The Young Turks take over

Credit: Harrystyle 

The Spartacist League (SL) is a small US Trotskyist group based in New York City. They also have even smaller groups of supporters in other nations, including Canada, regrouped under the banner of the International Communist League (ICL). The SL and their foreign clones have long been notorious for their strong sectarianism, absurd political positions and bizarre antics. Despite their nominal Trotskyism, the group often sounded pro-Stalinist, indeed as a parody of Soviet propaganda, extending support to the likes of Jaruzelski, Andropov and the PDPA of Afghanistan. Defense of NAMBLA and other forms of decadence was another weird staple. 

While sounding more "dogmatic" and "radical" than most other Trotskyist groups, the "Sparts" also took positions many would consider "right wing", such as opposition to open borders and a de facto defense of the national rights of "colonial settlers" such as Israelis, Northern Ireland Protestants and perhaps even White South Africans. In Canada, the Spartacist League (or Trotskyist League, to use their local moniker) took "Anglo-chauvinist" positions and opposed Quebecois national self-determination...until they reached the conclusion that Canada would be better off without them, essentially advocating that Quebec be kicked out of the Canadian commonwealth! In general, the Spartacist tendency had a tendency to view all forms of nationalism as reactionary pure and simple, while the more traditional Leninist and Trotskyist approach is that the nationalism of the oppressed is at least partially progressive. Another peculiar trait of the Spartacists is that they often criticized Lenin and Trotsky for not being radical enough (really sectarian and/or pro-Stalinist enough). 

Few people even on the far left gave a damn after the mid-1990´s, when the Spartacist League and their clone network had become passive and demoralized. Still, I´m sure a few eyebrows here and there were raised when in 2017, the Spartacists unexpectedly changed their long-standing sectarian/right-wing line on the national question. At least kind of. Even more surprising was the fact that the new orientation bore the imprimatur of the Spartacist League´s founder and leader, James Robertson. Much is unclear in this story, but it seems that the old man had grown tired of his own long-term cadres, and therefore promoted a group of "Young Turks" to replace them in the leadership of the Spartacist tendency. The internal rebels were based in Montreal, Canada. Still, as I pointed out at the time, the line change left many questions unaswered. It was either very impressionistic, or a compromise between Robertson and the Montreal collective. Robertson passed away in 2019, and in 2020, the SL and ICL pretty much ceased functioning, apparently due to problems related to the COVID pandemic and the lockdowns. 

However, it seems the Spartacist tendency is back in business again. The most recent issue of their magazine "Spartacist", dated 1 September 2023, announces more dramatic political changes than in 2017. With the Young Turks, or should we call them Young Quebec, now firmly in control of the operation, the Spartacist League has essentially repudiated its entire historical program! The Spartacists have morphed into a fairly regular Trotskyist group. They still sound very sectarian, but it seems to be a more "normal" Trotskyist sectarianism than the erratic form that has been typical for this tendency since at least the late 1970´s. They also repudiate the "right wing" deviations on the national question in a more thorough-going and intellectually fulfilled fashion than five years ago.  

The documents reprinted in "Spartacist" No. 68 express unconditional support for national liberation struggles in the Third World, calls for an "anti-imperialist united front", defends the Bolshevik line on the "colonial question" adopted at the Second and Fourth Congresses of the Communist International, and repudiates the Spartacist tendency´s erstwhile de facto support for Israel, the Northern Ireland Protestants and the like. One conference resolution expresses support for Argentina in the Falkland-Malvinas War, while the erstwhile position was a nominal "neutrality" that could be seen as pro-British. Another calls for an independent Puerto Rico. 

Indeed, the National Question seems to be the axis around which the entire line change circles. Perhaps unsurprisingly, since the leadership of the international tendency now seems to be in the hands of French-speaking Canadians, reacting against the erstwhile "Anglophone" orientation. Topics *not* covered include the Black Question in the United States, where the Spartacist League has traditionally called for "revolutionary integrationism", and the immigrant question where - as noted earlier - the original take was opposition to open borders. Nor do the documents comment on the Spartacist League´s bizarre "military defense" of the Islamic State terrorists against the YPG. 

There is still much to be done here!

It´s possible that the Spartacist League is backing off from their strong Stalinophilia, since the expositions on the Soviet Union and China - while not explicitly breaking with the pro-Stalinist positions of Robertson - nevertheless sound more regularly Trotskyist. Yes, "military defense" of the "degenerated and deformed workers´ states" against "imperialism and capitalism" is called for, but its also strongly emphasized that the best form of defense of the "workers´ states" would be proletarian socialist revolution abroad and political revolution against Stalinism at home. 

It´s also interesting to note the SL´s and ICL´s new analysis of the world situation after the fall of the Soviet bloc. They see the latest three decades as a real albeit temporary stabilization of the world capitalist system under United States hegemony, with the turning point being essentially now. While the capitalist world order is imploding, a confrontation looms between the United States and China. This is important, since the Spartacist League still view China as a "deformed workers´ state", in other words as worth defending (despite Stalinism and state capitalism) against the capitalist world. Presumably, Putin´s Russia is just a Chinese or would-be Chinese proxy in this scenario. The above also means that the national bourgeoisie in the Third World will be temporarily strengthened, since they again feel they have room for manouevre like during the Cold War, tilting towards China as the new hegemon. And that in turn makes it necessary to apply the above-mentioned tactics of the anti-imperialist united front, und so weiter. Thus, despite the worsening world situation, "Spartacist" thus sounds cautiously optimistic. 

One thing never mentioned once (as far as I can see) is the climate crisis. Is the neo-Spartacist League climate denialist or climate indifferentist? There does seem to be an "anti-woke" tendency present in the documents, since the Spartacists constantly attack "liberalism" and regard it as "more and more hysterical". Feminism is condemned as a Trojan horse of imperialism in the Third World (the same logic can obviously be applied to LGBTQ++), NGOs are attacked, and so on. Climate activism is often considered a "woke" thing, so one sure wonders if the non-mention is deliberate! During the political crisis in Canada in 2022 surrounding the truckers, the local Spartacists distributed pro-trucker leaflets. It will be interesting to see if this tendency will make a thorough reassesment of their historical support for decadence and libertinage...

I suppose you could say that the SL and ICL, while repudiating the absurdly contradictory line of "Robertsonism", has now been saddled with the usual contradictions of mainline Trotskyism!