Against Exceptionalism

Ian Beeching’s statement on his experience in Youth Third World Alliance

As a former member of youth third world alliance I can say that what Ivan says matches my experiences as a member of that group.

I first became an antiwar activist when the Iraq war started. At that time I was at UBC, antiwar rallies on campus could draw more than 200 people and organizing meetings had 40 people. After the summer when Bush declared had the war over, most of those activists disappeared and I was left in a position that if wanting to continue working on the issue MAWO was the only group to work with who had open arms. As soon as I started working with MAWO I was dumped and ignored by almost anyone I came across who I had previously worked with at UBC.

Having very little political experience I found MAWO’s serious approach and energy exciting. Slowly I became more and more involved. They were the only game in town that was visible on campus, had consistent anti imperialist politics and were active at the same time. I slowly became more and more involved with them. I lost interest in school and dropped out.

Shortly after leaving school I joined Y3WA. I finally felt as a young revolutionary I belonged somewhere and had a purpose. By this time I was already beginning to get sleep deprived. I was being told that sleep was subjective and that wasn’t needed as long as you had revolutionary perspective.

I remembered how myself and another Y3WA member had designed a poster and Ali rejected it.

I remembered how after lecturing her and myself for an hour (our opinion falling on deaf ears) the poster he finally told us to make had to have the words Allahu Akbar on the Iraqi flag.

I remembered how this upset the Muslim community and his decision was rescinded.

And I remembered how when the old version with the words still on it was brought to a MAWO meeting by mistake Ali demanded all the leaflets back without explanation. When one teenager refused Ali, yelled at him “this is revolutionary discipline” and intimidated him until it was returned without explanation.

I remember how I sat silently and said nothing.

Common practice while I was in Y3WA was maxing out credit cards, sleeping four or five hours a night until you got terribly ill, breaking relations with your “petit bourgeois” girl friend and parents, calling Ali, Shannon or Ivan every time a decision had to be made and only reading selected articles and Fire This Time. Depriving yourself of sleep and normal social relations is something you might do during the revolution; not in a time of low class struggle. Abandoning independent reading is something you should never do.

I was shocked when I found out over a month after joining the organization that Mike had in fact been assaulted. I had been told before that that Mike was mentally ill, that he was a traitor and going for an easy life and that Ali did not assault Mike. I believed all of these lies and even helped spread them. Unfortunately even after being told I was able to justify the acted by labelling Mike as a traitor.

The internal discipline included two mandatory education classes a week that were at least three hours each. One mandatory Y3WA meeting that could go from 8pm or 9pm to 3am in the morning. A MAWO meeting, a VCSC meeting, your campus antiwar group and all the political assignments (such as postering or making a leaflet) we had on top of for me what was a 40-hour workweek. There was also always tabling, rallies and picket. When I wasn’t meeting the expectations special meetings with Ali and Ivan were arranged for me. Shortly before leaving I was not attending these secret meetings that no one else in Y3WA had the privilege to know about.

I also was under pressure for refusing to take sick days off work to do political work. Many Y3WA members would constantly lose their jobs because they would take too many sick days. Ironically when they were fatigued to illness they would go to work and sleep in the washroom or in my case in the meat freezer. I was also taking heat for avoiding the mandatory monthly hiking trips and instead spending the time with my girlfriend.

Almost everyone in Y3WA live in houses with others in that organization. Without the money in the bank for a month’s rent food and deposit, disagreement is repressed out of fear of being thrown onto the streets. A friend of mine who left Y3WA shortly after I did was forced to beg for money from his abusive family after he left so he would not end up on the streets.

An example of the mindless sectarianism is how three of us walked in circles for hours around sunset beach during the gay pride parade in 30 degree weather and with heavy containers and a table because we were kicked off the grounds by the organizers after we had decided to set up next to the main sponsors table, having not registered. I told the other two that we should set up outside the grounds or pack up and simply hand out leaflets. They insisted on finding a spot inside the grounds were they had just been banned but never did find the spot and just continued to walk in circles. After getting sick and tired of walking in circles for hours and almost about to drop from the heat I told the two I was with that I was leaving. The response was not friendly. The funny thing is if they had paid $100 like everyone else they could have had a table. $100 dollars to reach thousands is not a lot considering they spend around $5000 dollars or more on an issue of Fire This Time and distribute them free at skytrains were most get thrown in the waste bin.

There was a Fire This Time “public forum” I attended where a young activist they had deemed “hostile” for criticizing the group and being emotionally upset at her ex boyfriend in the organization was banned. By the way they played tapes of her crying on his voice mail to the entire Y3WA meeting, I regrettably did not voice opposition. They banned her from the meeting and forced everyone else entering the room to remove their cell phones and all other electronics.

When in the organization I believed that there was no alternative. That Y3WA was the only true revolutionary group probably in all of North America. Having devoted so much time money and passion to a project it is very difficult to just let it go.

When I left I did so largely because I was exhausted, sleep deprived, emotionally in pieces and being put under tremendous pressure to donate the $5000 dollars I had saved for school. I could not handle Ali shouting at us at 3am to pawn our TV’s and Radios all so we could put out another issue of Fire This Time. I am not one to horde money but young people should have the right to education without taking out debts if possible. I was donating more than $200 dollars a month and only working a dollar above minimum wage. This was not enough for them.

It took me six months after leaving to engage in political activism again. I slept and got a better job and realised how wrong what I had been doing was.

When I read Canadian Bolsheviks by Ian Angus and the section on the third period and the conception of united front from below saw a striking similarity to Y3WA’s conception of the SQL that Ivan describes in his letter.

Their conception of building revolutionary organization is dead wrong. A revolutionary organization should function so members can freely criticize without fear. Be open to a wide variety of ideas and opinions. The Bolsheviks themselves were far from a homogenous group; the political differences inside were often huge and often never resolved. People should be free to independently read, go to school and have healthy relationships with both political and non-political people. Ultimately as a revolutionary you put the interests of the class and the struggle before the interests of your organization. The movement is not an organization or its fronts. The only presidents for the “organizational norms” of Y3WA come from people like Stalin and Mao, not true revolutionaries.

Since I have left I have been involved in countless campaigns and organizations such as the Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign, Communities for Laibar Singh, Stopwar and others. I also helped found a socialist organization that organizes monthly forums called Vancouver Socialist Forum. This organization values differences and is open to debate and anyone interested in socialism that can work in a non-abusive and non-sectarian manner. I work with a wide spectrum of people with all kinds of different ideas and find value in them all.

The revolution cannot be made with sweat and blood alone and definitely not with a closed mind.

Ian Beeching