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