>I think empty calls for unity such as Alex's are disgusting and
>disunifying, besides being utterly out of touch with the actual
>realities of trying to build unity in practice.
You don't build unity in practice by denouncing people as sickening. You start on building unity in practice by trying to find common ground with people who are more or less on your side, instead of trying to find the mote in their eye. I'm sure the German Communists thought they were following some higher revolutionary principle in denouncing the Social Democrats as social fascists, but the only revolution that was promoted by that stance was Hitler's. It seems to me that a lot of "Marxist" political practice consists of citing your own purer revolutionary Marxism, which almost always involves pointing to the impurities of other leftists from whom you're differentiating yourself. That looks like the essence of Proyectism, which creates enemies and demons through ignorant and tendentious readings of people you don't even understand, in the name of a higher purity. I say that's fucked, bigtime.
Doug