Below is a copy of the resignation letter I co-signed from Socialist Alternative which should be read in conjunction with the announcement of disaffiliation by the Greek, Cypriot and Turkish sections from International Socialist Alternative.
Comrades,
The signatories to this letter are clear in their commitment to building a revolutionary Marxist international organisation, but have lost confidence that ISA and the sections in EWS can play a correctly orientated role in that struggle.
Our reasons for leaving Socialist Alternative (EWS) and ISA can be summarised as follows.
A misguided approach from SA / ISA to democratic centralism, which has produced a top-down approach to decision making and political perspectives.
A lack of communication with and support for comrades.
Communication with branch comrades who challenge the orthodoxy of the leadership being conducted in formal and bureaucratic ways eg, the PC, as a body, emailing individual comrades demanding a written response to issues raised, rather than by a personal telephone contact in the first instance.
Institutional bullying of comrades eg, a comrade being criticised in a PC meeting, without the comrade’s knowledge or the right to reply. The criticisms were later to be proved to be completely fabricated.
Repeated mis-characterisation and distortion of TIDU comrades’ ideas.
Repeated misrepresentation, or even concealing of events concerning international sections, especially relating to Australia and Taiwan.
The adoption by SA of ISA policies on neoliberalism, deglobilisation, decoupling, China etc without any involvement of branch comrades.
A low level of debate and scrutiny by the NC of the PC even in instances where their actions have been proven to be wrong.
Totally inadequate minute taking of NC and PC meetings where branch comrades would have no way of knowing which comrades were making different points. This hinders branch comrades’ ability to see where new ideas and insights are coming from.
Re-writing history. Describing the reasons for the collapse of the old CWI as around political differences, rather than as a product of over-centralised authoritarian leadership. The emphasis on political differences was clearly the CWIs position and the minority comrades in EWS, generally denied significant political differences and pointed to structural problems and the authoritarian approach of the CWI leadership in particular.
A mis-use of power in the organisation eg, a blocking of material from publication on the website. For example, comrade Vlad Bortun from the Spanish state was denied access to the international website for articles on neoliberalism, there are many other examples of individuals or sections being denied access to the website and this has also happened with the SA EWS website.
All content on the ISA website being decided on by a small editorial team. No place on the website for discussion of different perspectives.
Leading comrades closing down discussions on Facebook without the authority to do so.
A leading comrade claiming to speak for the International Executive when having no authority to do so, as comrade EB did in the debate over Taiwan.
The inability to admit any mistakes or to listen in a constructive way to criticism.
An emphasis on training, rather than education in the development of cadre.
An inflated view of ideas coming from the leadership and an assumption that they are correct on all matters.
Senior comrades behaving as managers, rather than leaders. Leadership is about a fluid dialectical dialogue with the comrades.
A lack of understanding that many of our methods around structures and building are adopted from a neo-liberal / Stalinist framework, rather than a Marxist framework.
Some of the differences between the comrades who belong to TIDU and the majority comrades have been debated within the EWS section as well as internationally. What has been lacking from all of them is any attempt from the majority comrades to find a way to really consider the ideas of the minority comrades in a way that would avoid polarisation. This debate method, rather than a more discursive approach, is a method inherited from the CWI. It was not successful in avoiding polarisation under the CWI and has proved to be equally ineffective in avoiding polarisation under the ISA.
We believe that there has been a complete failure to learn the lessons of the CWI, a failure to learn these lessons has resulted in a repetition of the same mistakes with regards to democratic accountability and henceforth perspectives, we reject the idea that a higher quantity of meetings translates to a higher quality of democracy, it’s how you control the apparatus that counts.
We have deliberately kept this letter of resignation brief because we have become increasingly aware that the differences between us and the majority have become too great to reconcile. We had hoped that this would not be the case. It is our view that the current structures of Socialist Alternative and ISA produce loyal members rather than revolutionary cadre as was also the case in the Socialist Party.
We stand in solidarity with the comrades from the Greek, Turkish, Cyprus and Spanish sections as well as many other comrades internationally who are leaving ISA in order to build an organisation that is Marxist, reflective and democratic. An organisation that agrees with the principles of democratic centralism, but finds a balance between democracy with centralism, rather than an organisation where most of the politics come from a small centralised grouping.
If any comrade would like greater detail, please feel free to contact us at our temporary email address.
