I already feel guilty about it. For all intents and purposes he was a good comrade. The problem is that he wasn’t a communist, he’d occasionally opposed a communist agenda, and he stood in the way of someone that is not only a communist, but has agreed to push my line.
For context, today was the AGM in my local union branch. I had prepared in advance to push a slate of candidates composed principally of good communists who I believe will advance an effective communist agenda in my branch. The man I pushed out of the role he stood for was a fellow traveller who was an alumni of the British labour party. He had occasionally walled off my proposals at critical moments, which prompted me to make a maneuver against him to ensure the important role he was running for was instead filled by a key ally of mine. My plot succeeded, and my opponent is now out of the branch leadership and reportedly taking it quite badly.
I thought I was prepared for the hard realities of the class struggle in the labour movement, but I can’t help but feel guilty about this. He was a good, we’ll intentioned and mostly effective leader, but I swept him aside. I wouldn’t take my decision back, but it does make me think about how I will manage more difficult decisions in the future.
Most of the leadership of the Soviet Union after Stalin were “good, well intentioned, and mostly effective leader(s)” but in the end their policies brought ruin to the USSR. If they had been ousted for proper communists from the get go we’d be living in a very different world right now.
You never know what that guy could have been the start of. If they weren’t a true communist at heart then I wouldn’t feel safe with them at the reigns of a union which is like, a fundamentally socialist/communist construct.
Damn, comrade. Thank you for sharing – it sounds like your union is taking class struggle seriously, and it’s inspiring to hear about the potential you’ve described – and I don’t mean to sound paternalistic but I’m sure every comrade here is proud of and thankful to you for the work you’re doing.
This decision, decisions like this – I’ve always been in a much more subordinate position in all my orgs, so I’ve never had to think about it. It must feel quite strange and uncomfortable to have to deal with the realities of what can be compared to functionally as a political purge, or even a soft coup d’etat in a labor organization. I’m sorry that you were burdened with that position. It does sound like you absolutely made the right call, and you’re advancing class struggle in doing so. Keep up the good work, comrade.
This might be a bit late, but thank you.
Tbh I don’t think it’s enough to “feel bad about it”. I’ve been in a lot of situations like this where they becoming the opening of a huge rift
If you wanna keep things sustainable you should probably reach out and make some sort of peace or at least let them know you care about and respect them. Might even have to make a few compromises to keep some sort of peace and show you’re willing to work with them
The thing everyone wants the most in politics isn’t necessarily that people AGREE with them. It’s that they UNDERSTAND them. Open up a dialogue and send some thoughtful messages showing you take their concerns seriously and are ultimately fighting the same fight
Yeah I think what you’ve said is prudent. I contacted him earlier today to offer condolences and even a different position that its within the power of my group to now appoint him to, that of a trade union liaison. Hopefully he takes it on and there’ll be no hard feelings.
Work hard, of you show love and kindness you may be able to help him understand why it went the way it did and help him radicalize. Could also not woork lol
It didn’t work 😢
I’m sorry to hear that comrade, his loss I guess, you did good trying though, keep your head up and don’t let this bother you too much, okay?
It’s alright. This is just the movement “steeling itself”, to use Lenin’s phraseology. There’ll be a lot more of this to come.
