Reply #81: Several different people-former party members- confirm the story, with additional details--> [View All]

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2207124228&topic=2287&post=6862

This is a repost from the Socialism Myspace group.

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.politics.socialism.trotsky/browse_thread/thread/4c525cb9cc8d4ee2/55127fd0b4d14c50?hl=en#55127fd0b4d14c50

It all makes sense now. I can confirm that the man in the picture on page 2 of the second link is in fact David North (aka David W. Green), national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party and chairman of the editorial board of the World Socialist Website. He is also the CEO of Grand River Printing & Imaging (GRPI), a privately-owned company. His wife is the VP of Personnel and the wife of Barry Grey, a member of the WSWS editorial board, is the Chief Financial Officer. There are other party members involved in this company as well, as some of the images that have come up in further searches have revealed.

GRPI is not a mom-and-pop print shop. It is a company that, according to its website, generates 25 million dollars in sales and employs 90 people. According to its history, it works with ad agencies that do work for Chrysler and K-Mart, Detroit-area based corporations.

In my three years of involvement with the SEP, not once was the existence of this company ever made known to me, or to anyone else I am aware of. The existence of this company and the identity of its owners is surely unknown to most SEP members, prospective members, and supporters. The party leadership leads a double life as a group of corporate executives.

Regardless of how well this company may treat its workers - according to the reports, it has won awards for being one of the best places to work in Detroit - all party members have a right to know that their political leader owns a company that generates 25 million in sales every year, and that it is staffed by party members and relatives of party members. I see no evidence that this is a cooperative firm based on worker ownership, and every bit of evidence to suggest that it is nothing but a case of benevolent exploitation.

Perhaps had I known this while I was working an understaffed, underfunded campaign in Los Angeles, I would have raised uncomfortable questions. Perhaps I would have wondered why money was being begged for at every conference, why we were given speeches about the costs of running the party and the website, why we were made to think that donations and monthly contributions were the only possible way that the party could continue its existence.

Websearches show that the printing world is impressed with GRPI, it is an innovator in its field and is always on top of the latest innovations to remain profitable. In fact, North/Green explained the secret of his success at a 2000 seminar:

"Greene said that it is important to develop among workers the idea that they are part of a larger vision, and that they are important to that vision. Of course, wages must remain competitive."

http://www.zoominfo.com/search/ReferencesView.aspx?PersonID=18333480

Of course. Otherwise he might have to fly coach instead of first-class on his next trip to Europe.

What do you folks think?

http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/marxism/2008-October/038196.html

The news about the death of Jeff Sebastian, the guy who recruited me to
Trotskyism back in 1970, saddened me (see earlier post), but it also made me
curious about the intervening years of the David North led cult, which I had
left way back in the 70's. All that I knew about them was that they had
moved to Detroit, taking the printing presses we had worked so hard to raise
money for some time after I left the group. Then they had reappeared with a
slick website and a weird poltical party (not surprisingly) called the
"Socialist Equality Party".