Workers World Party

[JohnTheMarxist]

Hello everyone,

it has been a while since I posted here but I recently went to a WWP class on Marxism and I recieve their paper. I love their paper and I admire how well organized they are. They have offices and bookstores around the country and they are a big part of A.N.S.W.E.R. who organize all of the anti-war anti-racist events in the USA. Is anyone here a member and what are your feelings on the party?

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[redstar2000]

Here is a long thread where, among many other things, the Workers' World Party is discussed.

http://www.che-lives.com/forum/index.php?a...&f=4&t=18667&s= (http://www.che-lives.com/forum/index.php?act=ST&f=4&t=18667&s=)

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[Morpheus]

The WWP is a cult. When you get disillusioned with it please remember that there are other revolutionary ideologies, like anarchism, which aren't cults like the WWP. See http://www.infoshop.org/texts/wwp.html

[JohnTheMarxist]

well I don't see how it is a cult. If you don't agree with them that is one thing, but calling a political party a cult is a little extreme don't you think? As for the thread about the Green mayor. Why would the Green expect to be supported over the Democrat? They are both liberals.

[redstar2000]

Perhaps I should have just posted the relevant quotation from the thread. Here it is...


The Workers World Party has a long history of sectarianism and of refusing to deal with other leftists on an equal basis. At one point they asked Frontlines for endorsement of a candidate for local office in 1996 but they refused to endorse other independent left candidates also running for local office.

Through the control they exercise over ANSWER, one of the coalitions organizing antiwar rallies, they usually ban left wing competitors from speaking at rallies or bully other left organizations for money and resources.

Of course, they only participate in elections when they can present a candidate for office from their own ranks. Unity in action or advancing the broader interests of the working class and the oppressed are no considerations for sectarians.

When they are not running and supporting their own candidates, they tend to support Democrats. And this election is no different.

They can’t, however, say this as openly as they are going through an "independent" phase. So they operate in an underhanded way. At the last ANSWER-sponsored event on October 28 they invited, among others, two speakers: Democratic stalwart actor Danny Glover and liberal Democratic candidate for Mayor Tom Ammiano.

They managed the list of speakers so that Danny Glover, who supports Ammiano for Mayor, spoke immediately before the candidate. Glover used his speech to eulogize Ammiano and introduced him as "the next Mayor of San Francisco."

This was designed to give the perception that the antiwar movement was supporting Ammiano for Mayor, which is of course, ridiculous. Ammiano came late to support the antiwar movement, did absolutely nothing to build it and holds an apolitical pacifist position reminiscent of the 60’s hippies - "Make love not war" which has little echo among present-day antiwar activists.

By supporting Democrats, at least at the local level, both the CofC and the WWP share a common interest: they need those liberals to sign their petitions or as endorsers of their activities to give them legitimacy they lack. They won’t therefore, "alienate" the Democrats by explaining the character of their politics.

In other words, the WWP offered a "back-handed" endorsement of a liberal Democrat while pretending to be "above" bourgeois politics.

Not a good sign.

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A site about communist ideas

[RedCeltic]

The Workers World Party has a long history of sectarianism and of refusing to deal with other leftists on an equal basis.

Sounds like Morpheus

[JohnTheMarxist]

Ok. Why would a party back another party they dont agree with? That would defeat the purpose of having your own political party. Workers World runs candidates to get their message out, not necissarily to win. They believe the entire capitalist system must be smashed. Many socialist parties want to run for office and actually think if they are elected in capitalist elections they will be able to enforce socialism thru the capitalist system. This is naive and lazy, and will kill the movement. As for Actors, Mayors ect speaking at rallies. Many times ANSWER is involved with other anti war groups when putting on these protests so not everyone is invited by them. Secondly, ANSWER isnt expressly part of WWP so they dont have to stick to WWP members to speak. Also, getting people like this to speak gets you media attention. if it were just a bunch of reds in the streets the media would never let the message out. I am not a member of Workers World, but I did as I said attend one of their classes, I get their paper and I know people in the party and I don't see nay of these criticisms having merit. i think they are just made by other socialist organizations who do not agree with their methods.

[SonofRage]

The Workers World Party is a small sectarian group who needs to resort to front groups because they otherwise would fade away.

[RedCeltic]

You could really say that stuff about any of the communist/socialist groups. The Socialist Party was partly formed by former members of the Socialist Labor Party.... The Communist Party was formed by people who left the Socialist Party after 1917... The Sociailist Workers Party was formed by Trotskyites who were kicked out of the Communist Party for not being loyal enough to the USSR. The Communist Party by the way has a long history of kicking out people who didn't worship the Soviet Union, or break off ties with parties in other counteries that openly disagreed with the Soviet Union. They recently regained ties with the Communist Party of Jappan after breaking ties with them for that very reason.

The Worker's World Party in turn could be called secterian if you will, because they broke off from the Socialist Worker's Party for again, not supporting the USSR enough...

Personally I don't think giving someone shit for joining a party or group they believe in is worthwile... you should rather focus your energies on the armchair socialists.

Now that the Soviet Union is gone, maybe communist and socialist groups can work together again.

[SonofRage]

I would stay away from the WWP, far away. But, if anyone wants to join them, they will see for themselves that is it an opportunistic organization backing the likes of Slobodan Milosevic. They even supported China's actions in the Tienemen Square Massacre.