Anyone here a member of Solidarity? [Archive]

Zeus the Moose

13th November 2012, 06:45

I don't remember seeing anyone here affiliated with these folks or see them mentioned. What are your all's thoughts on them?

I'm actually an official sympathiser of Solidarity (meaning I pay some dues, am on internal memberships lists/etc, and have a voice but not vote at conventions and such.) I used to be more active in going to meetings and events, but have kind of fallen out of their loop, and don't have a particular desire to get back into it at the moment.

When I joined I had a fairly positive view of them (obviously, I suppose), because I thought they did good work at building rank-and-file groups in unions, and because of their connection with the reunified Fourth International (http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/). I was also personally looking to promote cooperation between Solidarity and the Socialist Party USA, and as a dual member I would be a component in helping that happen. This, however, was over six years ago, and my views have evolved significantly since then.

Like most groups, Solidarity has a number of solid folks in it (and I don't just say this as a sympathiser!), but I'd consider them in the area where Trotskyism tends to shade over into social democracy. I've soured a bit on the way they work inside unions, for example; they do good work as rank-and-file activists, but the connection with building a broader movement for socialism (and even the word socialism) tends to be left out of their POV. Compare this to a group called the League for the Revolutionary Party (http://www.lrp-cofi.org/), which although tiny, has been able to intervene as open revolutionary socialists in the NYC Transport Workers Union (where Solidarity also has members) with a fair degree of success. Their participation in elections is also almost entirely through the Green Party; they did call for a vote for the SP-USA and PFP as well as the Greens this year (though neither of those campaigns I'd consider to be particularly positive either, but I digress), but to what degree they have a cohesive electoral strategy, it's focused primarily on the Green Party. Like a number of other socialist groups (mostly Trotskyist), there seems like a partial desire for the Greens to do duty for a broad left or non-neoliberal labour party.

Their internal political life does seem to be somewhat healthier than the current state of affairs in the SP-USA, however, in that trying to talk about Lenin in an non-caricatured way won't send people recoiling in denunciative terror. That said, there still seems to be a culture of promoting unity to the point of not taking clear positions on some issues, like during the Libyan civil war when they put out statements from different segments of the organisation (one opposing all intervention, one suggestion intervention shouldn't be completely opposed) without comment one way or another. It's kind of good in that there's a willingness to show disagreements in public, but if no position is taken, then it's just talk without any sort of guide to moving forward.

Prometeo liberado

6th December 2012, 13:43

Their internal political life does seem to be somewhat healthier than the current state of affairs in the SP-USA, however, in that trying to talk about Lenin in an non-caricatured way won't send people recoiling in denunciative terror. That said, there still seems to be a culture of promoting unity to the point of not taking clear positions on some issues, like during the Libyan civil war when they put out statements from different segments of the organisation (one opposing all intervention, one suggestion intervention shouldn't be completely opposed) without comment one way or another. It's kind of good in that there's a willingness to show disagreements in public, but if no position is taken, then it's just talk without any sort of guide to moving forward.
__________________

A party that is not a Party.What use is there for such people?