ISOnuts: One Stop Activism and the Gentrification of the Left

ISOnuts: One Stop Activism and the Gentrification of the Left

Featuring the Gang from the International Socialist Organization

By Comrade Motopu

WHY This Pamphlet Exists

I joined Students Against War (SAW) in the Spring 2005 semester. I was aware that members of the International Socialist Organization (ISO) were in the group, many of them were my friends and classmates, and while I never wanted to join the ISO as I’m not a Leninist, I was happy to work with anyone against the war. I had supported them in the past because they were the most visible radical group on campus. My feelings of solidarity changed once I experienced the controlling clamp down of the group first hand in my activities in SAW. I should have known better, as there was already much written about the group. But I made the mistake of equating criticism of authoritarianism in the Left with a Right wing stance. I did not realize that it was possible to criticize the Left while calling for a more democratic and decentralized politics than groups like the ISO embody. In other words, some critics of the Left are to the left of those they criticize. But some of us have to learn by direct experience.

Panel 1: Today's the day we start our own ISO cadre

Panel 2: The Central Office has approved me as Regional overseer.

Panel 3: So you can start by pulling this sled comrade.

Panel 4: Rats, this hierarchical organizing structure isn't as guilt free as I'd hoped.

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