An Appreciation of Tweet Carter

(Letter)

The letter printed below, dated March 16, was sent to the Spartacist League/U.S. by John S., a former member of the ICL, writing from Australia. Tweet Carter’s obituary appeared in WV No. 1014 (7 December 2012).

While the timing of this letter is a bit down the track, I wanted to say a couple of things about Tweet Carter. Her death was saddening. She was someone whom I liked and for whom I had some respect.

While I cannot know if the treatment she was subjected to during the recent hurricane contributed to her death, I do know from my observation of the New South Wales hospital system that older people, particularly older women, are treated abysmally. Given the continuing decay of capitalism generally, I cannot believe that NSW hospitals are unique.

Communists are where you find them. Being the daughter of faded southern aristocracy Tweet was one of the best examples. On occasion, that persona proved to be quite disarming for political opponents.

I worked with Tweet for about a year in Los Angeles from June 1972 until she transferred to the San Francisco Bay Area in mid-1973. She was the political chairman of a local that had a significant number of young and/or newly-recruited members. The local did a few strange things (what became known as the “rubber mats” campaign at Los Angeles City College is one example that comes to mind). Nevertheless, there were successes. Tweet’s work helped lay the basis for recruiting several young black comrades in LA. As well, she played a key role in the acquisition of a grouping in and around the Young Socialist Alliance in Arizona (as a fringe benefit of that effort, we did get to see the Grand Canyon).

Tweet was one of the key comrades who led the fight to lance the eruption of the Cunningham-Treiger clique in mid-1972. In particular, she initiated and led an aggressive intervention into the SF Bay Area local where Cunningham was ensconced. The clique elements, in order to justify their own demoralisation had a view that could be described as “the program is everything; the party is nothing except a personality cult.” This was pretty funny given that their basis was largely personal. They did not like Cannon much. He was not warm and fuzzy. All he could do was to build a party.

While Tweet (and I) was perhaps at times over-zealous, she acted in the best Bolshevik tradition as a hard party loyalist. I think that she was crucial in this battle that defined the role of the party in the tradition of Cannon. I think that was true both nationally and in particular on the West Coast where it made that tradition concrete in a way that was not evident before. As well, it helped to integrate many new and capable comrades.

I recently re-read the account of a debate (Workers Vanguard No. 22, 8 June 1973) with the Wohlforthite Workers League. They only agreed reluctantly to the debate and had two speakers. Tweet spoke for the Spartacist League. She systematically picked apart the Workers League presentations both on the specifics and on larger programmatic questions. The article nicely conveys her political capacity and her ability to get the crux of a question.

Her statement that she lived as she had intended reminded me of Susan Adrian who made a similar comment. I think that both of them were fine examples of individuals who overcame some of the more invidious aspects of women’s oppression, a task made more likely because they were committed communists.

I had not seen Tweet for a very long time and I am sorry for that. She was an individual who never failed to make an impact. She will be long and fondly remembered.