Revolutionary Regroupment Recruits from a Homophobic Outfit

A Trotskyist and sympathizer for the IG/LFI and author of the Blog In Struggle w (https://instruggle.wordpress.com/) wrote this.

* Recruiting a group that has a position that homosexuality is "crap" and a "perversion" borne of the "filth" of bourgeois society is quite audacious for a "Trotskyist" group. Yet that is precisely what the wildly misnamed Revolutionary Regroupment is trying to do. https://bit.ly/2qhYsVO

This person previously posted this.

This comrade was accused of "slander" and "harassment". They replied with this.

* My goal here is to have political exchanges openly and honestly, not necessarily to delight or please, though I suppose some of that may happen along the way depending on whose ox is being gored.

Icaro seems to take issue with the fact that I pointed out that they are trying to win over people in India who are homophobes. Not people who have occasional hang ups or  who are incorrect on some of the nuances of sexual politics, mind you--people who have a fully worked out, toxically Stalinist position that homosexuality is a symptom of bourgeois decadence. Icaro and his comrades in RR might think this is a clever tactical maneuver that seems likely to produce results. To me it  seems to bear all the marks of conducting politics predominantly online and looking to fuse or join forces with anybody who shares about 75% of your written program, regardless of how odious the other 25% is or what the group is doing in real life (like dog-piling on anti-gay propaganda in India, which has life-and-death consequences for LGBT people there).

The group there is called Workers Socialist Party of India (https://workersocialist.blogspot.com/2018/10/our-answer-to-frantic-and-spurious-open.html).

* All right, Gabriel. I'm game. In what way have I "slandered" or "harassed" anybody here? Is posting political messages in a political discussion forum really harassment now? I think these accusations are a way for you NOT to make political arguments. Based on your past attempts at political argument, it's no mystery to me why that would be the case.

* I say "the RR people in Brazil are trying to recruit homophobes. Look at the Indian group's line on homosexuality, which would be dubbed homophobic in relation to any Stalinist who might advance it today" and you take away from that that I am "slandering" you? For starters, a "slander" is something that is untrue. It's easily verifiable that you're trying to recruit people with an incredibly hateful position towards LGBT people (actually, I don't know what their position is on the T, but I shudder to think of what it could be). Their politics means, whatever their protestations to the contrary, that they are objectively homophobic. Instead of complaining about that characterization, why don't you try arguing against it? My guess is that you can't.

As for your suggestions, I would recommend you look in the mirror (collectively). You and I had sharp but political exchanges in another group. That resulted in you telling me via PM that I was a liar, and this was followed by my being inexplicably booted out of a chat server for literally no reason that I can see apart from the fact that I have political disagreements. Now, in this thread, we see Gabriel interjecting into a subthread in which I was addressing GERRY (not you or anybody else) to accuse me of "harassment." It's like everything the RR has ever written on the SL's supposed incivility and lack of forthrightness in political debate is just one great big psychological projection.

Correspondance with Gabriel Barreto

Gabriel Barreto:

Hello comrade. I don't know if we have talked before.

Me:

Hi. How are things?

Gabriel Barreto:

normal

Me:

I see.

Gabriel Barreto:

And you?

Me:

Our cat died so I am upset about that. Another thing I am doing is getting ready for the Electrical Foundations Course in September at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). Also, read Teamster Power by Farrell Dobbs and The Problems of the Chinese Revolution by Leon Trotsky.

Gabriel Barreto:

Sorry about your cat. Is it the one on the image?

Me:

Yes.

Gabriel Barreto:

I remember to have read you saying you were a spart. Is my memory correct?

Me:

Yes I was from about 2005 to 2008.

Gabriel Barreto:

Are you in a party today?

Me:

I am a sympathizer for the International Bolshevik Tendency but not a member of any party.

Gabriel Barreto:

I see.

What do you think of Revolutionary Regroupment?

You don't need to write an academic dissertation ://

Me:

I have disagreements with them when it comes to the Bolshevik Tendency. I have had several run-ins with Sam Trachtenberg he seems to support age descrimination and sees nothing wrong with killing disabled people. To be fair, that may just be him and not the Rio group (it appears the Rio group cut ties with him when he change the website and email password without the other members permission). He also tends to make ad hominem attacks against people (including myself) and avoids political engagement. As for the Rio group, they were saying that Jason Wright has ties with Department of Homeland Security. I don't think this allegation is accurate and I have yet to see any evidence in the five years the allegation came out. If they thought that and are wrong it is probably best to apologize rather than double down. Obviously people make mistakes, including myself and others on the left but it makes sense to acknowledge one's mistakes. As for Sam leaving the IBT, he resigned and was never expelled. I have read the IBT internal documents and I think the IBT was as reasonable as they could with him. Another thing one the Revolutionary Regroupment website it stuff by Phil Fergusan saying that Bill Logan is a sociopath and that the ICL was supposedly reasonable. Frankly, I think the ICL is as rotten as it gets. As wrong as Logan was, his behaviour was no different from the rest of the ICL leadership, then and now. I also don't buy the ICL claim that Bill Logan is a sociopath for one thing they can't even define sociopath.

Gabriel Barreto:

I see. Any political differences? After discussing with Sam T and the "rio group" (which is an inaccurate title now). I do believe Sam T is in the wrong.

Me:

I haven't gotten around to reading there stuff. As for the term "Rio group" I wasn't sure the best term to use. As both they and Sam call themselves Revolurionay Regroupment.

Gabriel Barreto:

I don't buy into the IBT. I've read the Coletivo Lenin's documents on them. I wonder how the IBT justifies their destruction of the group.

Me

I'm not as familiar with that. I don't speak Portuguese so basically have to go with Google translate. It seems that they have issues with the IBT but also Sam Trachtenberg and the people who split with them to join Sam. Perhaps the translation wasn't very good.

Gabriel Barreto:

The CL was politically aligned to the IBT. The CL wanted to conduct ideological discussions with the IBT, because the CL had some bizarre theories that weren't in the IBT's program

Me:

As for the Coletivo Lenin issue, I would need to hear the perspective of all the parties. This would include not only Trachtenberg and Revolutionary Regroupment but also the IBT and Coletivo Lenin. Of course, there is also a language barrier. Right now I don't have all the facts.

Gabriel Barreto:

The IBT reached one of the fractions of the CL, in hopes of convincing them to split the CL and having a Brazilian section The CL was horrorized by that most of the CL ended up abandoning the trotskyist program and then politics except what is today the rio group, one militant which entered the LCFI's FCT, and perhaps a few more which still see themselves as CL. You might also call the rio group the continuation of the CL. That's their version of the facts

Me:

I see. I apologize for the slow replies. I am currently going through stuff for my job training.

Gabriel Barreto:

It's ok

13/09/2017, 19:51

Gabriel Barreto:

Comrade, do you know any texts from the SL or the IBT about high school students and struggle?

Me:

I will have to take a look into it.

Gabriel Barreto:

Thanks

18 May 2018, 03:59

Gabriel Barreto:

Ah. Nice blog. I wonder why you didn't share it with me before Wow. Publishing your actual conversation with Icaro was not very smart Unfortunate of you to have to defend the IBT 18 May 2018, 06:38

Gabriel Barreto:

Looking back to our previous conversations, you were quite dishonest.

18 May 2018, 08:41

Me:

I had actually written those articles before we were facebook friends. I had in a different blog with those articles but then moved them.

As for the interaction between Icaro Kaleb he did initially click like on bunch of posts of posts of mine by the IBT. I messaged him told him who I was and I was subjected to a lure the birdy out and shoot it. To be entirely frank, I think Icaro Kaleb and his buddies are dishonest.

Gabriel Barreto:

That is not the impression I get from the conversation you yourself published.

Me:

As for being "dishonest", I will admit to having plenty of character flaws but being dishonest was never one of them.

Gabriel Barreto:

And your behavior towards me make me distrustful of you.

You did handle the question by avoiding to voice your opinions or that you had opinions at all. Or even that you had previous exchanges with the RR

That is dishonest in my books.

"As for the Coletivo Lenin issue, I would need to hear the perspective of all the parties. This would include not only Trachtenberg and Revolutionary Regroupment but also the IBT and Coletivo Lenin. Of course, there is also a language barrier. Right now I don't have all the facts."

Except you clearly had

You clearly had heard the perspective of all of the parties.

Me:

I was referring to the fallout between the IBT and Coletivo Lenin.

If anything my not posting that blog was me not wanting to rock the boat.

I am actually surprised Revolutionary Regroupment didn't tell you I was "personae non grata".

Gabriel Barreto:

They don't have a problem with me talking to whomever I want, different from all the other groups which I talked to and which where trying to recruit me.

Me:

They didn't like me before we were facebook friends. That is what I meant.

Gabriel Barreto:

So you either were dishonest by not voicing your opinion, or you are just admitting to not defend consistent marxist politics, simply ignoring when someone contacted you to discuss a group you describe with a lot of "bad words" lmao.

Me:

Well neither of those are true. My blogs were hardly secret. You asked me what I thought of them and I told you I had several issues with them.

In hindsight I probably should have shown you my blog posts. So I apologize for any problems this has caused. My blogs are generally meant as opinion pieces.

23:39

For the record, your insinuation that I am dishonest is itself dishonest. You are just mad that I criticized your precious little (and rather misnamed) “Revolutionary Regroupment”. If you can’t dismiss the message dismiss the messenger, as the saying goes. I also notice you employ the “silence equals guilt” line of reasoning (a tactic employed by the Sparts). Oh and I heard you were trying to recruit homophobes a while back. Also, you want to talk dishonest, what do you call your group snitchjacketing the IBT. Perhaps you should take an honest look at the group you joined rather spitting acid in my face.

On "Revolutionary Regroupment's" Big Lie and Snitchjacketing

The following is being circulated by the IBT back in 24 March 2012. The lie is still peddled by both Sam Trachtenberg's Revolutionary Regroupment and the Brazil-based Reagrupamento Revolucianario:

24 March 2012.

Comrades,

We are writing to alert you to a vicious slander of one of our supporters, Jason Wright, circulated by Sam Trachtenberg's Revolutionary Regroupment website. The latest issue of our journal, 1917, contains a report on the IBT's Sixth International Conference in which we noted our recent failure "to win over members of the Coletivo Lenin (CL) in Rio de Janeiro, some of whom eventually aligned themselves with Sam T., a talented but troubled former IBT member who departed in September 2008 after deciding he was no longer prepared to carry out the directives of the organization."

On 21 March, Sam posted an emotionally-charged and at times delusional critique of this report on www.regroupment.org in which he falsely asserted that comrade Jason "had for several years [been] working at a clerical position for the Dept. of Homeland Security."

Two days later, we wrote Sam a short letter (reprinted below) correcting this misinformation and requesting a retraction within 24 hours. Regrettably there has been no retraction, and we are therefore circulating our letter to expose this odious lie.

Yours for workers' democracy,

Gary H.,

for the International Bolshevik Tendency

To Sam T.:

We have read your 21 March screed directed at us and note that it is largely a pastiche of distortions, falsifications and inventions as well as your previous criticisms. Given your troubled mental condition which would appear to involve more than simply depression, and which we observed gradually worsen during your time in the IBT it is difficult to know which of your misrepresentations are genuinely delusional and which are malicious. While we do not intend to comment on most of your allegations, we were struck by the claim that you “wrote many of their [IBT] documents for so many years.” Whether or not you actually believe this, it is simply not true. We tend to view this assertion as an example of how, at least in some instances, you are genuinely “incapable of recognizing reality.”

A far more serious (and in fact slanderous) allegation is that Comrade Jason had a job “for several years working at a clerical position for the Dept. of Homeland Security.” This is absolutely untrue. It is not clear to us whether you are deliberately inventing this or have derived it from a confused recollection of the fact that Jason, who has long been a unionized state civil servant, was one of the clerks assigned to x-ray mail sent to members of the legislature for a period of time after “9-11.” This had nothing to do with the Department of Homeland Security. The IBT would never have any supporter employed by any police agency, including the Department of Homeland Security, and none of our supporters would ever entertain such a notion. If you are indeed still capable of “making rational political judgements,” we presume you will be anxious to immediately retract this false allegation. If we do not see a correction on your website within 24 hours (and a notification of the change on the Leftist Trainspotters list to which you posted a link to your article), we will have to conclude that you are deliberately promoting a vicious slander.

Bolshevik greetings,

Tom Riley

for the International Bolshevik Tendency

https://rr4i.milharal.org/2012/03/02/the-international-bolshevik-tendency-explains-its-demise-2/

http://www.regroupment.org/main/page_rileyite_rationalizations.html

Thoughts on the Split Between Samuel Trachtenberg's Revolutionary Regroupment and the Rio-Based Reagrupamento Revolucianario

About a year ago now there was a rather nasty he-said, she-said fallout between Sam Trachtenberg and the Brazil-based Reagrupamento Revolucianario. Initially I made the rather naive assumption that Reagrupamento Revolucianario had the moral high ground. Sam Trachtenberg had made numerous personal attacks against me. He accused me of "angry outbursts", "flying off the hinges", "discrediting myself", he called me a "liar", a "labour bureaucrat", a "lawyer", a "bourgeois politician" and seemed to insinuate that I was some sort of spy. He also has described the murder of disabled children, the rise of fascism, violence in the workers movement, political censorship and slandering one's opponents as "no big deal". For him exonerating his buddies (namely Robin Palmer and David Walter, to be fair David Walter has since repudiate his mistakes on disability issues) takes precedent over revolutionary principles. I think at this point Sam's politics could be best summed up as political banditry (think Gerry Healy, Tim Wolhforth, David North, James Robertson), unprincipled combinatinism (think Max Schachtman, Martin Abern and James Buhrnam) and cliquism. I thought that to expel Sam Trachtenberg must have been reasonable.

As it turns out Reagrupamento Revolucianario is as cynical and dishonest as it get. Frankly, they seem more like a clique then any sort of serious political organization. According, to Coletivo Lenin, which I have plenty of disagreements with, Icaro Caleb and Marcio Torres (sometimes referred to as Leandro) had the idea that they should run Coletivo Lenin and be allowed to expel anyone who disagrees with them. When they didn't get their they quit. In many ways, fusing with Sam Trachtenberg was to their advantage and to the disadvantage of Trachtenberg. Basically, any time they voted as a bloc, they would run the organization and Trachtenberg would be marginalized. This was further compounded when Pedro Abreu, and another member joined their organization. Basically it would be four against one. Such an arrangement wasn't sustainable long-term. Sam was very much an outsider to their clique.

In order to appease him, they agree to sign on and approve every lie/delusion Sam had to say about my group, the International Bolshevik Tendency (IBT). This includes the Spartacist big lie that Bill Logan is a "sociopath" (via Phil Ferguson) and the malicious slander that Jason Wright works for the Department of Homeland Security. It should be noted that snichjacketing or falsely calling leftists cops, is a popular tactic by police, including COINTELPRO, when they infiltrate left groups. Actually this very tactic helped tear apart the Black Panther Party. To be fair, it is probably best to give the Reagrupamento Revolucianario clique the benefit of the doubt and assume they are not cops. This isn't to say that aren't patholigical liars. Of course, when they chewed up and spat out Sam Tractenberg, they coninue to stand by his lies about the IBT as a matter of personal prestige. If they would to admit they were wrong in saying such things, they would have to explain why they were peddling such lies for years and, god forbid, they may have to actually look themselves in the mirror. This would require actual principles as well as integrity (which they have none).

I think the group Reagrupamento Revolucianario is best described as political bandits and unprincipled combinatinism. They are more accurately described as an apolitical clique, rather than as any sort of legitimate political organization, in my opinion. Sam Trachtenberg, at least has the excuse of being unwell and untreated. The Reagrupamento Revolucianario clique is just cynical and dishonest and such pathological liars they don't even know they are lying. That being said, I really don't think either group is worth supporting.

Coletivo Lenin Articles Talking About the Fallout Between them and Sam Trachterberg and the Apolitical Clique of Torres and Icaro:

http://coletivolenin.blogspot.ca/2011/07/nossa-resposta-ao-documento-de-ruptura.html O Coletivo Lenin é destruído pelo revisionismo! (Portuguese)

https://translate.google.ca/translate?hl=en&sl=pt&u=http://coletivolenin.blogspot.com/2011/07/nossa-resposta-ao-documento-de-ruptura.html&prev=search The Lenin Collective is destroyed by revisionism!(English)

http://coletivolenin.blogspot.ca/2011/07/resposta-aos-companheiros-leandro-e.html Resposta aos companheiros Leandro e Rodolfo: Dois camaradas destruídos pelo seu sectarismo, dogmatismo e pela stalinofilia! (Portuguese)

https://translate.google.ca/translate?hl=en&sl=pt&u=http://coletivolenin.blogspot.com/2011/07/resposta-aos-companheiros-leandro-e.html&prev=search Reply to comrades Leandro and Rodolfo: Two comrades destroyed by their sectarianism, dogmatism and by Stalinophilia! (English)

http://coletivolenin.blogspot.ca/2011/07/nossa-resposta-ao-documento-de-ruptura.html Nota sobre o racha no Coletivo Lênin (Portuguese)

https://translate.google.ca/translate?hl=en&sl=pt&u=http://coletivolenin.blogspot.com/2011/07/resposta-as-mentiras-e-distorcoes.html&prev=search Response to the lies and distortions of children of Rodolfo and Leandro

Article by Sam Trachtenberg on his Expulsion from Revolutionary Regroupment:

http://www.regroupment.org/main/page_split_with_rio.html Revolutionary Regroupment statement on split with Pedro Abreu, Rodolfo Kaleb and Marcio Torres

Article by the Rio-Based Reagrupamento Revolucianario on Sam Trachtenberg's Expulsion:

https://rr4i.milharal.org/2015/11/19/statement-on-sam-trachtenberg/ Statement on Sam Trachtenberg

https://rr4i.milharal.org/2012/03/02/the-international-bolshevik-tendency-explains-its-demise-2/

http://www.regroupment.org/main/page_rileyite_rationalizations.htm

More Thoughts on Revolutionary Regroupment‏

As has been stated by the Bolshevik Tendency, Jason Wright had a job scanning letters (the horror). But this is actually one of the jobs postal worker's typically do. There are I fact jobs where teachers and security guards and/or cops are in the same building. There are security guards in hospitals. Does this mean nurses and healthcare workers are all cops? There are security guards on campus. Does this mean teacher's assistants, janitors and maintanence workers etc. at the university are all cops?

Revolutionary Regroupment (RR), now two separate groups (which are now fighting over who gets to keep the name), initially claimed that Jason Wright had a job as a clerical worker for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). When called on it they admitted that he IS NOT a cop and DID NOT work for DHS. But insted of admitting they lied through their teeth they merely resort to several contradictory explanations. Icaro Kaleb claims they never called Jason Wright a cop or member of DHS and that Jason supposedly wasn't forthcoming about his employment (i.e. shifting the goal post) . But on their website they dismiss they wrongdoing as a technical error (as if wrongfully smearing someone as a cop is as innocent as a typo). Clearly Revolutionary Regroupment (RR) can't keep their story straight.

Revolutionary Regroupment's (RR) reasoning goes like this, "YES we made malicious allegations against the other guy.‎ YES we were lying. YES we know are remarks are defamation and slander. But WE are the good guys and THEY ARE the bad guys. WE are the truthful guys and THEY the liars. You can trust us. We may be liars but we are honest and sincere."

Ironically, Sam and R‎R whine that the IBT has supposedly "tried to brand him 'insane'". And yet, Sam T. tried to brand me "insane". A while back he accused me of "flying off the hinges", "having angry outbursts", "making debacles", discrediting myself". So clearly self-awareness isn't a thing for RR, whether Sam T. in New York or three-person clique in Brazil. Hypocrisy, thy name is Revolutionary Regroupment.

‎https://rr4i.milharal.org/2012/03/02/on-the-international-bolshevik-tendencys-dodges-and-evasions/

Some Thoughts on My Correspondence with Icaro Kaleb of Reagrupamento Revolucianario

As for Kaleb's claim that they have "sufficient evidence" that Jason Wright had a job with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), they have yet to show this "sufficient evidence". Any video footage of Jason Wright talking to people at the Department of Homeland Security? Any video footage of him talking to confirmed members of DHS? Any photo evidence? If they had such evidence they probably would have shown it on the very website where they made that claim. They CLAIM to have "sufficient evidence" (read: we are just pulling stuff out of our ass) but have not shown it to me in our correspondence or on their website. There is a reason for this, the "sufficient evidence" they speak of doesn't really exist. It only exists in their deranged fantasy world. One they inherited from Samuel Trachtenberg, hook, line and sinker.

It is truly telling that they themselves admit that half the information they have been spreading about Bill Logan isn't even true and they know it and yet they see nothing wrong with spreading such information without qualification or explanation or any sort of disclaimer. As Leon Trotsky said, "Speak the truth. Say things as they are. Call things by the right names. Be true in little things as in big things." Clearly Icaro Kaleb and Reagrupamento Revolucianario deserve a huge "F" in Trotskyism, revolutionary politics and even basic honesty.

Correspondence with Steven Argue of the Revolutionary Tendency About Samuel Trachtenberg, Icaro Kaleb and Reagrupamento Revolucianario

Just so you know. I have banned Icaro Kaleb from several of our groups for snitch jacketing.

He has accused members of the IBT of having ties with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and regurgitated slanders from the Sparts. He basically fessed up that he didn't believe half of what he and his comrades have said about the IBT but still stands by it. It might make sense to check if he is a member of such groups as For Communism (Leninist-Trotskyist) and the Revolutionary Tendency. My suggestion is he be banned, unless he is willing to publicly repudiate the allegations he had admitted in private aren't as well as all of his cop-baiting allegations.

Kaleb was part of a splinter of Coletivo Lenin which fused with Samuel Trachbenberg's one-man group Revolutionary Regroupment. After four years, a nasty fallout erupted and Sam T. stole the groups email address and website (he changed the passwords without telling other members).

Sam T.'s erratic behaviour isn't new. He displayed similar behaviour in the IBT. If anything the, the IBT was MORE LENIENT with Sam then the Coletivo Lenin. Sam quit the IBT, he was expelled from Revolutionary Regroupment.

Sam behaved very erratically when he was in our Facebook group, the Marxist Internet Archive - Underground External Tendency. He sided David Walters a Robin Palmer when they defend ablest killer and fascist front-man Robert Latimer (a stance David Walters has since repudiated). He also made a mountain of personalize attacks against me such calling me a "liar", "flying off the hinges", "a bourgeois politician", a "laywer", a "labour bureaucrat", who accused me of having "angry outburst" and of "discrediting myself". This was BEFORE the rest of Revolutionary Regroupment decided to boot him.

I think it was mistake for the Coletivo Lenin splinter to fuse with Sam T. They have suffered the consequences but rather than learn from their mistakes or make an honest accounting of what went down they choose to stand by every slander and provocation that Sam T. had made before he left there group. This way they don't need to look themselves in the mirror or admit wrong doing.

It sort of reminds me of the Internationalist Group. They denounce every mistake the Sparts made after they were expelled in 1996 but ignored the cult-like internal workings, abuses and programmatic overtures before 1996 (in the 1970s and 1980s). They claim the ICL had a pristine record before 1996. They say such thing because they were essential components of the Robertson regime before their departure.

Myself, I find people (including on the left) who won't admit when they are wrong to be quite frustrating a waist of time.

As for Sam T.'s hostility toward Jason Wright and Tom Riley, who he has accused of having ties with the Department of Homeland Security, he has held such animosity before he left IBT. He has accused them of being out to get him and even insinuated that Riley had his arm up Wright's anus and his hand in Wright's brain. Sam T. in my opinion is extremely paranoid, irrational, malicious and dishonest.

It seems the Revolutionary Regroupment cadre in Brazil are no different. What is bizarre about it is Icaro Kaleb liked several of my posts, by the IBT, and had joined one of the groups I admin (which I added several IBT admin to). When I spoke to him via inbox, however, he quickly became very hostile. He basically called me a liar and seemed to imply that I was stupid.