The ISO is pulling the wool over your eyes. Below is the text of a message recently posted to a syndicalists listerv I'm on from someone who just left the ISO.
----- Original Message ----- Sent: Friday, May 24, 2002 4:24 PM To: syndicalists at anarchosyndicalism.org Subject: [syndicalists] defecting from the ISO
Comrades,
Defecting from the ISO is like not drinking the red cool-aid. For the longest time I would read read entries on indymedia and infoshop.org bashing the ISO and all other heirarchial, leninist, and centralized lefty groups but I couldnt understand why they would bash such a strong(in numbers) and highly active organization that is fighting for actual change and revolution. (For I was ignorant in those days)
So the weeks go by, I bring up these entries that do nothing but bash how horrible the ISO is and one of our chapter leaders tells me that they are not important and they do not mean anything b/c the people writting them dont know anything, even if some of the entries came from ex-ISO members. So, then I am silenced again b/c I thought they are right. Some more weeks go by, I get the bright idea of standing up for the anarchist that they like to bash much and I say, "they night not believe in the same politics as you do, but they are a real group/organization as us that are fighting for change. Yes, they might have different ways of organizing and fighting, but they are still a very important groupand atleast the "militant" ones keep us from getting our heads bashed in at protests." The reponse was they their tatics are anti-worker and do nothing but cause damage and create problems for the working-class.
Yet again some weeks go by, I start being more and more of a wrench at the ISO meetings. I am graced with a lot of calls from our personal little Heirarchy(one of the committee leaders) saying that I am leading people away from Socialist politics and especially the ones that are not as strong in the marxist theory..blah blah blah. I responds saying that I feel like an anarchist in the closet of a Leninist organization but I will continue to work with the organization...I get a response saying that anarchist fucked up revolutions before and our theory will fail b/c it is not centralized and lacks the marxist/leninist theory.
Ignorate to the Cordinating Committee at local branches and the National Steering Committee, I had no idea that they were the ones in control of the ISO and not all the members like it should be and what I though was happening. (hence my ignorance of not knowing the difference b/w anarchism and centralized socialism.) Anyway my final straw happened at the A20 mobilzation for Palestine, IMF and whatnot. So, there we are getting ready to go and they tell me that I am gonna be part of the Palestinian Liberation Rally on the Eclipse before the marches connect against Israeli occupation. I told our leader that I wanted to be part of the IMF/World Bank protest and then meet up with the Palestinian march. The reponse to that statement by the ISO head guy of our group said, "No, the national steering committee has decided that we are gonna be part of the Palestinian Rally." then later down the road of that weekend he confronts m! e again saying the one of the Steering committee people told him that I said, "I dont care if they are making decisions I like or that I hate, the fact that they are making these decision for me is unatural and wrong." and his response to that was..."well we vote these people into the committee and intrust them with these powers and ability to cordinate us in this manner and that is what centeralization is."(sounds alot like what we live in today.) or something to that effect...then I fucking quit the ISO b/c they made me do something that I didnt really want to do but what is worse is the fact they the told me what I needed to do at A20 and not let me voice my idea and say that I wanted to march against the IMF b/c of this and that..blah blah....oh yeah and selling papers is so much fun...blah blah blah.
yup
ps- the quotes might not be exactly right but they get the point across of what was said. and the point of this long article is the fact that the Leninist groups do not read anarchist lit but rather they read what marx, engels, lenin, trotsky, and the more modern leninist writters have to say about anarchism. They also like to talk shit about infoshop.org saying that it is just set up by some kid that isnt smart and just puts shit up to be cool. He/ISO tend to think that the only website that is worth a damn is internationalsocialist.org...BLAH.