Why I am still a socialist ?

Not so much for ideological reasons, I was a presidential elector for the American Communist Party way back in 1972, I recall, my old friend- Ronald F. Marshall, now living in New Hampshire, was the 2nd presidential elector here in Rhode Island. Gus Hall and Angela Davis were the persecuted party's candidates for president and vice-president of the United States.

I recall one small town Rhode Island newspaper making some fuss over it. The two-bit editor was warning local patriots that the "Communists were coming" – giving Mr. Marshall an impish belly laugh.

I came across this now ancient NEWS in the old fashioned PROVIDENCE JOURNAL NEWS CATALOGUE in the old reference department at the Providence Public Library. A few years earlier 17 year old Ronnie– a Hope High School drop out– gave me a delightful yet PROFESSORIAL lecture on the history of American Trotskyism. I think I mixed a teaspoon of my father's gin in his ice water drink- which made his blues eyes sparkle all the more. He also had very long black hair and could be quite humorously erratic: "Ideology is a brain disease!" he declared, having just read Jerry Rubin's cult 60s classic "Do It". Remember this was the era of huge protests against the Vietnam War and a generation of rebellious and extremely alienated youth. My young friend and I (I was 22 when I met him) loved the irreverence on the very first page: " F_ _ _K Amerika!" Later at an anti-war demonstration Ronnie shouted "Free Charlie Manson!"

I was a presidential elector again this time for the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). In 1976 I recall distributing a campaign booklet titled "A Bill of Rights for Working People". This booklet is just as relevant to the Class Struggle today. Yes, indeed: A RIGHT TO A JOB. . . A RIGHT TO MEDICAL CARE . . . 100% TAX ON CORPORATE PROFIT".

The SWP presidential candidate, Peter Camejo, explained in his classic 60s pamphlet: "How to Make A Revolution in the United States." Nope, no bomb making suggested here. Just radical politics. A mass movement. Getting people into the streets by the millions. Seizing power backed by the highest authority in ANY democracy- the majority of working people, which, of course, includes most of the middle class.

I was also a presidential elector for the SWP (without ever being a party member) way back in 1980. Annette Gagne was the other presidential elector. You can check official STATE HOUSE RECORDS for details of that that election. But alas 1980 was not a banner year for socialism. It was just the beginning of  the Reagan Era – an extremely reactionary time that did not even end with the election of Barack Obama in 2008.

It was also the beginning of the AIDS scare. And this, I believe, was also the beginning of the end of the so called Sexual Revolution– when so many people were becoming less uptight about human sexuality in general. All that pornography out there on the Internet today does not quite kill the Old Puritan voice whispering WICKED! CONFESS AND REPENT!

Workers Party is no more. It has evolved into an extremely bizarre Jack Barnes personality cult. But the Great Man of the American Trotskyist Party- for me - will always be James P. Cannon, who wrote the book young Ron Marshall lectured me on now such a long, long time ago.

I have lost touch with this gifted human being. I know he still is a an ardent H.P. Lovecraft fan. Perhaps in reactionary political times we all become more sensitive to COSMIC HORROR. After all, the vast universe is frightfully indifferent to ALL our human problems. Recall reading on the TIME MAGAZINE Cover in 1968: "Is God Dead?  "Catholics believe that once God (Jesus) once did indeed die. Then they celebrated Easter Sunday.

I still reread Albert Einstein's essay "Why Socialism?"- which this science genius wrote rather late in life. I say to myself : "Well I can't be too wrong headed", I tell myself, if this genius was a COMRADE SOCIALIST .

Like the Pythagorean Theorem in Euclid, I never could change my mind about basic axioms. TRUTH endures!