It's hard to predict what the Sparts will interfere with. We have them here at the University of Chicago, and they are indeed quite a nuisance. They're the worst when they're attacking my socialist group (they accused us of working for the CIA and killing Rosa Luxemburg). But during the bombing of Yugoslavia, they also liked to come to big forums about the war, where they would stand up and make long, pointless speeches defending the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. They've come to various other forums, too, in the time I've been here.
On the other hand, they've never really made much trouble for our campus anti-sweatshop group. Maybe it's too petit-bourgeois for them, I don't know.
I've heard stories of Chicago Sparts physically attacking people a demonstrations, but I've never seen that.
Because they're so obnoxious, the Sparts are easier to deal with than other sectarians, in a way. I remember when I lived in Minneapolis, the Socialist Workers Party played a really disruptive role in a lot of coalitions I was a part of. They were more damaging than the Sparts because they were subtle enough to actually work with the coalition and make it appear that they were participating in good faith. The Sparts don't really join anything, in my experience--they just like to harass people. So the biggest problem you're going to have, I think, is that they'll come to all your events and demonstrations selling the Workers Vanguard, thereby making you look insane by association.
So my advice, I guess, would be to ignore them as much as possible. If you have an event, try to either avoid calling on them for questions, or make sure to cut them off quickly when they start making speeches in the guise of asking questions.
To lighten things up, here's an old DSA song about the Sparts:
The Sparticists are Coming to Town
(To the tune of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town")
(Chorus) You better be pure You better think right You're in trouble If you're not Trotskyite Sparticists are coming to town
They're checking you out Making a list Going to find every revisionist The Sparticists are coming to town
They jeer you at your meetings Their questions last an hour You're holding back the working class Who're about to seize state power
(Chorus)
They support martial law in Poland They think that it is great That the army keeps Poland A degenerate workers' state
(Chorus)
They go to demonstrations They sometimes break a head They're trying to prove to you That you're better red than dead
(Chorus)
They come up with great chants They always get a roar Like "The Defense of the Soviet Union Starts in Cuba and El Salvador!"
-------------- "A correct understanding that death is nothing to us makes the mortality of life enjoyable, not by adding to life a limitless time, but by taking away the yearning after immortality." --Epicurus --- End forwarded message ---