synthesis

Hi synthesis, I hope you are fine.

I agree it's a shame when good members get infracted. But they really must blame themselves for not reading or, more likely, choosing to ignore the warnings in the OP and every post inbetween their posts.

As for allowing debate on our rules there, it won't happen for the same reason we don't have similar discussions anywhere else on the general section of the board either; such are reserved for the CU and BA sections of the board.

These are the rules, people may like or dislike them but breaking them will lead to administrative action. That's just how it is.

I freely admit to some tightrope walking

And yes, that does make me a (partial) Idealist.

Our politics follow from those basic views.

Well, I think we've reached an impasse because ultimately your views arise from an extrapolation of historical materialism that I don't accept, I think. I don't think there's any guarantee in relying on spontaneous working class politics, nor do I think it's a bad idea to try to influence said politics even though it might seem too advanced for the moment.

The ISO is vanguardist but I support a broad based party of communist unity. They just played a role in radicalizing me personally, by making Marxist ideas and education available to me. Working class politics can indeed arise, but in that case it will be influenced only by the dominant ideologies and end up as reformist unionism. I'd like the working class to be revolutionary communists, and that's not going to happen on its own in the political world we live in. Yes, that is the difference between us. C'est la vie. Peace.

I wasn't radicalized through struggle. Sure, I worked in a factory, but if it weren't for Marxist books and the ISO I could have just ended up a union-supporting liberal. The availability of the ideology for me to interpret my experiences through was crucial. I would probably have never arrived at a similar position myself.

Oh ok, then yes, I suppose I'm somewhat voluntaristic. I consider myself a historical materialist, because I think material conditions strongly influence historical events, but events have more than one cause. The availability of a particular ideology at a particular time is also a causal factor. So there is no reason for a party to tail the working class or wait for something to arise spontaneously from struggle, since they affect each other.

How about "Impossibilist Antistrugglist"