Assange's Party preferenced white supremacists above Trotskyites and pornographers above the Greens

[struggle4progress]

The Trotskyites seem unsurprised

WikiLeaks Party mired in crisis
By Patrick O’Connor
29 August 2013

... In May, the Socialist Equality Party explained that our long standing support for Assange’s exposure of the crimes of US imperialism through WikiLeaks ... did not obligate us to support his party or his Senate campaign.

In our comment, the SEP declared: "... To the extent that the WLP has attempted to formulate its programmatic demands, it remains within the framework of bourgeois-reformist parliamentary politics ... Assange’s political associations have been all over the map and reveal a man whose decisions are influenced by impressionism, naiveté and short-sighted opportunism ..."

The WLP in New South Wales (NSW) entered into .. preference negotiations with various Christian fundamentalist, right-wing parties, along with others such as the Sex Party, a front group for the pornography industry. The WLP finally preferenced these parties, and the fascistic Australia First party, ahead of others, including the Greens ...

The WLP has failed to produce a political manifesto or program. Instead, Assange has outlined a revised version of the Democrats’ pledge “to keep the bastards honest”, promising to be a party of review to ensure policy is not based on “inaccurate, poorly disclosed or inadequate information.” Such a stance simply means acceptance of the big business policies of the establishment parties. This is the real political content of Assange’s claim that his party is neither right- nor left-wing ...

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/08/29/wiki-a29.html

[treestar]

1. impressionism, naivete and short sighed opportunism

good sum up!

[tridim]

2. That's actually a good summary of Neo-DU as well. nt

[treestar]

3. Neo-DU

Where it's bad to be a Democrat! Good terminology!

[stevenleser]

4. I think that is actually more favorable than Wikileaks deserves but its a good start. nt

[struggle4progress]

5. Well, that was their view in May, before Wikileaks ranked them below

the would-be murderer's party --- WLP may have lost some of its gleam and glitter in the eyes of the SEP since then

[Scurrilous]

6. Kick

[Cha]

7. Wtf is wrong with him? How stupid do you have to be?

SEP's got his number..

“Assange’s politics are an eclectic combination of libertarianism and reformism. However sincere his intentions, Assange’s political associations have been all over the map and reveal a man whose decisions are influenced by impressionism, naiveté and short-sighted opportunism.... As for the structure of the WLP, office holders and members of the new party include a wildly heterogeneous political mixture of disaffected Liberals, and libertarians and various currents of middle-class protest politics.”

[JI7]

8. another thing in common with ron paul

[Douglas Carpenter]

9. this sources is a Trotskyite-Communist newspaper - good to see all the usual

Trotskyite-Communist rallying around their favorite news source.


Published by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI)

[struggle4progress]

10. Yes, if you look closely at the OP subject line, you will see I referred to SEP as Trotskyites

The SEP is unhappy because Wikileaks party preferenced the SEP below the white supremacist Australia First party, which is led by a fellow who spent time in prison for an attempt to murder an African National Congress representative back during the 1980s, when the anti-apartheid struggle was at its height

It's fine with me if you do not love the Trotskyites. I feel quite sure they would have nothing but contempt for me, as a bourgeoise fan of electoral reform, while I conversely would note that they seem never to have obtained in excess of about 0.1% of the vote when on Australian ballots -- which puts them somewhat in the minor leagues of political parties there IMO

On the other hand, the Trotskyite tradition is decidedly anti-Stalinist, insofar as Stalin sent an assassin to plant an axe in Trotsky's skull, so they aren't really as a natural target of red-baiting as Stalinists might be. And, depending on where one resides, the label "Communist" may not have the same Cold War flavor it does in the US: South African communists, for example, played an important role in opposing apartheid -- which brings us back to the curiosity that the Wikileaks party preferenced the party of a racist would-be murderer of an ANC representative above the Trotskyites, who thus seem rather benevolent to me in comparison, since they haven't been roaming the countryside, preaching race-hatred

You might want to check the Australian Election Commission website for the preferences, which really are informative. The SEP commentary is factually correct at a number of points: the Wikileaks party really did preference minor rightwing parties above groups that might have seemed natural allies; in particular, the Greens do appear far below the pornography front Sex Party in the Wikileaks preference list, below the fascists, and even below the Trotskyites