The autumn of the patriarch has well and truly arrived in the International Marxist Tendency. The cognitive decline of its Dear Leader is very sad to see. It has reached its culmination in the following ridiculous article published recently on the organisation’s website. I have no intention of reading it, and only found out about it from ex-members on Twitter. I do not frequent the IMT website anymore.
Every article written by the Dear Leader is usually filled with Woods’ own very overwrought and old-fashioned sense of humour. It is not clear whether in this instance he is trying to be Jonathan Swift or James Joyce, or a miserable combination of the two. What is clear is this – he is no Jonathan Swift or James Joyce, and the rather inept, naked contrivance of his efforts at caricature is rather embarrassing.
There is no one in the Centre reining this man in. No one bothered to suggest withholding publication of this drivel for fear that outsiders will think that they’ve gone mad. The full-time leadership are his loyal, uncritical allies and supporters, who will wave through anything he orders them to. Anyone who is unwise enough to openly suggest that he’s not all there upstairs will be silenced and hounded out if they persist in their dissent. The IMT is not unique in this – the AWL website regularly publishes Sean Matgamma’s awful poetry. For all their pap about being a ‘professional revolutionary organisation’, it appears that the big cheese himself is free from any sort of ‘party discipline’ or standards of professional behaviour. That is why he is free to sexually harass people unpunished, among other ills. That is why Rob Sewell was able to give a lead-off drunk and not face any consequences. That is why full-timers are able to groom minors and even pressure them into giving them sexual favours, and not be removed from the organisation. It is why even people accused of rape can be promoted to the position of full-timer without anyone batting an eyelid. The organisation’s resources are the personal property of Alan Woods and his cronies, to do with as they see fit, and woe betide any rank-and-file member that challenges this. No ordinary member can simply have what they want republished on the website without it being edited to conform to the party line, but Woods can have articles filled with climate change denial and blatant Kremlin propaganda simply shunted through. His work is not edited, and is invariably longer than it needs to be – because, you see, it is the word of the Great Successor to Ted Grant, the keeper of the flame of genuine Trotskyism, the unbroken thread going all the way back to the founding of the Fourth International.
The political bankruptcy and utter irrelevance of this tiny sect is plain for all to see. If they were actually doing anything politically useful, or having an impact on events, they would not feel the need to publish such badly-written hysteria. This is a desperate cry for attention from a sick man and a sick organisation. The Corbyn movement is dead, and with it, the fortunes of the far-left. Keir Starmer will likely be the next Prime Minister, and the working-class will look to him, not to Alan Woods or his minions, for solutions to their problems. The IMT will continue its long march into the grey mists of oblivion.
I’ve never taken LSD, but from what I’ve heard about it, this reads like something someone on it would write about politics.
To be honest, I think that unorthodox topics like this have produced some of Woods’ best work. Stuff like his articles on the Big Bang or the revolutionary music composers are also mocked, but as an outsider to the org I found them to be a refreshing look at very novel topics. This “fairy tale” definitely isn’t one of them, but I’d rather take a few misfires to get a few successes compared to more orthodox fare about “the deepest ever crisis of capitalism”.
No, Alan Woods has not gone “bonkers”. Fairy tales can do many things. Uses include to make fun of those in power and to put across a moral message.
I glanced through Woods’ piece. As you well know, I am not exactly a fan of this man or his organisation but if I were to read anything on this site, I do prefer such articles to the standard fare.
In this case, you do not pick up the reference to the Labour Files documentary. I personally found them interesting and not surprising. Large companies do by no means pull together and you often get the same cult traits as you have experienced.
Many years ago I wrote a fairy tale myself for the works council. . It made fun of a departmental head who behaved like a king. Like most bosses, he was not particularly intelligent and made up for this by being particularly unpleasant to his workforce. Worse, he refused to let anyone leave who wanted to be transferred to another department.
Being a fairy tale, it was not libelous. The bosses superiors and his peers locally also got to read the text and he completely lost his standing in the company. The fairy tale did its job.
The IMT is not going anywhere and there is certainly no need for your tirade. Move on.