Peter Camejo: Against Sectarianism
Thu Feb 22 2007 12:15 am
by Bob Morris.
This key document was written in the early 80’s by Camejo against a backdrop of sectarianism in the SWP. It influenced many then, still has much to say, and is now available on the web for the first time.
The Unrepentant Marxist explains what it meant to him, both then and now.
Link to Against Sectarianism, by Peter Camejo.
Posted in: Socialism.
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First up — your readers need to note that Peter is being currently treated for cancer.
The essay in question was first published and distributed here in Australia by Resistance Books and a parallel document existed for some time in that catalogue as there was a lot of collaboration between Peter Camejo and the DSP here but this fell off after Jim Percy’s death(JP was the DSP’s national secretary).
The DSP and Camejo held a shared view of the evolution of the US SWP. The difference today, i think, would be that Camejo has junked a lot of Leninist perspectives when the DSP has not — although both are committed to regroupment politics (a topic often explored frequently in the journal Links.)
It annoys me no end that the US greens airbrush Camejo’s background in Marxist politics such that his entry on Wikipedia is almost a Stalinist retelling of his biography.
In the essay Camejo doesn’t present sectarianism as a personal failing but as a historical phenomenon and those that now lord Camejo as being so anti-sectarian –such as Proyect himself who has published the item — don’t always offer the same open ended and encompassing inclusiveness as Peter, who, I recall, has been attending the ISO conferences in the US as a featured speaker and participant.