[Marxism] "demo-green" paranoia and slander: in response to Craig Brozefsky

[Tom Smith]

1) It's a bit of a stretch to accuse fellow Marxists of being "sectarian" for attacking petit bourgeois populists with a quote on record of supporting or at least rose-color-glass-eyeing "progressive" Democrats. But not surprising: if you consider that much of the so-called "Marxist Left" these days has sold out their critical gray matter in the opportunist rush to remain popular with the college crowd, and constantly makes stupid accusations like this against those a bit more reluctant to do so. I've been the target of this kind of silliness from Marxist friends of mine who are still misguidedly in the Greens. It's not "sectarian" to be critical of the Green Party because the Green Party is neither socialist nor Marxist. That's like accusing Marx and Engels or Lenin or Luxemburg or Trotsky of being "sectarian" because they were critical of the German Catholic People's Party.

2) The quote is pretty damning--it seems to carry its own context with it--but it's certainly not uncommon. Nader constantly makes statements like this. David Cobb adopted a "safe states" strategy in '04, which was basically a pro-Kerry strategy.

Brozefsky wrote as follows:

This is slanderous horseshit driven by sectarian paranoia.

Phil has put countless hours, and an immense amount of energy into
building the Green Party as a real and effective alternative to the
Democratic Party.  I have seen this work first-hand, as he is a member
of my Illinois GP local, played a key role in helping us build the
Cook County Green Party, along with many others help win and then
defend our ballot access in Illinois, and making the ILGP something of
*real* value to the communities in Chicago who want to build something
outside of the Democratic Party machine that dominate our city's
politics.  His actions speak volumes which contradict the conclusion
you ask us to draw from that single de-contextualized quote.  He not
only criticizes "progressive" democrats, but is actively helping GP
candidates, such as Omar Lopez [1] who is challenging Louis Gutierez
in the Illinois 4th congressional district.

The last thing Phil H. is, is a "Democratic Party Accomodationist" and
I find your characterization of him as one, repulsive, sectarian and
just flat-out ignorant.  So, if you are shopping around Phil as one of
the key "demo-greens" in the national GP leadership, it calls into
question the entire concept of "demo-greens" as a serious threat to
the GP.
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Tom Smith
green4tom at earthlink.net