Socialist Fight No. 12 Winter 2012/13 Price: Waged £2 (€3) Concessions: 50p Unite Election for General Secretary Special Issue Rank-and-file fighter Jerry Left bureaucrat Len McCluskey Hicks who calls for: who: All officials to be elected by mem- Uses the union funds to sue a left bers, not appointed by an individual or wing paper and a bus driver who criti- a panel. cised his official to silence opposition A fight to repeal the anti union laws and help his re-election. in the UK & EU and when necessary Plays at revolution whilst endorsing to confront these laws. the austerity programme of the bankers’ The General Secretary to live the friends Balls and Miliband. life of the members they represent on ‘Earned’ £122,435 last year. an average member’s wage not a six Knows that between 2001 and 2012 figure salary. Unite and its predecessors gave Funding only those MPs and Coun- £41,426, 890.79 to Labour with no ap- cillors that support Unite’s policies. preciable effect on its policies. ,đoàn kết là sức mạnh, Jedność jest siła اتحاد قدرت است ., ,Unity is strength, L’union fait la force, Es la unidad fuerza, Η ενότητα είναι δύναμη ykseys on kesto, યુનિટિ થ્રૂ .િા, Midnimo iyo waa awood, hundeb ydy chryfder, Einheit ist Stärke, एकता शक्ति, है единстве наша сила, vienybės ,unità è la resistenza, 団結は力だ, A união faz a força, eining er styrkur, De eenheid is de sterkte ,אחדות היא כוח ,jėga, bashkimi ben fuqine !Ní neart go chur le céile, pagkakaisa ay kalakasan, jednota is síla, 일성은 이다 힘 힘, Workers of the World Unite ,الوحدة هو القوة Socialist Fight Where We Stand 1. WE STAND WITH KARL MARX: ‘The working class to the political agenda of the Socialist Fight is a member emancipation of the working classes must petty-bourgeois reformist leaders of the of the Liaison Committee be conquered by the working classes them- Labour party and trade unions for the Fourth International selves. The struggle for the emancipation 5. We support the fight of all the specially with the Liga Comunista of of the working class means not a struggle oppressed; Black and Asians, women, les- Brazil and the Tendencia for class privileges and monopolies but for bians and gay men, bisexuals and trans- Militante Bolchevique of equal rights and duties and the abolition of gender people against discrimination in all Argentina. all class rule’ (The International Working- its forms and their right to organise sepa- men’s Association 1864, General Rules). rately in that fight in society as a whole. In 2. The capitalist state consists, in the last particular we defend their right to caucus The Editorial Board is: analysis of ruling-class laws within a judi- inside trade unions and in working class cial system and detention centres overseen political parties. Gerry Downing, Ray by the armed bodies of police/army who 6. We recognise that class society, and capital- Rising, Charlie Walsh, are under the direction and are controlled ism as the last form of class society, is by Carol Foster, Ailish in acts of defence of capitalist property its nature patriarchal. In that sense the rights against the interests of the majority oppression of women is different from all Dease, Laurence of civil society. The working class must other forms of oppression and discrimina- Humphries and Aggie overthrow the capitalist state and replace it tion. Because this social oppression is inex- McCallum. with a workers’ state based on democratic tricably tied to private property and its soviets/workers’ councils to suppress the inheritance to achieve full sexual, social Contact: PO Box inevitable counter-revolution of private and economic freedom and equality for all 59188, London, NW2 capitalist profit against planned production we need to overthrow class society itself. 9LJ, Social- for the satisfaction of socialised human 7. We fight racism and fascism. We support need. the right of people to fight back against [email protected]. 3. We recognise the necessity for revolution- racist and fascist attacks by any means nec- aries to carry out serious ideological and essary. Self-defence is no offence! We sup- political struggle as direct participants in port ‘No Platform’ for all fascists but never Signed articles do not the trade unions (always) and in the mass call on the capitalist state to ban fascist necessarily represent reformist social democratic bourgeois marches or parties; these laws would inevi- workers’ parties despite their pro-capitalist tably primarily be used against workers’ the views of the SF EB leaderships when conditions are favour- organisations, as history has shown. These are just 8 of the able. Because we see the trade union bu- 8. We oppose all immigration controls. Inter- reaucracy and their allies in the Labour 26 points of the politi- national finance capital roams the planet in party leadership as the most fundamental search of profit and Imperialist govern- cal programme of the obstacle to the struggle for power of the ments disrupts the lives of workers and working class, outside of the state forces Socialist Fight Group cause the collapse of whole nations with and their direct agencies themselves, we which can be found their direct intervention in the Balkans, must fight and defeat and replace them Iraq and Afghanistan and their proxy wars here: with a revolutionary leadership by mobilis- in Somalia and the Democratic Republic of http:// ing the base against the pro-capitalist bu- reaucratic misleaders to open the way for- the Congo, etc. Workers have the right to www.scribd.com/ ward for the struggle for workers’ power. sell their labour internationally wherever doc/120298542/ 4. We are full in support of all mass mobilisa- they get the best price. Only union mem- Socialist-Fight-Where- tions against the onslaught of this reaction- bership and pay rates can counter employ- We-Stand ary Con-Lib Dem coalition. However, ers who seek to exploit immigrant workers whilst participating in this struggle we will as cheap labour to undermine the gains of oppose all policies which subordinate the past struggles. Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Page 2 Contents Editorial: Rally the working class against SF flyer to the National Shop Stewards lobby Austerity ………………….…….......... Page 4 of the TUC in Brighton on 11 November 2012……………………………..…….Page 13 SWP Crisis By Ret Marut…..………....Page 5 Open Letter From Grass Roots Left to the Counihan Sanchez Housing Campaign SWP……………………….…………. Page 15 …………………………..……………...Page 7 SF flyer: Where are the SWP opposition fac- Protesters call for Stephen Murney’s re- tions going?.........................................Page 19 lease…………….…………………….. Page 8 Book Review: From Hero to Zero? By Char- Belfast Flag Riots: croppy won’t lie down lie Cook………………..…………….Page 21 anymore By Charlie Walsh…….……Page 8 LCFI statement on Mali: Imperialism out of The Socialist party pander to reactionary Africa…………………………….……Page 24 Loyalism By Gerry Downing .….…...Page 9 Sri Lanka: Petty Bourgeois Politics of the A response to United Left By Laurence JVP By Sirimal Peiris in Sri Humphries………………….....…....Page 11 Lanka…………………………..……..Page 27 LRC Annual Conference 2012 By Laurence Venezuela: United Front to defeat the right Humphries………….………….……Page 12 and imperialism…………………..….Page 30 This is the only comprehensive political assessment of the Subscribe to Socialist Fight and IDOT WRP/Workers Press section of the 1985 WRP split. It may be Four Issues: UK: £12.00, EU: £14.00 of use to those in the SWP con- Rest of the World: £18.00 templating a similar Explosion. Send donations to help in their pro- If there is one lesson I learned from all that it is that most ex- duction isting leaders will have long Cheques and Standing Orders to since lost the spark of revolu- tion from their political souls Socialist Fight Account No. 1. and almost none will be serious Unity Trust Bank, Sort Code about regenerating the group politically. You must learn to 08-60-01, Account. No. 20227368. do that yourself. PO Box 59188, London, NW2 9LJ http://www.scribd.com/ Socialist_ [email protected] doc/88358031/WRP-Explosion -By-Gerry-Downing Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Page 3 Editorial: Rally the working class against austerity and the trade union bureaucracy to defeat the ConDem attacks! n 4 December Unite the union’s Executive Council newspaper for an article published on 12 January 2012 O decided to hold an election for General Secretary entitled ‘Sovereign Busworkers fight back’ . just two years into the five year term of the incumbent, More than any other action this demonstrates the true Len McCluskey. It produced a new line-up of the left in class character and allegiances of this Unite bureaucracy. Britain: on the right declaring for McCluskey are the So- Thompsons Solicitors told the CPGB that Unite were cialist party (CWI), Socialist Appeal (IMT), the Alliance “backing the Libel Action”. Shame on McCluskey to tar- for Workers Liberty, Counterfire/Coalition of Resistance get a left wing newspaper and a bus driver via the bosses’ and the ISG (Scotland, Chris Banbury’s group). This latter courts to silence his critics during the election. right wing split from the SWP gives the following typical But we will not be silenced even when an organisation rational by Bryan Simpson, misuses the multimillion assets it has built up from In the two years since the protests in 2010, the dues of its members to pur- McCluskey has proven himself as the most sue the class struggle to stymie progressive General Secretary in the coun- that same class struggle and si- try and one of the most left wing trade lence its critics.