Jordan M. wrote:
To whom it may concern,
I am writing to you as a dues paying member of the Socialist Party USA. On behalf of my comrades in the party, who I know must be puzzled by your group's recent claim to the heritage of the party of Norman Thomas and Eugene Debs, I must ask what fundamental disagreement your organization has with the already existing Sociality Party USA.
Your party has no programme beyond the immediate and fleeting concerns of the election of Barack Obama. Yet you seem to have a fundamental disagreement with the manner in which we conduct our campaign for democratic socialism in America. Yet nowhere on you website do I see any explanation of what this disagreement is.
Let us transcend lines in the sand for the time being. I wish to understand what doctrinal and programmatic concerns you have with the already established Socialist Party USA, and why you and your members feel compelled to re-found a defunct organization to claim the mantle of the party of Debs and Thomas when such an organization already exists.
Any answers would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely
Jordan M.
Dear Jordan,
You speak of transcending lines. Let us do so for the moment. You raise a number of issues, all of which are good questions, although some of them are already answered at our website (http://socialdemocratsusa.org) in the section "About Us". I would particularly suggest the Hacker Manifesto and the time line. On behalf of my comrades, let me try to answer a few of your queries.
Our party has very little concern for the election of Barack Obama as an individual. We believe that he is the best of those candidates who could actually be elected. Our reasons for feeling this way are outlined in our endorsement of him. Most importantly an Obama presidency with solid Democratic majorities in both houses of congress will see the Employee Free Choice Act passed and signed into law. Trade unions, the building blocks of a democratic socialist movement are on the verge of extinction in this country. Someone my age can easily remember racial segregation in the Northern, not just the Southern U.S. We still have businesses in this area where non-whites are unwelcome. Hopefully that will now end. This is why thousands filled the streets when it was projected that Obama was the winner. They celebrated a partial victory in their own struggle, not Obama's good fortune.
We did not just endorse Obama. Brian Moore came to our national executive committee seeking help for his campaign and we willingly offered what assistance we could. We endorsed Moore as the best of those candidates who had no chance of winning and we respect Brian as a comrade. In fact, our president was Moore's biggest single contributor. Further, Moore expressed disappointment with the lack of support he received from the party that nominated him. His campaign was nearly a one man operation, and I am sorry that time constraints did not allow us to do more for Brian's candidacy. There is a link to Moore's appearance on the Colbert Report at our branches website. I thought Brian could have done better but there was no ridicule directed at him on our lists (as there was from some people in the SP of the USA and DSA lists).
The SD-SP program is focused on local politics. Although small, we are growing very quickly. Obama is simply big news right now, and we are taking advantage of that fact to spread the ideals of socialism. A current organization must be focused on current issues. That does not mean we have no long term goals or oversight. We have no particular disagreement with the manner in which the SP of the USA conducts its campaigns. Each to their own. Our methods, as organizations, are different. We only wish to run candidates for offices they can win. We have candidates running for office next year, and we expect they can win. They will hopefully be the new Zeidlers and new Sanders -- or at least they will inspire the folks who will take up that work. If these comrades do not win their first race, there will be others. We will continue to back candidates for offices that we believe to be within their reach. This was the way the Socialist Party of America built its electoral victories. Remember, the United States did not elect a black president the day after "I Have a Dream. . ." The Social Democrats, USA's program is to follow the example of movements which have already seen success, both here and aboard. In the meantime, we take Obama at his word: that he wants a movement organized to hold him to his campaign promises. We will work with any on the democratic left that are of the same mind.
Regarding our claim to the "mantle" of Debs and Thomas, please understand two things: 1) our organization was never dismantled; 2) we are the legal inheritors of the Party to which they paid dues.
Let me explain further. We are not seeking to "re-found" the organization, as you say. The previous leadership resigned or just stopped functioning. As per our existing constitution, this does not mean the demise of the organization. The previous leadership's grievous and possibly criminal conduct was in opposition to the rules by which our party operates. We are currently recovering from the mess in which they placed us. Their actions, however, did not negate our existence as a valid, legal entity. The property which belonged to us previous to their dissapearance still belongs to us. It will be up to our future membership to decide what to do with it. The eight of us who were members of the old Social Democrats, USA (six of us from its founding) could have claimed sole ownership, but we want all former members of the SD,USA and the new members of the SD-SP to have an equal voice.
Your party's name is the "Socialist Party of the United States of America". It is explicitly stated in your constitution. The constitution can be found at the party website under national office. You are welcome to this name. Your party chose it years ago, under threat of lawsuit from the Social Democrats, USA for the use of "Socialist Party, USA". The Social Democrats, USA always used the words "successor to the Socialist Party, USA" in its title. It is still on the abandoned website. Unfortunately, you find yourselves in the same position as in the late 1970's. You are using a name which simply, legally speaking, does not belong to you. If the leadership of the SP of the USA believed they could not win a lawsuit in 1979, why would they believe they could win today? Greg Pason attempted to legally trademark the name Socialist Party of the United States of America three years ago. Do you think Greg might know the name of the organization that pays him a salary? Jordan, if you are in a position of influence within the SP of the USA, I would urge you to reason with your comrades on this issue. If a peaceful compromise cannot be reached, our leadership will be forced to send a cease and desist letter involving the names SP,USA and YPSL. The latter was in regular use when the SP of the USA purloined it. If you doubt the validity of my claims, please examine our constitutions and yours. For the price of a SASE and copying I will send every constitution of the Socialist Party of America from the 1956 name change to "Socialist Party-Social Democratic Federation" up until the the 1993 changes in the Social Democrats, USA constitution. I will also gladly send all of the SP of the USA constitutions including the name change to SP of the USA constitution of 1979. Within the next few months all these constitutions will all be posted to our site so that all fair-minded people can see who actually has historical claim to which names.
Now, to address your final and most important question: why bother re-grouping the Social Democrats, USA, when we could simply join the already working SP of the USA? I would direct you my post at the New America blog on this subject. Directly speaking, this is a very emotionally laden question, and I will attempt to answer it as respectfully as possible. The SP of the USA has two active tendencies. The first is Eric Chester's neo-De Leonist faction. The second is the post-modernist Trotskist faction called the Debs Tendency. How do I know this? Because members of the SP of the USA join us every week. De Leon was a blow-hard who did exactly nothing for the workers. Trotsky was one of history's great mass murders. We work with real workers in the real world -- not mythical revolutionary socialist workers. Those workers who know who De Leon and Trotsky are despise them.
Jordan, what do you know of Debs and Thomas? Have you spoken with anyone who met them? My father heard Debs speak when he was nine. He met Mother Jones, as well. Both of my parents knew Thomas. They also knew Phil Randolph, Upton Sinclair, and David Dubinsky. I became a socialist when my mother insisted that her eight-year-old son watch the first episode of William Buckley's the Firing Line. The guest that night was Norman Thomas. By the time I started college, I was regularly hearing Mike Harrington and Bayard Rustin speak. A bit later I met David McReyonlds and Frank Zeidler. Some of the older folks always had stories about Shactman, Debs, Thomas, even Trotsky. With the exception of David McReyonlds and Rob Tucker, who connects the heritage of the SP of the USA to that of "sewar socialism", unemployed committees, sit-down strikes, tenant farmer's unions, freedom rides, etc? By the way, despite what Eric Chester has written Norman Thomas was never a CIA agent, asset, or supporter.
Jordan, if you want to belong to a small club that discusses socialism on the internet, be my guest. I have it on good authority that the SP of the USA now has less than six hundred members in good standing, while DSA has less than 3,500. The paid attendance at the local arena's country western show last week was 7,000. That is more than all the dues-paying democratic socialists in America. Your party and DSA can discuss what "real" socialism means; we have real organizing to do. We have faith that real workers can build real movements in real time.
In Solidarity,
Gabriel McCloskey-Ross, acting executive director, SD,USA-SPA, the only legitimate successor of the Socialist Party, USA.