Ten years of Workers Power - p5 weekly Taaffe’s US dissidents - p7 Tories play nationalist card - p8 AWL and programme - p9 Nellist and Oddy - p10 €

n politics, as in nature, everything of the future does however resonate liberties posed by ending hunting by have bifurcated at the top. The To- in the search for a weapon Tory eyes produces its equal and opposite with the least competitive companies dogs is a smokescreen. The real is- ries have moved against Blair’s re- naturally light upon the unionists. Ireaction. Tony Blair’s constitu- and, perhaps more to the point, a mass sue is the unelected House of Lords formist solution in Northern Ireland. With unionist disloyalty the Tories tional revolution from above is no ex- of atomised voters epitomised by the and the constitutional “time bomb” The opposition, like the devil, is in hope to break New Labour. ception. four million readers of The Sun. primed by Hague. Ominously The the detail. Ireland’s right to self-determination Initially the constitutional revolu- Party and class never neatly nor Daily Telegraph urges an “ermine Blair pushed for Sinn Féin ministers has again been denied and remains tion elicited nothing much from the automatically fit. New Labour is a revolt” in order to “uphold the con- before IRA decommissioning (in their the central, unresolved, contradic- Tories - except idiotic prattle and complex hybrid. Politically it serves stitution”. All government legislation absence decommissioning is already tion. But partition post-1998 eschews dumb rage. The party of Thatcher finance capital; sociologically it is should be blocked using the Lords: undergoing a slippage away from May gerrymandering and overt discrimina- which energetically smashed the staffed by middle class career politi- crucially Blair’s disenfranchisement 2000). Hague and his media auxiliaries tion. More than that, Blair aims to win once mighty NUM after a year-long cians; electorally it relies on the pro- of “several hundred of their number” in contrast instinctively sided with the consent, if not the active support, civil war in the mining communities letariat in the ballot box. Trade union - “one of the most autocratic bills in Trimble - not as first minister, but as of the catholic-nationalist population. and pit villages, the party that sys- influence has shrunk qualitatively. recent history” (June 29). The Tories leader of the Ulster Unionists. Sinn Each concession given to, or wrested tematically rolled back the welfare The Tories appear to have abandoned explicitly link foxhunting and the Féin must “be excluded from the ex- by, the minority increases the pres- state and created a destitute genera- their historic alignment with big capi- House of Lords and have taken to ecutive”, Hague insisted, while the sure on the majority. The Ulster Un- tion, the party of endless privatisa- tal in favour of an English version of the streets in huge numbers. Last IRA remains “fully armed” (The Daily ionists find themselves with little tion, job insecurity and globalised Poujadism. Before our eyes they are year’s 250,000-strong Countryside Telegraph July 5). Against the letter room for manoeuvre. In front of them capital crassly celebrated the static metamorphosing from the preferred Alliance demonstration in London and the grain of the Good Friday deal is the Paisleyite DUP, waiting to steal virtues of Britain’s supposed ‘unin- party of the bourgeoisie into a right- saw the government quickly back- he also agitates for an end to prisoner their base in the event of a ‘surren- terrupted’ thousand years of consti- wing English nationalist party. Obvi- track on foxhunting and then com- releases. The Daily Telegraph edito- der’ to IRA gunmen. At their back is tutional history. (Ignoring the ously such transformations, by New promise on 90 hereditary peers. rial recognises that under such circum- the British-Irish Agreement, which separate linguistic, cultural and royal Labour and the Tories alike, are prem- Blair’s promise on the BBC’s July 8 stances it would be necessary to redefines the union with Great Brit- histories in the British Isles, the 1066, ised on the disappearance of the work- ‘Question Time’ to ban hunting with revert to solving the problem vi et ain and necessitates an historic com- 1642, 1688 and other revolutionary ers as a political class (albeit in Britain dogs “as soon as we possibly can” - armis: “Army patrols should be promise with Irish nationalism. Either ruptures and the elementary fact that as the subaltern pole of Labourism). ie, after the completion of the first brought back, the emergency powers way, a disloyal ‘no’ majority amongst Britain was only united politically in Today the working class exists as stage of the House of Lords reform - act restored in full” and “measures the majority British-Irish is now in the 18th century.) wage slaves, but not as the bearer of is sure to provoke a parliamentary and should be taken to facilitate the con- place. Perfect - for Hague. Behind the Tory nonsense there a social alternative to capitalism. extra-parliamentary storm. Hague will viction of terrorist leaders, including Formal negotiations over the North- was, of course, Tory sense. Abolition We in Britain are surely in the midst do his utmost to maximise the de- forensic admission of telephone inter- ern Ireland executive have been de- of hereditary peers, devolution, the of something unequalled since the structive impact of his militant mi- cepts and the testimony of anony- layed till October or even November. Lab-Lib politics of coalition and the death of the great Liberal Party and nority (Journalists have foolishly mous informers” (July 19). But the next big hurdle, and therefore possibility of PR for Westminster elec- the rise of Labour in the first quarter interpreted Blair’s move as an attempt Such a plan B is obviously unwork- the next Tory opportunity, is likely to tions effectively rob the Tories of their of the 20th century. Whether the to appease Labour’s “traditional” core able as a consensus settlement. Nei- be RUC reform under the auspices of divine right to govern the whole coun- present forms endure or quickly pass voters. In reality it is hegemonic. Sev- ther the SDLP nor the Ahern a Blairised Chris Patten. The Hague try through a minority of votes and away is another matter entirely - the enty percent of the adult population, government in Dublin could accept Tories could yet find themselves a the unelected House of Lords. The class struggle will decide. including traditional Tories, report- it. As to the IRA, it has proved be- ready-made armed wing if the RUC spectre of permanent marginalisation Beating the English nationalist edly support a ban.) yond a shadow of doubt that it can were to be radically reformed (dis- haunts them. drum is Hague’s answer to devolu- Ulster is key to the success of any withstand anything the British state banded in unionist-speak) as part of The Tories could, and did, say ‘no’ tion in Scotland and Wales - since it Tory revolt. Northern Ireland is the can politically afford to throw against the attempt to appease catholics. to every innovation emanating from was established as a statelet in 1920 United Kingdom’s main weak link and it - internment, SAS assassinations, Mass resignations, passive mutiny, Downing Street - Scottish parliament, Northern Ireland has caused no ago- therefore the main weak link in Blair’s criminalisation, etc. The Tory plan B uniformed protest demonstrations are Welsh assembly, Lords reform, Lon- nising over the so-called West Lo- constitutional revolution. For nearly is not an alternative to Blair’s stalled all on the cards. don mayor, etc. That hardly consti- thian question. There are 163 Tory three decades Britain’s inability to plan A. Once more it is a cynical A constitutional collision between tutes a viable strategy. In recognition, MPs - all English seats. None in Scot- rule the Six Counties in the old way wrecking device. the Hague Tories and New Labour albeit driven more by blind instinct land or Wales. Naturally Hague claims and the refusal of the nationalist The old Conservative and Unionist ought to provide an opening for mass than grand vision, William Hague is to be discouraging English national- masses to be ruled in the old way was Party lives again in the alliance ce- activity. With the right programme beginning to hone a programme. How- ism. An opposite intention is trans- a festering ulcer on the Elizabethan mented between Hague and David rapid advances can be made. Yet most ever, what is noticeable is that the parent. He yearns for a bigoted monarchy system. There is no longer Trimble. It should not be assumed, comrades on the left are blissfully Tories are not so much readying them- English backlash. Hague’s speech to a revolutionary situation, but the however, that there exists a deep- mired in economism (bourgeois poli- selves for government in 2001 or 2002. the Centre for Policy Studies (see p8) counterrevolutionary situation is pre- seated affinity between the two men. tics of the working class). The con- They are readying themselves to was a bid to capture what he called carious. Northern Ireland remains a Hague is a grammar school Tory in stitution hardly exists for them as a wreck Blair’s constitutional revolu- “an emerging English conscious- cockpit of crisis, as testified by Blair’s the non-aristocratic mould of Heath serious political issue. Thankfully we tion through a reactionary revolt. That ness” and fuel resentment against inability to strike a deal on his June and Thatcher. A conventional career communists hold to a different ap- might well mean another term in op- Scotland on the basis of per capita 30 deadline and the subsequent serio- politician from head to toe. Trimble is proach. Where Blair remakes the con- position, but New Labour will have expenditure and the right of Scottish comic collapse of the Northern Ire- an Ulster zealot. He entered politics stitutional monarchy from above, the been fatally wounded. In other words and Welsh MPs - he was silent on land assembly on July 15 - for a few with the Vanguard party in 1973 - its CPGB says the workers must fight to Hague’s programme is negative, not Northern Ireland - to vote on English surreal minutes the province had an firebrand leader, William Craig, noto- remake it from below as a federal re- hegemonic. matters. Hague’s slogan is “English exclusively nationalist executive. riously told supporters that “our duty public (as advocated by Marx, Engels A number of often contradictory votes on English laws” (The Guard- If the June 10 European Union elec- is to liquidate the enemy”. Trimble and Lenin). Not only must Scotland elements are being put together. Sav- ian July 16). tion debacle signalled the end of the himself was actively involved in the and Wales have sovereign parlia- ing the pound and opposition to a The fact that Wales and England Blair honeymoon, failure to put in semi-insurrectionary 1974 Ulster work- ments, able to freely exercise the right federal European Union, English na- share the same legal system is a mi- place the Northern Ireland executive ers’ strike which brought down the of self-determination up to separa- tionalism and fuelling resentment of nor detail. As is Hague’s inability to leaves the whole New Labour project Sunningdale power-sharing executive. tion; England too should have its re- Scotland and Wales, foxhunting and take the logical step and advocate an vulnerable. Having joined the Ulster Unionist publican parliament. As to Ireland, we saving the House of Lords, siding English parliament within a federal For all practical purposes the bi- Party in 1977, he was elected leader 13 are for unity, independence and de- with the Ulster Unionists and agita- monarchy system (a Liberal Democrat partisanship which for 30 years years later as a hardline replacement mocracy with full rights for the prot- tion for an intransigent plan B. Po- proposal). The cardinal point is the broadly characterised the relationship for the ‘moderate’ James Molyneux. estant - British-Irish - minority, tentially a lethal parliamentary and crude invocation of English nation- between the Tory and Labour front The English Tories have no love of including the right to separate. extra-parliamentary arsenal. alism in order to undo Blair’s consti- benches has been scuppered by Trimble’s party, whose rasping talk Without such a communist mini- Evidently the Tories’ stance on tutional revolution. Hague. The line of contradiction no of British citizenship, the queen and mum programme there can be no Europe does not coincide with the Foxhunting is foxhunting is longer runs between the British state the union are simply codewords for working class political independence long-term interests of the biggest and foxhunting ... for simpletons. Need- and the nationalist minority in North- the protestant ascendancy. Ulster’s nor self-liberation l most dynamic sectors of capital. Fear less to say, the threat to countryside ern Ireland. Now things in Britain loyalty is loyalty to Ulster alone. But Jack Conrad Page July 22 1999 etters

Party notes With so many on the left talking of Scargill’s party being the ‘last-chance sa- L When Mark Fischer says that the Anti- loon’ a couple of years ago, it is time to Fascist Alliance was “bruisingly effective face up to the facts and discuss how we in winning the battle for control of the move forward, before someone calls time streets”, forcing the BNP to devise a new and shuts the bar for good. strategy by 1994, he is probably correct However, the article concentrated on re- (‘Learning from the fascists’ Weekly North London peatedly attacking their former Bolivian, A telling symptom of the crisis of the left’s programmatic per- Worker July 1). New Zealand and Peruvian sections who spective is its increasingly erratic politics. New ventures, which What he glosses over is the level of were guilty of “sectarian” and “Stalin- seemingly overturn decades of consistently held theorised near psychotic violence employed in or- ophile” positions. It presented José Villa positions, are embarked on frivolously, in a piecemeal fashion der to achieve this end. As a member of Alan McArthur’s defence of the AWL‘s as the great villain who was the cause of and without any clear accounting with what the organisation Afa in the early 1990s I personally wit- ‘transitional’ approach to their recent elec- so much trouble within the League for a was saying yesterday. nessed a relentlessly brutal beating tion campaign is a beautiful example of revolutionary Communist International for Over the past few years, we have seen the Socialist Party in dished out to more or less defenceless everything that is wrong with the ‘transi- many years. His name was mentioned more England and Wales justify its open turn by the assertion (and members of the far right during a rally at tional method’ (Letters Weekly Worker times than all the others put together! it has been little else) that Labour is now “a bourgeois party”. Kensington library which horrified far July 15). However, the article did not explain any More recently, Workers Power seems to have dropped its elec- more than me. Repulsed, many - includ- His division of revolutionaries’ tasks of the dissidents’ positions. The fact that toral support to Labour, an auto-reflex that had characterised ing female members of Class War - left the into “two fundamental jobs” is a telling a balance sheet of an entire international it since birth. The Labour Party looks set to limp on: the fate of meeting clearly upset. For my part I, along beginning. He argues that, while of course tendency is based on this kind of report WP is more in the balance, I would suggest. Now, we even with others, left the organisation, never the AWL wants to make revolutionary shows one of three possibilities: that it have the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty - once the most fero- to return. propaganda by selling their literature and was not true when the LRCI claimed in cious in their protective concern for Labour - actually stand- The subsequent criminal trial collapsed recruiting to the AWL, they “also need a previous years that its splits were not sig- ing against it in elections. amidst unexplained allegations by inde- policy for the whole class and movement, nificant; that the LRCI’s leadership is ob- None of these important shifts can have taken place with- pendent researcher Larry O’Hara of MI5 a programme of demands around which to sessed with the LCMRCI and its criticisms out debate and controversy within at least the leaderships of interference in the judicial process, and organise activity”. The trouble is, this time which they are incapable of answering in such organisations - assuming these are not composed of the ringleaders walked free. round at least, their “policy for the whole a real political way; or that the LRCI is not brain-dead dolts, of course. Yet, with the partial exception of Accompanying suspicions - particu- class” was reformist and they kept their an organisation that has had any serious the AWL, none of this has found expression in the open. To larly amongst anarchists - of some level revolutionary propaganda off the election contributions to make in the workers’ grasp what is going on, we have to subject articles to forensic of state involvement, there are long-term address. The working class as a mass are movement. investigation to uncover their true significance. concerns of Afa being ‘institutionally anti- fed economism, while revolutionary ideas If the LRCI wants to continue to claim Recent issues of Socialist Worker provide examples. We women and anti-gay’ made by, amongst are kept for internal consumption. that it is an anti-Stalinist and democratic- have already commented that the SWP’s myopically upbeat others, Workers Power. Also aggression Alan says revolutionary demands are centralist organisation, I demand it enters perspectives about this period have been ‘tweaked’. Where towards the left generally is more or less “abstract”. Why? Doesn’t the working into a public discussion with me and the once its staff writers would talk up the official strike figures, routine. Most recently Afa members in class need revolutionary ideas in Blair’s LCMRCI. They should give over a page desperately trying to prove that the UK was indeed riven with London are accused of seriously intimi- Britain in order to liberate itself? How are in their paper and on their website for our industrial strife, now they baldly assert “the level of open dating the organisers of a benefit for a demands for a minimum wage of £5 or an reply, and we could do the same in our struggle is fantastically low by any historical standard” (So- Czechoslovakian anti-fascist. As I under- injection of cash for the health service publications. We are willing to have a cialist Worker July 10). An accurate observation, if woefully stand it, one member of the audience (who implicitly “demands to take our class from public debate in any place they choose. late. happens apparently to be of Asian ap- where we are towards where we want to We should discuss the balance sheet of This same article - ‘What kind of alternative’ by Paul McGarr pearance) was actually physically as- be”? How does our class know where it the same international organisation that - provides us with an interesting insight into current internal saulted. wants to be? we founded and the difference between tensions, although it is written in the usual cryptic style of Now I see, judging from Mark Fischer’s The AWL appears to think that by tell- our two currents. SWPers. review, Afa intend adding ‘anti-black’ to ing people they need better services the While we were inside the LRCI we were McGarr tells us that “some people” (who, where?) “con- their already formidably chauvinist CV. transitional process will begin. The work- not allowed to have our international ten- clude that” this low level of struggle “will continue indefi- Widely regarded as a pariah on the left, ing class will - without even realising it - dency and, when we declared it, all of us nitely”. He counters this silliness by citing the relatively sleepy any genuinely leftwing organisation such begin the mystical transitional journey. were sanctioned, suspended or expelled. periods that preceded the Chartist revolt, the events of 1968 as yourselves should be very wary of They don’t know where they are going, We had no right of appeal. The LRCI for- and the French public sector strike in 1995. Personally, I am getting involved with these people on this but luckily the AWL does. How could bade their members to discuss with us. not aware of any left organisation that peddles the idea that or any other issue. they know? - you don’t even use the word The LRCI leaders should now show that we have seen the last of strikes and struggle. Obviously there ‘Learning from the fascists’? All too ‘socialism’ in your election material. they are not bureaucratic cowards, afraid is Tony Blair, New Labour and the trade union bureaucracy. well, in my experience. You’ve kept that safely up your sleeve of open debate. But the main target of comrade McGarr is the ‘electoralist’ for later. All will be revealed when the wing of the SWP leadership itself. He is articulating the views Hackney AWL thinks the class is ready. LCMRCI of the syndicalist majority in the leadership which - while it Alan informs us that the “working class has been forced to recognise what class struggle has been will make socialism, not a handful of revo- screaming at it for a whole period - still urges the organisation lutionaries”. But you are the ones treat- to carry on as usual - albeit with a boycottist adaptation to the As a regular reader of both Afa’s Fight- ing the class as wage slaves who can’t be In the Weekly Worker (July 1) I showed reality of New Labour. ing Talk and the Weekly Worker, I wel- told the truth just yet. You hide your po- that the political method of economism This whole question of the level of the class struggle and come the efforts of Mark Fischer to litical beliefs behind reformism when you and that of revolutionary democracy were the electoral tactic is a threat for the SWP. Its raison d’être is address what are important issues for the stand in front of them in elections. It is dialectical opposites. recruitment, routine activism and the provision of sustenance left around the question of race. However, you that behave as auto-sectarians. This was the basic thesis of Lenin set to its apparatus. Anything, such as testing its support through Mark Fischer and the CPGB let themselves out in What is to be done? Lenin urged standing in election, that forces the SWP to objectively look down on at least two points. London revolutionaries “to be ahead of all in rais- at itself - above all its absence of roots in working class com- Firstly, just as Mark Fischer gets into ing, accentuating, and solving every gen- munities and society at large - endangers the integrity of the the ‘juicy bits’ - ie, the potentially explo- eral democratic question” (VI Lenin group. The rank and file must be kept flogging papers, recruit- sive issues raised around ‘equal oppor- Selected Works Vol 1, p156). ing and definitely not thinking. tunities’ in a post-Lawrence Britain - he In the last issue of Workers Power, com- As an international trend, revolution- McGarr warns his comrades on elections. He tells us that appears to bottle it and signs off with a rade Dave Stockton published a full-page ary (social) democracy had a clear atti- “... a good vote, or even getting a few candidates elected, is bland “What is needed is a movement of article on ‘Ten years of the LRCI’. I was tude to bourgeois democratic demands not the central way to win real change”. The recent spate of anti-racism from below, a working class- hoping in vain to find some self-criticisms, and rights, despite the fact that in 1902 electoral challenges to Blair are “welcome”, but “hugely lim- led fight for unity”. or reports of WP’s interventions in strikes there was no bourgeois democracy in ited”. Even a successful candidate like Tommy Sheridan “would While Mark Fischer is quite correct, it and union/labour organisations or about Russia. In bourgeois democratic countries acknowledge that little can be achieved in the parliament itself is surely not too unfair to ask, how? Tack- its theoretical and programmatic changes the theory of economism produces prac- and that struggles outside are more important”. ling this crucial question was surely not and achievements. tical politics that was and is at best demo- Ostensibly, McGarr’s article is making points against the avoided because of lack of space, given continuing electoralist illusions of Labour Party members as that over two pages were devoted to the they become embittered against Blair. The important sub-text navel-gazing of ‘Winning the peasantry’ of his piece, however, is to reassure those members of the and ‘Trotsky versus the left Trotskyists’. SWP who may be dismayed by its ignominious withdrawal Instead I fear it had more to do with the from the Socialist Alliance electoral bloc prior to the EU elec- orthodox left’s inability to bridge the wid- tions and the poor results of its candidates in Wales and Scot- ening gap between theory and practice. land: ‘Don’t worry,’ he tells them. ‘It really doesn’t matter. The Secondly, despite the fact that he sug- struggle going on outside parliament is what counts.’ gests the left should “learn a lesson from Which is where he impales himself on the horns of a di- the fascists”, Mark Fischer still feels the lemma. As comrade McGarr notes, “If an alternative to New need to reassure his readers that the BNP Labour must be focused primarily on ... struggles, there is an is a “motley crew”. The facts, however, immediate and very obvious problem in Britain today.” Quite. paint an uncomfortable picture for the left Sanguine reassurances that “no-one predicted” big upsurges and our ‘own motley crews’. in the past or promissory notes for “enormous potential” in Despite the UKIP taking 6.96% of the the future will not satisfy the thinking members in the ranks. reactionary vote, despite the Daily Mir- What is called for as a matter of urgency is an honest and ror’s ‘Tyndall and the bomber’ front page exacting reappraisal of perspectives, a democratic and open a few weeks before the election, and de- holding of the leadership to account by the organisation as a spite not being able to hold a single major whole. We can now surely expect a growing unease from wide public event in years, the BNP still gained layers of cadre, a situation which is not without its irony. For, 102,647 Euro votes to the SLP’s 86,749. while McGarr and other leading aparatchiks write of contem- Take away Scotland and Wales, where the porary society as being characterised by “a calm on the sur- BNP did not stand, and the difference face but an undercurrent of ... discontent ...”, his words might grows to 25,837, with the BNP finishing actually more accurately describe the situation in the SWP above the SLP in seven out of the nine itself. English regions. Roll on the day when SWP scribes write what they mean and mean what they write l Mark Fischer l l l national organiser l July 22 1999 Page

cratic reformist and at worst con- since left Trotskyists are so deter- about everything - will have to take in any doubt about the ability of ideas servative. mined to prove their false and entirely place before the next serious great to have a decisive impact. Stalinist action In explaining this, I seemed to im- bogus thesis that we are Kautskyists phase of anti-imperialist class war philistinism has had the last laugh ply that (Russian) economists had a they are either blind and deaf or thor- begins to make organised progress. inside the SLP, but it is welcome to it. conservative or reformist attitude to oughly dishonest. The fake ‘left’ 57 varieties are of The collective fight for revolution- n extending existing bourgeois democ- Kautsky was arguing for bourgeois course pushed into controversial dis- ary theory is the decisive battle, and London: Sunday July 25, 5pm - ‘Is racy! Obviously there was no exist- democracy to replace workers’ de- cussion along with the rest of soci- as long as that fight is kept going, there a Marxist theory of crisis?’, ing bourgeois democracy in 1902 in mocracy. He was for the bourgeois ety, but disruption, collapse and the ultimate struggle to build a trium- using Simon Clarke’s Marx’s theory Russia. Either the word “existing” Constituent Assembly to replace or closure are the noticeable pattern in phant mass new Bolshevik party is of crisis as a study guide. should have been deleted or it should subordinate the soviets. Nobody, and this area, predictably because they guaranteed success. have been made clear that I was refer- certainly not myself, is arguing that have either never seriously enter- Sunday August 15, 5pm - ‘Lenin ring to economism as it is manifest in non-existing British soviets should tained divisive polemics before, or Stockport on the dictatorship of the prole- bourgeois democratic countries like hand over power to a constituent as- else have harboured so much tariat’, using Lenin’s Two tactics of the United Kingdom. sembly. We are arguing that a demo- unthought-out political rubbish (as a social democracy and Hal Draper’s Tom Delargy (Weekly Worker July cratic republic should replace the result of not having really conflicting The dictatorship of the proletariat 8) was quick to point out that bour- constitutional monarchy. This politi- debate) that the new mood of inquiry The debate about the protest in the from Marx to Lenin as study geois democracy did not exist in Rus- cal act should be carried out by the and challenge into everything is to- City (June 18) grows apace. Was it an guides. Call 0181-459 7146 details. sia in 1902. Most people, including revolutionary democratic working tally demolishing their shoddy sec- orgy of lumpen behaviour or an Manchester: Monday August 23, myself, are aware of that, but thanks class and not the counterrevolution- tarian philosophical foundations to incipiently revolutionary protest 7.30pm - ‘Imperialism’. Email: to Tom for pointing it out in his usual ary and royalist bourgeoisie. Our op- start with. against the system? From my distant [email protected]. polite and comradely fashion, so that ponents are shouting about At the time of the astonishing perspective, I would say it was both. I can make this corrective. It has to ‘Kautskyism’ as a smokescreen to CPSU self-liquidation and dismantling Much though they would like to, n be said that this changes nothing of conceal the fact that they want or ex- of the Soviet workers’ state in 1990, none of the left groups are really serv- The CPGB has forms available for substance. If this is the best he can pect the royalist bourgeoisie to do the EPSR explained - as a sideshow ing as a focus for protest against the you to include the Party and the come up with it shows how weak his the republican biz. on the main event - the strange para- system, and they seem a million miles struggle for communism in your arguments have become. He is re- I have always made clear that I fully dox that the Trotskyite 57 varieties of from giving direction to the sponta- will. Write for details. duced to repeating ad nausiam the endorse Lenin’s exposure of the hy- anti-communism would eventually be neous outbursts that inevitably break mantra ‘Kautskyist’, ‘Kautskyist’, pocrisy of Kautsky. I have never criti- plunged into as much chaos by the out. And many people, especially at n ‘Kautskyist’, despite the fact that he cised the Bolsheviks’ decision to disintegration of the USSR as all the this point in history, react at the indi- has no facts to back it up. In fact as close the Constituent Assembly in revisionist CP groups around the vidual level. the debate continues and my oppo- 1918, as Phil Sharpe has done. I would world would be. Crudely class struggle behaviour To get involved, contact Box 22, nents’ arguments get weaker, so the appreciate it if Tom Delargy would So it has proved, and the paralys- has been present in many places and 136-138 Kingsland High Street, Lon- mantra becomes louder and ever desist in his practice of telling lies and ing doubt crippling the Trot groups on many occasions in history, some- don E8 2NS, or ring Anne Murphy shriller. slandering me as a Kautskyist for no now arises because these crucial un- time intermingled with impulses to- on 0973-231 620. Tom Delargy does have one argu- other reason than the fact that I have resolved questions of proletarian wards drunkenness, bloodlust, n ment left. He notes that I refer to argued consistently that abolishing dictatorship are creeping back onto looting and so on. Russia and Ukraine economists having “a wrong attitude the monarchy is in the interests of the agenda as the crisis of free-mar- in 1917 provide examples. With the Public meeting - ‘Socialists, Labour to democracy in general and bour- the working class, and that a demo- ket economics and of all capitalist breakdown of tsarism, peasants, of- and the working class’. Speaker geois democracy in particular”. Tom cratic republic is in general more society relentlessly deepens, and as ten drunk, moved against landown- from the Alliance for Workers’ Lib- is very excited by this, because he democratic than a constitutional mon- the achievements of the Soviet work- ers in many places, frequently amid erty. Monday July 26, 7.30pm. thinks at last he has got some con- archy. This basic Marxist thesis has ers’ state look more and more to be scenes of bloodshed. Landowners, Charlton House, The Village, crete proof of Kautskyism. After all been endorsed by the entire history the only direction forwards. and those associated with them and Charlton, London SE7. All wel- he has not produced any concrete of Marxism (see for example Lenin’s The necessary combination with with authority, such as village police- come. evidence so far, and has been reduced State and revolution) but not by an- party-building limps along every- men, would be killed with a variety of n to the old Stalinist trick of inventing archism and ultra-leftism, which are where because post-Soviet theoreti- farming implements and their houses ideas which he then attributes to me. violently opposed to it. cal chaos cannot even get a burnt down. Sometimes their families Support group meets every Mon- So what is “democracy in general”? movement onto square one. It is pure would be killed too. The outbreak of day, 7pm, at the Station pub, In the statement above, it is used as a London cynicism, presumably born of getting peasant anger would sometimes mani- Warrington Street, Ashton under collective term for bourgeois and pro- nowhere, that sneers (Letters Weekly fest itself in additional ways, say, with Lyne. Donations and solidarity to letarian democracy. Hence my state- Worker July 15) that the theoretical anti-Jewish pogroms. Tameside Strike Support (Hardship) ment means that economists have a workshop that the EPSR has been This kind of thing expressed long- Fund, 15 Springvale Close, Ashton- wrong attitude to both bourgeois and I was mildly bemused by the actions running on the SLP’s wretched fail- standing resentments - some class- under-Lyne, Lancs. proletarian democracy, but I wish to of the IBT’s Gary Henson at my last ings is due to the editor’s “fit of pique based, some not - as well as the purely n emphasise that it is wrong about bour- National Union of Journalists branch after his shabby treatment by destructive impulses of individuals. geois democracy in particular. There meeting. The meeting, dominated as Scargill”. It had little or nothing to do with the is nothing wrong with this argument, usual by the Socialist Workers Party, The opportunity to remain vice- agitation of political groups. Yet it Public meeting and discussion: and there is nothing Kautskyist was a fairly run-of-the-mill affair - a president of the SLP was there played its part in the destruction of ‘Trotskyist deputies in the Euro- about it either. workshop on Fairness at Work legis- throughout and was urged by a sur- the tsarist order. pean parliament - What lessons for Of course at a certain level of gen- lation followed by two motions. prising variety of different quarters The Russian civil war also saw a lot the British left?’ Speaker from Lutte erality some democratic rights span The second motion was for the (including a Weekly Worker repre- of behaviour that was both crudely Ouvrière. Thursday August 12, both forms of democracy - the right branch to support the September sentative who suggested, “Just with- class-conscious and highly brutal. A 7.30pm, Partick Burgh Hall (near to vote, the right to strike, freedom of ‘lobby’ of the Labour Party confer- draw your resignation offer” when good description of the atmosphere Partick tube and rail station). All expression, free speech and the right ence: a motion I supported though Scargill’s ludicrous ‘disciplinary pro- of the period can be found in the novel welcome. of nations to self-determination. In wished to amend. I moved that two cedure’ first got stuck in the mud. At by Isaak Babel, Red Cavalry. Babel, a general, we support the right to vote clauses be deleted which I felt would different stages of this whole farce, Jew, joined a Red Army cavalry unit under bourgeois democracy and un- remove the most Labourite aspects this advice took other forms, such as and took part in the civil war and the Where to get your der proletarian democracy. However, of the motion. One clause was: “The “Just tone it down for a while”, and Soviet-Polish war of 1920. He de- the right to vote in parliamentary elec- only way to achieve the things mil- even “Just pay your dues”, when scribes the brutality of the war and Weekly Worker tions applies only to bourgeois de- lions voted for in 1997 is to build a Scargill’s hatred of theoretical strug- the casual violence practised by both mocracy. It is not a right which a mass campaign, led by the trade un- gle reached that degenerate level of reds and whites. Babel later died un- n soviet or workers’ republic recog- ions, and pressure New Labour to pathetic back-stabbing. der arrest during the Stalinist period. nises. deliver.” But this problem facing the work- He does not depict red cavalrymen as What about the right of nations to As I needed a seconder, I thought ers’ movement has nothing whatever civilised proponents of Hegelian dia- self-determination? This is often it likely that comrade Henson would to do with being or not being vice- lectic, but, to hear much of the con- called a bourgeois democratic de- support me, knowing his organisa- president of the SLP. It remains ex- temporary left talk and write, you mand. Is it a right recognised by bour- tion’s purported anti-Labourite poli- actly the same problem which the would think that they were, rather than geois democracy alone? In my view tics. Alas, I was disappointed and EPSR set out to grapple with when it vodka-swilling illiterates, whose wan- the right of nations to self-determi- needed to rely upon one of the sacked was founded 20 years ago - the need tonly destructive impulses were only nation is a general democratic de- West African journalists to support to build and clarify the fight for revo- just about held in check by their com- mand, applicable to both forms of me. As I expected, I lost the vote, with lutionary theory by the working class manders. class rule. It would be implemented the SWP and other auto-Labourites internationally before the fight for The class struggle takes forms that n by a workers’ republic, whereas the opposing. Unfortunately, comrade socialism can take off again. are out of place in the editorial offices n bourgeoisie only recognise it occa- Henson’s anti-CPGBism seems Remaining vice-president of the of leftwing newspapers in Britain. It sionally - and then hedged in by vari- stronger than his anti-Labourism and SLP was precisely what Scargill was may not fit the templates laid down ous restrictions. he couldn’t bring himself to vote with offering, not taking away. ‘Stay as by small leftwing groups. We should n By way of contrast Kautsky uses me. vice-president, but either close down understand that that is the case. the concept of “pure democracy” the EPSR or avoid mentioning the “mendaciously”, because he wants South London SLP’ was the deal. Linlithgow n to argue that bourgeois democracy And the response was immediate: is superior to proletarian democracy. ‘No, you can have your vice-presi- n “Pure democracy” is set against the dential position back. What is vitally n “dictatorship” of the working class. Opportunities for serious debate needed for the SLP and the working In reply Lenin says that “proletarian about the crisis of capitalist society class is a full discussion about the democracy is a million times more and the struggle for a socialist alter- role for revolutionary theory and po- n democratic than any bourgeois de- native have never looked better as lemic in the building of a successful mocracy. Soviet power is a million increasing sections of the fake ‘left’ party and the successful building of times more democratic than the most fall apart in turmoil. a socialist state’. Scargill’s answer was n democratic bourgeois republic” (from The EPSR support is itself experi- just to step up his dirty expulsion the Proletarian revolution and the encing the same surge of doubt and racket. n renegade Kautsky). All revolution- new thinking, but cannot wait to drive Cynicism about a non-existent ary democratic communists agree home the advantages of such con- “EPSR guru” is making the same phil- with Lenin’s statement in riposte to flict, which fit exactly into the EPSR’s istine mistake as Scargill’s nonsense. n Kautsky. The RDG and the CPGB long-standing conviction that a revo- After Scargill’s assassination at- have stated so “a million times”. But lutionary ferment of discussion - tempt on the EPSR, no one need be Page July 22 1999

in July or August instead of October, would be a progressive step on this the army at the front would have been road. This is why we raise this slogan less exhausted and weakened and the in conjunction with four other slogans peace with the Hohenzollerns might of the democratic revolution: the “W have been more favourable to us. Even transfer of the land to the peasant if we assume that the proletarian revo- poor, the eight-hour working day, the lution would not have come a single independence of China, and the right day sooner because of the Constitu- of self-determination of the nationali- ent Assembly, the school of revolu- ties included in the territory of China. tionary parliamentarism would have It is understood that we cannot rule left its mark on the political level of out the perspective - it is theoretically the masses, making our tasks the day admissible - that the Chinese prole- after the October revolution much tariat, leading the peasant masses and easier. basing itself on soviets, will come to Is this type of variant possible in power before the achievement of a China? It is not excluded. To imagine national assembly in one or another and expect that the Chinese Commu- form. [Nothing can be ruled out.] But nist Party can jump from the present for the immediate period at any rate conditions of the rule of the unbridled this is improbable, because it presup- bourgeois-military cliques, the op- poses the existence of a powerful and pression and dismemberment of the centralised revolutionary party of the working class, and the extraordinarily proletariat. In its absence, what other low ebb of the peasant movement to force will unite the revolutionary l the seizure of power is to believe in masses of your gigantic country? miracles. [The same miracle that the Meanwhile it is our misfortune that SWP believe - they would have us there is no strong centralised Com- leaping from Tony Blair’s constitu- munist Party in China; it has yet to be bourgeois Provisional Government tional monarchy to the seizure of formed. The struggle for democracy had been sufficiently decisive to con- power in one go.] In practice this leads is precisely the necessary condition vene the Constituent Assembly in to adventurist guerrilla activity [or for that. [This is an excellent point and t seems to me that our Chinese vene a relatively more democratic na- March or April [1917]. Was that pos- other forms of pathetic SWP-style relevant for those interested in build- Ifriends deal with the question of po- tional assembly, as a dam against the sible? Of course it was. The Cadets economism], which the Comintern is ing such a party in the UK.] The slo- litical slogans of democracy too meta- soviets. [But this does not frighten used every legal trick to drag out the now covertly supporting. We must gan of the national assembly [or physically, even scholastically. The Trotsky or force him to drop bour- convening of the Constituent Assem- condemn this policy and guard the federal republic in the UK] would ‘intricacies’ begin with the name: con- geois democratic demands.] Would bly in the hope that the revolutionary revolutionary workers from it. [Abso- bring together the scattered regional stituent assembly or national assem- we participate in this kind of assem- wave would subside. The Menshe- lutely.] movements and uprisings, give them bly. In Russia until the revolution we bly? Of course we would participate; viks and the Socialist Revolutionar- The political mobilisation of the political unity, and create the basis for used the slogan of a constituent as- again, only if we were not strong ies took their cue from the Cadets. If proletariat in leadership of the peas- forging the Communist Party as the sembly because it most clearly empha- enough to replace the assembly with the Mensheviks and the Socialist ant masses is the first task that must leader of the proletariat and all the toil- sised a break with the past. But you a higher form of government: that is, Revolutionaries had had a little more be solved under the present circum- ing masses on a national scale. write that it is difficult to formulate this soviets. Such a possibility, however, revolutionary drive, they could have stances - the circumstances of the mili- That is why the slogan of the na- slogan in Chinese. If so, the slogan of reveals itself only at the apex of revo- convened the Constituent Assembly tary-bourgeois counterrevolution. tional assembly on the basis of uni- a national assembly can be adopted. lutionary ascent. But at the present in a few weeks. Would we Bolsheviks The power of the suppressed masses versal, direct, equal, secret ballot must In the consciousness of the time we are far from there. [If we are have participated in the elections and is in their numbers. When they awaken be raised as energetically as possible, masses, the slogan’s content will de- not at this apex where the transfer of in the assembly itself? Undoubtedly, they will strive to express their and a courageous, resolute struggle pend, firstly, on the implication revo- power to soviets is possible and prac- for it was we who demanded all this strength of numbers politically by developed around it [a real revolution- lutionary agitation gives it and, tical, we will continue to fight on the time the speediest convening of the means of universal suffrage. [There is ary democratic attitude, not found secondly, on events. [Similarly the terrain of the bourgeois democratic Constituent Assembly. [So much for no reason to assume that such politi- amongst our sterile British econo- content of the slogan of a federal re- republic.] the theory that the bourgeoisie (Ca- cal awakening would not take similar mists]. Sooner or later the sterility of public will likewise depend on the Even if there were soviets in China, dets) or the petty bourgeoisie (Men- form in bourgeois democracies.] The the purely negative position of the same .] You ask, “Is it possible to carry which is not the case, this in itself sheviks and SRs) are the revolutionary handful of communists already know Comintern and the official leadership on agitation for a constituent assem- would not be a reason to abandon the democrats!] that universal suffrage is an instru- of the Chinese Communist Party [and bly while denying that it can be slogan of a national assembly. [Pre- Would the course of the revolution ment of bourgeois rule and that this the economistic British SWP] will be achieved?” But why should we de- cisely.] The majority in the soviets have changed to the disadvantage of rule can be liquidated only by means mercilessly exposed. The more deci- cide in advance that it cannot be? Of might be and in the beginning would the proletariat by an early convening of the proletarian dictatorship. [Of sively the communist Left Opposition course the masses will support the certainly be in the hands of the con- of the assembly? Not at all. Perhaps course we do.] You can educate the initiates and develops its campaign for slogan only if they consider it feasi- ciliatory and centrist parties and or- you remember the representatives of proletarian vanguard in this spirit be- democratic slogans, the sooner this ble. Who will institute a constituent ganisations. [Here is the clue as to the Russian propertied classes and, forehand. But the millions of the toil- will happen. [Excellent.] The inevita- assembly [or a federal republic] and why we cannot simply leap over dual imitating them, also the conciliators ing masses can be drawn to the ble collapse of the Comintern policy how will it function? Only supposi- power.] We would be interested in ex- were for postponing all the important dictatorship of the proletariat only on will greatly strengthen the Left Oppo- tions are possible. [True.] In case of a posing them in the open forum of the questions of the revolution ‘until the the basis of their own political experi- sition and help it to become the deci- further weakening of the military- national assembly. In this way, the constituent assembly’, meanwhile ence, and the national assembly sive force in the Chinese proletariat” l Kuomintang regime and increasing majority would be won over to our side delaying its convening. This gave the discontent among the masses, par- more quickly and more certainly. landowners and capitalists a chance ticularly in the cities, it is possible that When we succeeded in winning a to mask to a certain degree their prop- an attempt will be made by a part of majority, we would counterpose the erty interests in the agrarian question, the Kuomintang together with the programme of the soviets to the pro- industrial question, etc. ‘Third Party’, to convene something gramme of the national assembly If the Constituent Assembly had ut wouldn’t soviets mean dual ing the contradictory and two-sided on the style of a national assembly. [when the political situation and po- been convened, let us say, in April Bpower for an indefinite period? aspect of dual power.] But this pro- They will, of course, cut into the rights litical consciousness among the 1917, then all the social questions On one side would be the national- gressiveness was only temporary. of the more oppressed classes and masses has matured], we would rally would have confronted it. The prop- revolutionary government (if, when [Absolutely correct.] The way out of layers as much as they can. the majority of the country around the ertied classes would have been com- thoroughly reorganised, it holds its the contradiction was the proletarian Would we communists enter such banner of the soviets, and this would pelled to show their cards; the own and experiences an upturn), and dictatorship. [Obviously.] Dual power a restricted and manipulated national enable us, in deed and not on paper, treacherous role of the conciliators on the other side, the soviets. Yes, this lasted only eight months in our case. assembly? If we are not strong to replace the national assembly, this would have become apparent. The means dual power or elements of dual In China this transitional regime [or enough to replace it - that is, to take parliamentary-democratic institution, Bolshevik faction in the Constituent power. [This is a republic with dual transitional republic] under certain power - we certainly would enter it. with soviets, the organ of the revolu- Assembly would have won the great- power.] conditions could last considerably Such a stage would not at all weaken tionary class dictatorship. [Trotsky’s est popularity and this would have “But we were against dual power.” longer, and vary in different parts of us. On the contrary, it would help us ideas are based on the dialectical in- helped to elect a Bolshevik majority [Trotsky here is quoting his own left the country. To call for and begin or- to gather together and develop the terrelations between assembly and in the soviets. Under these circum- Trotskyist allies and soon gives his ganising soviets means in fact to be- forces of the proletarian vanguard. soviets, until the class struggle makes stances the Constituent Assembly own answer.] We were against a dual- gin introducing in China elements of Inside this spurious assembly, and the soviets ready for power. Dual would have lasted not one day, but power regime insofar as we were striv- dual power. This is both necessary and particularly outside of it, we would power is the period in which the revo- possibly several months. This would ing to seize power ourselves as the healthy. [Barry Biddulph please note.] carry on agitation for a new and more lution ripens and matures.] have enriched the political experience proletarian party. We were for dual This alone will open up further pros- democratic assembly. If there were a In Russia the Constituent Assem- of the working masses and, rather than power, ie, a system of soviets - while pects of a revolutionary democratic revolutionary mass movement, we bly lasted only one day. Why? Be- retard the proletarian revolution, there was a Provisional [ie, republi- dictatorship of the proletariat and would simultaneously build soviets. cause it made its appearance too late; would have accelerated it. [Again dur- can] Government insofar as soviets peasantry. [Even after the April the- [Trotsky is combining revolutionary the soviet power was already in exist- ing dual power, the revolutionary po- restricted any bourgeois pretensions sis!] Without this, all talk about this agitation for bourgeois democratic ence and came into conflict with it. In litical experience of the working class to dictatorship. Dual power during the dictatorship [by left Trotskyists] is demands with building soviets.] It is this conflict, the Constituent Assem- is developed.] This in itself would February revolution was progressive simply chatter, which the Chinese very possible that in such a case the bly represented the revolution’s yes- have been of the greatest significance. insofar as it contained new revolution- popular masses know nothing petty bourgeois parties would con- terday. But let us suppose that the If the second revolution had occurred ary possibilities. [Trotsky is recognis- about” l July 22 1999 Page

n its ‘Ten years of the LRCI’, Work- for the KLA even if Nato invaded ers Power (July 1999) presented a Kosova. It advised the KLA to take Ibalance sheet of its League for a its chances through collaboration Revolutionary Communist Interna- with Nato to beat the Serbs whom Nato tional, and included the statement that was bombing. events in 1991-94 “condemned the We believe that the Kosovars have LRCI to three years of ceaseless in- the right of self-determination, but in ternal struggle”. the context of a imperialist attack In 1994-95, Workers Power claims, against a non-imperialist country this conflict was resolved when the revolutionaries have to subordinate majority of the largest youth group created as a result of the LRCI’s fac- a very contradictory line of voting for this principle to that of defending an (Austria), and later on the majority of tional struggle against other organi- Ken Coates’s Alternative Labour List oppressed nation (Yugoslavia) the New Zealand section and all the “The LRCI sations (as in Europe) are prone to be in East Midlands but against the against the world’s bosses. For that Latin American comrades were absorbed. same force in Yorkshire and Humber- reason we called on Albanian, Serbian pushed out of the League: “These method is The French opposition wanted to side. WP refused to call for a vote for and all workers throughout the Bal- losses were in part offset by the re- allow some public debate inside the the CPGB (which was the only group kans to unite in order to expel Nato markable growth of our French sec- section’s paper and to move towards presenting candidates with exactly the arms in hands. tion, recruiting young comrades and opportunist a regroupment with dissident factions same demands that WP advised their The PTS reacted furiously to the becoming the second strongest sec- from LO and the LCR in which there supporters to write on the ballot pa- LRCI’s statements. In its last three tion ... At the same time we entered towards would be some level of disagreement. per), or for the SLP, whose position papers the PTS published articles con- into and organised a series of discus- On the electoral question the French was much more anti-Nato than demning WP for “departing from a sions with an important leftward-mov- reformism and faction said that voting for reformists Coates, who called for a UN military class and international point of view ing Trotskyist organisation in while they are rallying working class intervention in Yugoslavia. regarding the national question”, Argentina, the PTS.” support in opposition to rightwing In 1995 when Nato bombed the “frankly talking crazy nonsense”, However, what WP has completely sectarian in bourgeois forces could be a valid tac- Serbs, the LRCI refused to defend “losing the aim of the proletarian revo- concealed is the fact that in 1999 tic. However, when reformists are in them and called on imperialism to send lution” and “dangerously sliding into around a third of the French section relation to the office a new tactic has to be devel- weapons and money to support its the warmongering camp of some im- was expelled. The minority had chal- oped. In such circumstances revolu- muslim and Croat allies who ethnically perialist sectors” (La Verdad Obrera lenged the LRCI’s sectarian attitude far left” tionaries should prioritise the building cleansed one million Serbs. The com- No49, May 26). towards the so-called Trotskyist elec- of a militant electoral opposition to rades from the semi-colonies de- The PTS critique of Workers Power toral bloc (which achieved 5.5% in the them amongst the working class. For nounced that line and were expelled. is centred around the KLA. The PTS EU elections) and also its method of vote for the SLP, Sheridan, Nellist or that reason the minority challenged Immediately after that the LRCI struck is in favour of backing Kosovar self- attempting to recruit dissidents from other SP candidates, but only to sup- the LRCI’s sectarian attitude towards up an opportunist deal with the PTS, determination and the right to armed that bloc. And now the PTS is openly port Labour. the LO-LCR electoral bloc and posed a 500-strong Argentinean group, and self-defence against Serbia. However, attacking the LRCI as capitulating to In 1995 France had been headed by the possibility of creating a new pole launched a declaration calling for the it rejects the LRCI’s characterisation Nato. None of these debates or de- socialist president François Mitterand of attraction with its left dissidents. creation of a new pole of attraction that the KLA is an “independent” pro- velopments have been reported at all since 1981. He had launched attack The faction characterised the for international regroupment. Four gressive guerrilla force which needs in Workers Power, something that after attack against immigrants, youth League as “sectarian” and “ultra-left”. years later the two organisations have to be supported and armed: “How is it constitutes a lack of respect for its and workers, and sent French troops The LRCI described the faction as only produced one joint declaration possible to define as an ‘independ- readers and a manipulative way of re- to several African countries and opportunists who were adapting to and they failed to produce any state- ent’ force somebody who is backing solving differences behind the back Bosnia. After 14 years it was logical LO-LCR centrism and advocating a ment on the Balkans. In 1995 the LRCI Nato’s bombardments and calling the of the class. Through this article we to conclude that there were hundreds confused, multi-factional internal re- refused to sign a joint resolution on Albanian Kosovar masses to trust in hope to inform Workers Power’s read- of thousands of advanced workers gime. They were not allowed to pub- Bosnia because it opposed calling for the imperialist powers as their defend- ers and the left as a whole what is hap- who would support an electoral class lish their positions in LRCI publica- the defence of the Serbs against Nato. ers against the bloody ethnic cleans- pening inside this international alternative against the government. If tions and were bureaucratically In 1999 the LRCI inexplicably ing of Milosevic?” “It is not a surprise tendency. revolutionaries failed to form a work- expelled without any mention in Work- changed its position, but in a highly that a Kosovar refugee reprimanded The two issues that have produced ing class opposition, racists or other ers Power. contradictory way. It called simulta- WP in London for not withdrawing this latest crisis (electoral tactics and bourgeois forces might well capital- A few months later the LRCI radi- neously for the defence of Serbia the slogan against Nato bombings” the Balkans wars) also formed part of ise on discontent. However, the LRCI cally and abruptly changed its elec- against Nato and for the support of (ibid). “‘Critical support’ for the KLA the debate during the struggle before called for a vote for the communist toral policy. In June most of the LRCI the pro-Nato KLA against the Serbs! - a fanatical advocate of Nato’s inter- 1995. At that time the left opposition and the socialist parties, and not for sections were faced with a common On the one hand for the LRCI the KLA vention which it criticised for ‘not act- inside the LRCI (constituted by the LO-LCR. That meant opposing the 1.6 European electoral process. You “have the right to acquire arms and ing more resolutely’ - led to the Latin American and New Zealand sec- million workers who voted for the only would think that an international or- supplies from whoever is willing to creation of illusions that a progres- tions) were in favour of defending the candidates that called themselves ganisation that almost every week pro- give them - including imperialist and sive solution of the war could come Serbs against Nato bombing and ad- revolutionaries and Trotskyists and duces a resolution on international islamic governments. They also have from a social or political force other vocated critical electoral vote for some asking them to back the parties of the questions from Rwanda to East Timor the right to take any military advan- than the working class. In supporting far left candidates in France and Brit- presidency that had been attacking would be obliged to adopt a common tage they can from the Nato bomb- the KLA’s openly pro-imperialist poli- ain; while the LRCI leadership was them for 14 years. There is an argu- manifesto regarding the EU elections. ing” (‘War in the Balkans’, April 1999); cies and petty bourgeois nationalist advocating the defeat of the Serbs ment that in the second round Marx- However, the LRCI did not do so. “Apache helicopters to hit Serb artil- leadership they are slipping danger- attacked by imperialism and cam- ists were obliged to vote for the In France it called for a vote against lery or an actual incursion by Nato ously into the same militarist camp as paigned for the reformists against the reformist candidates of the workers’ the CP and SP and for LO-LCR candi- ground troops into southern or west- Blair’s government” (La Verdad French Lutte Ouvrière and British so- movement against the right, if this was dates, because “a significant faction ern Kosova to set up ‘safe havens’ Obrera No50, June 12). cialist candidates like Dave Nellist or the only choice, but in the first round of the working class electorate is mov- into which to herd the refugees - none The PTS position is also contradic- Tommy Sheridan. the French system allows voters to ing from the traditional reformist par- of these in themselves would alter our tory because it called for the defeat of In 1999 the LRCI inexplicably support candidates that are closest to ties towards supporting candidates of basic support for Kosova resistance Nato but not for victory for the state changed its positions, calling for mili- their political opinions. the extreme left” (Pouvoir Ouvrier to Serb attacks” (LRCI statement, May that was at war with it. Let us repeat tary defence of Serbia against Nato, The LRCI method is opportunist No55, May-June). Slightly under one 16). to this party for the umpteenth time and for a vote for the LO-LCR alliance towards reformism and sectarian in million people voted LO-LCR. But four On the other hand in the same docu- the question we have been asking in France, and for Sheridan and Nellist. relation to the far left. For thousands years ago, when LO alone gained ment the LRCI proposed an antago- over the last four years: why do you However, it did so in a very inconsist- of Trotskyists and militant activists 600,000 more votes, the LRCI adopted nistic position: “Workers worldwide continue to talk of fusion with the ent way. WP’s behaviour was erratic LRCI policies in France and Britain exactly the opposite line: vote reform- would support Serbian resistance to League which you so strongly con- and unprincipled, reflecting the pres- were a provocation. ist and not far left. an imperialist attack, whether this was demn? sure of a faction fight in France and a In France several fractions had Although the LRCI called for a vote solely an aerial attack or (which is The PTS-LRCI pact is unprincipled. bitter exchange with the Argentinean started to split from the left of LO and against the CP and SP in France, and highly unlikely) one involving US-EU It is used by both groups to show their PTS. the LCR, accusing them of failing to in Britain refused for the first time ever ground forces. We oppose all Nato supporters that they have comrades Throughout its almost 25 years of build a mass revolutionary party. The to back Labour, while also declining bombing and use of cruise missiles, in the other continent. Harvey, who existence WP’s electoral ‘method’ has LRCI tried to discuss with these to support the Socialist Labour Party, whether in Kosova or in Serbia proper. acted so autocratically in expelling the consisted of demanding a vote for the groups. But the League’s methods it was a different story elsewhere: in We recognise the right of the Serbs to Latin American comrades, has used Labour Party in Britain and for mass began to be called into question by Germany the LRCI voted PDS (sister shoot down the Nato planes and mis- this relationship to try to give the im- bourgeois workers’ parties in the rest many of its French members. The LRCI organisation of the CP in France and siles. We support national defence pression that his ‘international’ is not of the world. It advocated that line sees rapprochement discussions only the SLP), while in Sweden it sup- against any Nato attack on the terri- based only in imperialist countries. even in circumstances where far left as a way of recruiting people to its ported both the pro-Nato social demo- tory of Serbia or Montenegro.” “If The LRCI is racked by the most bi- candidates competing against the re- ranks. The only fusion that it accepts crats and the United Left! Milosevic and the Serb forces in zarre contradictions and U-turns. It formists attracted significant workers’ are the ones that happen around its In the UK WP adopted a completely Kosova resisted the Nato drive, then has never bothered to explain the ease support. For WP revolutionaries must policies and under its international new line. In a very small article, hid- revolutionaries would have to give with which it moved so radically and always stand alongside workers who leadership. den away in Workers Power (June), it their critical support to their military unexpectedly from one position to vote for reformists and oppose any The LRCI does not allow any pub- wrote: “We call on readers to spoil struggle against imperialism.” another or how it manages to argue vote for centrist candidates, because lic debate and it sees factions and ten- their ballot papers by writing ‘Nato On the one hand it called for mili- for different positions within the same the latter would apparently imply dencies as a serious illness. They must out of the Balkans - independence for tary defence of Yugoslavia against articles. But for the fact that it con- some form of political support. be dissolved or ultimately forced out Kosova’.” Nato, not only in Serbia and tinually resorts to manoeuvre and In 1994 in a local election in Coven- of the organisation. All the groups that It advocated a positive vote in only Montenegro, but also in Kosova. On refuses to allow public debate inter- try Dave Nellist achieved more than came to the LRCI with a previous in- three of the 12 constituencies. It voted the other hand it refused to call for nal crises would have blown it apart. 40% and only lost to New Labour by dependent existence and tradition for Sheridan and Nellist, who the arming of Yugoslavia or for its mili- We call on healthy militants within a very small margin. WP campaigned (such as those in New Zealand, the achieved a smaller percentage of votes tary victory over imperialism. It called the LRCI to challenge these zigzags for the Blairites. In the 1997 general USA, Peru or Bolivia) were able to than in previous elections when WP on imperialism to send weaponry to and to return to the methods once election WP called on workers not to survive this atmosphere. Only groups voted New Labour against them. It had the KLA and announced its support advocated by Dave Hughes l Page July 22 1999

USSR and the power of ideology

am sure comrades will forgive the Marx Capital Vol 1, London 1986, distinct mediation into the whole. of Soviet centrism: “To justify itself draw the line not just within the struc- lateness of this reply to Jack p125). Exchange-value on the other Within the structure of the commod- [the Soviet bureaucracy] a mystify- ture of a pragmatic ‘Marxism-Lenin- IConrad’s critique of my article on hand “appears first of all as the quan- ity Marx shows the need to reach ing ideology was needed. By defini- ism’, but between this formation and the USSR and negative ideology titative relation, the proportion, in beyond its abstracted character in tion that could not be genuine that of Marxism itself. It is this latter (Weekly Worker October 15 1998). which use-values of one kind ex- order to grasp the object - and the Marxism nor could it be pro-capital- ideological pole that became di- The reason that I am publishing a change for use-values of another labour required to produce it - in all ist reformism. Soviet centrism was vorced from its material base and counter-argument now is that I feel kind” (ibid p126). The precise magni- its profundity and sensuousness. invented. It justified adaptation to manifested itself in a relatively inde- somewhat perturbed at the response tude of a commodity’s exchange- Grasping the nature of historical Russia’s backwardness and legiti- pendent manner. to my recent review of Michael Cox’s value is decided by the amount of events requires the expression of a mised the bureaucracy’s monopoly Comrade Conrad is of course com- Rethinking the Soviet collapse labour-time “socially necessary for its similar methodology, in that differ- of power. Soviet centrism stood be- pletely correct in establishing that (Weekly Worker June 24 1999). production” (ibid p129). ence is a basic epistemological means tween reform and revolution in its ‘Marxism-Leninism’, as represented Whereas before I was accused of be- This particular unity of opposites by which we comprehend the work- own particular way; that made it cen- by the CPSU, was a significant defor- ing a ‘Stalinist’, I am now apparently is no mere logical progression. Writ- ings of history. trism sui generis.” mation of the praxis of Marx, Engels in full agreement with Jack Conrad on ten into this relationship is a rela- By seemingly admitting that ideol- It is in drawing a distinction be- and Lenin. However, as I have argued the question of the Soviet Union. It tional abstraction, or, to be more ogy can, under certain circum- tween Soviet centrism and ‘classical’ previously, such a dynamic was bol- is quite obvious that agreement be- precise, an alienated effect. Marx il- stances, become a primary material centrism that Conrad appears to draw stered by the use and reproduction tween myself and comrade Conrad lustrates clearly how this process force Conrad appears to be on the theoretically close to Phil Watson. As of Marxism (in its critical and exists. However, I thought the afore- becomes interwoven into the produc- verge of grasping similar conclusions. an ideology Soviet centrism “served liberatory sense) to bolster the So- mentioned book review would make tion and consumption of such objects However, in rounding off our “non- a social stratum which gained its viet ideological structure. The bu- quite clear where the differences re- through their conversion into ex- argument” he smothers this recogni- privileges to the detriment of social- reaucracy may not have been main. Unfortunately, certain com- change-value: “If ... we disregard the tion in favour of a more ‘orthodox’ ism, yet at the same time owed those comfortable with this, but the legiti- rades remain stuck in the lazy practice use-value of commodities, only one formulation: “Materialists say that privileges to a socialist revolution - mising function of Lenin’s collected of casting around for this or that la- property remains - that of being prod- nature, objective reality and its con- hence the contradictory ideology works could not be entirely dis- bel, rather than in engaging with what ucts of labour. But even the product tradictory laws are in the last analy- that denied the existence of an an- pensed with. Nevertheless, it should people actually write. of labour has already been trans- sis primary.” This forms the basis of tagonistic bureaucracy and its privi- be understood that Marxism (as op- In his reply to my ‘Problematic of formed in our hands. If we make an Conrad’s universal - methodological leges, and portrayed an imminent posed to ‘Marxism-Leninism’) be- negative ideology’ (Weekly Worker abstraction from its use-value [eg, in - equivalent. The functioning of Marx- realisation of utopia ... despite its ‘ex- came negative and dysfunctional in October 7 1998) Conrad questions the form of exchange-value], we ab- ist ideology in the USSR can only be treme poverty and even dishonesty’, that its practical role was heavily pre- whether in fact I am debating with him stract also from the material constitu- a ‘secondary’ phenomenon: as a so- it reflected and actively moulded, as scribed. The voluntaristic implica- at all: “The gist of comrade Watson’s ents and forms which make it a cial mediator it becomes effectively Herbert Marcuse pointed out, ‘in vari- tions that such a practice involved non-argument with me is that ideol- use-value. It is no longer a table, a null and void. The whole gamut of ous forms the realities of Soviet de- were quite in accord with the manner ogy can under certain circumstances house, a piece of yarn or any other historical events, determinations and velopment’. This was because it was in which various leaderships become ... a primary material force that useful thing. All its sensuous char- outcomes must be expressed through an ideology which both justified and ‘planned’ and ruled society. must be situated within the complex acteristics are extinguished. Nor is it the preconception “objective reality” served a caste, if not a class, that was This ideological effect manifested of other forces ... Yes, in the Soviet any longer the product of the labour first, “ideas” second. Comrade running a world power ...” itself with the USSR’s collapse and the Union official ideology ‘actively of the joiner, the mason or the spin- Conrad is a fine theoretician, but this In reality Conrad’s outline of this concurrent formation of a reactionary moulded’ certain specific realities of ner, or of any other kind of produc- really does reek of formalism. By ideological relationship stands some period in world politics. If this is ac- development.” In other words, tive labour. With the disappearance polemicising in this fashion Conrad way apart from that of Phil Watson. cepted then it becomes clear that ad- Conrad decries the charge of being a of the useful character of the prod- certainly reproduces Capital, but Conrad predominantly considers So- vanced sections of the working class mechanical materialist. If this were to ucts of labour, the useful character of only in the form of the object of its viet ideology as adapted by a distinct thought of the Soviet Union as some- be the substantial foundation of the kinds of labour embodied in them critique. Just as exchange-value bureaucratic need. Even his state- thing other than a gigantic prison Conrad’s theory then we would in- also disappears; this in turn entails blunts our perception of social labour, ment that Soviet ideology reflected camp: the Soviet experience was deed be indulging ourselves in a “non- the disappearance of the different Conrad’s ontological rendering of the and actively moulded Soviet devel- residually linked to the workers’ revo- argument”. Unfortunately for those concrete forms of labour. They can base/superstructure metaphor blunts opment is immediately qualified by its lution of 1917, a development which who like a happy resolution this is no longer be distinguished, but are our perception of the particular in fa- functional relationship to the CPSU the ruling bureaucracy were forced to not the case at all. all together reduced to the same kind vour of a universal abstract. bureaucracy. Thus Conrad is infinitely dance half-heartedly around. Conrad frames his analysis of ide- of labour - human labour in the ab- Marx writes: “Labour ... as the crea- stronger at identifying ideology as Jack Conrad, with his universal ology with a set of generalised onto- stract” (ibid p128). tor of use-values, as useful labour, is the reflection of material backward- methodological equivalent (“ideas are logical statements. After acknowledg- This has profound consequences a condition of human existence which ness and bureaucratic control than not and cannot be primary”), is theo- ing ideology as a material force and for the communist project, concerned, is independent of all forms of soci- in establishing its real contradictions. retically incapable of grasping hold pointing to the fact that throughout as it should be, that the working class ety; it is an eternal natural necessity He certainly locates the legitimating of this conundrum. Modest these dif- history people have changed reality should be able to understand and ap- which mediates the metabolism be- function of ideology and the contra- ferences may be, but differences they on the basis of ignorance and super- propriate the world in all it sensuous tween man and nature, and therefore diction involved in bureaucratic de- remain l stitious belief, Conrad asks the ques- formation. Under capitalism and the human life itself” (ibid p133). Labour nial, yet we have to go further and Phil Watson tion: what is primary?: “Materialists rule of exchange-value such a proc- and the creation of use-value is thus say that nature, objective reality and ess is circumvented by the consist- the starting point for any understand- its contradictory laws are in the last ent elaboration of the quantitative. ing of human societies throughout analysis primary.” Just in case you Marx moves on to explore the history. However, to construct an thought Conrad was warming up with means by which differing exchange- ontology around one dialectical pole a little pre-critique banter, he rounds values are mediated into the social - the necessity of labour - is a gross off the demolition with another onto- totality. He works through a variety error. Marxism must also comprehend logical flourish: “The world consti- of value formations (the simple, iso- how freedom mediates necessity. To tutes a whole. But in the last analysis lated or accidental form; the total or allow for this freedom, and then to ideas are not and cannot be primary expanded form) until he reaches the negate it in the cause of ruling neces- ’99 ... The real point of departure is not general form of value, which lays the sary labour as a universal “primary” the idea, not the ideology of what necessary foundation for the money phenomenon, is merely to mangle our should be: rather the actual state of form. Marx shows how such a dy- concept of the particular beyond all things as they are.” This is obviously namic “expresses the values of the recognition. where Conrad squares his own meth- world of commodities through one Georg Lukács pressed home a simi- odological circles, giving ideological single kind of commodity set apart lar line of attack shortly before his determination specific weight in the from the rest ... linen for example, and death: “The challenge, as I see it, is cause of its ultimate refutation. What thus represents the values of all com- to reject the language, values and cat- we have here is an excellent polemi- modities by means of their equality egories of the exact sciences and to cal method. Its theoretical viability is with linen” (ibid p158). Thus under coin an intellectual vocabulary which something we can test in more detail. capitalism it is the money form which would reflect the unique nature of Conrad’s usage of the reality/idea becomes the universal equivalent, the man’s manifold interactions with his distinction is of course an ontologi- one commodity which quantifies all history, his culture, his religion, his cal variation of the base/superstruc- others against itself. We have ob- class, etc” (cited in G Urban, ‘A con- ture metaphor. That ideas and reality served how through the machinations versation with Lukács’ Encounter are indeed distinct is not disputed of exchange-value commodities be- October 1971, p31). In order to meet here. What is questioned is the ren- come abstracted and alienated from this challenge we need to dispense dering of these factors into primary their use-value. It is the money form with the irrational logic of the univer- and secondary spheres. which sets itself the task of arbiter. sal equivalent, methodological or oth- In his famous analysis in chapter Having reconstructed Marx’s out- erwise. one of Capital, Marx gives us an un- line of the commodity we can now re- Conrad makes use of the three con- derstanding of the contradictory na- turn to the question of whether cluding paragraphs from the first sup- ture of the commodity. A commodity Conrad’s gradation of “ideas” and plement of his ‘Genesis of is first of all considered as having a “objective reality” is useful in appre- bureaucratic socialism’ series in or- definite use-value. In Marx’s own hending the nature of a particular his- der to refute the charge that he dis- words it is “an external object, a thing torical determination. misses the cause and effect of which through its qualities satisfies We can observe that the dialectic ideological structures. Conrad does human needs of whatever kind” (K is concerned with difference and its this by advancing an understanding July 22 1999 Page

strikers must be sacrificed. After all a lowing question: where will the proc- movement that is hostile to the poli- ess of decline, break-up and political cies of the AFL-CIO leadership can- degeneration end unless there is an not be brought into the LP by the open debate and discussion inside majority. This is the same process that the organisation? The majority of the led to our expulsion. There also expulsions and resignations that have friendly relations with the LP/trade taken place would not have happened union leaders and their left support- if there was an open debate and strug- omrades [in the CWI] will have public sector union AFSCME was Carrying out tactics that we would ers came first. And this resulted in gle, and an atmosphere for such within received over the past week the destroyed by the majority. The minor- have considered inappropriate 20 or the conclusion that the minority had the CWI. We know of members of the C material from the 10,000-strong ity had to be kicked out of the organi- 30 years ago, but are no longer so, to be expelled because we would not IEC who are very concerned about wildcat strike of the carpenters in sation to allow the section to proceed given the gap that has opened up be- go along with this opportunism. what is going on, who do not accept California. Big business recognised with this wrong orientation and this tween the membership and the union Comrades will be familiar with the the arguments of the IS, but who go the importance of the strike, as it was opportunist trend. We, the minority, leadership, we played a leading role old detective story where the fact that along with them. This is a terrible covered on all the TV networks in their were “workerist sectarians”, accord- in the invasion of the carpenters’ re- the dog did not bark was seen as cru- policy. By keeping quiet and refus- news programmes. The strikers ing to the majority. gional council meeting. We moved cial evidence. We have the same situ- ing to speak up they aid the process elected as their leader John R, re- Another area of debate which be- from there when the mood was clear ation here. The US section of the CWI of resignation and expulsion. The IS cently expelled member of the CWI gan to develop as the faction strug- to lead the wildcat strike, and with the did not participate in any shape or sees it can get away with expulsions and long-time carpenters’ union ac- gle unfolded were the perspectives for hard core of 150-plus activists that form in the carpenters’ wildcat strike. and so considers more, and those tivist. John R also appeared on the the economy. The expelled minority emerged, and with the backing of thou- The branch that the IS recruited in who resign do so mainly because TV networks. Another expelled CWI argued that the CWI - and we are all sands of workers in the strike and the the California Bay area were not seen they can see no significant opposi- member and member of the carpen- responsible to some extent for this - respecting of the picket lines by the at any time during the struggle. Other tion coming from the IEC. ters’ union, RR, also played a leading had underestimated the strength of other trades, we led this major battle. left groups were on the picket lines Finally a word on the CWI and its role and was written up in the San the growth cycle in the 1990s. We ar- We should not go too far in esti- with their papers. We, the minority, perspectives for growth and devel- Francisco Chronicle. And the former gued that we had underestimated the mating our role. Our actual forces on were in the leadership. But the CWI? opment in the USA and Canada. Its Oakland branch of the CWI was in- growth and effect of new technology the ground were very small. We need Nowhere to be found. There were two or three members in Canada have volved in the leadership of the strike and underestimated also the degree now to move to win and consolidate meetings every morning of the strike been prodded by the IS into attack- throughout. to which US capitalism had managed a layer of the activists for the battles of hundreds of the hard-core activ- ing and slandering the organisation I would like to relate the success of to increase the rate of profit in the that lie ahead. But with the authority ists/pickets; there were sites with and leadership of the Ontario Coali- the intervention, and our ability to 1990s at the expense of the working of the wildcat behind us the task of workers walking off all over the North tion Against Poverty. And OCAP is make such an intervention, to the class and from this increased invest- building an opposition in the union California area; there were the mobile one of the most respected, if not the political struggles in the CWI which ment. The majority with the backing with its own journal is now underway. picket squads going from site to site; most respected, fighting organisation led to our expulsion. of the IS refused to face up to these And messages of support and con- but nowhere, nowhere did the CWI in that country in the eyes of the ac- One of the first issues of debate in realities. gratulations are still coming from appear. tivists. How is this little grouplet go- the US section of the CWI was over The IS have been basing them- across the USA and Canada. A major What is the significance of this evi- ing to grow when its relations to the perspectives for the development selves on the idea that there has been step forward has been taken. dence that the CWI did not bark or - OCAP are so unprincipled? The an- of spontaneous struggles and the ori- a depressionary period since 1973 and This success is a vindication of the to make it concrete - did not intervene? swer is that it will not. entation of the section. We, the mi- that the crash will soon come. How perspectives and the orientation of The significance is that what we are Here now in the USA the carpen- nority, argued that the spontaneous utterly inadequate this analysis has the minority. We maintained our prin- seeing now is the inevitable result of ters’ wildcat will be seen by the ac- struggles would not go through the been. It has left the organisation dis- cipled position within the unions, we the false analysis and the opportun- tivists who know of it as the way to Labor Party; that they would express armed in front of the actual develop- recognised the construction boom ist policies of the majority, backed up proceed. And here the CWI section themselves in the unions, single-is- ment of events. Of course we do not and we saw the gap between the un- by the CWI leadership. In another bril- is locked into a dirty slander cam- sue campaigns and neighbourhood deny the crisis of the capitalist sys- ion leaders and the ranks; we saw the liant first for IS representative LW paign for the past years against the organisations. tem. But this is not sufficient to ori- mood of anger as the boom contin- [Lynn Walsh], with the full support of minority comrades who played the We explained that the leadership of ent an organisation. The twists and ued and wages and conditions wors- the IS, the branch which has led this main leading role in this strike. The the LP, which is a wing of the trade turns of the cycles are very impor- ened, and we were prepared to take major wildcat was expelled and re- CWI’s future in North America has union leadership, would hog-tie this tant and can shipwreck an organisa- decisive and militant action. placed with a branch which could not become increasingly problematic in party and prevent it from becoming tion if not understood. Meanwhile the majority found even get itself to the picket lines. the past few weeks. an arena of struggle which would at- We, the minority, discussed the themselves trapped in LP work. In- The CWI is in the process of break- Imagine what could have been. The tract the spontaneous movements. stronger than expected growth cycle. side the LP they are now on the right up and political degeneration. We ar- CWI could have put up a principled We argued that we should be part of We recognised the boom in construc- of all the left tendencies in that mori- gued that our expulsion was part of a struggle in the LP and recruited the the LP and take up a struggle within tion and the near full employment bund organisation. The policies of the process which was rooted in the best members to its ranks. The oppo- it for an alternative programme and there and how this had increased the majority and their orientation has wrong perspectives of the past dec- sition work in AFSCME, the largest policy to that of the leaders, but that confidence of the workers and their made it impossible for them to par- ade and a half and the inability of the public sector union in the USA, could we must be careful to avoid being anger that they were not getting their ticipate in the real movements of the internal life of the organisation, and have continued to develop and, given trapped in LP work while the main share. This allowed us to be prepared working class other than as cheer- especially the inability of the leader- the terrible crisis in that union, espe- struggles went on outside. We argued for and to lead the wildcat strike, leaders. This is exactly as we pre- ship of the organisation to face up to cially in New York, AFSCME Activist in particular that we should maintain something we could not have done if dicted. this and correct our perspectives, could have by now put down serious and if possible step up the work of we had held the perspectives (if they Consider their position in relation change the internal life and reorient roots and been the recognised oppo- trying to build oppositions in the can be called that) of the CWI: that to this strike. They should have taken the organisation. Unless the IS is chal- sition. Along with these successes unions. To this approach was is, that the depression has been here up this wildcat strike in the LP, dis- lenged and a genuine open discus- the CWI would now have been on counterposed the position of the since 1973-75 and the crash will come cussing it there and advocating sup- sion and debate opened up in the the threshold of leading another op- majority and the IS [international sec- any time now. port for it and criticising the union CWI, then this downward spiral of position force in another union, this retariat]. A proper recognition of the leadership for its opposition, for its crisis and disintegration will continue. time the most important of the con- This was to concentrate the re- stronger than expected economic role of refusing to recognise and to Nothing short of a complete shake- struction unions. This would have left sources in the LP. The idea was that growth cycle also allowed us to con- lead the strike, for its physical attack up in the CWI will allow this process the CWI as the most important left if the organisation worked correctly clude that any movement towards on the membership who went into the to be cut across. The election of an group in the country. the LP leadership could be convinced political independence on the part of regional council meeting, for its IS prepared to face up to past mis- And in Canada, instead of the col- to build a real, genuine mass-based the workers would find the going threatening of the strikers with the takes and to genuinely seek the in- lapse of the organisation, the excit- party which would run candidates. All slower if it would exist at all. And as a cops, for calling the homes of strik- put of the membership is essential. ing progress that was being made resources and policies were to be ori- result the LP development would be ers and threatening their families, for Such an IS would also have to be con- before the expulsions could have ented to this end. Struggles that arose weakened. red-baiting the leaders of the strike, vinced of the need for a real collec- been built upon; and now, with the outside were to be pulled into the LP. After our expulsion from the CWI etc, etc. But to do so would lead im- tive leadership and would have to carpenters’ union breakthrough, the Where such struggles threatened to we still tried to maintain our presence mediately to a huge battle with the accept that the IEC [international ex- membership of that union in Canada bring the majority into conflict with in the LP. This was not easy because LP/trade union leaders. And the po- ecutive committee] is a more authori- could have been opened up to the the leadership of the LP then they of the infrequent meetings and the sition of the majority is that they can tative body than the IS. And it now organisation. were to be ignored or opposed. domination of the LP by a wing of the convince the LP/trade union leaders seems clear that the location of the IS There is no other conclusion to be Union work was to be dominated AFL-CIO officialdom and their left to actually build a real LP and to this should be moved from London, drawn. The IS, led by its representa- by this LP orientation and tactic. The supporters. Our main work was build- end they do not want confrontation where it is based, in a country which tive, LW, has done very serious dam- programme of the organisation was ing our base in the unions where we with these leaders, especially on trade has suffered from some of the worst age to the developing of a genuine watered down to make the organisa- had comrades, especially in the Cali- union issues, as these issues are defeats of the working class over the Marxist base in North America. The tion and the approach more accept- fornia Bay area. Along with this we guaranteed to evoke a ferocious and past two decades. From this a genu- minority comrades are carrying on this able to the LP/trade union leaders. sought to defend ourselves on the hostile response. ine invitation to all those who have work and will be an important part of Criticism of the role of the LP/trade international front and demand our So this leads to the present posi- been expelled or who have resigned the healthy international of the union leaders was muted for the same rights in the CWI’s process of ap- tion of the US section of the CWI. to participate in the discussions to future l reason. The opposition group we had peals. Contrary to the hopes and Their friendly relations with the LP/ re-orientate the organisation should SO’T begun to develop around the openly expressed view of the IS, we trade union bureaucracy and their left be made. (for the expelled members of the AFSCME Activist journal in the main have not disappeared. supporters come first, so the wildcat To the IEC members we ask the fol- CWI in North America) Page July 22 1999

Tories play English nationalist card

atriotism is proverbially the has arisen in which members of the Times gave the story little attention. Tories have no workable alternative we need to take account of them, if last refuge of a scoundrel. Small House of Commons from Scottish and With its characteristic complacent lib- vision for society. But it should be only to clarify in our own minds the P wonder, therefore, that Tory Welsh constituencies retain the right eralism, The Guardian, organ of the obvious to anybody that, given the fact that English nationalism is not leader William Hague - increasingly to vote on bills pertaining to England, metropolitan intelligentsia, simply failure of ‘official communism’ and just “silly talk”, but a potentially im- desperate to seize upon some stick whereas their English counterparts brushed Hague aside, averring that socialism’s headlong ideological re- portant factor in the politics that lie with which to beat New Labour - have no such right in relation to Scot- we should “do things the British way; treat in the ensuing period of reac- ahead. How soon, for example, will it should have decided to play the Eng- land or Wales. They are even de- live with the anomalies that riddle our tion, the allure of national pride and be before The Sun mounts the band- lish nationalist card. barred from asking questions about system and wave aside Mr Hague’s national resentment retain a power wagon of support for an English par- The move had long been mooted Scottish and Welsh affairs. silly talk of time bombs and drum- that only a fool would disregard. liament within the UK’s constitutional and finally took the form of ‘Strength- To remedy this ‘inequitable’ situa- beats” (July 17). If we want to understand the pos- monarchy system? Here again, much ening the union after devolution’, a tion, Hague outlined four possible What should we, as communists, sible ramifications of this fact for our of the left has simply ignored the keynote speech delivered to the Cen- solutions: first, strengthening English make of the business? The first thing class, we need to look not at the question. Hague claims not to want it tre for Policy Studies on July 15. Drap- local government, something of which which must be said is that it is Blair broadsheets, but at The Sun, for - under conditions of proportional ing himself simultaneously in the he is in favour, but which is “not himself - with his plan to remould the whose anti-European, little-Englander representation it is highly unlikely union jack and the flag of St George, enough”; secondly, reducing the British constitution from above - who politics Hague’s diatribe was a gift that the Tories would emerge with an Hague gave a schizophrenic address: number of Scottish MPs by bringing has forced the Tories to react and cre- from the gods. Witness its columnist absolute majority. But what do we, as on the one hand, he sought to extol the size of Scottish constituencies ated the preconditions for Hague’s Richard Littlejohn, the paper’s inter- communists think about the problem? the virtues of the union; on the other, into line with those in England - a attempt to conjure up the forces of preter of vox populi - since many of There is, of course, a difference in he treated his audience to a hypo- move he also supports, but again one English nationalism. Through devo- our readers are unlikely to have seen the content of the demands for Scot- critical jeremiad on the “ugly and dan- which does not deal with the funda- lution, reform of the Lords, propor- the article in question, we shall quote tish and Welsh parliaments with full gerous” phenomenon of English mental problem; thirdly, the creation tional representation, etc, Blair is at some length: powers, compared with a call for an nationalism. of a separate English parliament, attempting to redraw the political map “Let’s get one thing straight. The English parliament. Under the UK Attacking Blair for his refusal to something Hague claims he does not of the United Kingdom. He is seek- Scots and Welsh voted for devolu- constitutional monarchy the Scots tackle the “unfair position of England” want, but which he warned could ing a new consensus for the more ef- tion. The English weren’t even con- and Welsh have no right to self-de- in the light of Scottish and Welsh nonetheless happen; finally, his pre- ficient operation of capital under sulted, let alone given a chance to termination. The same cannot be said devolution, Hague referred to the ferred solution, whereby Scots and which New Labour will be centre vote in a referendum on such an im- for the English - the overriding ma- “sea of red and white flags and the Welsh MPs would be debarred from stage and the Tories consigned to portant constitutional matter ... Nev- jority. Nevertheless our call for the painted faces at last year’s world cup” voting on measures relating exclu- permanent opposition. ertheless the vast majority of us have abolition of the monarchy system as “just one sign of an emerging na- sively to England, which would, ac- In these circumstances, the silence gone along with it ... There hasn’t and a federal republic includes a par- tional consciousness ... Try to ignore cording to Hague, “get the balance of the left is positively deafening. even been much bridling at the fact liament for England too. Communists this English consciousness or bottle right”. Leaving aside the occasional pious that the English have to keep picking in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ire- it up and it will turn into a more dan- Reactions to Hague’s speech from nod in the direction of devolution’s up billions of pounds worth of bills land have a duty to champion repub- gerous English nationalism that can the Labour front bench were entirely supposed extension of ‘democracy’ for substantially higher public spend- licanism and democracy for the threaten the future of the United King- predictable. Leader of the Commons to Scotland and Wales - in reality a ing in Scotland and Wales ... You English. dom ... recognise its value, and it ac- Margaret Beckett accused Hague of Blairite sop intended to buy off the might have thought that Scottish and Communists are certainly not anti- tually strengthens our common “playing an extremely dangerous and legitimate national aspirations of the Welsh politicians would be happy ... English. The English have a long and British identity” (Daily Mail July 16). stupid game” and of being “crass, Scots and Welsh (the CPGB called but they’re not content ... They want proud history of class struggle. The Hague maintained that the “the drums stupid and insensitive” to raise such for parliaments with full powers: noth- to run England too ... They want to peasant revolt of 1381, the Lollards of English nationalism are already issues in the light of the failed Ulster ing less), the left press has left the interfere in schools, transport, health of the 15th century, the Levellers of beating”, that “doing nothing is not peace talks: “The Tories, for short- whole question unaddressed. and suchlike. Frankly, none of this is the Commonwealth revolution, the an option” and that anomalies cre- term political expediency, are seeking Let us be clear. Far from speaking any of their damn business any more. London Correspondence Society, the ated by New Labour’s devolution rep- to pit the people of Britain against out against the “drum” of national- They opted out, not us ... And slowly world’s first working class party - the resented a “ticking time bomb beneath each other”. Scottish secretary John ism, Hague is assiduously beating it but surely the English are beginning Chartists, Owenite communism, mass the British constitution” that threat- Reid, an almost redundant figure himself. We should, however, not to stir. Frankly we are beginning to trade unionism and the Tolpuddle ens to create an “an English nation- since devolution, said that Hague was blind ourselves to the fact that his tire of the racist abuse and ‘extrem- martyrs. alist backlash that could tear the “fanning the flames of English nation- appeal to the most basic kind of Eng- ist’ jibes being levelled at us. And It is our task to educate today’s union apart”. alism” and “undermining the UK and lish nationalism could achieve some the fact that English taxpayers are generation in that combative and in- The slogan ‘English votes on Eng- Scottish ties to it”. resonance among the English work- seen as mug punters north and west ternationalist spirit and consign all na- lish laws’ encapsulates the proximate Press reaction was mixed. From The ing class. Of course, his project is re- of the border” (July 16). tionalism to the scrapheap of cause of Hague’s histrionics: in the Daily Telegraph there was a predict- gressive and to a large extent Easy though it may be to dismiss history l aftermath of devolution, the situation ably encouraging response. The incoherent; of course, in reality the these remarks as reactionary garbage, Michael Malkin

semblance of calm has returned themselves within the confines of the shunned by the west, the Iranian to the streets of Iran’s cities after islamic republic, others are espousing economy has only of late felt the re- aA week of violence, demonstration and secularism and the need to overthrow viving breath of trade with the United counter-demonstration in the wake of the counterrevolutionary regime. Ei- States and Europe, a development no the death of at least three student ther way, a growing minority refuses doubt aided by the election of protestors. to support one set of reactionary Khatami. However, moves to a more The students were demanding the mullahs versus another. open society, both in terms of trade acceleration and increase of reforms It is clear that this democratic up- and politics, threaten the conserva- started with the election of the ‘mod- surge - the most important since the tive and reactionary social base of the erate’ president Mohammed Khatami ayatollahs butchered the Iranian revo- fundamentalists. The mercantile ba- in 1997. The protests, originally cen- lution of 1979-81 - goes much further zaar bourgeoisie, which dominates in- tred at Tehran University, were than mere posturing in the lead-up to ternal trade and credit, has a vested sparked by the banning of the liberal elections in February, as Liberal Demo- interest in a closed Iranian society. Its Salam newspaper and the introduc- crat MEP Emma Nicholson suggests. strong links with the mosque and a tion of new laws to further curb Iran’s In typical liberal fashion she has ex- reliance on the limits of the domestic press. The demonstrations were vio- pressed her fear that the students economy have been a pillar of the lently broken up by islamic fundamen- might go ‘too far’. Her project is to islamic counterrevolution. talist vigilante groups, supported by reform the islamic republic. The regime’s main support at the the police. Needless to say, advocating con- bottom of society has been from Yet this calm belies political crisis sistent democracy is always to go ‘too among the declassed urban poor. In brewing at the top of society as well far’ in Iran. Ministers and clerics are origin this was the consequence of as below. Student leaders have called already baying for ‘rioters’ to face the top of society is real, and it is this to chaos and they warn that their pa- the depeasantisation of the peasants. off further demonstrations - some for death penalty. However, taking into division which has allowed movement tience is running out.” Twenty-four However, more than 50% of Iran’s fear of provoking further attacks; some account the blood-soaked history of from below to find expression. senior officers signed the letter, in- population was born under the for fear that more unrest may force the the islamic regime, so far the demon- In the past few days, secret corre- cluding the commanders of Iran’s land, ayatollahs. So the social dislocation hand of the ‘hardliners’ and under- strators have been treated relatively spondence between the president and sea and air forces. Overall commander that was exploited by the mullahs - mine president Khatami. Yet there is a leniently, with Khatami expressing senior officers printed in the Iranian general Yahya Rahim Safavi was not a with their promises of an anti-mod- mood to press home their demands muted ‘understanding’ of their con- press shows the growing fault lines. signatory. But his views are known to ern utopia - has given way to nor- for reform. cerns. This is not just down to the According to the BBC, “In a letter to be equally hardline. malisation and therefore other While moderate student leaders aim students being the children of the elite, president Khatami, the military lead- What is the basis of the split at the possibilities l to contain the protests and restrict as no doubt many are. Division at the ers say his reformist policies have led top? Crippled by war with Iraq and Marcus Larsen July 22 1999 Page What we AWL faces both ways fight for l Our central aim is to reforge the Communist Party of Great Britain. Without this Party the working class is nothing; with it, it is everything. l The Communist Party serves the interests of the working class. We fight all forms of oppor- tunism and revisionism in the workers’ move- ment because they endanger those interests. We insist on open ideological struggle in order to s I reported in a previous arti- hand, there are those who want to pre- ple, forgetting that its overriding stra- must centre on what workers need, not fight out the correct way forward for our class. cle, the Alliance for Workers’ tend that nothing much has changed tegic aim was - or ought to have been on what seems ‘realistic’. In this area l Marxism-Leninism is powerful because it is ALiberty has begun to break from within Blair’s party; these comrades - to break our class from this so-called too the AWL is sadly lacking: for ex- true. Communists relate theory to practice. We auto-Labourism and to contest elec- would prefer to carry on as before, “political wing of the British labour ample, its demand for “a minimum wage are materialists; we hold that ideas are determined tions against Blair’s party (Weekly advocating “a massive injection of movement”. They forget too that long- of at least £5 an hour” does not even by social reality and not the other way round. Worker July 8). cash” for the NHS in their local La- term working class political interests match up to what European Union l We believe in the highest level of unity among This welcome move is vitiated in no bour branch, and planning the latest can genuinely be advanced only by bureaucrats consider to be basic lev- workers. We fight for the unity of the working small way by the dismal platform of left counterstroke for the next party organising the advanced part of the els of ‘decency’, let alone what is ac- class of all countries and subordinate the struggle in Britain to the world revolution itself. The sub-reformist demands the AWL is conference. On the other hand, there class into a revolutionary party. tually necessary for workers to liberation of humanity can only be achieved putting before the electorate. Jill are those who can no longer stomach Comrade McArthur is clearly bewil- reproduce themselves culturally. As through world communism. Mountford, the organisation’s candi- a vote for a party that has abandoned dered by our stress on what I called comrade McArthur is fully aware, only l The working class in Britain needs to strike as date in the July 15 council by-election even the pretence of being a vehicle “the real political questions under the ending of capitalism through work- a fist. This means all communists should be in Churchdown, Lewisham, issued an for working class advance, instead capitalism that our class must adopt ers’ own action can deliver a full life organised into a single Party. We oppose all election address which restricted it- embracing the neo-liberal, neo- as its own if it is to free itself”. But, on a permanent basis. Our demands forms of separatism, which weakens our class. self to calls for increased spending on Thatcherite consensus. A similar con- there again, a grasp of the politics of must be brought together in a single l Socialism can never come through parliament. the NHS and education, an end to tradiction was expressed by the SWP’s revolutionary democracy is hardly the unity - the revolutionary programme - The capitalist class will never peacefully allow privatisations, the renationalisation of slogan for the May 1997 general elec- left’s strong point. I mentioned in par- so as to lead workers to that logical their system to be abolished. Socialism will only some industries, a minimum wage of tion: ‘Vote Labour or socialist’. ticular “self-determination for Ireland, conclusion. succeed through working class revolution and the “at least” £5 an hour, “full trade union According to comrade McArthur, Scotland and Wales; abolition of the But crucial to our minimum pro- replacement of the dictatorship of the capitalists rights” and “an end to racism and dis- advocating a Labour vote “never had monarchy and the second chamber”. gramme must be the question of the with the dictatorship of the working class. Social- ism lays the basis for the conscious planning of crimination”. This programme was to much to do with Labour’s programme”. It also seemed to me that workers, if state. Our demands for democracy and human affairs: ie, communism. be paid for by “taking back the tens We must apparently vote for the they are to aspire to be a ruling class, control from below challenge the rul- l We support the right of nations to self- of billions of pounds given away to Blairites not because we think doing ought to have taken a stand on Nato’s ing class politically. Without such a determination. In Britain today this means the the rich and big business by the To- so will advance our cause in any way, bombing of Yugoslavia and on perspective we do not even begin to struggle for Irish freedom should be given full ries in tax cuts kept in place by New but simply because Labour “was/is [?] Kosovar independence. Yet the show how a road to a new, commu- support by the British working class. Labour”. the political wing of the labour move- AWL’s election address was silent on nist, society can be opened up. The l Communists are champions of the oppressed. The platform amounted to a call for ment”. Needless to say, scientifically all these issues, just as it was on the fight for workers’ liberty under that We fight for the liberation of women, the ending “a return to old Labour governments, the Labour Party was from its origins environment, and rights for women new society must be linked to the of racism, bigotry and all other forms of chauvin- like those of Wilson and Callaghan”, a bourgeois workers’ party. Organi- and gays. democratic destruction of everything ism. Oppression is a direct result of class society as I pointed out. Despite this (or per- sationally it is based upon the work- Instead of coming clean and admit- that infringes it under capitalism. and will only finally be eradicated by the ending haps because of it), and despite the ing class, above all the trade unions, ting these omissions, comrade Viewed in that light, the abolition of of class society. reasonably favourable circumstances but politically its practice serves fi- McArthur describes such questions the monarchy is not just another ‘re- l War and peace, pollution and the environment I reported, comrade Mountford won nance capital. World War I proved that as a “set of garbled demands” with form’ - one among many. No, a suc- are class questions. No solution to the world’s just 66 votes (3.5%) - a figure well the dominant pole of Labourism is no “orientation to working class or- cessful fight to smash the constitu- problems can be found within capitalism. Its within the normal range for left candi- bourgeois; the subaltern pole is pro- ganisations ... and working class com- tional monarchy system would not ceaseless drive for profit puts the world at risk. The future of humanity depends on the triumph dates contesting local elections in re- letarian. Something also proved by munities”. Perhaps the working class only send the ruling class into crisis: of communism. cent years, including those standing every subsequent Labour govern- communities comrade McArthur is it would place on the immediate on an openly revolutionary pro- ment from MacDonald to Blair. In acquainted with have been lobot- agenda our own working class alter- gramme. other words, the fact that the trade omised. Perhaps they are incapable native. The AWL’s Alan McArthur at- unions (complete with rightwing lead- of understanding anything other than And comrade McArthur is right in tempted to justify his organisation’s ership and policies) still provide fund- the size of their pay packet or the qual- another respect: if that fight is to be stance in a letter published in last ing and retain some representation ity of their healthcare. Certainly, it conducted along revolutionary lines, week’s Weekly Worker (July 15). Ac- and voting rights does not mean that seems, questions of how we are ruled we must not shy away from pointing cording to comrade McArthur, the rea- the working class is able to “assert are totally beyond comrade out that, in order to achieve it, it will son for the absence of any mention of itself politically”. McArthur. be necessary to establish “organs of the word ‘socialism’ - or indeed a glo- Politics, not organisation, is primary. Comrade McArthur is quite right: direct workers’ democracy such as bal vision of any kind - from the elec- After all the US Democratic Party also abolition of the monarchy, like the soviets”. Of course, it would be im- tion address is explained by the need receives some funding from trade un- provision of free healthcare, would be possible to organise such bodies in to place “a programme of demands ions, who exert a modicum of influ- a “reform” under capitalism. But nei- present circumstances, when the around which to organise activity” ence on it. To take a more extreme ther demands are reformist - if and working class hardly exists in the po- before the working class. But he did example, in Franco’s Spain commu- when they are part of a revolutionary litical sense. However, propaganda not respond to my criticism that there nists - correctly in my view - worked programme. In the context of the calls for “workers’ defence” and the was no call for workers’ own self-ac- within the fascist-sponsored trade AWL’s platform, a “massive injection right of our class to arm itself were tivity. There was no hint that workers unions. Did this union link therefore of cash” for the NHS was totally and indeed present in the ‘Weekly Worker’ themselves should do anything. With- oblige the left to recommend a vote exclusively reformist (if not sub-re- EU election manifesto (see Weekly out such a call the AWL’s platform is for Franco’s corporatist party? If vot- formist). The election address was Worker June 3). little different qualitatively from those ing Labour “never had much to do explicit in calling for pre-Thatcher taxa- Such calls would, as he says, be put out by the Labour Party in the past. with Labour’s programme”, logically tion in order to fund it. It was just a mere “abstract propaganda for social- It too appealed to the narrow self-in- the answer is ‘yes’. The Labour Party little more radical than the policy of ist revolution” - if they were not in- r terest of voters - promising to work is no more the political wing of the the Liberal Democrats. trinsically linked to the central political for a series of piecemeal changes that working class than the Democrats or Of course it is necessary to include question of the day: Blair’s constitu- will in some small way improve peo- the Falangists. The question has eve- in our programme demands relating tional revolution from above, and the r ple’s lives. rything to do with programme and to the workplace, and to workers’ need for a rounded working class l Rather pathetically comrade thus practice. health, education and welfare. But they response € McArthur describes the AWL’s own The Leninist tactic of supporting must be seen as a call to action. They Peter Manson shopping list as “transitional de- the Labour Party “like the rope sup- € mands” - presumably “where we want ports the hanged man” was adopted to be” is firmly on the territory of old by the fledgling CPGB because large Labour (he did not dispute my remark sections of the working class had so- that any Labour politician, left or right, cialist illusions in Labour. They be- would have had a pretty similar set of lieved its new programme would lead “transitional” policies 20 years ago). to socialism. It is arguable whether Fighting fund € € € But this is precisely the problem such a blanket tactic was ever again € € € with the AWL. As the comrade him- useful after the 1920s, when such illu- self makes clear, his organisation’s sions had subsided. Yet for comrade € € € attachment not only to Labourism, but McArthur a failure at any time during to the Labour Party itself appears al- the last 75 years to duly deliver the € most as strong as ever. He writes: “We working class vote to Labour would called for a Labour vote in the past in itself have constituted an example because Labour was/is the political of “auto-sectarianism”. This peculiar, wing of the British labour movement, twisted view, whereby any attempt to Still no sign of the big guns! Last will not fold. But cashflow problems and had in its structures the capacity break workers from the self-serving week I remarked that just a couple will put at risk our ability to expand, for the working class to assert itself Labourite misleadership is con- of fat cheques would not only pro- such as through the 10-pagers of politically. Blair is now severing those demned in such terms, would perma- vide a welcome boost to our July the last two weeks. links. But that process is far from com- nently tie our class to the bourgeois total, but also help make up for the Thanks this week to HF (£15) and plete: in cases where there is not a workers’ party. deficit of the last two months. to RD and NB (£10 each). Our July socialist or labour movement candi- Similarly, like voting for the Labour Unfortunately they have not ar- total stands at £248, with less than date who can take the struggle for- Party, working inside it ought to be rived yet (I am sure they are on the 10 days to go to break through our ward in some way, we will continue to viewed as a tactic that could be use- way). So, with only £56 received in £400 target l call for a Labour vote.” ful under certain circumstances. There this week’s postbag, we are in dan- Robbie Rix Undoubtedly this new position of is nothing inherently unprincipled ger of falling behind for a third con- facing both ways is to some extent a with rejecting the same tactic. Unfor- secutive month. reflection of the differences within the tunately, however, much of the left Comrades, the Weekly Worker Printed by and published by: November Publications Ltd (0181-459 7146). Registered as a newspaper by Royal Mail. AWL’s own membership: on the one transformed the tactic into a princi- ISSN 1351-0150. © July 1999 weekly

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y last article was intended as £9,000 had been committed to the a contribution to a political printers for leaflets and £5,000 was Mdiscussion on the future of needed for the deposit, but that the left in the aftermath of the Euro money had not yet been collected. elections (‘A nod and a wink’ Weekly This is not a serious way of running Worker June 17). The reply from the an election campaign. West Midlands Socialist Alliance As I stated in my article, on the day (WMSA) avoids any political analy- in May 1997 when New Labour was sis of the results and seems intent elected we all knew that proportional only on self-justification and blam- representation would be used in ing Christine Oddy for their lost de- some elections and would give the posit (Weekly Worker July 8). left an opening. We also knew that The impetus for me writing the arti- the Euro elections would come at cle was the particular experience in Blair’s mid-term. Arthur Scargill Coventry where the local alliance, the started the SLP on this basis in spring Coventry and Warwickshire Socialist 1996. The SSA made their transfor- Alliance (CAWSA), was divided into mation into the SSP so that they could two rival campaigns - one for the campaign with credibility in the as- WMSA slate; the other for Christine sembly and Euro elections. Oddy MEP, standing as independent And what about the SA? They Labour. Furthermore the supporters “agreed to start considering stand- of Christine Oddy were prevented by ing” one year into Blair’s government WMSA supporters from even men- and one year before the actual elec- tioning their existence in three sen- tion. This can only be a lack of strat- tences in the CAWSA’s monthly egy or a wrong strategy, stemming bulletin. Thus the bulletin went out from the left groups and from the SA in the name of six committee members, Liaison Committee - in particular from calling for a vote for the WMSA slate, the Socialist Party in England and when three of those committee mem- Wales. bers were supporting Christine Oddy. The WMSA statement fails to men- This experience raises the question tion political strategy and tactics at of whether the Socialist Alliance is all, or any lessons learnt from the elec- indeed an alliance of various strands tion experience. Furthermore they fail and tendencies - or a political party to address what went wrong with their with a hierarchical structure of na- predictions. In the SA national bulle- tional, regional and local bodies with tin Pete McLaren predicted that democratic decisions on strategy and WMSA would not lose their deposit, tactics and some binding discipline. that Dave Nellist would be an MEP Personally I would be in favour of the and that Christine Oddy would take latter option, as in the ‘Scottish turn’, gional or local level, but was made in pendent socialists, was: ‘The left just a few votes. as I understand it, whereby the Scot- the national committees of the left groups will make the decision on Incidentally it is fairly obvious from tish Socialist Alliance (SSA) trans- groups involved in the pact. If the whether to stand or not. They must these predictions what the WMSA formed itself into the Scottish “The WMSA SWP or Socialist Party had decided know what they are doing. They will attitude to Christine Oddy was, what- Socialist Party, with Scottish Militant to pull out in the West Midlands, as take into account the money in- ever they say in their statement. They Labour withdrawing the boundaries five think they they did in London and the North volved. They will each produce their would not have wanted her at number of their organisation in order to fuse West, there would have been no own separate leaflets and propa- one on the slate. Certainly the left with smaller groups and independent WMSA slate and no WMSA. ganda, and their members will be out groups, the SP and the SWP, wanted socialists. However, the three Cov- can beat people We can only speculate as to why recruiting to their own organisations. Dave Nellist as number one. That is entry comrades who signed the July the SWP supported the Socialist La- Let them get on with it.’ It is unfortu- why they agreed the slate in the West 8 WMSA response have always fa- over the head, bour Party in London, but stood can- nate, but I cannot see any other real- Midlands and pulled out in London voured the former option with a liai- didates in a slate against the SLP in istic way of looking at the situation and the North West. But what hap- son and networking role for the put them in the West Midlands, and why the SP while we have a hybrid organisation. pened to the predictions which were Socialist Alliance. thought it worthwhile to have a go in Another example from the WMSA clearly wrong? The WMSA state- It is ironic therefore that the the West Midlands, but not else- statement which reinforces my argu- ment does not even begin to give any WMSA statement reads as though their place and where. I say we can only speculate ment is the start of the second para- answers. the SA is a political party, when because we do not know the bases graph, which reads: “The Socialist In this context the last sentence is clearly it is not and these comrades then shout, of their decisions: they were made in Alliance agreed to start considering pathetic: “We hope we can all move do not want it to be. For example, what secret, but we still had to stand standing Euro election candidates at forward together in building the So- is the West Midlands Socialist Alli- around waiting for them. This is what a national conference in March 1998.” cialist Alliance project now the elec- ance? In the WMSA statement you ‘business as I meant in my article by the lateness What they do not say is that at that tions are over.” The point is that the would be forgiven for thinking that of the WMSA declaration. very same conference Spencer elections have raised the question, WMSA was a regional organisation usual’” One explanation for the mess Fitzgibbon of the Green Party made ‘What exactly is the Socialist Alliance of a party, intermediate between local which was the Socialist Alliance ef- an impassioned plea for the alliance project?’ Is it censoring comrades you and national bodies. Thus we have forts in the Euro elections is what to support the Greens in the 1999 Euro do not agree with and then getting the WMSA officers “unanimously context behind the WMSA ‘fact Allan Green of the former SSA called election. He reported that the Greens others to endorse censorship when endorsing the CAWSA sub-commit- sheet’ was an electoral pact between the hybrid nature of the SA. It is com- already had their slates of candidates they have no right to? Is it waiting tee decision to post their June news- various left groups, some of whom - posed, on the one hand, of national elected and were well on the way to around while self-important, undemo- letter without any reference to notably the Socialist Workers Party - left groups with their own agendas raising by campaigns and collections cratic left groups make up their mind Christine Oddy’s campaign”. do not otherwise participate in the SA and democratic centralist methods of the £20,000 needed in each region for what is in their short-term interest? Leaving aside the “facts” that the project. organisation and, on the other hand, deposits and leaflets. The WMSA five think they can sub-committee was split three against The name ‘Socialist Alliance’ was of local groups, composed of inde- Notice the difference in approach. beat people over the head, put them three and that the Coventry censors accidental: it could have been ‘So- pendent socialists and campaigning One year before the election the in their place and then shout, ‘busi- were also WMSA officers, what right cialist Unity’, ‘Socialist Alternative’, groups. The only way to overcome Greens are well organised while the ness as usual’. It is just not good do WMSA officers have to endorse or whatever the groups decided. the distrust and misunderstandings SA nationally “agreed to start con- enough. We need to know what they anything to do with the CAWSA or Therefore the decision as to whether is for the left groups to democratise sidering standing”. Later the WMSA mean by “the Socialist Alliance even pay the postage of their bulle- a WMSA slate would stand in the their own proceedings and then to statement tells us that three days be- project”, what their strategy is and tin? In a political party - certainly; but Euro elections was not made demo- unite under one organisation. fore nominations closed, and one how they intend to change their in an alliance? The political reality and cratically in the SA at national, re- My view, and that of other inde- month before the actual election, behaviour l