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Hi Art and Andrew, Thanks for covering my recent exchange with the Denver Communists [1] on your show, "The Marxist Line" [2]. Our movement needs healthy and productive exchanges of opinion, and I am always interested in yours. For this reason (and to add some context) I am asking you to read this short reply on your next show. Your show, by the way is good, and I recommend it to readers. It also has room for improvement, in the sense of learning how to go deeper into the taboo controversies to which activists badly want answers but that no organized group wants to discuss. Both of you appear inclined to view my interaction with the representatives of the Denver group as motivated by anger and as being, essentially, a waste of time. To be fair to you, I guess that is probably how it looked. But I would like to argue for another perspective on the matter. I am a reporter who serves the independent movement of the working class. I am focused, above all, on the topics which are most important to this movement, and which might be called decisive. The threat of transparency In the period ahead, all groups which claim to represent the interests of the working class will face the problem of increasing transparency. Over time, the "fortress" model of revolutionary organization will give way to the "network" model in which information will flow more freely. This means that deception, manipulation and fraud of all kinds will increasingly be exposed. As transparency increases, more things will become visible and it will become easier for everyone to, so to speak, connect the dots and see what is happening. This will be good news for the proletariat, and not good news for charlatans. In my own modest way, I aspire to contribute to this process. My recent interaction with the remnants of the ISO was not my first, and may not be my last. I have been at this a while (as my cartoons from 2005 illustrate). United front tactics I strive to conduct myself in these situations in the way that activists would expect (and want) me to behave: as a calm, professional "everyman". I make an effort to "do the right thing" because I know that this will do the most to drive a wedge between (a) the healthy revolutionary energy that is often found in organizations like this, and (b) the sectarian and social democratic careerists who generally dominate these organizations. I was not aiming to "make friends" with gatekeepers James and Jonathan, but rather treated them with respect, because this is what most activists would consider appropriate and would want me to do. I did not conceal my opinion that both of them were lightweights unable to do more than fling shit and flee. But neither did I put this opinion front and center. Such tactics, as I used, are called "united front tactics" and have a lengthy history. The principles of UFT are often greatly distorted in order to manipulate activists into kissing the butt of "good cop" bourgeois power brokers, but that is a story for another day. Staying sharp UFT are based on the fact that political trends (like all phenomenon) develop on the basis of their internal contradictions. This means that we should keep in mind that organizations (including the current and previous incarnations of the ISO) are likely to include activists with healthy sentiments. United front tactics will not necessarily produce visible results 100% of time. But whether they do so one percent of the time--or more often--is irrelevant. I act in a consistent way. This helps me stay sharp as I get older. And it sometimes does bear fruit. For example, when Art and I met, in early 2012, my experience using UFT to separate revolutionary energy from sectarianism and reformism helped him and another activist break away from the ISO. This was not just due to me, of course. The Occupy movement had intensified all of the political contradictions in society, so conditions were far more ripe. All the best, Ben This is posted on Reddit for the purpose of public discussion: Notes [1] Facebook thread: Ben, Art, Andrew, James, Jonathan, Denver Communists [2] The Marxist Line can be viewed live on YouTube each Sunday (or every other Sunday) at noon. The episode featuring my exchanges with the Denver Communists can be viewed here: TML # 75 (see the 50 minute mark).