tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062509833711600070.post8370760092739777258..comments2024-01-19T04:00:42.885-05:00Comments on Permanent Revolution: UAW at a CrossroadsAlex Steinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09128453587484101609noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062509833711600070.post-36462067590597757792022-12-07T00:49:11.742-05:002022-12-07T00:49:11.742-05:00Yes, the votes Lehman received demonstrate that an...Yes, the votes Lehman received demonstrate that anyone who is able to articulate the demands of the working class and link that to socialism can get a significant hearing in the working class. But this success happened not so much because of the SEP but in spite of the SEP. The SEP has become a schizophrenic organization. It adopted the reactionary position that the trade unions are not worth defending and that workers should abandon them. Just a little over a year ago it was advising the workers at the Amazon Bessemer plant to vote against the union!<br /><br />A screenshot taken off their website advising workers to vote NO can be found here:<br /><br /><a href="http://forum.permanent-revolution.org/2021/04/socialist-equality-party-national.html" rel="nofollow">Socialist Equality Party National Secretary Joseph Kishore spreads lies about an Amazon worker and former party member</a><br /><br />The SEP also applauded the Supreme Court's infamous Janus decision in 2018. This action by the Supreme Court took away the ability of unions to organize workers in the public sector.<br />We commented about it here:<br /><br /><a href="http://forum.permanent-revolution.org/2018/07/an-anti-working-class-organization_12.html" rel="nofollow">An anti-working class organization</a><br /><br />And now without a word of explanation, it is making a 180 degree turn and telling workers to vote for a candidate for the leadership of the UAW, a union widely acknowledged as one of the most corrupt in the country.<br /><br />As Peter Ross said about this turn of the SEP,<br /><br />"For years, the SEP has based its politics on the claim that unions can’t be reformed, yet now it runs a candidate for UAW president and say it wants to abolish the bureaucracy, not the union. To say the abolition of the bureaucracy wouldn’t be a reform of the union is pure sophistry. The party has in the past opposed the organization of unorganized plants. Obviously, this was a direct attack on the union, not its bureaucracy. I am still astounded that SEP members seem not to have noticed this glaring contradiction."<br /><br /><a href="http://forum.permanent-revolution.org/2022/10/uaw-at-crossroads.html" rel="nofollow">The UAW at the Crossroads</a><br /><br />So I congratulate Will Lehman and hope that as he matures politically he will come to understand that the SEP is a dead-end sect that is organically incapable of taking forward the working class.Alex Steinerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09128453587484101609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062509833711600070.post-38786485388793599632022-12-06T03:32:09.214-05:002022-12-06T03:32:09.214-05:00Congratulations to the SEP are not in order. UAWD ...Congratulations to the SEP are not in order. UAWD has actually made some inroads in weakening the grip of the Administration Caucus over the union. Years of hard work by union militants accomplished that. The SEP's transient intervention has now come to an end. No organization will come out of this - all that is left are the internet self-congratulations written in advance.<br /><br />Meanwhile, here at the UC, the SEP has no influence in the strike, no presence, no connection to the hundreds of militant students carrying out a struggle against the Admin Caucus. Their articles are roundly ignored. Their "UC strike committee" is a fever dream, as always.Peter Rosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15849455508065622014noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062509833711600070.post-25027045118493911502022-12-05T11:12:06.078-05:002022-12-05T11:12:06.078-05:00The 5000 votes for Will Lehman in the UAW election...The 5000 votes for Will Lehman in the UAW election is an incredible achievement. The outcome is all the more amazing given the fact that the union obviously suppressed membership participation to below 10 percent of all eligible voters. Congratulations are in order to the SEP. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062509833711600070.post-67548017181016639622022-11-07T13:28:44.792-05:002022-11-07T13:28:44.792-05:00Ann, you are right, Lehman released a video statem...Ann, you are right, Lehman released a video statement on September 8. The sentence you refer to incorrectly implies that the campaign has not publicized the strike at all. In fact, UAWD has also provided some support for the strike. They have visited the picket lines and raised funds. My last comment about WSWS not posting anything between May and October was also incorrect. This was based on the internal search function at their website rather than Google. Indeed, this was a serious error on my part, and I thank you for pointing it out. It is up to Steiner whether he wishes to issue a retraction.<br /><br />While I accept full responsibility for an inadvertent misrepresentation, I stand by the point we were trying to make, which is that the support provided by both groups for the strike has been totally inadequate. The campaigns could have been used to call for mass rallies, bucket drops, days of action, etc. The SEP refuses to seriously organize to defend the strike with actions like these because it doesn’t want to work with anyone it doesn’t control. Publishing a video on an obscure website few workers will see hardly counts as using the campaign to publicize the strike. UAWD, meanwhile, has mostly forgotten about the strike, or at least doesn’t consider it to be of much importance.Peter Rosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15849455508065622014noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062509833711600070.post-73671488289091570622022-11-06T17:01:17.523-05:002022-11-06T17:01:17.523-05:00Peter why are you not being truthful about CNH? A ...Peter why are you not being truthful about CNH? A simple Google search clearly shows it. I read the WSWS newsletter and it’s been reported on alot. Will even released a video about it. His campaign is being blacked out by the mass media and the greasy pole climbers in the AFL-CIO, and this blog is also misrepresenting it.<br /><br />Since you tried to imply my earlier comment lacked substance, which also isn’t true, I can explain it to you simply.<br /><br />You have repeated a blatant lie to try to make Will’s campaign look bad. And this probably goes to the deepest problem with your piece, and that’s a lack of engagement with the politics of the campaign, including the issues that workers are raising all over the country for pay, conditions and legitimate representation in the plants, and the popularity of socialist and internationalist demands among American workers. It’s nothing short of historic and timely. What does that mean on the eve of elections in which the Democrats are prepared to let the fascist Republicans take control of the government? <br /><br />But you can’t deal honestly with the facts, so there’s faint hope for serious discussion with you on the more complex and important issues.Annnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062509833711600070.post-27931756692294893012022-11-04T11:57:48.091-04:002022-11-04T11:57:48.091-04:00This is an important contribution to a debate on t...This is an important contribution to a debate on the position of the SEP. However, I think this line is open to scrutiny: "Rather, the SEP insists that the committees must be in full political agreement with itself on all issues."<br /><br />Perhaps the "committee" itself, but the "participants" need not be in agreement with the SEP. <br /><br />SEP supporters will hone in on this line and respond by quoting things such as this, from the WSWS: <br /><br />"A few broader points should be made here on the workers who participated in the committee at various stages. As we’ve noted previously, many in this region in southwestern Virginia previously voted for Trump, including some of those workers who would come into leading positions on the committee itself. There were also other political viewpoints: those who supported the Democrats, either Biden or Sanders. Others expressed anarcho-syndicalist politics. And there were also some who considered themselves socialists."<br /><br />It is necessary to be more clear on this point. Yes, the committee is not an organic product of workers truly lead by the rank and file. However, "anyone can participate." The nature of this "participation" is certainly open to criticisms.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062509833711600070.post-13735647061283081272022-11-03T03:35:56.018-04:002022-11-03T03:35:56.018-04:00Ann, between May 20 and October 20, when our artic...Ann, between May 20 and October 20, when our article was published, WSWS did not publish a single article on the strike. Fine, there are many issues to discuss; perhaps the omission can be excused. But what has the SEP or the Lehman campaign done to defend the strike? Have they worked to organize rallies or fundraising efforts? No, because this would require working with people that don't belong to their "rank-and-file committees."<br /><br />Exactly which faction of the UAW apparatus are you implying we belong to? For someone so concerned with rigor and evidence, you throw around accusations rather lightly.<br /><br />Do you have anything of substance to say?Peter Rosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15849455508065622014noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062509833711600070.post-8563688160338171582022-10-31T16:32:41.273-04:002022-10-31T16:32:41.273-04:00>Perhaps most glaringly, neither UAWD nor the S...>Perhaps most glaringly, neither UAWD nor the SEP has publicized the ongoing strike of 700 Case tractor factory workers in Racine, Wisconsin, or attempted to use their campaigns to mobilize workers across the UAW to defend the strike.<br /><br />Might want to follow the Lehman campaign a little more closely before getting this kind of thing blatantly wrong in a rant about how he’s against your faction of the UAW apparatus. <br />This is just false, in at least two states, Wisconsin an Iowa.Ann in West Allisnoreply@blogger.com