WWP

Nathan Newman nathan at newman.org
Tue Oct 9 08:25:30 PDT 2001


Yes, not that I call for attacking anyone personally and Lou seems quite amiable on that basis.

But Justin's analogy is the interesting point-- the WWP do not defend support for China as a lesser-evil option compared to the West (a position taken by many lefties of misguided but reasonable views) but actively apologize for mass murder by the Chinese government during the Cultural Revolution through Tianamen. This is what distinguishes the WWP from the other sectarian groups- their explicit policy is defense of mass murder and the assertion of the good faith of the leaders who carried out those mass murders.

I may support the Dems (which includes everyone from Barbara Lee to John Breaux) as a lesser-evil political choice in November, but I don't make absolute apologia for mass murder by the US government from Vietnam to Cambodia to Panama to the Gulf War. I readily argue that the capitalist regimes have matched the Soviet and Chinese regimes murder for murder around the world, through inducements of poverty and mass starvation through agents like the IMF and World Bank. I have my much vilified lesser-evil preference for NATO over the mass murder of the Milosevic regime, but if you want to compare my apologia of 500 NATO-induced deaths in Kosovo versus the millions by the Chinese government, that is an analogy you are free to make but it's pretty weak. And I don't express love and solidarity to the leaders of US imperialism.

For an example of the slavish worship of Stalinist repression by the WWP, check out Sam Marcy's eulogy to North Korea's Kim Il Sung, where he wrote "The accomplishments of socialist construction will be a lasting monument to the leadership of Comrade Kim Il Sung...Workers World Party values our close, comradely relations with the Workers Party of Korea very highly. We are proud to have known Kim Il Sung as a great leader and a comrade in the international communist movement. And it is with the most profound sense of loss that we mark his passing." see http://www.workers.org/marcy/1994/sm940721.html

What is interesting about the WWP is that, while they have possibly the worst political line of any of the sectarian groups, they also happen to have the least obnoxious praxis (note Lou's amiability)- the reason they manage to play such a strong role in building demos. They do this through an endless set of minimalist demands that add up to no coherent strategy beyond the next demo, because the lack of principled coalitions built make strategy impossible. "No ____" becomes the signature of left irrelevance, because WWP-organized rallies never have a positive set of policies advocated. What is remarkable about the "call" they are promoting in their rallies is that the words "peace" and "justice" appear nowhere in them- only "against war" and "against racism"-- always against, never for, because they basically don't share real progressive politics with other groups to build a coalition on a postive set of goals.

-- Nathan Newman

----- Original Message ----- From: "Justin Schwartz" <jkschw at hotmail.com> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2001 10:31 AM Subject: Re: WWP

Chill out, Dennis. Save it for Colin Powell and Donald Rumsfeld. I don't want to discuss the WWP either, but if Lou can contribute inb a cnstructive way, why not talk with him? We welcomed Brad De Long while he was here, and Nathan Newman, and they support the Democratic Party, which stands for stuff as bas as what you accuse the WWP of. jks


>I have no desire nor time to get involved with a discussion about the
>fucking WWP. They are sectarian jerks, parasites who have no popular link
>to
>the American working class (which is not a monolithic entity) and never
>will. They also support the killing of unarmed dissidents in order to
>protect sweatshop "socialism" and other earthly delights offered to The
>People by the vile Chinese regime. Lou can drone on about the
revolutionary
>power of Santa Claus for all I care, and you can pat his back in
agreement.
>At least some rough entertainment will be had. Let a thousand pro-WWP
posts
>bloom!
>
>DP
>

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