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The Politics of the Socialist Party

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The Politics of the Socialist Party The Politics of the Socialist Party John Molyneux Why are there two main organisations The Roots of SP politics on the Irish radical left - the Socialist The SP is the Irish section of an inter- Workers Party and the Socialist Party? national Trotskyist tendency called the This is a question that many ask today. Committee for a Workers' International (CWI) which consists of a number of af- Both organisations work together in filiated socialist organisations - most of the United Left Alliance which currently them very small - in a variety of differ- has five TDs in Dail Eireann. But ent countries. Its `parent' organisation was while working together in a common front what was then known as the Militant Ten- against the right wing parties, neither the dency in Britain and its political and the- SWP or SP hide the differences that exist oretical leader was Ted Grant, a South between them. African Trotskyist who came to Britain in the 1930s and who became a leading fig- ure in the Revolutionary Communist Party The purpose of this document is to (RCP) which for a short period in the trace the connections between the current late 1940s united most of Britain's very political line and conduct of the SP and few Trotskyists. In the sixties, seventies its fundamental politics developed over and eighties what distinguished the poli- decades. Such a document is necessary not tics of Ted Grant and of the Militant Ten- because we have any desire to quarrel with dency was their strategy of `entrism' into the SP - rather we wish to be able to work the Labour Party, which was also adopted with them in a comradely and cooperative by virtually all their international affiliates way where any divergences of perspective in relation to their respective social demo- and tactics are debated openly and settled. cratic parties. Rather, its purpose is to clarify the differ- In Ireland, the Militant first appeared ences in politics and methodology. in 1973 with a paper bearing that name and proclaiming in its banner headline, Given that this document, by its na- An Independent Programme for Labour. ture, is going to make a series of criti- The Labour Party was entering a coali- cisms of the SP it is necessary to make one tion with Fine Gael at the time and many thing clear at the start: the members of left wingers had left in disgust. Militant, the SP, both leaders and rank-and-file, are however, warned against any attempt to undoubtedly genuine and sincere socialists build any alternative party to the left of and working class militants who serve the Labour. The only place socialists could cause of socialism with dogged determina- usefully be, they claimed, was in the Irish tion, hard work and real commitment; this Labour Party. is precisely why we have been and remain This policy came to an end in the keen to work with them in campaigns and early nineties after the expulsion from the strengthen our unity in the ULA. None of Labour Party of a number of their leaders. the criticisms presented here alter this. Like the rest of the CWI, the Irish Mili- 0This article was originally written as an internal briefing document for the SWP. Thanks are due to Kieran Allen for his assistance with the piece. 92 tant then took the view that the Labour (World Party of Socialist Revolution)' and Party and social democratic parties every- an even grander programme, written by where had become capitalist parties. In Trotsky, entitled The Death Agony of Cap- Britain, the change to open party building italism and the Tasks of the Fourth In- was strongly, but unsuccessfully, resisted ternational which also became known as by Ted Grant, who was expelled, and in `The Transitional Programme'. Since then the mid- nineties the name Socialist Party the Trotskyist movement has undergone was adopted in both England and Ireland. many splits and changes but in under- In Ireland, former leaders of the Militant standing the SP it is important to know such as Finn Geaney also departed at this that they and the CWI see themselves as time. The current politics of the SP are the true `orthodox Trotskyists' who still a product of this whole long development. stand on the ground of this document and In particular they have been shaped by the proclaim their adherence to its political following factors: 1) the legacy of Trotsky's method. They see themselves, and them- Fourth International; 2) their analysis of selves alone, as the true heirs of Trotsky Russia and Eastern Europe; 3) their pro- and of the whole Marxist tradition. longed 'entry' into the Labour Parties; 4) This is unfortunate because there were the poll tax campaign and their turn to major flaws involved in both the founding open work in the nineties. We shall look of the International and in its programme. at each in turn. In the first place it was highly problematic declaring the existence of a `world leader- The Legacy of the Fourth In- ship' without any serious base in the work- ing class and bound to lead to a misplaced ternational pride and arrogance. It led in turn to an When, in 1933, the Comintern or Third over emphasis on, almost a fetishisation of, International, failed to mount any seri- the importance of the programme at the ous resistance to the rise of Hitler and expense of the movement of the working the Nazis, Trotsky decided that it was class from below. It also led to a belief dead for the purposes of revolution. From that `the leadership' can draw up the pro- that time on he sought to build a new gramme of the revolution in advance of, revolutionary socialist international. Un- and without interaction with, the actual fortunately circumstances were very much working class struggle. Marx, by contrast, against him - this was a period of terri- used to say `One step forward of the real ble defeats for the working class - and the movement is worth a dozen programmes.' Trotskyists made little progress. However Moreover the economic and political in 1938 they decided to proclaim a new perspectives on which the Transitional Fourth International. The founding con- Programme was based, though plausible at ference in September 1938 was attended the time, turned out to be mistaken. The by only twenty one delegates from eleven programme declared that capitalism was in countries (only one of whom, the American its `death agony' and that, `The economic Max Shachtman, represented a substantial prerequisite for the proletarian revolution organisation) and met for only one day in has already in general achieved the high- a house in France. est point of fruition that can be achieved They compensated for their actual under capitalism. Mankind's productive weakness on the ground by adopting a forces stagnate.' From this Trotsky drew grand name, `The Fourth International the conclusion that `there can be no dis- 93 cussion of systematic social reforms' and ropean and world proletariat1. that the reformist organisations, both So- cial Democratic and Stalinist `will depart Indeed Grant was still echoing the the scene without a sound, one after the words of the Transitional Programme in other'. In reality none of this happened: 1979. `...we are now in the epoch of the the Second World War brought the end death agony of capitalism. There will be a of the economic crisis and was followed tendency for living standards to fall in all by the massive post-war boom in which the countries of capitalism, including the the productive forces grew rapidly; there industrial countries, with only temporary were substantial reforms (such as the es- exceptions2. tablishment of the National Health Service It is a dogmatic and mechanical ap- in Britain and a Welfare State throughout proach which still affects the leaders of the much of Europe) and improvements in liv- SP today. They still believe they have ing standards across Europe and the USA; the correct Marxist programme and that and in general the Social Democratic and advancing this programme is the key to Stalinist parties grew in strength. the socialist transformation of society This Finding themselves having to deal with leads to a top down view of the relationship these difficulties, and with Trotsky no between the party and the working class. longer alive to assist them, many of Trot- The party is in possession of vital insights sky's followers retreated into a conserva- which it must teach the working class be- tive frame of mind in which defending the cause it has studied Trotsky's transitional programme and maintaining the letter of programme. Less emphasis is placed on a Trotskyist `orthodoxy' became all impor- party learning from a working class which tant. In 1946 Ted Grant was still repeating has entered struggles and which will throw Trotsky from 1938: up its own demands. The definitive decline of Eu- rope, already begun in 1914, Russia and Eastern Europe: has been aggravated in the suc- the Stalinist States ceeding decades, and World War II has put its seal on this As `orthodox' Trotskyists the Socialist decline. While cyclical upturns Party, have always felt obliged to defend will take place and are tak- Trotsky's characterisation of Stalinist Rus- ing place at the present time, sia as a `degenerated workers' state'. They there can be no real growth of argued that the Stalinist bureaucracy had the productive forces as in the betrayed genuine revolutionary socialism past. The chronic crisis and in Russia but that the survival of state death agony of capitalism will ownership and state planning meant that, once again be revealed in its despite Stalinism, Russia remained fun- full scope..
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