SPEW Recruits Head of Prison Guards' Union

[Random Precision]

What a funny use of "brother", sounds like our English comrades are in fact a church?

In the ISO we actually use the word "brother" or "sister" in place of "comrade" most times. I'm not sure how it got started.

[MaoTseHelen]

In general, I have no problem with recruiting low level police and prison guards into the movement. Most successful organizations do so, including major religions and whatnot, simply because it's good to have eyes and ears in the local police network.

In this case, recruiting a union leader, it smacks of selling out.

[Crux]

Selling out to what exactly? Union struggle for Prison Officers?

[MaoTseHelen]

Selling out by inviting in people who's only real aim is control over workers - separate from the state, but trying to corral them for selfish purposes either way - to the party.

[Crux]

Selling out by inviting in people who's only real aim is control over workers - separate from the state, but trying to corral them for selfish purposes either way - to the party.

That's a terribly schematic view, don't you think? How is Caton "aiming to control the workers" for "selfish needs" exactly?

[chegitz guevara]

So in other words, you don't have a Marxist understanding of the state. You think the organs of state terror are class neutral.

I think that if you read what I've written elsewhere, you'll understand that is most certainly not the case.

What most certainly is the case is that unless we manage to win over a considerable portion of the armed sections of the state, there will be no revolution. In this day and age, no one is capable of defeating a modern military force that is fully committed to winning.

Also calling "citation needed" on your claim that the SP-USA was the only American party of which Trotsky was a member.

http://www2.cddc.vt.edu/marxists/his...re-trotsky.pdf

Not only was Trotsky a member, but so were Bukharin and Kollentai.

Or, if you want something from Trotsky himself, read My Life, the chapter "New York" where he discusses his time in the SP.
http://www.marxists.org/archive/trot...ylife/ch22.htm

[chegitz guevara]

"Chegitz" of the Socialist Party USA joins the chorus of the cops' racist campaign to lynch Mumia Abu-Jamal, an innocent man. No wonder he thinks the bosses' professional thugs can be "socialists."

As opposed to you, who doesn't support the right to kill a cop in self-defense. We should just let the cops murder us in the streets without fighting back, Fred?

[KC]

In the ISO we actually use the word "brother" or "sister" in place of "comrade" most times. I'm not sure how it got started.

It probably started with many people's obsessions with the Black Panther Party.

What most certainly is the case is that unless we manage to win over a considerable portion of the armed sections of the state, there will be no revolution. In this day and age, no one is capable of defeating a modern military force that is fully committed to winning.

Yes, of course we should intervene in actions taken by various sections of the state against the state as a whole, and specifically with regards to this situation that would involve getting involved in this union's strike actions, learning where they are at and what they are fighting for, and then explaining to them the larger picture and where they fit into that picture. What we shouldn't be doing (and which I thought was quite obvious) is recruiting members of the state into our organizations.