, during 2001. These are just a few examples among many, too many to list here, in which organized cadre type socialist groups played an important role.
A Party of a New Kind?
The eventual alleged goal of the majority of North Star supporters is a the formation of a new left organization, that would replace the existing groups. This in itself is not necessarily a bad thing, if these people were truly serious. If they were truly serious, they would be organizing local networks, meetings, and conferences to launch such a project. Such efforts do not seem to be forthcoming.
The North Star is opposed to the very existence of the organized left, especially groups that describe themselves as Leninist, vanguardist, or cadre type organizations. The International Socialist Organization (ISO) one of several such groups, seems to draw the most attention, especially from the moderator of the site, Pham Binh, who is a former member of the ISO.
The North Star, and Pham Binh have received notoriety within the Left, for supporting U.S. military intervention in the Syrian civil war. The justification used by Binh and his fellow "humanitarian interventionists," is nearly identical to those who supported the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. Not content with espousing this view on the North Star site, Binh is now resorting to trolling other sites, such as the Kasama Project, www.kasamaproject.org,
Occupy
Binh was an early and enthusiastic supporter of the Occupy Movement. It's fair to say, that Occupy caught most of the Left by surprise. This was a new movement outside of the experience of most veteran activists, who were accustomed to organizing single issue campaigns, such as opposing a war, or supporting a union struggle. By opposing raising demands, Occupy was unable to organize a fight back against the conditions of austerity that resulted from the economic meltdown of 2008.
Relating to a movement, without demands, was unprecedented for many on the left. After the initial surprise most leftist organizations participated. Binh, who apparantly believes in the concept of original sin, instead of understanding the initial hesitancy of most experienced leftists, believes that everyone in the organized left is obligated to forever dress in sack cloth and ashes while repeating mea culpas.
The Organized Left, and Especially the International Socialist Organization
In the interest of full disclosure, I am a former member of the ISO, who left on good terms, for personal reasons. Most of the attacks against the organized left are directed at the ISO, by virtue of it being the largest socialist group in the U.S. While usually naming the ISO, these attacks are, in reality attacks against all socialist groups. It would seem that Binh can never forgive the ISO for accepting him as a member. Groucho Marx said, "I would never join any organization that would have me as a member." Pham Binh says, "I will never forgive any organization that had me as a member."
These anti -organization types, even suggest all member based socialist revolutionary groups should liquidate themselves, and then build a brand new group, not before, but during an actual revolution. Good luck with that one.
John Lacny
All cadre organization bashers, take great delight in a 1998 article , by John Lacny , On the American International Socialist Organization: The Joy of Sects that has been circulating in cyber space for the last 15 years. Lacny first met the ISO, while attending the University of Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania. At the time there was a strike by support staff at the university. Lacny wanted to become involved in strike support work. Much to Lacny's dismay, the only organization doing such work, was the Pittsburgh branch of the ISO, whose membership included students attending the University.
Lacny, by his own admission joined the ISO, under false pretenses. He had no agreement with the politics nor interest in building the organization. He only wanted to support the strike. Did Lacny even consider the possibility of organizing a strike support committe? I don't know what the enrollment of the University of Pittsburgh was in 1998, but latest figures show 18,000 undergraduate students, and 10,000 graduate students, which is probably similar to the 1998 enrollment. If he had made the attempt, to even recruit, let's say, one in two thousand students, that would have been an initial strike support group of 14.
While a student at Columbus College, Columbus, Ga, I helped organize a sort of generic left group of 8 on a campus with an enrollment of 4,000 in 1973. If I could organize a left group of one in five hundred students, in the south, in a city that is the home of one of the largest military bases, Fort Benning, then surely Lacny could have built an organization of 14 at the University of Pittsburgh.
The difference, was I made the attempt and Lacny didn't. The moral of this story, is that anyone wanting to get a hearing from current or former ISO members, using John Lacny as an authority figure, will doom such efforts to failure. When shaking hands with Lacny, it's always a good idea to count your fingers afterwards.
Egypt
There's a debate at North Star, as well as the rest of the left, on how to relate to the recent events in Egypt. Those commenting on North Star, while putting emphasis on the role of the Egyptian military, conveniently overlook the 17-30 million, out of a total population of 84 million, in the streets, and the 22 million who signed petitions calling on former President Morsi to step down.
My favorite, in an ironic sort of way, argument of those who support Morsi, such as Arthur Dent (a pseudonym), is that "it was wrong to overthrow a democratically elected president." What in the hell do they think a revolution in the United States, or in any country, with a bourgeois democracy is going to do? For a start, overthrow the "democratically" elected executive and legislative branches of government, and probably a lot of other institutions, in the process!
Accomplishments of the Organized Left in the U.S.
The contributions of the organized left to various anti-war, labor and human rights struggles are too numerous to list here. Just to name a few struggles where members of cadre organizations played an important role, are the labor upsurges of the 1930's, to include the Minneapolis Teamster, and the San Francisco general strikes. The Socialist Workers Party contributed greatly to organizing the anti war movement opposed to the U.S. war in Vietnam during the 1960's. Socialist Action mobilized their members to provide support for the striking meatpacker workers of Local P9, United Food and Commerical Workers, at Hormel, Austin, MN in the mid 1980's.The ISO played a key role in the Charleston 5 Defense campaign, during 2001. These are just a few examples among many, too many to list here, in which organized cadre type socialist groups played an important role.
A Party of a New Kind?
The eventual alleged goal of the majority of North Star supporters is a the formation of a new left organization, that would replace the existing groups. This in itself is not necessarily a bad thing, if these people were truly serious. If they were truly serious, they would be organizing local networks, meetings, and conferences to launch such a project. Such efforts do not seem to be forthcoming.
Friday, March 22, 2013
Pham Binh the Cruise Missile Socialist
The moderators of the website North Star, Pham Binh, and Clay Claiborne, have been advocating for United States military intervention in the Middle East, for the past year. Such people, if claiming to be socialist, are referred to as "cruise missile socialists."
The problem with this position, is that the same arguments the cruise missile socialists use for U.S. military intervention in Syria, was used by the Bush administration to justify the invasion and occupation of Iraq. This would require those who support U.S. military intervention in the region, as a positive development, to renounce their previous opposition to the Iraq War.
This has been accomplished with a recent article in North Star: 10 Years After The Iraq War: The Inevitability of Failure — and of Success, by Chris Cutrone, March 23, 2013. Cutrone conveniently overlooks the fact, that the reason the armed resistance against the U.S. occupation ended, was the result of the mostly Sunni resistance fighting two wars. They were fighting U.S. forces, plus engaged in a civil war with U.S. backed Shia forces. Even then they stopped fighting, after a truce, not a surrender. The mostly Sunni resistance fighters, kept their arms, and were paid by the U.S., as a sort of militia.
Further support of the cause of cruise missle socialism, by North Star is allowing the comments section of this article, and another article, Reflections on the Anti-War Movement, to be dominated by supporters of this position. One of the comments, supporting cruise missile liberalism is as long as an article.
The cruise missile socialists conveniently leave out the terrible costs to the Iraqi people. The number of Iraqi deaths are estimated, as low as 100,000 and as high as 1,000,000. The number of Iraqi refugees, both in Iraq and abroad number between 1 million and 2 million. There is also the cost to the U.S. of close to 5,000 deaths and a cost of over $1 trillion. That's a thousand billions.
The cruise missile socialists conveniently leave out the economic goals of the U.S. occupation. This was spelled out by, Paul Bremer, the first U.S. Pro Consul of Iraq. In his infamous "100 orders" which included privatization of the banks, fully privatized health care system, and the end of benefits such as unemployment insurance and old age pensions, Bremer's goal was to reintroduce laissez faire capitalism to Iraq.
Pham Binh started out, first trashing the entire left, then adopting cruise missile socialism, and now advocates the left to run candidates in Democratic Party primaries. There are those on the Left who consider Pham Binh, his mentor Louis Proyect, and Clay Claiborne, (who was resurrected from political obscurity by Louis Proyect), as "comrades." Do not include me in that group.
The problem with this position, is that the same arguments the cruise missile socialists use for U.S. military intervention in Syria, was used by the Bush administration to justify the invasion and occupation of Iraq. This would require those who support U.S. military intervention in the region, as a positive development, to renounce their previous opposition to the Iraq War.
This has been accomplished with a recent article in North Star: 10 Years After The Iraq War: The Inevitability of Failure — and of Success, by Chris Cutrone, March 23, 2013. Cutrone conveniently overlooks the fact, that the reason the armed resistance against the U.S. occupation ended, was the result of the mostly Sunni resistance fighting two wars. They were fighting U.S. forces, plus engaged in a civil war with U.S. backed Shia forces. Even then they stopped fighting, after a truce, not a surrender. The mostly Sunni resistance fighters, kept their arms, and were paid by the U.S., as a sort of militia.
Further support of the cause of cruise missle socialism, by North Star is allowing the comments section of this article, and another article, Reflections on the Anti-War Movement, to be dominated by supporters of this position. One of the comments, supporting cruise missile liberalism is as long as an article.
The cruise missile socialists conveniently leave out the terrible costs to the Iraqi people. The number of Iraqi deaths are estimated, as low as 100,000 and as high as 1,000,000. The number of Iraqi refugees, both in Iraq and abroad number between 1 million and 2 million. There is also the cost to the U.S. of close to 5,000 deaths and a cost of over $1 trillion. That's a thousand billions.
The cruise missile socialists conveniently leave out the economic goals of the U.S. occupation. This was spelled out by, Paul Bremer, the first U.S. Pro Consul of Iraq. In his infamous "100 orders" which included privatization of the banks, fully privatized health care system, and the end of benefits such as unemployment insurance and old age pensions, Bremer's goal was to reintroduce laissez faire capitalism to Iraq.
Pham Binh started out, first trashing the entire left, then adopting cruise missile socialism, and now advocates the left to run candidates in Democratic Party primaries. There are those on the Left who consider Pham Binh, his mentor Louis Proyect, and Clay Claiborne, (who was resurrected from political obscurity by Louis Proyect), as "comrades." Do not include me in that group.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Peter Camejo and What Is To Be Done
The North Star web site, www.thenorthstar.info, as well as leftist bloggers, Pham Binh and Louis Proyect, moderator of Marxmail www.marxmail.org, advocate that all current Leftist organizations are useless in the cause to advance working class struggles and a should be disbanded. Binh and Proyect claim that organizations claiming to be Leninist are instead actually, "Zinovievist."
The late Peter Camejo (1939-2008), is held as a model of emulation by Proyect and Binh. Camejo advocated the US left use the Cuban July 26 Movement, and the Nicaraguan Sandinistas, as models. What Camejo, Proyect, and Binh overlook, is that these movements came to power as the result of armed struggle, with no explanation how this applies to US conditions. The point of unity of both the Cuban and Nicaraguan movements was the overthrow of a particular dictatorship, not Socialism. Proyects irrelevant response to this contradiction is "read Lars Lih." Many of us find Lars Lih hard to read. The only effect Lih's writing has had for me was to cure my inflight insomnia. Thanks to Lars Lih, for the first time in my life, I can sleep during air travel.
The North Star Network, set up by Camejo, is held as a model of effective Socialist organizing. I was in the San Francisco Bay Area, during the short life of Northstar, the name sake of the North Star web site. The North Star Network, was for all practical purposes, a personality cult around Camejo. The organization disbanded, in 1988, not as the result of a democratic vote, but single handedly by Camejo. That says it all.
Camejo's supporters project Camejo as a dissident in the Socialist Workers Party. He was part of the inner membership until 1977, when he began to develop differences with the leadership of the party. The time for Camejo to present his disagreements with the SWP leadership, would have been during pre convention discussion leading up the the 1981 convention, and at the convention. Instead Camejo decided to take what he claimed was a temporary leave of absence to "think thing out," at his family's estate in Venezuela, prior to the beginning of pre convention disussion, in early 1981. The proper time for "thinking things out" would have been during the pre convention discussion.
The maximum leave of absence in the SWP was usually 3 months. There may have been exceptions to this. During a leave, members were still expected to pay dues, and if during a convention, pay the convention assessment that all members paid. Camejo did not pay any dues during his so called leave, nor did he pay convention assessment. Camejo was not expelled from the Socialist Workers Party. Camejo cut and ran, rather than participate in the 1981 convention. The claim that he was still a member during his almost year long hiatus, is the result of either hubris or arrogance on his part.
In 1983 someone I knew asked Camejo, why he didn't share all his disagreements with the membership. His response was, "I wanted this discussion restricted to the leadership." This response , along with Camejo's style of "leadership" and his unilateral disbanding of the North Star Network, would indicate that Camejo supported an elitist form of leadership. This is hardly a model that bears emulation.
Camejo's positive contribution was his ability as a public speaker who could articulate socialist concepts in popular language. His ability as an organizer did not measure up to his speaking skills. This is no great sin. No one should be required to be talented in everything. This is why having an organization, with divisions of labor, where the contributions of all can be utilized is so important.
The late Peter Camejo (1939-2008), is held as a model of emulation by Proyect and Binh. Camejo advocated the US left use the Cuban July 26 Movement, and the Nicaraguan Sandinistas, as models. What Camejo, Proyect, and Binh overlook, is that these movements came to power as the result of armed struggle, with no explanation how this applies to US conditions. The point of unity of both the Cuban and Nicaraguan movements was the overthrow of a particular dictatorship, not Socialism. Proyects irrelevant response to this contradiction is "read Lars Lih." Many of us find Lars Lih hard to read. The only effect Lih's writing has had for me was to cure my inflight insomnia. Thanks to Lars Lih, for the first time in my life, I can sleep during air travel.
The North Star Network, set up by Camejo, is held as a model of effective Socialist organizing. I was in the San Francisco Bay Area, during the short life of Northstar, the name sake of the North Star web site. The North Star Network, was for all practical purposes, a personality cult around Camejo. The organization disbanded, in 1988, not as the result of a democratic vote, but single handedly by Camejo. That says it all.
Camejo's supporters project Camejo as a dissident in the Socialist Workers Party. He was part of the inner membership until 1977, when he began to develop differences with the leadership of the party. The time for Camejo to present his disagreements with the SWP leadership, would have been during pre convention discussion leading up the the 1981 convention, and at the convention. Instead Camejo decided to take what he claimed was a temporary leave of absence to "think thing out," at his family's estate in Venezuela, prior to the beginning of pre convention disussion, in early 1981. The proper time for "thinking things out" would have been during the pre convention discussion.
The maximum leave of absence in the SWP was usually 3 months. There may have been exceptions to this. During a leave, members were still expected to pay dues, and if during a convention, pay the convention assessment that all members paid. Camejo did not pay any dues during his so called leave, nor did he pay convention assessment. Camejo was not expelled from the Socialist Workers Party. Camejo cut and ran, rather than participate in the 1981 convention. The claim that he was still a member during his almost year long hiatus, is the result of either hubris or arrogance on his part.
In 1983 someone I knew asked Camejo, why he didn't share all his disagreements with the membership. His response was, "I wanted this discussion restricted to the leadership." This response , along with Camejo's style of "leadership" and his unilateral disbanding of the North Star Network, would indicate that Camejo supported an elitist form of leadership. This is hardly a model that bears emulation.
Camejo's positive contribution was his ability as a public speaker who could articulate socialist concepts in popular language. His ability as an organizer did not measure up to his speaking skills. This is no great sin. No one should be required to be talented in everything. This is why having an organization, with divisions of labor, where the contributions of all can be utilized is so important.
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