In Reply to: Re: Trotskyism & Sectarianism posted by Andy Gianniotis on January 26, 1997 at 20:21:22:
Andy's comments are ironic in several ways. Firstly, it would take
some effort to discover a leftist organisation which is more sectarian
than the Democratic Socialist Party. Witness its dealings with the
Lord Mayor over the "free speech in the mall" episode, in the process
selling out other organisations campaigning for FULL rights to freedom
of speech in the mall. Witness its efforts to cover up other groups'
posters with its own. Anyone who has been involved in a campaign
with the DSP knows that they have redefined sectarianism. The issue
to them is of far less importance than their role in it. They must
be seen as running the show and as the instigator of the campaign.
Only the DSP publishes pamphlets denouncing other leftist organisations,
in no matter how flimsy a fashion.
It is also ironic that Andy calls the DSP Leninist and denounces
Trotskyists. How long has the DSP been non-orthodox Trotskyist?
Was it before or after the collapse of the Soviet Union (according
to them a "degenerated workers' state")? To the DSP, the Soviet
Union was always an alternative to the West and although not without
its problems, was somehow more attractive than other imperialists
such as the U.S. Witness the DSP's often glowing accounts of life
in "socialist" Cuba. The benevolent "leader" Castro, a hero.
How does the DSP evaluate Cuba as it too nears collapse?
For models of orthodox Trotskyist sectarianism, look no further
than the Democratic Socialist Party.