Hard to find information on David North 's Socialist Equality Party cult

 

Some years ago, the communist political cult to which I used to be a
member
for one year (then known as the Workers League, now known as the
Socialist
Equality Party) made an interesting “turn” in its political line.
According to SEPtic,
the unions were no longer organizations of the working class.

I found this “turn” to be quite startling. Upon further thought,
however, it sorta
made sense. David W. Green (“North”), the cult leader of SEPtic,
having run
the cult since the mid 1970s, had been a complete ineffectual. He and
his cult
never organized any workers, ever gained any influence in the labor
movement,
never accomplished anything. So, in a strange way, it made quite a
bit of sense
that “North” was now writing off the unions altogether.

Still, I wondered, how was it that “North” managed to keep control
over a dedicated
cluster in the top leadership.

Today, playing around on the web, I found a possible answer. It seems
that David
W. Green is CEO of the 241st largest printing company in the USA.
EXHIBIT 1
is a link to the company’s site. EXHIBIT 3 show that in 2005 the
company generated
$21mm in sales. EXHIBIT 2 has pictures of “David North” and his wife
in Crain’s,
touting them as some of the best employers in the city.

The “puzzle” now makes sense.

Question: why does the North cult solicit members for donations when
they run
a profitable enterprise that could conceivably fund the SEPtic web
page activities?
Is there any sort of democracy in SEPtic? Were a faction to take over
the cult,
what would be the impact of the North crew vis-a-vis the company
activities?

It’s interesting that CEO North now tells workers that unions are no
longer organizations
of the working class. This same “line” is probably echoed by CEOs at
all unorganized
companies.

I’m not posting this for the sake of “exposure and denunciation” for sectarianism’s sake. I do feel ashamed when certain con artists perpetrate massive frauds on wide sections of the hard left and the youth.
Based on anecdotal evidence (which is unfalsifiable yet will make sense to anyone who has been involved in similar groups) members of the “SEPtic” were expected to empty their pockets to fund their local chapters, while the Good Ship WSWSEP was run rather brusquely, and undemocratically, by Cap’n Green/North.
Already the “Friedrich Engels, too, was a capitalist” defense is being brandished by SEP internet agents, as well as “Don’t believe everything you hear on the internet [WSWS notwithstanding]”, and “[non-SEP]Splitters are the FBI/CoIntelPro’s best tools”.
This scandal ranks up there with the Ukrainian fraud (http://www.internationalist.org/ukraineimpostors0803.html) in the US Trotskyist hall of bloopers, and rivals the transgressions of SEP/Workers League’s former guru Gerry Healy. Marxists and working-class militants must regroup beyond the scope of sterile orthodox commentaries, academia, and abstentionism. For every David North, Bob Avakian, and James Robertson there are hundreds of disillusioned youths and workers –
Down with MLM [Multi-Level Marketing]!