For some reason, that’s the word that came to my mind when I read on the Socialist Worker website about the resignations of John Rees, Lindsey German and Chris Nineham from the SWP Central Committee.
It seems Rees, German and Nineham had planned to run for the CC on an alternative list, but backed down.
The pathetic part was this:
[German] explained that the three comrades wanted a leadership body which could work together in a united way, and that they were continuing as members of the SWP and would work under the direction of the party’s leading bodies.
So after their humiliation and failure, all they can do is meekly pledge to remain loyal members of the SWP and submit themselves to party discipline?
Lenin and Trotsky would have been proud (or, depending on their mood, would have had them shot). But it’s pathetic.