Current political issues in the Socialist Party

Sunday, 29 July 2007

This will also go to another list so you may get it more than once.

I got the latest H&T yesterday and Socialist Women and I was struck by the fact that H&T had less than four pages of content! A long piece by Eric Chester on Iraq (with which I generally agreed, except that Eric's reference to a "third camp" position seems outdated to me). a short and (I thought) pointless constitutional amendment from Don Busky on banning Marxist-Leninists from the SP (I say pointless, because if we assume that Marxist-Leninists will cheat, steal and lie to achieve their ends, how can we know who is and who isn't? Who makes the judgement? How do we bell the cat? Clearly the SP should not, as an organization, be a place where Marxist/Leninists feel at home but I don't quite know how you can keep them out). A short piece from Ari Moore in the NYC Local, about local outreach. And some very helpful suggestions from Maggie Phair on platform notions, written in a sensible, non-dogmatic way.

What troubles me is that while on the one hand we do know the SP is in crisis, that it has lost a significant number of members, this isn't reflected in H&T.

The deadline for the next issue is August 15th.

I've already reported that Wisconsin is thinking of organizing the Memorial for Frank Zeidler during the convention - possibly at some point, such as lunch time - which would make it optional for those on the SP's very far left who wouldn't want to be involved in the event.

The convention will, I assume, nominate Eric Chester for President - just a guess, as I don't even know who is in the running. The sad problem for Chester, if he makes the run, is that after the experience in 2004 when he led the fight against the SP's nominee, he will not be a healing or unifying figure. On the other hand, given where the SP is today I'm not sure it makes much difference who the nominee is or whether there is one.

An example of the internally arid situation of the SP is in the latest issue of Socialist Women edited by Susan Dorazio. The International Women's Day issue earlier this year had carried a piece by Sharin Chiorazzo which was full of praise for Hezbollah. I had sent in a letter (which was printed in full) saying that while we could certainly salute Hezbollah's courage in standing off the Israeli attacks in Lebanon, that politically, from a socialist point of view, Hezbollah simply didn't have our politics. Sharin's reply (typical in such cases, it was twice as long as my own letter) chided me for not dealing with Israel, and suggesting I needed to "confront {my} own Zionist and anti-Arab tendencies". I don't object to Sharin's reply but to its content - surely one can be sharply critical of Israel without making the mistake of thinking that the hardline Islamic positions of Hezbollah should be supported. (Note, I do NOT criticize Susan Dorazio for running the letters, I was impressed that the current issue was written to salute "our anarchist sisters" - mainly I'm saddened that the SP is not able to project a genuinely socialist and democratic analysis of the Middle East, something which is being done by our co-workers in Israel and by others in the Palestinian/Arab community.

I think it is clear that for those concerned with genuine feminist issues, that uncritical support of Hezbollah is a contradiction. Just as it should be clear that we can unconditionally oppose the US invasion of Iraq and demand its immediate end without expressing political solidarity with the Shia and Sunni military resistance to the US, which has devolved into horrific and suicidal attacks not so much on the US forces as on Iraqis who find themselves on the wrong side of the sectarian struggle.

There is no longer any single "center" of the left in the US, nor even, as was true half a century ago, a disagreement between "two centers" - the Communist and Socialist Parties. Today no single left group is providing the leadership needed and the question for some of us who have watched in dismay such antics as the National Committee's suspension of the Wisconin SP (!!??) is what to do by the end of the year. This is not, however, even to begin to suggest any kind of split. To some extent a silent split has been occuring over the past two years as members simply drifted away. It may be this situation can't be reversed, regardless of what steps the convention takes.

But certainly the beginning of hope would be the replacement of the current national leadership of the SP, without which a renewal is impossible.

So for those who are in the SP, who believe it can still play a role, I'd suggest writing for the next H&T (the last before the October convention), and to consider attending the St. Louis convention in October.

Fraternally,
David McReynolds