I was encouraged to share the post out of my comment, since the joewrote article in the original post was so grossly inaccurate, and I have knowledge/documentation of internal workings of some things mentioned in the article, that contradict not just the facts, but the whole premise.

I know lots of folks are skeptical of trots, and honestly there are many good reasons for that, but Sawant’s tradition is my tradition, and I think the groups I belong to are good, practical, and mostly nonsectarian. I personally know people who worked to get her elected to city council in Seattle, and they are some of the most active and dynamic organizers in the country.

I slightly edited my og post especially where the cultishness of Sawant’s campaign is concerned, since I don’t have first hand documentation of it, although I do have second hand accounts of people who have gotten to know the Movement for Kshama folks who were purged for dual-carding but supported her anyway.

Here’s the og discussion . Thanks @free_casc@hexbear.net for the encouragement.

Let’s talk about what absolutely, positively, did not happen.

As the editors of Left Voice reminded us, Sawant was a member of the ultra-left Trotskyist group Socialist Alternative, which splintered over the irrelevant question of endorsing Bernie Sanders in 2016.

Whatever Left Voice says about it, the split did not come from a debate over endorsing Bernie. The split came when Sawant’s faction purged a large number of their most active members, including her own campaign manager from her Seattle city council race, from Socialist alternative. Why were they purged? Because they wanted to dual card in DSA. The CWI, which is SAlt’s tradition, stems from the “deep entryism” of the British Militant faction of the labor party in the 80’s. In carrying on with that tradition, a large group of SAlt’s leaders surmised that entering DSA in order to build a Marxist tendency within it, was an important task to combat the reformist nature of DSA. The Sawant faction disagreed and purged them, calling them opportunists, liquidationists, etc.,

The purged faction did join DSA and formed Reform & Revolution caucus, which succeeded, along with other caucuses that emerged around the same time, to establish a left wing majority on the NPC and many central committees. The former SAlt faction published a rather good book on DSA, which gathers views from all over the org and is being used in education programs all over the country.

Like okay, its a criticism of the sectarianism of Sawant, and I agree, she is a sectarian crank. Her campaign was, allegedly, run like a fucking cult.

But I find it interesting that there is then this long diatribe against Trotskyism which makes up the majority of the article. And I’ve read almost this exact article before, several times in fact: when the purged SAlt faction tried to join DSA. All of the sudden, these DSA rightists become the most stalwart defenders of Stalin. And to be clear, R&R currently has two members on the NPC, and was deeply involved in, not sectarian ultraleft opportunism, but instead, organizing the first NPC majority in 2023, passing the anti-zionism and partyist resolutions in '25 (actually the R&R partyist amendment took a much more confrontational posture toward the Dems, but MUG’s “party surrogate” orientation won out, still a partyist direction though) , and co-writing the Workers Deserve More program which is stirring up political discourse among the working class in the media in a way we haven’t seen other than with electoral wins. Always pushing for a more revolutionary message, and a break from the Democratic party.

Hardly sitting on the sidelines and complaining. This is the same tradition as Sawant, different approaches, but two very close strains of American Trotskyism. But does the author care about any of these very real dynamics in DSA? No, instead he decides to call PSL Trotskyist (LMFAO, what is credibility even), and spin a yarn of abstract doom and gloom portent about Trotskyism and ultraleftism.

Also important to note that Trotsky never appeared at the Dies commission, and rejected the commission’s offer to send a rep to visit him in Mexico.

Any valid criticism of Sawant gets lost in his utter derision for accuracy, opportunistic left gestures, and incurious agenda.