They're not all bad. Their worst element has been an obsession with entryism for many decades, which did net them several wins but ultimately failed to bring about socialism anywhere.
They're currently preaching revolution but what I don't currently understand is what their strategic approach to revolution is intended to be, I haven't seen like a model of what that's supposed to look like or how they're to achieve that as an organisation.
With this said I do have some soft spots for them. Militant were fucking cool back when they were taking over the country opposing the gov and shit until it all fucked up in Liverpool, IMT evolved from them.
Their biggest historic issue is that being trots they've always refused to acknowledge any ML state as socialist, even Cuba they called a "deformed workers state". Not sure on their position on that topic today mind you.
I don't actually think they need to be "stopped" per se either. Movements tend to proceed on many fronts with different approaches appealing to different sections of people, the trots will appeal to one specific crowd of people while the MLs will appeal to another and so on and so forth. The danger comes if infighting between factions threatens to derail the whole movement. And I should add I'm speaking 10-20 years down the line from now, not today, there is barely any movement today but where it will be later is worth thinking of.
Militant were cool as shit as entryists, they essentially brought the entire Labour party to its knees but then they fucked up and it created the opportunities that allowed purging the entire left.
Ever since then the left in the UK has been doing entryism to try and redo it, and Corbyn was the result. Then Starmer undid it. Now there's no appetite for entryism anymore so there's been a shift in gears. Corbyn himself seems to be laying the groundwork for popup soviets under the new name of "people's forums" or whatever. What IMT are up to I don't know. Jez is not from the IMT strain of the left though he's allied with them many times, he's much closer to ML in my opinion, far too friendly to the USSR, Cuba, Venezuela and such projects while also never really said a single bad word about China even during the uighur propaganda.
The IMT crowd are competent. But they're also fucking annoying because you know how trots regularly fight over stupid shit that doesn't matter.
I'm possibly treading close to sectarianism there but I really do think there's no reason anyone needs to fight. I think a mixed strategy is holistically better for the left to reach different segments of people, the only thing to worry about later is bringing all of those segments together.
They vary widely. My local IMT organization is really good, doing real work locally, hiding refugees in their homes and actually putting some pressure on landlords and politicians. I'm actually subscribed to their newspaper (surprise surprise, they do publish one) because I want to support the work that particular group of people is doing. They are also part of a clown show of a national organization that was in the process of splitting over some minor issue or other last time I checked, and it would not surprise me to learn that they started splitting again after that. I'm not sure we have to "deal" with them. They will shatter without our help into a million pieces over some issue like how to advocate for permanent revolution in online spaces, and the good parts of their organization will remain in the form of tight knit groups of 10 or so people that do real valuable work and you just have to accept that they're going to spend some of their time saying that Stalin was mean.
Back when I used to go to some of their meetings they actually discussed trans rights. It was never a big deal there, because they just all took the correct side and moved on with the meeting, but I guess the parent organization had more trouble with it than they did. I wasn't party to all their discussions, not being a member, and I certainly wasn't there for all the meetings. I just remember that they brought it up, quickly voted unanimously to take the side of their trans comrades and then moved on to this one really old guy talking for 30 minutes straight about how Trotsky should have won the Nobel prize.
and then moved on to this one really old guy talking for 30 minutes straight about how Trotsky should have won the Nobel prize.
Lmao
Oh, he also put together this rotating schedule to hound the local government about a plan to redesignate some public land as private property, making it seem like there were new people against it at every meeting they held, successfully preventing them from going through with it for years. Like I said: real and effective local work that actually made a difference. If the prize of that is listening to him comparing Trotsky to the 1936 winner of the Nobel prize for literature for half an hour, it is worth it.
I'd agree with that, I just find the thought of Trotsky getting a Nobel prize funny.
Not criticizing you, it was pretty absurd and funny. I just want to make clear that this "Trotsky should have won the Nobel prize" thing is not all that he is, and he actually really helped people.
I'd certainly hope so with how long the old fart's been in the Communist movement, especially concidering - I think you've hinted he's British? - how his country has an infinitely more vibrant and lively communist movement than the u.s
No, we're in Sweden, but the parent organization has British roots. Still, I have an immense respect for someone willing to spend their retirement sitting through those meetings for the purpose of preventing this very local thing. That's why I subscribed to his newspaper.
No, we're in Sweden
Oh I'm sorry lmao.
That said, I'd do the same too if for no other reason than a thanks for a lifetime of working to fuck over the local ghouls.
they were selling this for some reason at 10PM.
The grind never stops. While you were sleeping I was studying the ink
They're a non-issue up where I'm at, but generally from what I've seen traveling around and through word-of-mouth through comrades and contacts in the labor movement they tend to constantly flicker between being harmless to being union disruptors that gunk up our organizing with either focusing on pointless dumb shit, unfocused revolutionary sounding demands, or undermining and sabotaging labor unity through doing entryism during negotiations and either confusing the rank and file or attempting to hijack their cause.
Generally speaking the Communists I know that deal with them tend to simply poke holes in their paper-thin arguments whenever it's trying to push for revolutionary sounding demands or pointless dumb shit and leverage their communal ties to the workers they've worked alongside for periods longer than the trots. After all folks trust people they know and live alongside with and not some crank that walks in and out the door every time they gotta fight to improve their material conditions.
I think the fact that denying (or doing a huge akchually about) the Big Bang is part of their ideology should discourage most people
to be fair it's not the first part of their doctrine, but they founder made some weird vaguely unscientific statements about it. Here is my source coz I aint no lib (this is no endorsement of swampside chat): https://soundcloud.com/swampsidechats/151-the-joy-of-sects-vi-the-imt
just move somewhere with a real communist party and a military instead, easy. did you know they have a version of acid that's like MDMA here in the ancap hellhole that is orth america tho
Deal with them? This is mainly a shit posting website lol. I mean I didn't agree with everything they say and they have bad China takes, but to be fair to the ones I've met they understand that their domestic bourgeoisie is their primary enemy and where I live I am glad to see an out and about communist presence.
