The Struggle Inside the Socialist Workers Party Index | Main Document Index | ETOL Home Page
[Copy of letter sent to each of the eighteen party members who signed the June 29 letter to the Political Bureau.]
14 Charles Lane New York, N.Y. 10014 July 13, 1982
Naomi Allen Brooklyn
Dear Comrade Allen,
The attached June 29 letter to which your name is signed incorrectly interprets the relationship of the internal norms of the Socialist Workers Party to the World Congress call adopted by the May meeting of the International Executive Committee (made available to the party membership in International Internal Discussion Bulletin No. 3,1982.)
The SWP is barred by reactionary legislation from affiliation to the Fourth International. No decision of the Fourth International is binding on the SWP or its members in any way.
Even if this reactionary legislation were repealed or overturned and the SWP were a section of the Fourth International, however, the conventions and elected national leadership bodies of the SWP would continue to be the highest bodies in regard to all matters concerning members of the SWP. This is in accordance with the SWP’s constitution and organizational principles, and with the statutes of the Fourth International. This was affirmed in the political resolution adopted by an overwhelming majority at the 1979 World Congress:
The members of national sections have the right to elect their own leaderships. Democratically organized congresses and plenary meetings of elected national committees constitute the highest bodies of national sections. They have the right to determine political line on all questions nationally, and to interpret and determine for all members of the section the national application of decisions made by the Fourth International.
No internal party discussion on any question has been opened. The February 27-March 4 National Committee plenum explicitly rejected opening any discussion in the party at this time.
Moreover, nothing in the World Congress call opens a discussion in any section or sympathizing organization. The call states: “All sections, except those working under extremely repressive conditions, will hold congresses to elect their delegates to the World Congress after discussion and vote on the line documents.” When to hold those discussions and congresses and how to organize them is the responsibility solely of the elected leadership bodies of each organization.
Prior to the May 1982 IEC meeting, the International Internal Discussion Bulletin had been open for submissions only by IEC members and by elected leadership bodies of sections or sympathizing organizations. The May IEC meeting opened the IIDB for submissions by international tendencies and by individual members of sections or sympathizing organizations as well. It stated:
In the case of contributions from individual comrades, these should be submitted first to the leadership of the sections or sympathizing organizations of which they are members. The national leadership should consider whether the contribution in question belongs in the international discussion bulletin or whether it would be more appropriate to publish it in the internal bulletin of the section (which is normally circulated internationally as well). The national leadership should make a recommendation to the United Secretariat along these lines, which the United Secretariat can take into account in making a decision on the contribution.
Far from being “in accord with the norms of democratic centralism,” as your letter asserts, your actions are completely undemocratic. The actions of these 18 party members, from 12 different branches, in collaborating to form a tendency and to write the June 29 letter, were carried out behind the backs of the elected national leadership bodies of the party, behind the backs of the branches and branch, local, and district executive committees, and thus behind the backs of the membership as a whole.
Were you to persist in this course, you would be taking it upon yourself to open a discussion in the party when none has been authorized and organized by the National Committee. This would violate the democratic rights of the party as a whole.
We instruct you to cease and desist from any further organized tendency activity of any kind. Any violation of this instruction is incompatible with membership in the SWP.
You, like all other party members, will be informed when the National Committee opens an internal discussion in the SWP.
Fraternally,
Jack Barnes
for the Political Bureau
The Struggle Inside the Socialist Workers Party Index | Main Document Index | ETOL Home Page | Marxists’ Internet Archive