Comrade-Z
20th May 2006, 03:06
I thought it would have been difficult to outshine the RCP in terms of creepiness and pushiness. I was wrong.
Let me give you some background.
I have had some limited dealings with the RCP with regards to its WorldCan'tWait campaign. I was helping to coordinate some local activities with regards to my infoshop and school, and I was put in touch, by e-mail, with a local WCW representative. He gave me some protest ideas and advice, and that was helpful. But then he very quickly recommended that I be present for a conference call that the WCW would be having. That seemed like I would be getting in a little too deep with WCW for my taste. It seemed rather unnecessary as well. And it kind of creeped me out. I made up an excuse for not attending. This was before I knew that the RCP was heavily involved with WCW.
Since then I've learned more about how the RCP operates, and although I can't approve of it, I must also say that it's not unusual as far as political parties go, especially when compared with the "bourgeois" political parties (Democrats and Republicans in the U.S.) These bourgeois parties seem even worse!
For I have also had some limited dealings (unfortunately and against my own rational sense) with the Democratic Party. At last year's local Labor Day festivities, I was feeling in a cooperative mood, and I wanted to curry favor with some of the Democrats early on because later I would be setting up a table with anarcho-syndicalist literature and two red-and-black flags flying high, and I wanted to build some trust beforehand. So I exhanged some supportive words and e-mail addresses with some brightly-smiling liberals.
Pretty soon I start to get lots of annoying e-mails from this group of liberals asking me to donate money, be present for meetings, volunteer for campaigns, etc. I just ignore them. A few weeks later I get a package in the mail. It is full of campaign and recruiting materials for a campaign to draft and promote this local Democrat in a state election. I was thinking "what the hell...?" Then I find out that I have been made a "Team Captain" in this campaign. Now I'm thinking "What the fuck!?"
So I e-mail these people and tell them to remove me from being a team captain and from their e-mail list. The reply I get is literally (I am not making this up), "Who cares what you think anyway?" And I continue to receive e-mails and notices about "Team Captain meetings"! I e-mail them again, asking to be taken off the list.
A few days later I receive a phone call. It is from a guy working on this campaign. He starts interrogating me about why I "won't support this campaign to elect ----Mr. Bigturd politician----." I tried to explain to him why electing leaders wouldn't make any difference whatsoever. He goes on to berate me on my stance and badger me about why I have "changed my mind on this" (even though I never supported this campaign in the first place), and then he asks once again, "But c'mon, why won't you support this campaign to elect ----Mr. Bigturn policitian----." He wouldn't take no for an answer. But I told him no once again. I expected him to say "Well, thank you for your time, goodbye" and hang up. But he just stayed on the line for a second in silence. It was very creepy. He asked, "Okay, so where do we go from here? What am I going to have to do to convince you that you need to support this campaign to blah blah blah..." and I just interrupted him and said, "I have nothing left to say to you" and I just hung up on him. Talk about pushy and creepy! I can only imagine what hell it must be working as a rank-and-file member of the Democratic Party.
This is the crux of my post: I think Leninist parties are unfairly targeted by the bourgeois media. Yes, many Leninist parties might be "democratic" centralist and rather oppressive towards their rank-and-file. But the bourgeois parties are just the same way--or even worse! And these parties (the Democrats and Republicans in the U.S., for instance) don't get criticized for being unaccountable slave-drivers. They don't get criticized for the fact that their leaderships are faaaaaaarrrrr removed from their rank-and-file. In fact, I would wager that there is more rank-and-file accountability within the RCP than within the "Democratic" Party!
In fact, I doubt the Bolshevik Party during the Russian Revolution was anything extraordinary as far as bourgeois political parties go. The Russian equivalent of the Democrats or Republicans (perhaps the Kadets) would have been even worse, quite likely.
Sure, we would expect self-proclaimed communists to be better than that. But the bourgeois parties need to be called up on their "democratic" centralism as well.
Let me give you some background.
I have had some limited dealings with the RCP with regards to its WorldCan'tWait campaign. I was helping to coordinate some local activities with regards to my infoshop and school, and I was put in touch, by e-mail, with a local WCW representative. He gave me some protest ideas and advice, and that was helpful. But then he very quickly recommended that I be present for a conference call that the WCW would be having. That seemed like I would be getting in a little too deep with WCW for my taste. It seemed rather unnecessary as well. And it kind of creeped me out. I made up an excuse for not attending. This was before I knew that the RCP was heavily involved with WCW.
Since then I've learned more about how the RCP operates, and although I can't approve of it, I must also say that it's not unusual as far as political parties go, especially when compared with the "bourgeois" political parties (Democrats and Republicans in the U.S.) These bourgeois parties seem even worse!
For I have also had some limited dealings (unfortunately and against my own rational sense) with the Democratic Party. At last year's local Labor Day festivities, I was feeling in a cooperative mood, and I wanted to curry favor with some of the Democrats early on because later I would be setting up a table with anarcho-syndicalist literature and two red-and-black flags flying high, and I wanted to build some trust beforehand. So I exhanged some supportive words and e-mail addresses with some brightly-smiling liberals.
Pretty soon I start to get lots of annoying e-mails from this group of liberals asking me to donate money, be present for meetings, volunteer for campaigns, etc. I just ignore them. A few weeks later I get a package in the mail. It is full of campaign and recruiting materials for a campaign to draft and promote this local Democrat in a state election. I was thinking "what the hell...?" Then I find out that I have been made a "Team Captain" in this campaign. Now I'm thinking "What the fuck!?"
So I e-mail these people and tell them to remove me from being a team captain and from their e-mail list. The reply I get is literally (I am not making this up), "Who cares what you think anyway?" And I continue to receive e-mails and notices about "Team Captain meetings"! I e-mail them again, asking to be taken off the list.
A few days later I receive a phone call. It is from a guy working on this campaign. He starts interrogating me about why I "won't support this campaign to elect ----Mr. Bigturd politician----." I tried to explain to him why electing leaders wouldn't make any difference whatsoever. He goes on to berate me on my stance and badger me about why I have "changed my mind on this" (even though I never supported this campaign in the first place), and then he asks once again, "But c'mon, why won't you support this campaign to elect ----Mr. Bigturn policitian----." He wouldn't take no for an answer. But I told him no once again. I expected him to say "Well, thank you for your time, goodbye" and hang up. But he just stayed on the line for a second in silence. It was very creepy. He asked, "Okay, so where do we go from here? What am I going to have to do to convince you that you need to support this campaign to blah blah blah..." and I just interrupted him and said, "I have nothing left to say to you" and I just hung up on him. Talk about pushy and creepy! I can only imagine what hell it must be working as a rank-and-file member of the Democratic Party.
This is the crux of my post: I think Leninist parties are unfairly targeted by the bourgeois media. Yes, many Leninist parties might be "democratic" centralist and rather oppressive towards their rank-and-file. But the bourgeois parties are just the same way--or even worse! And these parties (the Democrats and Republicans in the U.S., for instance) don't get criticized for being unaccountable slave-drivers. They don't get criticized for the fact that their leaderships are faaaaaaarrrrr removed from their rank-and-file. In fact, I would wager that there is more rank-and-file accountability within the RCP than within the "Democratic" Party!
In fact, I doubt the Bolshevik Party during the Russian Revolution was anything extraordinary as far as bourgeois political parties go. The Russian equivalent of the Democrats or Republicans (perhaps the Kadets) would have been even worse, quite likely.
Sure, we would expect self-proclaimed communists to be better than that. But the bourgeois parties need to be called up on their "democratic" centralism as well.