Details later Revolutionary Marxist viewpoints in the SPUSA still dominate, as was shown by the adoption of a clearly Marxist statement on the Deepwater Horizon oil blowout. This statement repudiates earlier statements written by the male co-Chair, Billy Wharton, which were anti-corporate and blamed specific individuals, rather than indicting the system. The essentially liberal, though radical, character of these previous statements was exposed and reversed. On the other hand, with my resignations both as Convener of the Editorial Board and from the Editorial Board, the opportunist, and objectively social democratic, wing of the party is now firmly in control of The Socialist. Over the past year, the variety of different opinions reflective of the multi-tendency character of the Party have been reduced to the opportunist viewpoint of the Editor. My participation in that board, intended to be a block on that tendency, played no other role other than to give left cover to what had ceased to be a socialist paper. The vote to accept my resignation was six to five. The SP Connecticutt was given permission to endorse the Congressional candidacy of Chris Hutchinson of Socialist Action ... with criticisms of their democratic centralist and vanguardist politics. The criticisms were a concession to get the endorsement allowed. The show of socialist solidarity was more important for me than opposing the sectarian nature of the endorsement. Given that many socialist organizations give qualified endorsements, it's a minor matter. Most important to come out of this was that the revolutionary wings of the Party, accustomed to act independently, have begun to coordinate. While, as yet, the formation of open factions doesn't seem necessary, this coordination should help us turn back the opportunist tide. Last thing we want is for the Socialist Party to end up like Solidarity, revolutionary in its mind only, but afraid to utter the world socialism in public.
Good news that the SP is endorsing Hutch in Connecticutt. I've been in several "centralist" groups and SA is the least heavy handed of any of them. It's a very democratic organization. Anyway, solidarity!
