MORE Moves Towards the Center

"MORE is a communist organization," someone said to me yesterday. And this not a from red-baiting Unity slug, but from someone who has run on the ICE and the MORE slates. I was even shocked to see a reader of this blog tweet the same thoughts. Shame on her.

Would I and James Eterno and Mike Schirtzer and Julie Cavanagh, independent thinkers, be in a group think organization?

I have fought against the sectarian, push-button ideologues on the left, many fundamentally anti-democratic, since the early 70s. In fact the creation of ICE itself was a reaction against the sectarian left. Maybe that was why ICE was so super democratic it never had any formal leadership and almost talked itself to death.

By the way - the ICE consensus democratic system was in direct opposition to both the sectarian left and the Unity Caucus model -- which by the way is modeled from the sectarian left -- more on that in an upcoming post.

Did ICE have leftist oriented people in it? Yes. But independent leftists mixed with centrists and social democrats, which I increasingly identify myself with - along with a libertarian streak.

Would I waste my glorious retirement years working in a group controlled by push-button ideologues? Hey, we are an open group to pretty much anyone is welcome - well, I guess not if you are in the Ku Klux Klan or someone who is clearly anti-children and openly racist - who, unfortunately, are emerging from behind their rocks and showing their true colors.

I'd rather be in a group with ideologue leftists, who at least, even if wrong-headed at times, have a political model as a basis for their activism rather than naked self-interest. And no one in MORE or ICE (other than a certain lunatic) ever does children bashing.

And let me say - I taught in one of the poorest communities of the city with kids with many discipline problems but also - they were still a small minority. Most kids and parents were lovely and when I see teachers only talk about the problem kids I see red - and not the kind MORE is being attacked about.

Afterburn

To show you one example of the left battling each other, check out this piece at Counterpunch:

The ISO Versus Socialist Alternative: Sectarian Delusions on the American Left

There are some people from both ISO and SA involved in MORE. Some of the best people I've ever met, though I don't quite get it all. Reading the article above makes me think they have a hell of a lot on their minds to worry about than controlling MORE.