[Marxism] THE AGE (Melbourne, Australia): Nuclear no nightmare, says unionism's new face

[Nick Fredman]

Richard Fidler:

> Come off it, Walter. This guy -- if he really was in Resistance --
> left it at the ripe old age of 16. He has nothing to sell out.
> Never had it.

Oh yes, Paul Howes was in the DSP for a couple of years in the later 90s, in
Sydney when I was there, and a smug arrogant prick he was even then. One
tends to forgive that in a teenager from a difficult background, but maybe
one shouldn't. I vaguely remember in what would be his last period as an
avowed revolutionary he had some job in a student union and at branch
meetings, without being asked, he'd gave oddly obsessive rundowns of student
pollie factional lineups and number crunching - in hindsight clearly not a
good sign.

By 18 or so his ego and ambition couldn't fit through the door of the DSP HQ
and he became the lap poodle of perhaps the most notorious of ex-DSP
members, Michael Costa, when the latter smug arrogant prick was boss of the
New South Wales Labor Council. Howes distinguished himself at that post by
trying to get a DSP member sacked from and organiser training program. Costa
is the NSW state government treasurer now attempting to privatise
electricity. Whether he was too young or not to be a real sellout doesn't
really matter, him and Costa both are now both scumbags on the make at the
expense of the workers movement.

Are "Trotskyists", broadly defined enough to include the DSP, especially
prone to being renegade? Of course there's a few spectacular cases like
Hitchens and the charming pair above but I would think  of the hundreds of
thousands who've been Trotskyists who'd find these only a small proportion,
a lot more remaining progressive in some way or becoming harmless enough.