Saturday, August 15, 2015

Factory worker friend lectured by middle class socialist on the labor theory of value

I would like to learn more about the " degeneration " of the once impressive ( on the left ) Socialist Workers Party , still led by this Jack Barnes character. Just a few years ago I learned that this party had gone soft on Zionism. And Barnes had moved into an expensive apartment in New York City with his SWP girl friend.
It scares me to think that so many " radicals " can be so cheaply bought off, can then even offer themselves as FBI or CIA spies and wreckers of working class organizations.
I never had the slightest impulse to rise above the class into which I was born.I do recall that the Young Socialist Alliance was " stuck " on a college campus orientation for years. A friend of mine listened to a VERY SMART YSA member lecture a bunch of students on the labor theory of value and then observed him drive away from the Brown University 1970 campus in a new sports car. My 17 year old friend -a Hope High School drop out-worked in a factory in Providence, R.I. He lectured ME on the History of American Trotskyism !
My friend also sized up the SWP leadership back then : " These generals need a war ! "
One radical virtue, I guess, is to take IDEAS seriously .

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Ron