[r a n d o m h u m a n]

I’m a member of the socialist party, but increasingly I’m starting to think that I’m just not a marxist. To some extent it’s because I think that power structures are inherently a bad thing. Any member of the SP would tell you that it’s a democratic organization, and in many ways it is, but only within the party itself, with little hope that it will ever allow democracy to conflict with its ideology. Which brings me to my second point, which concerns the limits that ideology places on everything. The left is made up of a myriad of conflicting ideologys and movements, just as our society and culture is, but even with that conflict there are common goals and complimentary actions, which are often hindered by dogma and ideology. The SP has one goal: to build the party in preperation for an eventual revolution (taken to be inevitable). In pursuing this goal they frown upon all ideas and action which don’t fit neatly with their own. They don’t seek to empower people in a general way, or build structures and resources which will, they don’t seek to build democratic alternatives to the cultural and societal systems that oppress us at the moment.

They do do some good work, especially with some of the poorest sections of society, but their tactics and ideas are uninspiring and outdated. Besides, how can I be involved with a group that has such a crappy website?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 24th, 2004 at 11:03 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.