On 2013-06-01, at 4:05 PM, Michael Smith wrote:
>> On Saturday, June 1, 2013, Marv Gandall wrote:
>>
>>> Whatever you may think of the ISO or Trotskyism - or the CP or the
>>> anarchists or the Socialist Party, for that matter - this reeks of
>>> ignorant red-baiting.
>
> This comes rather oddly from Marv, whose favorite phrase is
> 'ultra-left'.
It's not my "favourite" phrase since I've only used to describe the views of Carrol and his acolytes like yourself who I don't consider to be representative of the politics and mode of expression of most others on the list. If that weren't so, I'd bid the list a prompt farewell. As you indicate, I also regard the ISO and the other self-proclaimed revolutionary vanguard organizations to be "ultra left" in relation to the current level of mass political consciousness, but they have the saving grace of a serious approach to political issues and political work on the campuses, in the unions, and the various single issue movements. I've known these vanguard groups from the inside and have read enough material produced by today's ISO to appreciate that, whatever else the organization may be, it is not composed of "psychologically vulnerable and politically naive young idealists" led by armchair elitists who "sedulously indoctrinate them into a stale and anachronistic ideology" (!!!) which, for the most part, I still share. If that doesn't reek of red-baiting, I don't know what does.