Irish elections and mistakes of the self styled revolutionary left

First country to support gay marriage by referendum

Comrades and readers of this blog, I am posting this commentary in response to some of the comments and responses I have had with regards to my previous piece on the Irish elections. It has stirred up a lot of interest and some discussion on various forums including the Irish Indymedia. I wish to thank those who responded, especially Paddy Hacket and Johnny Flaherty. At first I was reluctant to post again as it was too narrow as I am also from and familiar with Irish events. But, on reflection this is not the case. It is important from an international class perspective and also with regard to the views myself and others associated with this blog have developed with regard to capitalism and the nature of the so-called revolutionary organizations and how a workers international capable of overthrowing capitalism can be built.

Sean O’Torain (John Throne)

In relation to the self styled revolutionary left and their undemocratic, sectarian corrupt internal lives I would like to ask the Comrades to read a piece I wrote a while back titled, "The internal lives of Revolutionary Organizations." This gives some idea of how far I have evolved in my position from my early days. And my position is still evolving.

Yes it is correct that I was "joined at the hip" with the Militant the forerunner of the SP. as Paddy Hacket says.  I was its first member in Southern Ireland. I was its first full timer in Ireland as a whole. But as Paddy says it is as if I never existed. I was also the first full timer for the Committee For a Workers International, the international body to which the Socialist Alternative in the US is affiliated, and there too it is as if I never existed. Not only myself, but four others were also expelled from the US section of the CWI and the early history of that organization has been blacked out.  Read the websites of these organizations or Wikipedia under Socialist Alternative. Myself and others have been written out of history. There are many others who have suffered the same fate in other countries and over decades. This is the method of Stalinism without the violence.

If I am ever mentioned it is to be lied about by the leadership of these organizations. They even say that I stole money from them. I, who sold a house I lived in in Crumlin in Dublin to get money for printing equipment for the then Militant. I was expelled from the Militant/CWI in 1996. Contrary to what they claim in their constitution that if you are expelled you have the right to appeal against your expulsion, I tried to attend many conferences of sections of this organization, one in the North Star Hotel in Dublin But was not allowed in to appeal against my expulsion. I went to see Joe Higgins whom I had recruited to socialism and to the Militant when he was at UCD and asked him to support my right to appeal. We met in the Buswells Hotel. He sat clutching a bunch of CWI documents to his chest and said: "I will not support your right to appeal. You got yourself into this mess yourself and you can get out of it yourself." Then he got up and ran from the hotel.

The only person in Ireland who took a principled stand against my expulsion was the late Bill Webster. He came to the US to see if what was being said about me was correct. He concluded it was lies and went back to Derry and resigned from the SP and the CWI in protest at the way I was treated. To add insult to injury Joe Higgins went to Bill's funeral and claimed him for the SP and the CWI. I can think of no depths to which the leadership of the SP will not sink to hold on to their positions and cover their tracks. 

But to the essence of my expulsion. The Militant, the CWI and myself had argued for decades that capitalism would not go back to the former Soviet Union. That instead there would be a political revolution and this society would move on to democratic socialism. We also argued that a new economic collapse similar to that of 1929 was coming in the 1970's or 1980's and out of this and the political revolution in the former Soviet Union would come a new democratic socialist world. Talk about a mistaken perspective. I was part of developing and arguing for this wrong perspective.

We also did not see the advent of new technology and its affects. These were major mistakes, mistakes of historic proportions. We expected the world to take a further step forward and eradicate capitalism and establish democratic socialism, instead the world took a step back and re-established capitalism in the former Soviet Union and China now also looks to be heading in that direction. I repeat this was no small mistake. I wanted to discuss this mistake in the CWI, first to acknowledge it and then discuss it. Why had we made such a huge mistake? Was there a mistake in our method?

But this was not the approach of the rest of the majority of the leadership of the CWI. I was part of the 6-person leadership body at that time. The majority of the rest of that leadership refused to face up to the major mistakes we had made. They denied they had made them, blaming others, blaming this and that, saying they had seen it coming, all lies. Their whole emphasis was to keep themselves in the leadership and to keep themselves with the image of the all-seeing all-knowing never making a mistake leadership. I refused to go along with this. I openly admitted my own part in these mistakes and demanded the organization and the rest of the leadership do the same. The majority of the rest of the leadership refused. So I had to be silenced. I had to be written out of the history. This is what happened, this is why I do not appear anywhere in the history of the CWI/SP. But the leadership for the CWI/SP made some other mistakes. They did not see the advent of the Internet. I communicate regularly with hundreds of members and ex-members of the CWI/SP. I help run a Blog which has had over 900,000 page views. The leadership of the CWI/SP have not been able to write me out of history. 

I have a couple of issues I would like to discuss with the Comrades who have responded to my article on the Irish Elections. I still believe that capitalism has to be overthrown. I still believe, in fact more than ever, that unless it is overthrown life on earth as we know it will be wiped out. And not in the next centuries, but in the next decades. And I also believe that for capitalism to be overthrown we need a mass revolutionary organization of tens and hundreds of millions. I believe there is no alternative. I go into how I see such an organization being built in the piece I wrote on the internal life of left organizations,.

It is my opinion that we who believe that capitalism has to be overthrown and that the self styled revolutionary left organizations are incapable of building a mass international of tens and hundreds of millions have to face up to these realities and put our shoulders to the wheel and try to build something healthy, to build revolutionary organizations with a healthy internal life, a new and healthy culture. Not the culture that now exists which is based on the years when Bolshevism was being crushed by Stalinism and new and rotten and dictatorial organizations were being built in the name of revolutionary workers organizations. 

I would be interested in communicating with the Comrades who still wish to end capitalism and who wish to draw conclusions from the false methods of the self styled revolutionary left. Our blog would like to meet and work with any comrades who agree with this. My former Comrades in the CWI/SP are very reluctant to discuss with me as if they do so they will be driven out of their own existing organizations, or slandered as myself and other have been. This goes to ridiculous lengths. I recently wrote a book called The Donegal Woman. It was number two in the best sellers list in Northern Ireland. It was based on the life of my grandmother, a peasant woman from Donegal who had been in the hiring out system and physically and sexually abused. The sectarianism of my former organization was and is so great that with two or three exceptions they boycotted its Dublin launch and denounced it as a "flop. I am presently at my last but one final editing of a book of my own life from a small farmer background in Donegal, where my family were leaders of the Orange Order, to an international revolutionary socialist via the Bogside uprising. This will also go into my experience with organizing with the CWI/SP and also my general revolutionary and life experiences. I am still looking for a name for it. John (Sean) Throne.

Kshama Sawant Speaks in Oakland CA

Richard Mellor Afscme Local 444 retired

“There has been a deep hunger for an alternative to corporate politics.” Kshama Sawant

I attended a fundraiser for Kshama Sawant in Oakland CA last night. Sawant, as most readers are probably aware, is the socialist elected to the Seattle City Council and a major figure in the $15 NOW movement. She is a member of Socialist Alternative, the socialist group that a number of supporters of this blog were expelled from. There were about four hundred in attendance there, mostly older people but there were a number of young people present including SA members.

On the platform with Sawant was Chris Hedges, the writer and Gayle McLaughlin, former mayor and now councilmember from Richmond CA. She is also a member of the Green Party and the Richmond Progressive Alliance. I wanted to get this video clip up here and don’t have much time but I wanted to make some observations.

Comrade Sawant correctly talked of the importance of her victory in Seattle. The capitalist class and their media have gone after her as they have Jeremy Corbyn in Britain. She talks of the people being inspired by the events in Seattle which is important in that it offers a “Vision of independent organization” and politics, “Independent of corporate forces and the politicians that are beholden to them.” “We need an alternative to the Democratic Party”. Sawant said and stressed that the “Only way to do it was to build our own party. We need an independent party for working people.”

There were a considerable number of Bernie supporters there as well, some of them young people. Chris hedges though was the only speaker to shed some light on Sanders saying that he was not going to vote for Sanders because he was not about to abandon the Palestinian people, he’d spent too long in Gaza to do that. He was the only speaker to raise Sanders at all in any serious way, Sawant as far as I can recall made no mention of him to any serious extent.

Sawant and Socialist alternative are in a bit of a quandary re Sanders as they are not really clear that Sanders, who is a Zionist, should not be supported at all from day one. Reading their website they argue that Sanders should run as an independent as opposed to in the capitalist Democratic Party and that he should do this in order, “to help build a political alternative to the corporate-owned political parties.” They accept that there will be a crisis in 2016 when, as is most likely, Sanders will not get the nomination and will call on his supporters to support the Democratic Party machine candidate, most likely Hilary Clinton. In this scenario, SA hopes that by building a strong enough base among Sanders supporters’ “A strong left current can mobilize Sanders’ supporters to demand Bernie continues running, or lead as much of the campaign as possible away from the Democrats if Bernie insists on endorsing Clinton.” (My added emphasis)

This is not a viable position, after all, what if Sanders were to get the nomination, what then? The main problem is that those people wanting to continue to fight, to participate in a national election in other words, want somewhere to go, where is Socialist Alternative leading Sanders supporters to? They do not make this clear although I will hazard a guess that what they have in mind is “join Socialist Alternative”, but are not saying this and that adds more confusion because it’s not telling workers the truth.

The PWPW in contrast has an alternative As Sean O’Torain speaking for the PWPW on this blog on Sept 11th, wrote: “The most important development as far as the movement around Sanders is concerned will come when he either supports the Democratic party nominee, most likely still Clinton, or when he himself wins the nomination and refuses to take on capitalism. The most likely development will be that Sanders will not win the nomination and will then throw his support behind the Democratic Party nominee. But either of these developments will lead to a major break in the situation. Meaning that tens and tens of thousands of Sanders supporters will be thrown into confusion and or be looking for some other way to pursue their struggle. In this situation unless something that looks reasonable and serious exists there will be the risk that many of these former Sanders supporters will drift temporarily out of political struggle. This would be a setback, a big lost opportunity. So the authors of this Blog offer this alternative.”

“We have joined and advocate that others also join the Green Party and support Jill Stein as the presidential candidate of that party. But we do not leave it there. We also advocate that the Green Party should become an open democratic socialist party. None of the problems that the Green Party considers core issues, climate change, poverty, unemployment, low wages, war, racism, sexism, and so on can be solved under capitalism. We also advocate that the Green Party seek to evolve into a mass workers party. That is build locals and put down its roots in the workplaces, the rank and file of the unions, the communities, the schools and the colleges. Only the united and mobilized working class can end capitalism and solve the problems of society which the Green Party sees as demanding solutions.”

Despite having a Green Party member and city councilor on the podium and stressing the need for an alternative to the two corporate parties, suggesting that Sanders supporters join the Greens, help build it and develop it’s character and program, never entered comrade Sawant’s head. It’s as if the Greens don’t exist. Given Socialist Alternative’s strong call for abandoning the Democrats, one could not be faulted for thinking that having a Green Party member on the platform might be a little opportunistic.

For the supporters of this blog, leading people “away from the Democrats” but with no stated arrival point as SA argues, or, if SA were to more open about their actual strategy, to call on the many young people involved in the Sanders’ campaign to join Socialist Alternative when the penny drops, is simply not a viable option.

Along with joining the Green party, which has some level of a national structure and is neither a capitalist nor a workers’ party, we stand for building an alliance of all who are against the destructive offensive of the 1%. That the most important issue facing us today is helping build a mass working class movement, an alliance of any groups confronting austerity and against the offensive of the 1%.
Such a movement will arise regardless as workers and youth, women and specially oppressed minorities, are forced to struggle against the system and against austerity. But when we have successes like SA has with the election of Kshama Sawant to Seattle City Council as well as the movement for a higher minimum wage, this movement should help build this alliance of working people, helping bring together the various movements that have arisen against austerity in a common and united struggle against the 1%.

These, we feel are the important issues facing us today.
You can download our flier on building an alliance of working people against austerity here.

How do we relate to the Bernie Sanders Campaign?

 by Sean O' Torain

Comrades, what was said in the previous blog is correct. It's correct not only because we admit our mistakes but because we can't correct them if we don't.

We have to fine tune our position on Sanders. There is no question of supporting him, unless he by some miracle, and I do not believe in miracles, got such a burst of support and it carried him out of the Democratic Party and soared him up to run on his own. And even then his support for US imperialism and Zionism would rule out support.

So we have a complex problem. There are tens and tens of thousands of young and not necessarily young people who will support and do support him because of his rhetoric against the inequality of the system and how big money rules politics. How do we relate to those, people? How do we explain why we do not support Sanders while at the same time not alienating ourselves from those who do? It is important that we do not unnecessarily alienate them but keep in contact with them for when the inevitable and eventual disillusionment with him will come.  Then we will be in a position to get their ear and win them to our position and draw to the PWPW,  (Project For a Working People's World ) some new forces from these.

In my opinion when we approach the young people who have been drawn in to activity around Sanders, I think we have to be unqualified in making the first and main point, and in making sure this is reflected in our slant and tone, that it is great that these young people and not so young people are getting involved in political struggle and in doing so seeking to confront the inequality in society and the rule of the 1% over society. This is how to a greater or lesser degree they see their activity in relation to supporting sanders. This is my opinion anyway.

If we were to approach these young people starting with how Sanders is no good, wrong etc I do not think we would get to first base. I think as I say, we have to start from and have as the main emphasis that the inequality in society, the rule of the 1% has to be challenged and ended. And we are very excited and inspired by these young people taking the stand they are taking on these ills. Older activists have to be diplomatic and respectful however when we discuss with young people supporting Sanders in relation to the way that these ills can be ended.

Unfortunately in spite of the huge crowds and support Sanders is getting we do not think he will be able to end these ills. First he is inside the Democratic Party one of the main parties of the 1% and running as one of its candidates for president. He has if I am not wrong, said he would support the Democratic nominee. So he will end up supporting the candidate of one of the two parties of the 1%. He is extremely careful in not opposing US imperialism's and Zionism's savage wars in the Middle East. I do not see him stepping back from this in any way. Even Obama opposed the war in Iraq. And look where he has ended up. Sanders policies both at home and abroad, his support for and involvement in the Democratic party and its nominee, will lead to the movement that is around him being led up a dead end. It will lead to a demoralization and a change in consciousness. But, and this is the key for us: It will also lead to some very good people concluding that they need a more serious alternative. We have to be sure that in our opposition to supporting Sanders, we do not put ourselves in a position where we lose the attention and willingness to listen of these people.

I believe that our intervention has to be around our work with PWPW. We maintain our position for an alliance of all forces that oppose the offensive of the 1%. We maintain and discuss the program, that is non socialist that we put forward for this. We maintain the position of mass direct action that we propose for that. We propose that we stand clearly for the demands in this program, the tactics in this program and the make the 1% pay. (Download flier with program and details here.)

What do we say in relation to Sanders' supporters and this? I feel our position should be that we are for an alliance on the above program and tactics and to make the 1% pay and whoever supports this should jointly advocate it and be part of it. Whether they are part of the Sanders campaign, or the Democratic Party or the Republican Party or whatever.  They don't have to support any party as long as they support the demands of the alliance and mass direct action they should be part of what we are doing and we want to work with them. The mass direct action is a particularly important and  crucial part of what we advocate. This is so because it guards the movement against being sucked into the Democratic party and lobbying approach of the bourgeois political system. We have to put emphasis on this and ask the Sanders supporters to be part of not only fighting for these demands of the alliance but also doing so through mass direct action.

I believe that after all that, we will still have the ears of the most thoughtful of the forces around Sanders that we can meet. They may still support Sanders but we will have their ear as the best people learn through struggle not wanting to repeat the same failed strategies time and time again as the top union leadership does.  They will experience big shocks in their support for Sanders, most likely him coming out for Clinton. This will then open up cracks in the Sanders forces and lead to the most serious people being open to an alternative. What happened? Did they do wrong in supporting him etc? This is when I feel we can get more of an echo for our alliance and mass direct action. This is where we can get more echo for our PWPW material and a willingness to discuss but also through a real drive to get it out and wider on the Internet.

At the same time we discuss these issues and differences with the proper tone and slant. We will be meeting some very serious people, both individually as we work, and in the different groupings we are directly involved in and also through the Internet. And as we increase our periphery and draw in more human resources we can build on our intervention's through the Internet.

I feel that this approach will leave us in a position where we can have access to new forces that will be moving forward in their consciousness in the big events ahead.  I feel that we have to be orientated to the new spontaneous groupings that develop and this includes the sanders forces. I feel, and this is something I have to struggle with myself, that we should not pay much attention to the people we know who have been many decades in the left movement. I feel the criteria there is we insist that if we are to put any resources into them they have to start by accepting the very serious failures of the self styled revolutionary left and very importantly us as well when we were part of that. Perhaps if we insist on this we can get some very good individuals here and there who can help in the PWPW but short of that we could spend a lot of time just talking to people who like to hear them selves talking.

On my call for Bernie Sanders to "Shut Up"

Vote Democratic. Vote Hillary, that will be his recommendation

by Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired

Three months ago, I wrote a piece about Bernie Sanders. This is before he announced his run for president.  The title I gave to the piece was: Will Bernie Sanders Please Shut Up. Not long after I'd written it I regretted the title. Title's of things we write and the hardest damn things to come up with sometimes.  But this wasn't for me because I was angry at the guy. I should not have used that title because why would anyone not support a politician expressing what people feel and what they're angry about

Why was I angry? I was angry because all over the Internet there were these Bernie Sanders agitational quips about injustice,  inequality and how bad bankers were etc.  There was never an answer, a plan of attack, what we have to do to turn things around.  I explained that Sanders, just like Warren and Reich, were simply tapping in to the mood that exists in the US. They are speaking to the intense anger and hatred of the 1% that lies beneath the surface of society.

I have heard this stuff before. Sanders will talk like this and run as a Democrat. There is no way the section of the capitalist class that is primarily behind the Democrats will run Bernie Sanders and he knows that. His plan back then that has been confirmed, since he is running for President as a Democrat.

As they did around Obama, many young people will be enthused and invigorated by Sanders oratory and the subject matter.  It is common for us here in the US to stress the individual, whether they have more integrity than the others and all that, rather than the party and its class base which is what really matters.  It is a positive thing that so many young people will be moved by Sanders and get involved in his campaign.  I also have many friends and former co-workers who vote Democratic and some who vote Republican who are also enthused by it.

But having seen all this before, or something very similar, it doesn't have quite the same affect. Jesse Jackson was talking along class lines in one of his campaigns in the 1980's. talking of big fish and little fish, the hawks and the doves, the sharks and the fishes.  That all changed after the Democratic Party Convention when we were suddenly singing refrains of "we're all in this together".

Bernie Sanders never talks of real solutions except to elect a Democrat in to the White House (Don't we have one now?)  No talk of the need for a third party, a workers party based on our organizations both industrial and community based, one that can also represent the interests of small community based businesses against the crushing weight of the corporate elite and the state. He does not in any serious way deal with the question of racial discrimination and the police brutality and murder of African American males by the militarized and out of control police. He doesn't speak of the mass incarceration of African American males.  Since Picketty, inequality is the rallying cry and if we fix that, capitalism will be good. Sanders has taken it up now.  He says class war has only been going on for 30 years. Some socialist. He has  also supported US imperialism's disastrous foreign policy agreeing to supply the Zionist regime with fresh ammo when they ran short after such a successful campaign of slaughtering the women and children in the Gaza concentration camp.

So I could  not possibly support his campaign but how we approach and relate to the hundreds of thousands of genuine people who will be drawn in to his campaign, many as their first active political statement, is crucial if we are to build a wider movement against austerity. The title of the article I wrote back in April would not help that process it would hinder it. For a more detailed account of how those of us connected to this blog and the Project For a Working People's World believe we should approach those who are involved in the Sanders campaign, go to this link.

Project For a Working People's World

Download a pdf of this flier

Some of us around this blog have come together as part of a struggle to learn lessons from our past activity in the left and workers' movement.  Those of us that started this blog were expelled from Socialist Alternative, (then Labor Militant) in the mid nineties. Both were affiliated to the Committee For a Workers' International. While we recognize the positive aspects of the CWI we have drawn the conclusion that the left has failed in building a serious left current within the working class and is in fact isolated from the working class in the main.  In this period it is important to scrutinize our history and learn from the past.

We are committed to recognizing our own mistakes and learning from them in particular rejecting and fighting openly both Sectarianism, opportunism and ultra leftism. We call ourselves, Project for a Working People’s World.

We believe the most important issue facing us today is helping build a mass working class movement, an alliance of any groups confronting austerity and against the offensive of the 1%. Such a movement will arise regardless as workers and youth, women and specially oppressed minorities, are forced to struggle against the system and against austerity. At some point, the 12 million workers in the trade unions will also move in to struggle. This will have a huge affect on the movement as a whole. This potentially powerful force is presently held back by the pro-business pro-austerity policies of its leadership.

It will take millions of workers internationally to throw back this offensive. The 1% will, as they always have, use sexism, racism, nationalism and religious sectarianism and other divide and rule tactics to undermine this movement.

The Project for a Working People’s World, is committed to a democratic socialist future. However, we stand for this alliance to unite on the program in the flier linked to below and based on mass direct action tactics. We do not advocate that this alliance be socialist. To do so would be to divide the movement. It would be ultra left. And we are committed to fighting ultra leftism, sectarianism and opportunism that has plagued the left and working class movement. While building the alliance we also build a socialist current within that alliance. In the last analysis the demands we fight for, the program of the alliance above, cannot be achieved under capitalism.

We are orientated to the many new groupings that are moving in to struggle. There will be many activists in these who will be looking for a way to organize, that seek to draw the lessons of the past.  The PWPW is doing this. All of us will have a struggle to adapt further, which would likely include making “principled” compromises, but we are on the way. Part of moving forward in the immediate period will be the regular, hopefully weekly/bi-weekly conference calls and also hopefully regular meetings where we have the resources.

The graphic above is a jpeg image of the flier, The pdf of the flier is here: ProjectFor a Working People’s World  It gives a short explanation of who we are and our purpose, some of which I have touched on here. We recognize that while we base ourselves on certain principles, new fresh layers driven in to political action will revitalize and help those of us who have spent decades in struggle. We are in a new period.

We urge readers to download the flier and feel free to distribute it at school, workplace, union hall or on announcement boards in your local coffee shop if you frequent one.

If you agree with the general goals laid out in the flier and want to get involved with us please contact us through this blog via the e mail on the right. We are also on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/FactsForWorkingPeople and can be contacted there. The flier also has contact information on it.

In Northern California contact Richard at: aactivist@igc.org
In Chicago, Sean at: loughfinn@aol.com or Stephen at sperkins828@yahoo.com