Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired
GED/HEO
3-2-22
A good presentation of an article on their website from the UK
socialist site Left Horizons. It is clearly oriented to workers rather than as
is so often the case as a polemic directed at competing socialist currents or
groups or to the educated middle classes and academia. The points are as relevant
here in the US or the rest of the world; as the speaker says, socialists are
internationalists.
At the end, the speaker quotes the Russian
revolutionary Leon Trotsky with regard to WW2. I have a lot of respect for the views of
Trotsky, who was a Jewish Ukrainian, as I would never have been drawn to socialism
or even read any of Marx and Engel’s writings being put off by the system in
the old Soviet Union. Like many workers, if that was socialism I wanted no part
of it. Reading the Communist Manifesto helped clear that up for me, Marx would
have been sent to Siberia as Trotsky was.
I do not identify as a Trotskyist and I think it is
not healthy to place any human being on a pedestal giving them god-like
qualities. Trotsky was simply a. man with a certain view of the world and, like
anyone else, made mistakes. He was a leader in an historic revolutionary
process though and we can learn from his and others experiences. He was not the
only person that contributed to the revolutionary process.
Another unfortunate reason I cringe a bit when these
revolutionary figures names are raised is the existence of socialist groupings,
more often than not grouplets, that bear their names and claim to be the sole
owners of the correct path to emancipation and a just society; I have some
experience in this regard and was expelled from one of these groups; it was a
good thing, though I do believe a revolutionary current and leadership is
crucial in the class war we are forced to engage in. I just do not believe this
will arise in the way I was taught.
Being immersed in the union struggles and in the day
to day battles with the bosses on the job, with my own class, where the “rubber
meets the road”, shielded me from the worst effects I believe.
Apart from having little or no significant influence
in the working class, some of them are so totally disconnected from working
people, so isolated that their approach and methods completely turn workers off.
Most of them, certainly here in the US anyway have poisonous internal lives, are
very undemocratic and have historically been extremely sexist, led, in some
cases, by male figures who have been in place for decades. Any organization that has the same person at
the top for a half century is not a healthy one. This does not mean there aren’t
dedicated and genuine people in these groups with the best of intentions, but
the road to hell is paved with good intentions as the saying goes,
It’s not Trotsky’s fault that some bearing his name harm
the positive aspects of his legacy we should not let that prevent us from
learning from his failures and as well as his successes. It’s best to stay away
from hero worship. Trump’s a Christian don’t forget.
I think the explanation of how workers should react
to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and
all the nationalism and flag waving that
surrounds it as if Washington or London gives a
damn about the Ukrainian people,
is explained in the Left Horizons video included and
encouraged my class
brothers and sisters to watch it.
Finally, I am not in any organization and am speaking
here as an individual.
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