SWP and ‘Marxism’ - pp2,8 weekly AWL sub-reformism - p3 The Spartacist tradition - pp4-5 Nellist and Oddy - p6 SPEW: a dissident writes - p8 €

lmost without exception the own and finance propaganda around left enthusiastically called for it. Sad to say, what we actually have Aa Labour vote on May 1 1997 - is another zigzag, not a conversion the SWP being a stock example. The to Bolshevism. habitual reasoning was eminently sim- Theoretically the SWP’s ‘Action ple. But profoundly wrong. After programme’ is backed up with refer- nearly two decades of Tory govern- ence to Trotsky’s 1934 ‘Action pro- ment the election of New Labour would gramme for France’ (see Alex trigger a crisis of expectations. Callinicos International Socialism Nothing of the kind materialised. No81, and John Rees Socialist Re- Three main factors explain the predict- view January 1999). But the boldest able outcome. claim is that it is premised on broadly Firstly, at this historic juncture, the the same conditions which prompted working class no longer asserts itself for Scargill’s red-brown Socialist La- Etzioni inspires. Perry Anderson theo- new consensus. That is what his pro- Trotsky’s ‘Transitional programme’. politically. The class that found an bour Party in London (half his candi- rises. Rupert Murdoch sympathises. gramme is designed to achieve. The In our opinion Trotsky was badly mis- expression in Labourism for 80 years dates were Stalin Society members), Anthony Giddens evangelises. From political foundations, and thus the taken in 1938. He maintained that capi- at present exists sociologically, as Dave Nellist’s Socialist Alliance list the beginning all the portents and political architecture of the UK, are talism could no longer develop the wage slaves and voting fodder. But in in West Midlands and Tommy signs indicated a far-reaching resolve. being transformed. The liberalisation productive forces or grant meaning- no sense as a subject - ie, maker - of Sheridan’s Scottish Socialist Party. Blair was not content with tinkering. of Labour, devolution for Scotland ful reforms. Therefore, he declared, history. On a world scale both ‘offi- When it came to the bulk of the coun- He is remaking the constitution and, and Wales, peace for Northern Ire- defence of economic gains would cial communism’ and social democ- try, SWP members were left guess- if he can, the popular sense of land, elected mayors in London and spontaneously produce a final and racy have suffered devastating ing. No guidance. No leadership. No Britishness. other big cities, reform of the House apocalyptic collision with capitalism. ideological defeats at the hands of support, even critical, for the ‘Weekly What does it mean? Certainly not of Lords, a slim-line monarchy, Euro- No matter how we excuse Trotsky and neo-liberal capitalism. Worker’ lists (ie, what remained from the beginning of the end of Britain’s pean integration, PR elections - all are his tiny band of followers in terms of Secondly, in Britain Margaret the Socialist Alliance election blocs supposedly incomplete bourgeois component parts of an overarching how things appeared on the eve of Thatcher shifted the balance of class in London and the North West). revolution. Blair’s remaking of the UK constitutional revolution. World War II, there is no escaping that forces to a degree never witnessed The Socialist Party in England and constitution is in fact both the con- The auto-Labourite left responds he was wrong in fact and method. before in this century. Over the last 10 Wales mirrored the SWP’s bank- tinuation and the complement of the piecemeal rather than comprehen- Comrade Cliff wrote - only six years years strike days have been ratcheted ruptcy. Workers Power - a sect which Thatcherite counter-reformation. Blair sively to the whole. Using the defeat- ago - that Trotsky’s ‘Transitional pro- down to an all-time low. since its foundation as an SWP split has no intention whatsoever of res- ist logic that something must be better gramme’ was only relevant when there Thirdly, in opposition Tony Blair did has religiously preached auto-La- urrecting or re-creating the 1945-1979 than nothing, virtually the whole spec- was “a situation of general crisis, of everything to reduce expectations to bourism - recoiled from the prospect social democratic settlement. His trum lined up behind New Labour and capitalism in deep slump”, and that zero. Hence the mass of voters rightly of voting for bomber Blair. As if communitarianism is a reinvention of urged a ‘yes’ in Blair’s referendums in many of the programme’s proposals - believed that little of significance Nato’s air war against rump Yugosla- Jeremy Bentham’s utilitarianism. The Scotland, Wales and Ireland. It is es- eg, workers’ defence squads - “did separated the two main parties vis-à- via was not a continuation of the New ‘greatest good for the greatest sentially the same story when it comes not fit a non-revolutionary situation” vis working class rights and living Labour politics of May 1 1997 which number’ is to be ensured by the mar- to the London mayor, the House of (T Cliff Trotsky: The darker the night, conditions. they voted for. But likewise, instead ket and the endless drive for profit. Lords and the monarchy. the brighter the star London 1993, Only the sects invested high of backing the ‘Weekly Worker’ lists, There is, of course, a complex and The inability of the left to challenge pp299-300). hopes. Not surprisingly then it is not Workers Power anarchistically pre- dynamic interrelationship between Blairism in the sphere of high politics Yet now, with workers’ confidence New Labour which is in the midst of a ferred moralistic boycottism. reform from above and discontent - how we are ruled - stems from a pro- at a nadir and revolutionary con- crisis of expectations. It is the left. In Not surprisingly the auto-Labour- below. What is particularly striking grammatic nullity epitomised by the sciousness almost non-existent, the point of fact the old left stares extinc- ite left is in an advanced stage of or- about Blair’s constitutional revolu- SWP. SWP has decided that pursuit of even tion in the face. Whatever the par- ganisational decay. The fragments of tion, however, is the absence of any The Cliffites have steadfastly re- the most minimal demands is all that ticular antique shibboleth - the USSR Stalinism and Trotskyism continue to working class input or alternative. fused to present their main politics is required to fell a supposedly totter- as workers’ state, as state capitalist, shed limbs and overall weight. The Indeed it is the atomisation, the (tem- and overall strategy in the form of a ing capitalism. In his most recent work as bureaucratic collectivist, etc - the Morning Star’s so-called Communist porary) disappearance of the work- testable and democratically sanc- comrade Cliff insists that we live not old left has been defined by one, un- Party of Britain, cleaved by the Hicks- ing class from the political stage, that tioned programme (as we all know, in a period of reaction (albeit of a spe- derlying, characteristic. Auto-La- Rosser rebellion, now limps on as a creates the conditions whereby Blair such a stance is contrary to the spirit cial type), but of imminent revolution: bourism. Far from representing support group for Serbia, China and can propose and carry through his and example of the Bolsheviks, whom “Capitalism in the advanced coun- independent working class politics - North Korea. The tiny New Commu- programme. There is neither pressure they claim to emulate). Socialist Work- tries,” he claims, “is no longer expand- albeit in embryonic form - historically nist Party is equally prostituted and nor threat from those below. Never- er’s thumbnail ‘What we stand for’ ing and so the words of the 1938 the left acts as a Labourite tail. politically deranged. To all intents and theless the main factor behind Blair’s column is all very well for introduc- ‘Transitional programme’ that ‘there The crisis of auto-Labourism is purposes the Democratic Left is a fetid programme has been the fact that tory purposes. But its pinched abstrac- can be no discussion of systematic manifested in moralism, organisational corpse. Like a maggot Nina Temple popular identification with the UK tions bear little relationship to daily social reforms and raising the masses’ decay and programmatic nullity. Take crawls away. state has been gradually slipping practice or any discernible vision of living standards’ fits reality again” (T the June 10 EU elections. The sects As for Trotskyism, SPEW is not un- away since at least the late 1960s. how the working class is to make it- Cliff Trotskyism after Trotsky London proved to be more part of the problem typical. Having lost its jewels - Scot- During the long Thatcher years slip- self into a ruling class. That, when it 1999, pp81-2). than part of the solution. Here was land and Liverpool - further schisms page became a slide. comes to the SWP, is a mystery. Herein lies the root of the SWP’s the first general - ie, all-UK - elections are in the offing. The fate of the Work- The Iron Lady unleashed a neo-lib- Indeed comrade Cliff and other crisis. It is not simply that Cliffism since 1997. Moreover, in what should ers Revolutionary Party beckons. Or- eral tornado against the post-World SWP intellectuals have made a virtue cannot grasp the period - the overall have been a window of opportunity, ganisationally the SWP appears to be War II social settlement. Millions of anti-programmism. They have writ- productive forces continue to expand they were conducted for the first time an exception. However, politically the were thoroughly alienated. Militant ten on countless occasions about the and in Britain the average full-time under the auspices of proportional crisis is only too evident ... and poli- trade unionists and non-conformist advantages of not being tied down. wage has just passed £20,000. No, for representation. tics decides. youth. Migrants and homosexuals. True, without a programme the rank all the revolutionary verbiage em- Despite concerted and persistent Auto-Labourism was always a va- The long-term unemployed and semi- and file cannot hold them to account. ployed to sell it, the SWP’s ‘Action attempts by the CPGB the left failed riety of economism (ie, the strikeist or employed. Scots and poll tax As a trend the SWP’s history has programme’ amounts to nothing more to unite and field a national slate of trade union politics of the working refuseniks. And not merely from the therefore been one of sudden oppor- than conventional economism. In- candidates. The SWP was the first to class). Hence the left sects - not least Tory government, but to a consider- tunist zigzags. Any turn can be stead of a fully rounded alternative break ranks after its divided leader- the SWP - neither understand nor able extent from the monarchical state adopted as long as it is perceived to to Blair’s constitutional revolution ship narrowly decided to retreat from prioritise democratic demands. That itself. New identities were sought and serve short-term interests, usually from above - eg, a federal republic of its electoral turn - agreed only at the is why, though repelled by Blairism’s often found. That explains why Blair judged arithmetically in terms of crude England, Scotland and Wales from end of 1998. Naturally the rank and open pro-capitalism, the old left still does not simply want to change the membership figures. below - the SWP leadership concen- file were kept in total ignorance - clings to New Labour. way we are ruled. Blair is determined The SWP’s ‘Action programme’ trates entirely on minimal questions policy-making is the monopoly of a Blair might not be meticulously to rewin popular identification with would seem then to represent a break of pay, hours and union recognition. closed circle centred around comrade working towards some fully articu- and acceptance of the state. with the past. Since it was launched The workers are to be left as an eco- Tony Cliff. lated ‘third way’ blueprint. Neverthe- The UK is therefore being last September, it has not only been nomic class of slaves, not elevated Either way, having caused mayhem less he cannot be dismissed as simply rebranded. In the name of democracy reproduced as a glossy brochure, but to a political class of self-activating in the Socialist Alliances, the SWP a pragmatist and a philistine in the and in the absence of a democratic there has been a drive to get labour revolutionaries l eventually confined itself to a vote traditional British mould. Amitai movement from below Blair seeks a movement bodies to adopt it as their Jack Conrad Page July 8 1999 etters

Party notes Anne quotes Lee Rock, who argued that the SWP needed to be allowed to L How interesting. Comrade Alan Fox get involved as the SWP. I would like writes an article detailing the all too ob- SWP members to get involved as repre- vious shortcomings of the anarchists’ sentatives of the union branches where ‘Carnival against capitalism’ - and of an- they have influence. But if branches of archist ideology in general (Weekly the SWP, SLP or whoever were able to against him and for Labour, saying that Worker June 24). outvote union delegates it would dis- they preferred to be with the reformist ‘Marxism’, the Socialist Workers Party’s annual school, starts on For his efforts, comrade Fox is accused credit the campaign in the eyes of most workers than to back a centrist sect. This Friday, July 9. This event will be the largest ‘educational’ gather- by Phil Rudge of “delivering a Marxist trade union activists. time in the same area WP voted against ing of leftists and revolutionaries in Britain this year. Over the sermon”, and for good measure is Affiliation by union broad lefts is also Labour and a more popular Labour dissi- course of seven days, thousands of comrades - predominantly damned for being “a puritanical moralis- problematic. Unions often have many dent (Oddy achieved 4.34% in West Mid- young - will attend the event, where they will be instructed in the ing philistine” (Letters, July 1). Rather broad lefts: it is not the campaign’s job lands), and for Nellist who only obtained SWP’s version of socialist politics. This is both positive and nega- than comrade Fox being “prissy”, it is to pick and choose. However, any broad 0.85%. Why? tive. more the case that Phil Rudge is being left that has a real base in a union should Why did they not participate at all in We are not sectarians. We believe that - particularly in a period rather cavalier with the truth. It is a plain be able to win branch affiliations, or even the building of the Socialist Alliances? such as this - the fact that thousands are coming together, listen- fact that many of those who attended donations where union rules are restric- Why did they refuse to vote for the ing to speakers, reading revolutionary journals and being encour- the ‘carnival’ were drunk, some of them tive, and send delegates through, not SLP on the grounds of their positions on aged to delve into some of the basic texts of the Marxist tradition determined from the outset to start a ruck outside, union structures. The campaign the war? Yet they also refused to vote can only be a good thing. Moreover, it is far better that these and go on a vandalism spree. Why be also gives places on its committee to of- for the CPGB, who were closer to them comrades are organised rather than unorganised. For many, it will afraid to openly say it? ficial and unofficial strike committees. on the war than other people - like a cer- be their first experience of left politics. It will inspire hundreds and All riots, virtually by definition, are I think this is a serious approach to the tain former Labour MEP who supported lead them forward to an active engagement with socialism. spontaneous outbursts - not conscious real situation in the British workers’ move- Nato. Of course, our qualification is that much of what is being taught acts. All rioters, by definition, are moti- ment. is not ‘Marxism’ at all, but the economistic world view of the SWP. vated to a greater or lesser extent by the LCMRCI The two - as we have extensively argued in these pages - are not desire for personal revenge. Sometimes AWL necessarily the same thing. by the desire to ‘liberate’ from the near- In an unsigned article entitled ‘Tasks for the left’ (Socialist est shop a few expensive stereos or wide- Worker June 26) it is maintained that one of the central challenges screen televisions. How can this turn the In his latest plunging the depths of facing the left is the fight to achieve “clarity of ideas”. To do this, working class into a ruling class? It is interesting and disturbing to note Kautskyite apologetics (‘Trotsky versus “we need serious discussion. To be effective, the left must debate But I forget. Phil Rudge objects to what that Jack Conrad supports the right of left Trotskyists’ Weekly Worker July 1), and at times argue over the situation we face and the way for- he calls the ‘we Marxists know best’ line protestant (British-Irish) self-determina- Dave Craig does little more than conjure ward”. And “that” - apparently - “is why ‘Marxism’ … is more of the CPGB. However, if he can name tion (Weekly Worker July 1). To my knowl- up vivid images of arses and elbows. important than ever. It will bring together important strands of the others who know better than “we Marx- edge this is a new position for the CPGB Apparently, in the fantasy world of left in order to discuss these very questions” (my emphasis). ists”, then logically the CPGB - and all and highlights the danger of posing the comrade Craig, Lenin wrote What is to Of course, the SWP’s method excludes the fight for “clarity of the other left organisations - should im- right of self-determination in an abstract, be done? as a critique of centrists in the ideas”; it does not facilitate it. mediately liquidate themselves in order formal manner. RSDLP who were content with existing First, because when the SWP refers to “important strands” on to follow and ‘learn’. If the protestants have the right of self- bourgeois democracy in tsarist Russia. the left, it is clear from the itinerary of ‘Marxism’ that what it means determination, does that not necessarily It escaped not one of Lenin’s contempo- are social democratic trends to the right of it. There are no sched- Middlesex imply that they have the democratic right raries (no matter how dim-witted) that uled debates with other revolutionary groups in the workers’ move- to decide to remain a part of the UK? If Russia circa 1902 had nothing approxi- ment. Indeed, we know from previous years that SWP cadre often so, the armed struggle of the IRA to win mating bourgeois democracy. act with outright hostility - up to and including physical assault - a united Ireland and end the unionist veto I have to ask Dave (for the umpteenth against other revolutionaries who have the temerity to distribute Anne Murphy seems to find it particu- can be viewed as anti-democratic, since time), what is this ‘democracy in general’, literature or try to intervene at their event. Revolutionary ideas - larly irksome that the Alliance for Work- it is obvious that the British-Irish do not as distinct from ‘bourgeois democracy even mangled SWP versions of them - are infinitely more coherent ers’ Liberty is able to cooperate on the want to separate from the UK. Indeed in particular’? We know that for Lenin and logical than those of left reformism. No matter how erudite, at basic issue of trade union rights with you could go further and support the (at least from his April thesis onwards) the end of the day they present little theoretical challenge to the Arthur Scargill and co (Weekly Worker struggle of the loyalist paramilitaries in ‘democracy in general’ is the mendacious towering abstractions of the SWP, in other words. June 17). their fight against forced incorporation phrase of the liberal out to fool the work- Second, while there will be some debate at ‘Marxism’, there I will return to this point, but first I must into a united Ireland (while of course criti- ers. Whereas Lenin, after February 1917, remains no provision for SWP dissidents to air their views, nei- point out that she has missed a division cising their sectarian tendencies). It may never forgot to counterpose bourgeois ther internally nor externally. The nature of this bureaucratic in the SLP (not something one would ex- be necessary to raise the slogan of ‘Arm democracy to proletarian democracy, centralist regime is fundamentally at odds with creating a party of pect from the Weekly Worker). Anne at- the UDA’ and denounce British imperi- Dave, yet again, calls for a blurring of independently minded, self-activating militants. Instead, it has tacks Hendy and Crow and lumps their alism for refusing to recognise protes- the two. This is sheer Kautskyism. the tendency to create what Trotsky called - when writing on the approach in with Scargill’s. Hendy and tant self-determination. subject of party education in 1909 - “self-satisfied semi-literates. Crow are too focused on the TUC: they We would have to warn the British- Paisley A repulsive figure - whether worker or intellectual” (cited in H wrongly argue that only by winning the Irish not to trust the UK state to protect Ticktin and M Cox (eds) The ideas of Leon Trotsky London 1995, TUC over can the anti-union laws be re- their right to govern themselves. Look p372). pealed. Scargill’s approach is the total what they did to Stormont. The lack of a Parroting the ‘line’ - the modus not simply of ‘Marxism’, but also opposite. At last year’s United Campaign written constitution guaranteeing the I would like to make some additional com- the educational activities of most of the left - is foreign to Marxism for the Repeal of the Anti-Trade Union British-Irish self-determination would be ments to comrade Dave Craig’s gener- as a genuinely critical, controversial science. In this context, it is Laws AGM Scargill argued that we seen as a form of oppression that com- ally admirable defence of revolutionary instructive to recall Kamenev’s telling observation against Sta- should never let the TUC near the cam- munists must denounce. democracy (‘Trotsky versus the left lin’s doctrinairism when discussing Lenin’s writings: paign. Trotskyists’ Weekly Worker July 1). “Lenin did not write and could not have written a textbook of Of course none of the SLP leadership Glasgow The comrade is quite right to mock the Leninism. I am even afraid that every attempt to expound the teach- share the AWL’s drive to build a militant views of Barry Biddulph on this subject. ing of Lenin in paragraphs, divisions and sub-divisions, to create rank and file movement across the un- The latter’s continued insistence that the any kind of a ‘handbook’ of Leninism, a collection of formulae ions. It is no secret that our comrades in views of the CPGB/RDG are “Kautsky- applicable to all questions at any time - will certainly fail. Nothing the RMT fight for such a policy and regu- ite”, and that the call for a federal repub- would be more foreign to Lenin in his work than any tendency to larly criticise Crow’s feeble leadership. lic makes “a cult of formal structures”, is catechism … [his work is] permeated through and through with Does this rule out working with the SLP Mark Fischer’s critique on how Workers an extreme example of the very burnt ket- anxieties and lessons of a particular historical situation …That is in a united campaign to repeal the anti- Power radically and inexplicably changed tle calling the scrubbed clean pot black. why we approach the real science of Lenin through a considera- union laws and support workers in strug- its electoral line is entirely valid (Weekly As Barry loves to point out, Kautsky tion of his complete works in the light of contemporary events” gle? No, it should not. Only 10 years ago Worker July 1). As a former WP activist I contrasted “democracy” to “dictator- (cited in P Le Blanc Lenin and the vanguard party New Jersey Stalinists in the British unions, includ- would like to put further questions: ship”. Yet surely Barry does exactly the 1990, p344). ing the forerunners of the CPGB, the For around 25 years WP and its inter- same - only in reverse. He counterposes, Take a look at Lenin’s Collected Works. In them, we see Lenin- Leninists, would not have worked with national tendency (the LRCI) have al- in the most artificially stageist way, the ism in its natural habitat - that of fiercely rigorous, exacting and Trotskyists. We have always proposed ways voted Labour. June 10 is the first “workers’ republic” to the federal repub- open polemical struggle against not simply other trends within such unity in action, even if it is new to time they have called for a vote against lic, and democracy in toto to socialism the workers’ movement generally, but also within his own shade, those from the Stalinist tradition. Labour. What is the difference with the in toto. It seems to me that Barry is an faction or party. It was this open clash of ideas, the attempt to Anne also attacks the AWL for our po- past? Does it mean that they have now inverted or ultra-leftist Kautskyite. publicly engage with others within the workers’ movement at the sition on the structure of the campaign. also ceased to vote for Swedish, French, We can see the essential absurdity, and highest possible level, that lends Lenin’s writings their enormous Anne supports the few delegates who German and Austrian social democrats? ultra-formalism, of his methodology in value. We see in Lenin a genuine search for the “clarity of ideas” wanted political parties and broad lefts Why did the LRCI, which is based his most recent letter to the Weekly that the SWP apparatus professes to believe in. to gain voting rights. I presume the within the EU, not adopt a single joint Worker (June 24). He writes: “If The Ob- This is why the CPGB strives to introduce controversy and the CPGB’s support for this idea is not un- resolution or organise a single joint cam- server calls for the federal republic, that’s clash of opinions into seminars and meetings. Our forthcoming connected with the fact they were un- paign with regard to the only international bourgeois, but if the CPGB calls for it, it Communist University will feature speakers from an extraordinar- able to get a single delegate to the AGM elections in which most of their sections becomes proletarian.” Yes, Barry, exactly. ily wide variety of political backgrounds on the left (see p3 of this from a trade union branch, trades coun- have ever participated? The Huttonites want a controlled re- issue). This is not an expression of our organisation pleading for a cil or strike committee. Are they going to repeat the same anti- moval from above of the constitutional theoretical truce - far from it. Simply, it creates the best possible Of course support from anyone should Labour line in future elections, and if not, monarchy, which (they hope) will usher conditions - of light and air - for the correct ideas to thrive, defeat be welcome, but if the campaign is to be why not? WP called on workers to spoil in a bourgeois, presidential-type system. mistaken views and become strong. The SWP’s approach nur- a real force, it needs to be based on basic their ballot papers in nine of the 12 UK The CPGB wants the revolutionary demo- tures opportunism. class struggle organisations. Any seri- constituencies. Why did they call for a cratic removal from below of the consti- Of course, we have our own problems with theoretical passivity ous socialist organisation should aim to vote for Alternative Labour in East Mid- tutional-monarchical system and its in the ranks of our organisation, something we have publicly re- win support in the unions, should fight lands and against this same force in York- replacement by organs of workers’ power. ferred to in this paper. At least - however - we recognised it as a to win affiliation to the campaign and get shire and Humberside? Perhaps I am being a bit dim, but that weakness. delegated, but should one individual so- In Coventry, when Dave Nellist sounds like all the difference in the world Sadly, in the SWP it appears to be a basic requirement of retain- cialist get the same vote as a delegate achieved more than 40% in a local elec- to me. ing membership l from a workplace union representing tion (1994) and five percent in the gen- Mark Fischer thousands of workers? eral election (1997), WP campaigned South London national organiser l l l l July 8 1999 Page

AWL election contest action

n London: Sunday July 11, 5pm - ‘The left-socialist revival of the 1930s’, using Hal Draper’s The dictatorship of the proletariat from Marx to Lenin as a study s Tony Blair continues to pull elections, its more active cooperation “a working class alternative to New ity, water and railways were national- guide. New Labour to the right, to the with local alliances and its standing Labour policies”, while at the same ised; when higher income tax paid for Sunday July 18, 5pm - ‘Trade Astage when the party’s pre- in local elections should be viewed time looking back to a mythical La- better “public services”. In other unions and class’, using Hal tence to be some kind of vehicle for as a positive step. Leading AWL ac- bour Party. The address states: “Lewi- words, a return to the social demo- Draper’s Karl Marx’s theory of working class advance is almost a dis- tivist Jill Mountford is fighting a sham already has one socialist cratic consensus, a return to old La- revolution Vol 2 as a study tant memory, slowly but surely the south London council by-election on councillor. Returning another social- bour governments like those of guide. left is being forced to abandon its pre- July 15. She is standing in ist committed to truly representing Wilson and Callaghan. In fact just 20 Call 0181-459 7146 details. vious automatic support for Labour. Churchdown ward, Lewisham, as ‘So- the interests of local people, expos- years ago you would have been hard A case in point is the Alliance for cialist, defending jobs and public ing Labour’s cuts and privatisation pressed to find a Labour politician - Manchester: Monday July 19, Workers’ Liberty. Along with most services’. The intention had been to policies and campaigning for the La- left or right - who would have opposed 7.30pm - ‘The falling rate of profit left groups, it advocated a Labour stand as ‘Socialist Alliance’, but bour council to deliver what they were any of those demands or their equiva- and the tendency to crisis’ - part vote on May 1 1997, in full knowl- strangely Lewisham SA had been voted in for would be a big step for- lents. 2, in the series on theories of edge that Blair’s government had not unable to obtain the necessary ac- wards in making politics work for us Is this your vision of ‘socialism’, crisis. the slightest intention of implement- creditation in time from Dave Nellist, and not against us.” comrades of the AWL? Why do you E-mail: [email protected]. ing any measures at all in favour of the registered ‘leader’ of the national The AWL is, or pretends to be, una- even fail to mention the word in your working people. But, according to Socialist Alliance, or his London rep- ware that the Labour council was election material? There is not a hint n Workers’ Liberty, “Breaking the icy resentative, Julie Donovan of the “voted in” a year ago on an openly of the need for workers’ own self-ac- The CPGB has forms available for Tory grip is the only way to begin to Socialist Party in England and Wales. Blairite programme of continuing its tivity, of a new society, of the real po- you to include the Party and the open British politics up again ... It is Written confirmation is necessary in “cuts and privatisation policies”. litical questions under capitalism struggle for communism in your the only way for the labour movement order to comply with the Registration After initial consultations with that our class must adopt as its own will. Write for details. to begin to move forward again” (my of Political Parties Act. Lewisham SA comrade Mountford’s if it is to free itself. Not a word about emphasis, April 1997). The AWL per- Nobody should expect comrade address was drawn up by the AWL self-determination for Ireland, Scot- n suaded itself that Blair was “likely to Mountford to run the Labour and Lib- alone. It does not result from a series land and Wales; abolition of the mon- be more vulnerable to working class eral Democrat candidates close on of lowest-common-denominator com- archy and the second chamber; To get involved, contact Box 22, pressure than the Tories ever could July 15. However, circumstances are promises, but from the AWL com- Nato’s Balkans adventure and 136-138 Kingsland High Street, be”. reasonably favourable for the inter- rades’ own considerations. Here is Kosovar independence; rights for London E8 2NS, or ring Anne It hardly seems worth the bother vention of a socialist candidate. the total list of demands it carries: women and gays. The address is also Murphy on 0973-231 620. of asking the obvious questions just Firstly, the by-election comes just a l A massive injection of cash for the strangely silent on the environment - over two years later. Is the labour few weeks after the well publicised National Health Service and educa- at least the greens have some sort of n movement moving forward? Has Blair victory of SPEW’s Ian Page in another tion. global alternative to neo-liberalism. been “more vulnerable”? What Lewisham ward. Comrade Page him- l An end to privatising education, For an economistic AWL workers “working class pressure”? If voting self has been helping the AWL cam- healthcare and care for the elderly. need not concern themselves with Support group meets every Labour really had been the “only paign. Secondly, comrade Mountford l The creation of real jobs with de- such matters. They are to remain a Monday, 7pm, at the Station pub, way”, then clearly our cause would was able to mobilise members and cent pay. slave class, hoping for better condi- Warrington Street, Ashton under be hopeless. But, as we predicted, the supporters who were in London at- l A minimum wage of at least £5 an tions and a (slightly) bigger slice of Lyne. “crisis of expectations”, so eagerly tending the June 19-20 AWL school hour. the cake. They must begin with Donations and solidarity to awaited by so many, failed to materi- for mass leafleting and canvassing. l Full trade union rights. vague, sub-reformist platitudes be- Tameside Strike Support (Hard- alise. And thirdly, it is less than two years l An end to racism and discrimina- fore tackling high politics. ship) Fund, 15 Springvale Close, The left got it wrong - even if most since another candidate bearing the tion. The AWL is distancing itself from Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancs. of them do not care to admit it openly. name ‘socialist’ contested a l The public ownership of gas, elec- the Labour Party’s structures. But it However, actions speak louder than Churchdown by-election. Terry Dunn tricity, water and the railways. is as though it dare not discard La- n words, and the welcome decision by won 104 votes (5.5%) for the Social- l Tax the rich to pay for public serv- bourism. Communists must do all they the AWL to begin at long last to con- ist Labour Party in July 1997. ices. can to encourage that break, to pose Conference - Saturday July 10, test elections, to stand against La- Although the AWL has been work- The address concludes: “All this the need for a Leninist alternative. 11am - 4pm, Mechanics Institute, bour, represents a glimmer of ing with Lewisham SA alongside and more besides could be paid for That is why we call for critical sup- Princess Street, Manchester. recognition that the working class SPEW, it seems that some elements by taxing the rich and big business. port for Jill Mountford in Called by the six Tameside l needs to press forward its own inde- have been less than happy with the Taking back the tens of billions of Churchdown sacked careworkers who stood in pendent political alternative. AWL’s complete absence from com- pounds given away to the rich by the Peter Manson the local election as ‘Defend For this reason the AWL’s partici- rade Page’s successful campaign to Tories in tax cuts kept in place by New Public Services’. Unwaged/ pation in the aborted Socialist Alli- win back his council seat in Pepys Labour.” unemployed - £1; waged - £3; ance electoral bloc for the EU ward, which he first held as a Labour It would be difficult to come up with delegates - £5. Party member. Replying to a “Lewi- a more dismal set of demands for work- For details and to book creche sham council worker” who had criti- ers to aspire to. The AWL is explic- places (by July 3 please) contact: Where to get your cised this non-appearance in the itly calling for a return to the situation Margaret Manning (0161-861 previous issue of the Welfare State before Thatcher, when gas, electric- 8390), Martin Ralph (0161-707 Weekly Worker Network’s Action for Solidarity, the 1584), Liz Taylor (tel/fax 0161-339 AWL’s semi-official fortnightly, com- 2467). Disability access. n rade David Pendleton of Lewisham AWL writes: “It is no secret that the n Alliance for Workers’ Liberty has had an ongoing discussion about the La- bour Party and working class repre- The Border Challenge Fund sentation ... In the light of the stands for the right of free changing situation in the Labour movement in Europe for all Party, our position was altered at our ’99 people, irrespective of citizenship national conference earlier this year. or immigration status. “We were unable to help in the Fundraising evening of interna- Pepys by-election because, firstly, our tional dance and music - Friday n comrades were tied up in building the July 16, Conway Hall, Red Lion Square (nearest tube - Holborn). n Left Unity event that a number of no- table Socialist Party members had Tickets £10 (£6 concessions). agreed to speak at, although none of Enquiries: 0171-251 8708, ext 217. n them turned up, and because some Organised by the Joint Council of our comrades are trying to keep for the Welfare of Immigrants. Labour Party membership cards and n were well known to Labour Party members in Pepys” (Action for Soli- n darity July 2). n The concern about retaining La- bour membership seems to have di- minished somewhat within a couple n of weeks. AWL members of Blair’s party in Lewisham have been noted, including by Labour canvassers, n backing comrade Mountford’s inter- vention. The AWL may have “altered” its n position, but there is no doubt that it propagates an outlook entirely within n the narrow frame of practical reform- ism. It stands before the electorate as a Labourite Janus - campaigning for Page July 8 1999

Robertson’s loyal opposition, part one

evolutionary politics, unlike the last few years, and why the “au- bourgeois politics, should not thentically revolutionary” majority of R be, but often in practice is, a their organisation was unable to get dirty business. a journal out. It was all because of One look at the motley elements people who had not the “fortitude or who demonstrated against Nato’s war vision” to “uphold” views that they over Kosova should be enough to il- pel illusions in the socialist character internal discussion on this question “intellectually accept” in “difficult” lustrate this. Along with many politi- of such misleaders. in the first place. Their reply has an- circumstances. In other words, the cally correct left social democratic This was the approach of the other, very different purpose - it is IBT are saying that those who like ‘anti-racist’ types, and revolutionary “The Trotskyist movement in the 1930s, not to win an argument over revolu- myself left the organisation in disgust leftwing groups that claim to be the during a seminal period when popu- tionary tactics and strategy within the at being condemned for attempting purest opponents of racism, there lar frontism was a key tactic of the framework of the broad workers’ to promote political discussion, by a marched supporters of ethnic cleans- attribution of bourgeoisie to protect itself from a movement. Rather, it is to maintain leadership who did not want such ing, of racist massacres of the Alba- revolutionary-minded working class. their ‘respectability’ in Spartacist cir- political discussion to take place, are nian people - Chetniks complete with In the current period, of course, where cles, to underline that they too are moral cowards, who do not have the their insignia - more or less happily, sinister social democratic and other reformist prepared to engage in apolitical vilifi- courage to uphold what they really side by side. The leftists concerned parties have themselves generally cation of a political critic in order to “intellectually” believe to be true. cannot have been unaware of the para- embraced the market and retreated defend the ‘conquests’ of their es- What an incredible example of dox of their coexistence with vicious from the claim to stand for the inter- tranged mentor, James Robertson. doublethink and intellectual dishon- racists in this ‘anti-war’ movement - motives to ests of the working class, this posi- They are just a bit subtler about it esty! The truth is that the IBT have rather in pursuit of ‘anti-imperialist’ tion may seem a little distant. But a than Robertson’s hacks. not succeeded in “intellectually” realpolitik, this de facto ‘red-brown’ sectarian position in a period of a The essence of the IBT’s alibi for demonstrating - to me, to others, or political alliance was tolerated unpro- dissenters stronger working class movement their refusal to allow a proper debate even evidently to themselves - that tested by much of the ‘far left’, from can only be an indicator of a more on the criticisms I put forward of the my critique of the Spartacist tradi- the SWP to the Spartacist League, general malaise in the politics of an Spartacist ‘tradition’ is their statement tion’s sectarian revisionism on the who were more concerned to draw the organisation, and it is this malaise that “Time spent re-inventing the popular front is wrong. If they had, line against ‘pro-imperialist’ Albani- takes the that my documents in the IBT were wheel is time wasted”. they would by now have produced a ans and their sympathisers. aimed at correcting. If anyone should be puzzled by properly researched and documented However, the recent war with Ser- The IBT’s ‘reply’ to me is con- what the IBT mean by this statement, reply that could at least have some bia is not the subject here: rather it place of tained in an article entitled ‘Weather- which implies that a democratic inter- chance of convincing unaffiliated only serves to illustrate the kind of ing the storm’, about their 1998 nal life where differences can be prop- militants and historical scholars (or dirty dealing and compromises with international conference. It is quite erly debated is a waste of time even myself!) that I am wrong. After socialist and democratic principle that political remarkable to see an article in a jour- (presumably while they get down to all, this is no minor or peripheral ques- go on in what passes for ‘the left’ nal that appeared in June 1999, re- the much more important business of tion, but “the main question of prole- today. porting on an event that took place not publishing a journal for 18 tarian class strategy for this epoch” One grouping that often claims to in January 1998: ie, one and a half months!), then they might find en- (Trotsky). The fact that they are not be cleaner than most is the Interna- discussion, years earlier. It appears that this lightenment in the following passage: interested in doing that only proves tional Bolshevik Tendency. The au- ‘storm’ that the IBT has been meta- “The crucial task for Marxists in this that the IBT is an organisation that is thor of this article was, until a year phorically ‘weathering’ must have period is to carry forward the pro- going nowhere, and certainly is in no ago, an active member, but resigned which rapidly lasted rather longer than most. Per- grammatic acquisitions of the past, sense the historical continuity of in the spring of 1998 after an attempt haps they are not referring to the un- which alone provide the basis for rec- Bolshevism. to promote discussion of political dif- favourable political situation in the reating a revolutionary, internation- Behind the IBT’s ‘explanation’ of ferences met a response typical of the becomes an aftermath of capitalist restoration in alist leadership for the working class. their internal political crisis stands sectarian left today - an organised the former Soviet Union (this ‘storm’ But what steps toward rebuilding James Robertson’s profoundly anti- boycott of political debate with the has been around for years), but rather such a leadership are open to a small Marxist and idealist maxim that “pro- apostate member. The IBT’s claim to their own crisis as an organisation, group of revolutionaries today? In our gramme generates theory”. This be fundamentally better and more all-out heresy whose sloth gives new meaning to ‘Tasks and perspectives’ resolution aphorism, which in many ways is democratic internally than their po- Bukharin’s injunction to “build so- we noted that since our inception our Robertson’s equivalent of Gerry litical parents in the Spartacist cialism at a snail’s pace”. primary objective has been ‘to ensure Healy’s cracked ‘dialectics’, serves League, not to mention the routine hunt” But what is also remarkable about the survival of an anti-revisionist as one of the chief theoretical bases bureaucratic witch-hunting of dissi- the IBT’s reply to my criticisms of ideological pole within the interna- for Robertson’s warped dictatorship dents that goes on in organisations their political tradition, is that out of tional Trotskyist “far left”’. The strug- in the International Communist such as the SWP, were revealed to be tion of the positions of the classical four documents that I penned on the gle to preserve the thread of League (ie, the Spartacists). It means hollow. communist movement (of which the popular front question, and one on revolutionary continuity carried for- that, in a Robertsonite or neo- My political differences, which re- Trotskyist movement is part) regard- the question of the Socialist Alli- ward by Trotsky’s Fourth Interna- Robertsonite organisation, there can lated to criticisms of key elements of ing reformist working class organisa- ances in Britain, the IBT do not quote tional after the Stalinisation of the be little or no discussion on funda- the IBT’s claim to be a ‘unique’ Marx- tions that enter into electoral or one single word of what I wrote. This Comintern remains a vital precondi- mental issues that takes as its main ist formation, were argued compre- governmental agreements with non- fact alone shows the real nature of tion for the selection and training of point of reference the nature of the hensively inside the IBT in four working class political groups. Com- their polemic and the fear of debate. the revolutionary cadres of tomorrow. external world and the role of material substantial documents. The response munists have generally condemned The IBT’s political parents in the “Maintaining this perspective is things, people and masses within it. of the IBT leadership was to issue a those agreements as class collabora- Spartacists have a well known record not always easy. Our small organisa- There can be little room for dissen- memorandum demanding that debate tionist, and sought to find means to of issuing the most disgusting lies tion has not been immune to the pres- sion about reality in such a group- on these questions be postponed for break them, and force the reformists and foul slanders against opponents. sures created by the setbacks ing, because reality is what the leader a period of around 18 months, and into united action with revolutionar- But even in their case, it is extremely suffered by the international working (or at one remove the leader’s ‘tradi- effectively instructing members loyal ies to defend the interests of the work- rare for them to publish a polemic, class in recent years. When the class tion’) says it is. to the ‘traditions’ of the organisation ing class. As long as mass parties even against the hated IBT, that does is in retreat, few workers are actively If someone disputes this, the ques- that I was disrupting the work of the such as the British Labour Party or not contain one single word of what seeking a revolutionary alternative. tion that immediately arises is not: ‘Is organisation and therefore should the French Communist Party retain their opponents have written. Even Not all comrades have the fortitude what this person is saying true or not be debated with. the allegiance of substantial numbers the likes of Royston Bull - the SLP’s or vision to uphold positions that false in objective reality?’; but rather: The IBT leadership told me that: of workers who believe that these former vice-president and publisher they may intellectually accept to be ‘Why is this person saying these “the comrades who accept the gen- parties stand for them as a class, revo- of the Economic and Philosophic historically necessary, if at the mo- things - what deviant programme is eral framework of how we approach lutionaries have to carefully distin- Science Review - have the courage ment these views are not met with an he/she fighting for in disputing our politics want to get on with it” (IBT guish between these parties and their to quote at least fragments of what enthusiastic response. interpretation of reality?’ Thus the International Secretariat memoran- bourgeois coalition partners, and an opponent has written. “The impulse to attempt to escape attribution of sinister motives to dis- dum, April 3 1998). seek ways to use electoral tactics to This is especially odd since my cri- political isolation and gain influence senters takes the place of political Given the stated intention of the drive a wedge between them. tique of Spartacist/IBT sectarianism within broader social layers is power- discussion, which rapidly becomes an IBT leadership to “get on with it”, I Such tactics can include the Lenin- has been widely circulated, has been ful but, in a period when opportuni- all-out heresy hunt. This obviously was eagerly awaiting the next issue ist tactic of ‘critical support’ for the favourably received by a number of ties are few, such appetites frequently must sooner or later become the case of 1917, the IBT journal. But I was in reformist workers’ party, in order to serious elements on the left, and even lead to jettisoning elements of the in an organisation that upholds such for a long wait. The previous issue address the working class base of elements of the IBT’s own periphery revolutionary programme. But an au- a discourse as its dominant method, (No20) had arrived back from the such parties, while for instance stand- have acknowledged its historical cor- thentically revolutionary leadership no matter how personally benign the printers on new year’s day, 1998. It ing revolutionary candidates against rectness and orthodox politics. Hence for the working class can only be actual protagonists may believe them- was therefore somewhat surprising to the bourgeois parties. This is in or- their polemic is very strange, and is reforged with cadres who are willing selves to be. have to wait until June 1999 - ie, der to sabotage the coalition and obviously not concerned with win- to tell the truth to the masses, no mat- In philosophical terms, Robertson’s around 18 months - for the next issue force the reformist leaders of the work- ning a political argument. In reality, ter how unpopular it may be, and who maxim is anti-Marxist. The question of this august publication. ing class to take power alone and the IBT leadership know full well that are capable of sustaining themselves arises - if programme generates theory, In the new 1917 there is (sort of) administer capitalism in full view of in a fully-fledged debate on this ques- by taking a long view of history.” what generates programme? Largely, an attempt at a reply to my criticisms their socialist-minded working class tion, they would lose - after all, that is So here we have their ‘explanation’ programme (defined as the political of the Spartacists’ sectarian distor- supporters, thereby helping to dis- why they sought to prevent a proper of why the IBT went into crisis over aims of a current or individual) is gen- July 8 1999 Page

tance from it. But not the IS leader- quickly trying to dash these illusions ship. Apparently without seeing the to prove their responsibility to the obvious contradiction, the leadership capitalist ruling class ...” (ibid). document goes on to quote Lenin’s It is instructive that this Workers famous comment on critical support: Vanguard article on these elections “‘I want to support [the Labour does not even mention the text of any Party] in the same way as the rope Spartacist intervention in the cam- supports a hanged man - that the im- paign, which took place in the context pending establishment of the govern- of a considerable burst of militancy in ment of the [Labour Party] will prove the labour movement. Indeed, it does that I am right, will bring the masses not even mention whether the over to my side, and will hasten the Spartacists were in favour of a critical political death of the [Labour Party] ...’ vote for the NDP in these elections or “The NDP in power had hung itself not! The reason is quite simple - the - the best elements in its base were Spartacists had a routine ‘No vote to erated by two things: firstly, an un- look in vain at any of the material the dent Robertsonites who were purged melting away. Yet still the IS sup- the NDP’ position, based on the derstanding of one’s own interests IBT has produced for any concrete despite their loyalty to the Robertson ported the social democrats. This is NDP’s habitual coalitionism, and were and that of one’s fellows (which is it- assessment of the historical issues regime. exactly the opposite of what Lenin caught on the hop when the working self in large measure a question of posed here. Leading cadres of national advocated. Instead of seeking to rally class forced the NDP to take power in one’s understanding of the world - Instead, the IBT’s reply takes a dif- Spartacist sections, such as Tom Riley some of the thousands of workers Ontario, with an arithmetical majority hence one could equally say that ferent tack, and simply becomes a and Cathy Nason, authored phoney who were deserting the NDP in dis- in the legislature, without any coali- theory generates programme); sec- thinly disguised personal attack on confessions of terrible deviations to gust at its betrayals, and direct them tion partners. ondly, a more general understanding myself. The IBT state that the real prove their ‘loyalty’ to the regime to the left into supporting independ- The Workers Vanguard article was of the way the world operates. motive for my critique (“programme even as they were being purged. Look- ent labour candidates against just passive, after-the-fact commen- Of course there is a limited truth to generates theory” in the classical ing back at their purge, they later NDPers who backed the hated social tary on an election they had not even Robertson’s statement, in that one’s Robertsonian sense) is that: “Com- wrote: “The success of the SL/US contract, Socialist Worker used its bothered to publish any propaganda class position can (though not nec- rade Donovan had been a member of leadership in conducting the purge credentials to try to corral leftwing about, because of their ‘routine’ view essarily does) determine to a large the Spartacist League/Britain in the in Canada was aided by the extreme voters for Rae.” of the NDP, derived from the fact that extent how one sees one’s interests mid-1980s, after the group had under- organisational loyalty and conse- This begs the question: if the NDP its leaders generally aspire no higher and that of one’s fellows, but even gone a qualitative degeneration, and quent disorientation of their victims. “hung itself”, would the IBT be there than being junior partners in a coali- that does not determine directly he had been a victim of gross abuse Knowing the charges to be false, yet to hand them the rope? Not very tion. This is quite remarkable passiv- ‘theory’: ie, how one understands the at the hands of the SL/B leadership. continuing to support the leadership likely, since the NDP is a rather small ity from an organisation that in 1990 operation of the external world. It is During his time in the IBT, he periodi- and, most importantly, the programme social democratic formation that, had had an organised presence in perfectly possible to have an under- cally displayed a certain subjectivity of the tendency, the targets of the though it might sometimes be strong Canada for nearly two decades. And standing of one’s interests, and yet towards the SL/B.” And the article attack responded passively in a fu- enough to aspire to run a province, likewise (but even worse), the IBT at the same time be convinced that goes on in the same patronising and tile attempt to remain in the organisa- on a Canadian level is almost invari- have never even bothered to write the way the world works is contrary personalist vein. tion” (‘External Tendency founding ably willing to engage in ‘implicit or anything substantial on this crucial to those interests - which is of course Actually, I suffered a very severe declaration’, 1982). explicit’ agreements with other, larger event in the political life of the prole- the basis for various forms of histori- illness, that could easily have resulted Similarly with the earlier show trial and of course bourgeois, parties. This tariat where one of their most impor- cal pessimism. in my death, when I was a member of and purge of Bill Logan and Adaire was particularly true in the 1980s, tant local groups is located (led by The proletariat, in reality, needs not the Spartacist League/Britain, that was Hannah in 1979. Though they did not when the NDP was one of the most cadre with a similar level of experience idealist aphorisms about how alleg- directly attributable to crimes commit- sign confessions (the accusations rightwing ‘labour’ parties, barely to that of the Canadian Spartacists), edly ‘deviant’ “appetites” of individu- ted against me and others by the lead- against them were far too serious and identifiable as being social democratic largely again because of their routinist als determine their understanding of ership of that organisation. But that terminal for there to be any room for (and not just because of its name), in view of Canadian social democracy, the world, but proper materialist analy- did not stop me from joining the IBT that!), 1917 commented on their the international working class move- derived from Robertson’s position that sis of actual social and political con- in 1995, because at that point I was purge that: “During the trial and the ment. Indeed, the 1990 Ontario elec- it is a betrayal to even consider vot- ditions, in which nothing is above ‘intellectually convinced’ of the cor- process leading up to it, the accused tions are a case in point of a working ing for a party that has not repudiated examination and criticism. Rather than rectness of much of the historic couple’s undiminished loyalty to the class upsurge forcing a wretched re- coalitionism in advance. Robertson’s bizarre cultist maxim that Spartacist tradition, despite the vile Spartacist tendency prevented them formist party, whose normal practice All proportions guarded, given the “programme generates theory”, we nature of the ‘actually existing’ from grasping the enormity of the is to seek to govern in ‘partnership’ more limited nature of the working need to uphold the spirit of Lenin’s Spartacist tendency by that time. The fraud perpetrated against them, and with ruling class parties, to take power class upsurge, the electoral policy that famous statement that “without a change in my ‘intellectual’ convic- hence from defending themselves as ‘alone’ (albeit within one large Cana- revolutionaries should have carried revolutionary theory there can be no tions did not, obviously, come from forcefully as they could ...” (1917 No9, dian province). out in this situation echoes that so revolutionary movement”. In this con- my involvement in the SL/B, otherwise first quarter 1991). As the Spartacists’ Workers Van- vividly described by Trotsky during text, the IBT’s statement that “Time I would never have joined the IBT at One could say perhaps that guard reported at the time, “In an the 1936 French elections, and carried spent reinventing the wheel is time all. The change in my understanding whereas Riley and Nason behaved upset victory that stunned even the out by the French Trotskyists: “The wasted” is both anti-Marxist and phil- rather came from two years of entry like Zinoviev at the Moscow trials, winners, the social democrats of socialists and the communists worked istine. work in the Socialist Labour Party, and confessing to everything in a vain Canada’s New Democratic Party were with all their might to pave the way In reality, the IBT’s reply to me sim- the gaining of more experience in real attempt to be spared the execution- swept to power in Ontario on Sep- for the ministry of Herriot - at worst ply repeats old Spartacist quotations politics, in political work within a real, er’s bullet, Logan at least behaved tember 6 [1990] ... the NDP catapulted the ministry of Daladier [ie, politicians on Chile and their position on the if shrinking and stunted, political or- more like Bukharin, and sought to from 19 to 74 seats in the provincial of openly bourgeois parties]. What Popular Unity (UP) coalition of 1970, ganisation of the working class. mock his accusers a little. But - and legislature, leaving the Liberals with did the masses do? They imposed which equated the parties of the work- Personalist attacks, which are in here’s the rub - their accusers did not 36 seats and the Tories with 20 ...” upon the socialists and communists ing class (the Socialist Party, Com- reality, though expressed in an un- have state power, or any power over (October 5 1990). the ministry of [French Socialist Party munist Party, etc) that participated in derhand manner, similar to the attacks them really. These experienced and The Spartacists further observed: leader Léon] Blum. Is this not a direct this coalition government with their on me as a “fucking nutter” by the senior cadre acquiesced in their own “The union bureaucrats and their fake- vote against the policy of the People’s coalition partners. The Spartacists Spartacists’ Eibhlin McDonald, are purges, essentially from conviction, left hangers-on have sought to chan- Front?” (L Trotsky ‘The decisive stated that any electoral support by the expression of the fact that the IBT not compulsion. And they continue nel labour militancy into votes for the stage’ Leon Trotsky on France New leftists to any party that participated has not been able to answer and re- to defend their ‘executioners’, to the NDP. Now the NDP is the government York 1979, pp157-8). in UP was “class treason” and that fute my critique politically, by an extent of denouncing me, for having of Ontario. Even with such a wimpy But of course, for the IBT, and in- the bourgeois workers’ parties that analysis or negative synthesis of the struggled from a far lower level of social democratic outfit, working peo- deed all those within the Robertsonite participated in UP had ceased to em- historical and theoretical material that seniority to produce a much more ple have expectations of the NDP gov- tradition, to even consider such a body a class contradiction, that their I wrote. deep-going and political critique, as ernment. Even before taking power [ie, policy is “class treason”. The absurd- working class component had been These issues will not go away and, being ‘subjective’. Well, if that kind formally taking office after winning the ity of such a position is obvious to “suppressed”. Therefore any appli- as soon as there is any renewed left- of grovelling, estranged cultism con- election - ID], the social democrats are any thinking would-be Marxist l cation of Leninist tactics, such as ward movement in society, will rear stitutes Marxist ‘objectivity’, then I’ll critical electoral support, or joining their heads again, as my material will take ‘subjectivism’ any day. But of such parties in order to fight inter- continue to be available and contra- course it does not. nally for revolutionary politics and dicts in detail the claims of the neo- The contradictions in the IBT on against class collaboration (com- Robertsonites to represent a the question of my critique of monly known as ‘entryism’), was a ‘uniquely correct’ Leninist tradition. Spartacism on the popular front will Fighting fund “betrayal” of revolutionary politics. The falsifications and the quotation not go away. Despite the fact that the In my documents, which are avail- chopping say otherwise, comrades! IBT leadership maintained that the able to the socialist public on the The accusation of my “subjectiv- questions I raised were not “current website (www.dono.dircon.co.uk/ ity” towards the Spartacists’ abusive issues” and therefore could not be RevTruth), I produced documentary and vile treatment of people is not discussed in their hallowed sect, this proof that Trotsky himself had explic- new. Originally, the Spartacists them- issue has produced a howling con- itly advocated ‘entryism’ into social selves accused me of similar ‘devia- tradiction in an article in the new 1917 democratic parties that were in power tions’, when I fought as a principled that certainly deals with “current is- as part of a popular front (in Spain), oppositionist in the British Spartacist sues”. The ‘Open letter’ from Stephen and that Trotsky had approved a League against its abusive internal J, bureaucratically expelled from the July’s fund starts well with a cou- order of £5. A little bit can go a policy by his French co-thinkers on regime. This coincidence of charac- Canadian International Socialists, ple of donations which were in- long way, and similar donations the question of electoral support that terisation says a lot, not about my- assails the Cliffites for misapplying tended to help us make our June from just 20 comrades would guar- was identical to the policy I was ad- self, but rather about the similarity Lenin’s injunction to support the re- target of £400. Thanks to comrades antee us £100 each and every vocating. This does not, of course, between the IBT and the Spartacists. formist socialists in elections “like a GP (£25) and SA (£20), but you month. prove that Trotsky was right on any Because one point that the rope supports a hanged man” when were just too late. Not to worry. We already have £108 towards of these questions, but it does put Spartacists have been able to use dealing with the social democratic Your gifts help get the July fund our July target. But don’t forget: the likes of the IBT in a bind. They do quite effectively against the IBT in New Democratic Party in Ontario up and running. we have a £50 deficit to make up not dare to attack Trotsky as an op- their generally grotesque and slan- province, Canada: It has also been boosted this from the last two months l portunist and a centrist, and accuse derous ‘polemics’ is that the found- “[former Ontario NDP premier] Bob week by three regulars in the form Robbie Rix him of advocating “class treason”, ing leaders of the IBT, with the partial Rae’s government was so hated by of quarterly standing orders. but on the other hand they cannot exception of comrade Harlan, never working class people for acting like Thanks too to comrade DB, who recommend his method of approach- fought as oppositionists when they Tories that Layton [a reformist ‘left’ has committed himself to a monthly ing these questions either. You would were members. Indeed, they were ar- bureaucrat] wanted to get some dis- Page July 8 1999

Nellist and Oddy

n the ideological struggle be- nutritional value” (p13). This may While genetic engineering tech- tween environmental conserva- have been what was happening in niques represent a qualitative Itives and the sellers of the transgenic potatoes which ap- break from earlier methods of con- genetically modified organisms, peared to poison the rats fed them trolling living things, the use of Anderson does not pretend to be by Arpad Pusztai (see Weekly GM crops in the economic and po- neutral. He writes, campaigns and Worker February 25). litical relationship between capital- speaks around the country on is- Anderson does not refer to this ists and ‘third world’ farmers is a sues related to genetic engineer- controversy, but cites an example continuation of the ‘green revolu- ing, and wants to persuade us to of fatalities produced by a GM tion’, in which food production share his passionate opposition to product. The cause of Eosinophilia was increased by replacing tradi- the practice: “This book aims to Myalgia Syndrome, which killed 37 tional crop varieties and farming highlight many of the issues relat- people in the US and left 1,500 with methods “with a few high-yield- e would like to correct some of dates were suggested - but Christine ing to the human, political, and en- permanent disabilities, was even- ing varieties dependent on expen- Wthe misinformation which is be- Oddy was not one of them. vironmental implications of genetic tually traced to a previously un- sive inputs of chemicals and ginning to circulate as to why Christine The CAWSA supporters meeting on engineering in food and agricul- known metabolic by-product fertilisers” (p54). Oddy stood as Independent Labour and May 10, three days before nominations ture” (p9). present at levels of less than 0.1% The introduction of GM crops was not part of our list. The details be- closed, discussed the final election cam- His hostility to biotechnology in the food supplement L-tryp- accelerates the existing tendency low are a summary of a ‘fact sheet’ pre- paign arrangements, and were informed does not rest on a Prince Charles- tophan, which was produced by of agricultural capitalism towards sented and accepted at the first that £9,000 had already been commit- like, woolly-minded call to adopt genetically modified bacteria monopolisation. A co-president of Coventry and Warwickshire Socialist ted to the printers for the agreed elec- “a gentler, more considered ap- manufactured by a biotech com- Monsanto is quoted as saying: Alliance meeting after the election. The tion leaflets containing the candidates’ proach, seeking always to work pany called Showa Denko. The GM “This is not just a consolidation ‘fact sheet’, and appendixes referred to, details. The list of eight candidates had with the grain of nature in making product was regarded by the regu- of seed companies: it’s really a can be provided on request. now been selected, confirmed at the better, more sustainable use of latory authorities as “substantially consolidation of the entire food The Socialist Alliance agreed to start WMSA meeting late in April. The what we have ...” (Daily Mail June equivalent” to L-tryptophan pro- chain.” As we have argued, the considering standing Euro election can- CAWSA meeting discussed Christine 1), although Anderson does end duced by non-GM bacteria and answer is to bring GM technology didates at a national conference in Oddy’s sudden and late announcement his main text with a quote from had not been specifically tested. under social control, so that the March 1998. This was firmed up at the three days earlier to stand as Independ- Sarah van Gelder expressing such Anderson reports (pp17-18) that advances of science and technol- launch conference in September, and at ent Labour. Dave Nellist explained how a metaphysical hope - “that the as soon as a link was suspected, ogy are used for the satisfaction the founding conference this March. he had spoken to Christine less than a thousands of experiments and mil- Showa Denko destroyed all stocks of human needs, rather than for Late in September, the media informed week ago at a Workers’ Memorial Day lions of choices to live more con- of the genetically engineered bac- profits. However, the only advice us that Christine Oddy had been virtu- event. She intimated that that she knew sciously will coalesce into a new teria, and claimed that the problem Anderson has is to go back to pre- ally deselected by being placed seventh Labour were about to dump her, swore civilisation that fosters community, was not the genetic modification, capitalist farming techniques. on New Labour’s list. As a result, Cov- Dave to secrecy about her intentions provides possibilities for meaning but short cuts in the purification Anderson knows he can do noth- entry and Warwickshire Socialist Alli- and showed no interest in the Socialist and sustains life on the planet” process, which they were willing ing to save peasant and small- ance (CAWSA) agreed to approach Alliance campaign. (p121). But most of the book is to admit to. The fact that such scale farming. He laments the fact Christine and suggest we begin discus- Despite the lack of nominating time packed with reports of scientific shocking breaches went on appar- that “by 1995, of the 100 most pow- sions about whether she would like to now available, and in the knowledge experiments and rational argu- ently undetected by the US Food erful ‘economies’ in the world, 48 be considered on our Socialist Alliance that Christine had made her decision to ments to persuade the reader that and Drugs Agency inspectors were multinational companies, and list in the West Midlands. Christine in- stand as an independent, a resolution GM food is both harmful and un- supports Anderson’s thesis that only 52 were countries” (p86). It is formed the CAWSA treasurer that she was tabled to approach Christine to see necessary. He supports his case the desire of governments to cre- by strengthening the opposition wanted to remain on the Labour list. if she wanted to be number one on the with an impressive 11 pages of ref- ate jobs and wealth by fostering to GM food by consumers that he CAWSA had already written to Ken Socialist Alliance list. The resolution erences from such respectable- the biotech industry with an “at- hopes to change the balance of Coates MEP about the Euro elections, was overwhelmingly defeated with just sounding journals as Science and tractive” regulatory climate (p97) forces. “Generations that have mentioning how they had “always en- two votes in favour. The other partici- Journal of Pharmacology and Ex- leads to unacceptable risks. grown up with DDT, asbestos, joyed cordial relations with Christine, pants in the WMSA had already made perimental Therapeutics. In chapter two Anderson dis- PCBs, nuclear energy and BSE are and events ‘may influence her to move it clear to us that they had been through Anderson begins by explaining cusses the possible effects of the understandably suspicious of of- further in our direction’” (Appendix A). an exhaustive election process that simply and clearly what genes are traits biotech companies deliber- ficial assertions of safety based on Ken Coates replied that he had warned would be difficult to change at the last and how the modification process ately introduce into their GMOs a lack of scientific evidence of Christine about the way she would be moment, and they were unanimous in is carried out. Much of the recent and use to sell them. These prob- harm” (p34). He wants to accentu- treated by New Labour, “but actually their desire for Dave Nellist to be press-driven panic about lems - genetic pollution, loss of ate such suspicions, and thereby she didn’t believe me. I have been try- number one. Despite this, Dave Nellist “Frankenstein food” was exacer- habitat diversity, transfer of herbi- encourage people to become in- ing to talk to her … if she were to join made several attempts to contact bated by ignorance - apparently cide resistance genes to weed spe- volved in campaigning. One nota- the list in the Midlands, I would be ab- Christine over the next two days, and many people did not even realise cies, poisoning of predator ble feature of Anderson’s book is solutely delighted” (Appendix B). secured the returning officer’s agree- that normal plants contained organisms feeding on the pests the full 10 pages at the end devoted The CAWSA newsletter in October- ment that one of our nomination papers genes. Anderson is right to as- plants are genetically engineered to “resources” - groups to con- November contained an article express- could be changed up to 4pm on May sume that informing people is the to resist - have been widely dis- tact, magazines, e-mail information ing fury on hearing that Christine had 13, but Christine did not return his calls. way to convince them. cussed in the press. Anderson’s services, and addresses of cam- been deselected, and announcing that After nominations closed, it became His description of how genes are central point is that ecosystems paigns to join. “there would be a meeting, open to all apparent that some CAWSA members copied and inserted into the DNA are such complex and dynamic The final chapter of his main text, Alliance supporters, on November 28 were supporting Christine Oddy, despite of other species enables him to webs of interrelated processes that ‘Turning the tide’, consists of an to discuss standing Midlands Socialist their knowledge of and involvement in refute the claim that genetic engi- altering the balance at one point upbeat account of the successes Alliance candidates in the Euro elec- the above process. This was disap- neering is simply “the latest in a may lead to unexpected and unde- of these campaigns, celebrating tions”. It should be pointed out that pointing, but we already knew some in- ‘seamless’ continuum of biotech- sirable results at others. “the society-wide collapse of sup- Christine receives the CAWSA news- dividual members were voting Green. In nologies practised by human be- Anderson can be accused of port for genetic engineering in letter every month. the event, Christine’s campaign was ings since the dawn of civilisation” presenting a very one-sided case. foods” (p115). Self-evidently such CAWSA used their monthly newslet- based almost solely on her record and (p10). Having described the Claims by the biotech industry a crusade against GM food can ters from November until June to report the appalling way Labour had treated method used to produce and cul- that food products from GMOs never defeat capitalism. back fully on all the developments as her, although one of her election leaf- ture GMOs, he is also able to ex- may have beneficial effects are It remains to be seen whether the West Midlands Socialist Alliance lets spoke of commemorating “the blitz plain how it can give them hardly discussed except to be dis- Monsanto and other big biotech was formed, an electoral programme with the participation of the Queen characteristics neither desired by missed as a ploy “to attract con- companies can overcome con- agreed, finance raised, and candidates Mother”, and “the great day visiting the manufacturers or admitted to sumers back to the genetically sumer resistance. For most people selected over a three-month period at Jaguar with the Queen” (Appendix C). by them. engineered foods they have so far at the moment the key question is three separate WMSA meetings. All the In the light of all these developments, The presence of genes for anti- rejected” (p104). His bias against choice and labelling. They want WMSA meetings and their agendas the WMSA officers unanimously en- biotic resistance in most trans- the biotech companies can be ex- the option of buying GM-free were advertised beforehand in the dorsed the CAWSA sub-committee de- genic plants is a simple example of cused to some extent, since, while products. Such matters should not CAWSA newsletter and through cision to post their June newsletter such a side-effect. A more compli- they promise foods with “quality be dismissed. The task of commu- WMSA publicity. Minutes of WMSA without any reference to Christine’s cated example is the likelihood that traits” and health-enhancing prop- nists is to integrate the demands meetings were regularly given out at the campaign, including the effect it may disrupting the genome with a for- erties, “Most of the genetically of consumers into a programme CAWSA monthly supporters meeting. have had on the Socialist Alliance. eign insert may alter the pattern of engineered crops already on the where the product of human labour CAWSA members played an active and We hope we can all move forward to- gene expression: “The new gene market have been designed to be ceases to be under the control of positive role within the WMSA, and gether in building the Socialist Alliance could, for example, alter chemical resistant to herbicides or in- the market and is returned to the CAWSA meetings enthusiastically en- project now the elections are over l reactions within the cell or disturb sects.” In other words, to provide control of the people - organised dorsed the decisions being made. Posi- Pete McLaren, John Rothery, cell functions. This could lead to a quick profit for the manufacturer this time as a revolutionary asso- tive ideas for fundraising were put Dave Nellist, Dave Church, instability, the creation of new tox- and tie farmers to the biotech com- ciation of producers l forward and possible election candi- Dave Griffiths ins or allergens, and changes in pany. Mary Godwin July 8 1999 Page What we 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 falsely accused of atheism. But it is insist on open ideological struggle in order to only necessary to see what eventu- fight out the correct way forward for our class. ally became of all this philosophical l Marxism-Leninism is powerful because it is speculation and conflict to see that true. Communists relate theory to practice. We not very many among the Irish estab- are materialists; we hold that ideas are determined lishment will want to begin on that by social reality and not the other way round. he sun is my father, the promises of the parliamentarians. road again. l We believe in the highest level of unity among earth my mother, the world Following the restoration of the Not only was this the stuff that “pre- workers. We fight for the unity of the working is my country and all men monarchy in 1660, supporters of the pared men’s minds for the coming class of all countries and subordinate the struggle “T in Britain to the world revolution itself. The are my family.” Commonwealth were marginalised for [French] revolution” (Engels), but it “Not very many liberation of humanity can only be achieved These are the words of John a period, but the accession of William also fed directly into the ideology of through world communism. Toland, spoken 300 years ago this and Mary and the Glorious Revolu- Marxism itself. Marx and Engels be- l The working class in Britain needs to strike as year. As the Irish establishment con- among the Irish tion of 1688 partially restored their lieved that Spinoza was correct a fist. This means all communists should be tinues its efforts to modernise its im- fortunes. The Tories were now pari- against Descartes. Plekhanov, the organised into a single Party. We oppose all age by curbing the power of the establishment ahs because of their Jacobite sympa- Russian Marxist, once asked Engels: forms of separatism, which weakens our class. catholic church, it is perhaps time to thies. Toland became a left Whig. “So in your opinion old Spinoza was l Socialism can never come through parliament. look again at Toland’s legacy. His pan- Dean Swift (of Gulliver’s travels right in saying that thought and ex- The capitalist class will never peacefully allow theism, his philosophical materialism, will want to fame) and Dr John Locke, the English tension were nothing but two at- their system to be abolished. Socialism will only his republicanism and his internation- philosopher, feared and despised tributes of one and the same succeed through working class revolution and the alism make him a model for post-catho- Toland for his radicalism. Even Leibniz substance?” “Of course,” Engels re- replacement of the dictatorship of the capitalists lic Ireland. But be warned. Some of begin on that warned him that he had gone too far plied. “Old Spinoza was quite right.” with the dictatorship of the working class. Social- ism lays the basis for the conscious planning of his ideas that were seen as so radical when he published Adeisidaemon or Toland came far closer to a materi- human affairs: ie, communism. and dangerous back then are still far road again” ‘The man without superstition’ in alist and secular philosophy than in advance of what would be accept- Holland in 1709. It was banned by Spinoza did. His conception that mo- l We support the right of nations to self- determination. In Britain today this means the able to any conservative establish- papal decree. tion is a property of matter is central struggle for Irish freedom should be given full ment. However, he certainly remained an to dialectical materialism, the philoso- support by the British working class. John Toland was born in 1670 in establishment oppositionist. He did phy of Marxism. The following con- l Communists are champions of the oppressed. Ardagh in the parish of Clonmany in not seek to spread his views among ception from The pantheisticon is also We fight for the liberation of women, the ending the Inis Owen Peninsula of Donegal. the common people. In 1720 Toland central to Marxism: “Thought and soul of racism, bigotry and all other forms of chauvin- His family was catholic and Gaelic- the protestant north of Europe and published his book The is a property of matter. Thought is a ism. Oppression is a direct result of class society speaking. Rumours put about by his devastated Germany. Seven million pantheisticon, which elaborated his special movement of the brain. The and will only finally be eradicated by the ending enemies in later life that his father was out of a population of 21 million died vision of a new pantheistic religion. brain is the first cause of the soul, of of class society. a catholic priest are without founda- and the country lay in ruins, politi- As it was written in Latin, even those thoughts and of sensations. Brain, be- l War and peace, pollution and the environment tion. By the time of his death in 1722 cally and physically, from which it among the common people who were ing a highly composite material organ, are class questions. No solution to the world’s he was one of the leading intellectual took over 200 years to recover. Reli- able to read could not understand it. can produce only material effects. problems can be found within capitalism. Its free thinkers in the world with almost gion featured very strongly in Toland was not about to summons Thus all ideas are corporal.” ceaseless drive for profit puts the world at risk. The future of humanity depends on the triumph 100 books to his credit. Today he is Cromwell’s war in Ireland and again anyone to the barricades. In his famous polemic against Herr of communism. practically unknown to the English- in the war between James II and He was politically close to the Whig Eugene Dühring, Engels accuses him speaking world, but his books are William of Orange. politician, Robert Harley, but de- of having “arrived at a consciously printed in France, Holland and Ger- The power of organised religion, nounced him in 1710 for ‘Monkism’ - thinking and acting nature”, thus many. He is revered as the founder of and its reliance on ‘articles of faith’ Monk was Cromwell’s general who “standing on a bridge ... from panthe- modern scientific pantheism, which is that defied human logic, was seen as sold out and was instrumental in the ism to deism”. Engels thus acknowl- a cult religion. His most controversial the origin of wars and suffering. The restoration of the monarchy in 1660. edges the progressive development book Christianity not mysterious enlightenment, begun by the English- Harley became a Tory and his down- of pantheism against traditional de- (1696) drew the wrath of the entire man, Francis Bacon (1561-1626), and fall in 1715 is largely seen as the re- ism. In his book Grundsätze in 1843 English and Irish establishment on his really set in motion by the Frenchman, sult of Toland’s pamphleteering Ludwig Feuerbach wrote that panthe- head. He later became a leading Whig René Descartes (1596-1650), took a against him. ism was a “theological materialism, a politician and an English republican. new turn and John Toland was a pio- But perhaps the one element that negation of theology, but as yet on a In 1686 Toland converted to the neer of that orientation. Toland coined most outraged contemporary society theological standpoint”. Spinoza, he Church of Ireland in order to obtain the word ‘pantheism’ and wrote ex- was his unapologetic rationalism and wrote, was “the Moses of modern free help in getting an education. He spent tensively on the new creed. He iden- his materialist philosophy. He sub- thinkers and materialists”. “What three years in Glasgow University and tified the Dutch Jewish philosopher, jected everything, including the de- then, under examination, is what then went to the University of Edin- Baruch Spinoza (1632-77), as the prime ity, to critical appraisal. He gave Spinoza calls ‘substance’, in terms of burgh where he got his Master of Arts modern pantheist. The French en- unremitting battle to all beliefs in su- logic or metaphysics, and ‘god’ in in 1690. Toland spent a year in Oxford lightenment materialist philosopher, perstition and miracles. He arrived at terms of theology? Nothing else but studying Gaelic manuscripts and the Baron d’Holbach (1723-89), and oth- the conclusion that the universe was nature,” he affirms. Marx and Engels outcome was a book The history of ers were strongly influenced by god. This was not such a large step were very grateful to Feuerbach for the Druids, published posthumously Toland. He was a central character in for a Gaelic scholar familiar with St his contribution to the development in 1726, which explained the reasons forming the movement that led nearly Patrick’s breastplate (Día ar mo lámh of historical materialism. for ancient superstitions in Ireland. 100 years later to the French Revolu- dheish, Día ar mo lámh clé - God at Baron d’Holbach, the encyclope- r When Christianity not mysterious tion and the failed Irish revolution of my right hand, god at my left hand, dist and atheist, is the clear link be- was published, and it became known 1798. etc) and for a classical scholar famil- tween Toland and Feuerbach and Toland was the author, English MPs It is ironic indeed to see that a de- iar with ancient Greek notions of the Engels. This German-French philoso- r and bishops fulminated against him fender of Cromwell’s republicanism deity. pher was on the left wing of the French and the book was condemned by the was one of the sources of inspiration However, when he asserted along philosophers. Like Toland he was the € Grand Jury of Middlesex. He fled to for the biggest revolt against English with Spinoza that thought and being most radical thinker of his age and he Ireland only to meet even more fero- rule in Ireland. However, if we look at were one substance, the message be- had to have his best books published € cious opposition. The Irish House of the left wing of Cromwell’s army and came alarming. God did not create na- in Holland. Holbach saw the universe Commons ordered the book to be the Diggers and Levellers, we will un- ture, but nature was god, asserted as a “deterministic system consisting burned by the public hangman in Sep- derstand the political descendants of Spinoza, and Toland agreed. But he of an eternal and constant totality of tember 1697 and the author to be ar- these Roundheads were the short- asserted against Descartes and also matter and motion”, according to The rested and prosecuted. Toland was haired Parisian sans-culottes of the against Spinoza (expelled from the Oxford companion to philosophy forced to flee back to England. He had early 1790s and the Irish croppies of Jewish congregation for his irrever- (p371). Toland was indeed ‘storming € € € good reason to fear for his life. In 1697 1798. ent speculation on the nature of god) the heavens’ in his thought and posed € € € a student, Thomas Aitkenhead, was Cromwell was defeated by the su- that motion was a property of matter a huge threat to an English establish- burned to death at the stake in Edin- perior horsemanship of the king’s itself. God was truly becoming mar- ment now growing conservative and € € € burgh for opposing the Doctrine of army in the first stages of the English ginalised in this scenario, even if that reactionary, following its two revolu- the Trinity. Toland had no way of Civil War. He was obliged to politi- was not Toland’s intention. He was tions in the 17th century l € knowing Aitkenhead was to be the last cally mobilise the yeomen, the inde- in these islands to die in this way. pendent farmers of East Anglia and What were the political and ideo- the Fens: “Give me some men who logical influences on Eoghain na make a conscience of what they do Leabhar (‘John of the books’), as the and I will teach them to sit straight on locals called the studious youth, that their horses, and I warrant you they wrought such a transformation? will not be beaten,” he proclaimed. But Toland went to study at Leyden in when he encouraged them to “make a Holland in 1692 and became ac- conscience of what they do” they quainted with the German philosopher, began to develop egalitarian political Gottfried Leibniz. Here he encoun- views, demanding universal suffrage tered the most advanced thinkers of (apart from women and servants!) and the age, and he himself blossomed. even the holding of land in common. There was a growing revulsion at the They refused to go to Ireland to put time to established religion in these down rebellion there. Cromwell sav- circles. The Thirty Years’ War, (1618- agely suppressed these opposition- Printed by and published by: November Publications Ltd (0181-459 7146). Registered as a newspaper by Royal Mail. 48) ranged the catholic south against ists, who took too literally the ISSN 1351-0150. © July 1999 weekly

€

here is increasing concern exists a vacuum to the left of Labour members still contained accusations successfully analysed the causes and T amongst a section of Socialist that we can partially fill”, and “There of “distortion”, “misrepresentation” the impact of the collapse of Stalin- Party members regarding the direction is no reason why we cannot build a and, by implication, dishonesty (Mem- ism” (Members Bulletin No36, Febru- of the organisation and the leader- “Given the small mass party numbering tens of bers Bulletin No19, September 1996). ary 1999). ship’s increasingly authoritarian and thousands, particularly in the next two, Unfortunately this is how the lead- This refusal to admit errors, this in- arrogant response to those who ques- three or four years” represented an ership is prone to behave. Comrades ability to honestly and fraternally de- tion them. current internal ultra-left sectarian turn at odds with who resign are sneeringly dismissed: bate the way forward, has resulted in An ever decreasing membership, the needs determined by objective “A layer of long-standing members the current stagnation of the party. accompanied by an increasing cen- regime, I believe conditions (Members Bulletin No18, have left. A small section of them have Notwithstanding the sterling work by tralisation of finance, has led to a de- June 1996). At the same time the lead- tried to blame the organisation for their many comrades at a local level, we moralisation at branch level, as many ership’s dismissal of “the broad so- own inability to come to terms with have degenerated to a top-down, bu- excellent comrades are constantly that identification cialist layer of previous periods” as the political period” (Members Bulle- reaucratically-centralised, finance- pressurised to raise finance and re- “a very thin layer”, and their insist- tin No36, February 1999) - unlike the driven entity with an acute, possibly cruit at any cost. The mass expulsions would lead to my ence that “we have to reach beyond leadership who, as we will see later, terminal, case of electoralitis, incapa- of the Liverpool dissidents; the rum- this strata to build our forces”, be- have “come to terms with the political ble of responding to the challenges bles of rebellion, as evidenced at this expulsion” cause “the main task facing us now is period” by rewriting history (ibid). set over the last decade and those of year’s congress - all paint a worrying to win support for a socialist pro- Considering that amongst those who today. So much for the general secre- picture. How is it that what was argu- gramme and for socialist ideas gener- have resigned are comrades of the tary’s “red 90s”. ably Britain’s most effective and in- ally”, warned of a dilution of the calibre of Nick Wrack and Margaret I expect comrades will ask two ques- fluential Trotskyist party has eroded revolutionary ethic and signalled an Crear - to name just two - this attitude tions: why assume a pen name, and to the point where a slide into sectist embrace of opportunism and reform- is contemptible. why use the journal of the CPGB rather obscurity is a very real danger? to the collapse of Stalinism and the ism all at the same time (ibid). Quite There can be no question of the than our own internal mediums? The Full-timers and party loyalists resulting theoretical tornado that an achievement! leadership getting it wrong. Thus Pe- reason is simple. Given the current in- would have us believe that it is ‘the ripped through the international left. The tone of the debate also fore- ter Taaffe can assert: “In Russia and ternal regime, I believe that identifica- objective conditions’ that are to blame However many comrades were una- warned of the current internal climate. in eastern Europe a pro-capitalist wing tion would lead to my expulsion; and (insofar as they see anything wrong ware of the internal tensions that ex- The EC reply to the document sub- of the bureaucracy exists. It is a mi- secondly I believe it is important that at all). At best this is undialectical. isted until the infamous Militant mitted by Paul Hearse and John nority and there is no possibility of a more people be aware of the state of Reality, as we know, consists of the versus Socialist Party name change Bulaitis was a vituperative attack un- return to capitalism” (Militant Ten- play regarding the party. subjective as well, and the wilful re- debate brought things out into the worthy of Marxists seeking the sup- dency Stalinism in crisis p15, May 20 If my writing stimulates debate and fusal of the leadership to shoulder any open. Although the proposal itself port of the party, never mind the class. 1988); and then follow this up with: steers us away from our current dis- of the responsibility is to be deplored. was contentious, more so were the Despite the withdrawal of the more “We are the only organisation that astrous course, I will have achieved The roots of the current crisis - for perspectives supporting it. extreme formulations contained in the has been able to correctly analyse the my goal l that is what it is - can be traced back Peter Taaffe’s assertion that “There first draft, the version submitted to events of the last decade. We have Pat Strong

arxism at the millennium’ There are signs that some sections in the Scottish parliament and Welsh years ago were predicting we would need serious discussion. To be effec- takes place at a watershed of the left may be moving towards a assembly elections, the SWP’s con- be now. There seems little point in tive, the left must debate, and at times ‘Mtime for the left. more realistic appraisal of our for- fused turn from auto-Labourism pro- dredging up optimistic quotes from argue over, the situation we face and There have been fundamental tunes, including the normally hyper- duced the paltry votes to be expected the period ... Instead, we need to start the way forward. Without clarity of shifts in British and world politics. optimistic SWP. Writing in Socialist in present conditions. Forced into an looking for some explanations as to ideas, we can face further examples Over the past two decades the work- Worker (June 26), leading SWP theo- electoral bloc as the junior partner in why thing haven’t panned out the of people changing sides when the ing class has suffered a series of huge rist Alex Callinicos struck a sombre Scotland, the SWP could no longer way our [sic] theory expected that going gets tough” (June 26). It is a defeats. Capitalist hegemony is prac- tone: “It is true that there is currently dismiss the rest of the left as irrel- they would” (Green Left Weekly June pity that what was presented as a call tically unchallenged. Yet from the left, no widely accepted, credible alterna- evant. 23). Comrade Osler should take more for debate descended into a hype for while there has been self-doubt, in tive to liberal capitalism. But that is Even so, the leadership hid its ten- time to look at those who did expect ‘Marxism at the millennium’. the main there have been no serious no cause for celebration, but rather, tative entry into a European election us to be roughly where we are now. In its analysis of Labour’s June 10 reappraisals. as long as it continues, a source of coalition in London from the member- While there is undoubtedly dissat- election defeat, Socialist Worker Moreover, this neglect has had its despair for those who long for some- ship. Arthur Scargill’s nomination at isfaction and a sullen indifference to- said: “What happened at the Euro organisational consequences. The thing better.” Presumably the lack of the top of the Socialist Labour Party’s wards the government from wide elections is not just about Tony Blair ‘official communism’ of the Stalinites a “credible alternative” includes the London list precipitated a crisis which sections, while there are no doubt and New Labour. It is a repeat of what is dying; Healy’s cult-Trotskyism is SWP itself. paralysed the SWP political commit- pockets of isolated anger, the SWP has happened again and again with gone; and Taaffe’s Militant/Socialist From an organisation whose cadre, tee for three weeks. Eventually, the must explain why none of this has as Labour. In 1945, 1964, 1974 and 1997, Party is a dwindling, sad husk of its such as Candy Udwin, have intoned SWP withdrew in favour of Scargill’s yet taken any organisational forms. working people have elected Labour former self. While the Socialist Work- faithfully that “there has never been Marie Célèste of an organisation, Although, for the first time, the SWP with great hopes that it would bring ers Party is now the largest organisa- a better time to be a socialist”, promising to return for the London is owning up that strikes are at the change. Yet each time those hopes tion on the British left, this is more by Callinicos’s new-found honesty is re- assembly elections. We shall see. “lowest level since the stone age” have been dashed. The length of the default, as other organisations have freshing. And although this does not At root is the failure of the SWP’s (Charlie Kimber), is it seriously ex- ‘honeymoon period’ has varied, but either faded or shattered. represent some road-to-Damascus programmatic perspectives concern- plaining why? Labour has always ended up attack- For all except the most absurd conversion for the Cliffites, there is ing the election of a Labour govern- We need to temper our Marxist op- ing its own voters” (June 26). Panglossian the working class move- clearly movement underway. ment. And on this point the SWP was timism with sober realism. Not ‘carry While it is fanciful to claim that ment and its revolutionary vanguard Recent shifts in the Labour Party not alone. Almost the entire British on campaigning’ official optimism working people elected Blair with is in a parlous, fractured and desul- are the cause of the SWP’s unaccus- left predicted a “crisis of expectations” from a wiser-than-thou leadership “great hopes”, the SWP points to a tory state. The ideological victories tomed modesty. Its self-appointed when Blair inevitably dashed the pre- eager to keep the troops’ morale up. truth central to Labourism. It is a party of our common enemy during the position as the real conscience of La- sumed illusions the working class had This is no time for sectarian arrogance. of capital. Yet what Socialist Worker Reagan and Thatcher era, alongside bour has been badly shaken. Even on in the Labour Party. As the Weekly We need a new culture on the left fails to point out is that every time the collapse of the USSR, have had May 1 1997, divisions were apparent. Worker said at the time, the illusions which allows for full, open and frank disillusionment with Labour has led their knock-on effects within social So much so that Socialist Worker’s were not to be found in the class, but debate with a process of building to an electoral shift to the right, to a democracy. Blairism, and the strange advice was to vote either Labour or in the revolutionary left itself. unity in action. There can be no sa- credible bourgeois opposition. rebirth of liberal England, demands a socialist. Despite the obvious hope- As Dave Osler of the soft Trotsky- cred cows in our debates. While at the moment the Tories are new approach to politics from the less confusion of this message, the ite Socialist Democracy Group ad- Recently it seemed as though the not a credible opposition, the left is revolutionary left, if we are to turn paper then went on to claim New La- mits: “Things are gloomy for SWP was calling for open debate on even less credible. The challenge for the corner and put the working class bour’s victory as “our victory”. socialists, all right. Yet this is certainly the left. An unsigned, centre page ar- us is there l back on the political map. Finally entering the electoral fray not where the bulk of the far left two ticle in Socialist Worker said: “We Marcus Larsen