It's actually a very old idea. The youth arms of the CPUSA did that sort of thing, rather successfully, back in the 1930s, in terms of sending young college students or graduates in to help organize the CIO unions. Some of the European social democratic parties were doing that even earlier too. The philosopher Karl Popper, as a young man, trained to be a cabinetmaker, as part of such an effort by the Austrian Social Democrats. In the case of the Progressive Labor Party, there were certainly people in it at that time who had direct experiences of what the CPUSA had done in the 1930s. However, in the case of Progressive Labor and SDS, I don't think they had the people who could have provided effective guidance over the young kids that they were sending out.
Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimfarmelant www.foxymath.com Learn or Review Basic Math
-------------------------------------------------- From: "JOANNA A." <123hop at comcast.net> Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2014 8:26 PM To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Sects and vanguards - SDS, Weatherman, etc.
> In theory it's not a bad idea. But remember, these were very young kids,
> and they were absolutely convinced that they knew everything. And what
> they were is very privileged white kids. I just couldn't see that their
> speeches or postures would go over well among older, working class people.
>
> Joanna
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> I knew a few people who'd done this, actually. I'm curious why you thought
> it was a bad idea?
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 5, 2014 at 4:34 PM, JOANNA A. <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:
>
>>
>> I attended exactly one SDS meeting, when I was fifteen.
>>
>> Most attendees were not much older. There were about a dozen of us.
>>
>> The meeting was all about how these white, college-bound students were
>> going to get factory jobs over the summer and talk the workers there into
>> revolution.
>>
>> That sounded wrong even to my naive fifteen-year old self.
>>
>> Joanna
>> ___________________________________
>> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>>
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
> ____________________________________________________________
> Quiksilverâ"¢ Official Site
> Shop For Quiksilver New Arrivals Today! Free Shipping On All Orders
> http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3165/5317cfc6dad944fc64fdamp03vuc
>