SWP plan Seattle in reverse for Labour conference
Whoever | 17.08.2001 13:50
The Socialist Workers Party/Globalise Resistance have made it clear that they are against any attempt to disrupt or blockade next month’s Labour Party conference in Brighton.
Speaking at a public meeting in Brighton to build for their 30th September protest in Brighton, Chris Nineham of the SWP/GR said that “it would be wrong to close down the Labour conference” because it would “isolate us from potentially massive support”. He said that “lots of people in the Labour Party are trying to stop the Blairites taking over” and urged people to “give encouragement to those in the Labour Party fighting Blair”. He argued that attempting a blockade or any action against the conference would be “a tactical disaster” that would “give the media an excuse to call us mad extremists” and “massively demobilise the protest”.
Guy Taylor, SWP member and GR’s full-time organiser, said that “direct action doesn’t have to be confrontational” and declared GR’s counter conference and protest at last year’s Labour Party conference a great success that should be built on because “nothing happened”.
In Seattle, thousands of workers left a boring union march to join anti-capitalists in confronting police and closing down the WTO meeting by force of numbers. This resulted in a major, practical success for our movement. The SWP, who describe themselves as “the only people with an overall strategy for the anti-capitalist movement”, seem intent on doing the very opposite at Labour’s conference - convincing anti-capitalists to avoid “confrontational” direct action and join a march to nowhere with a few union banners instead.
The SWP are entitled to put forward their views. But anti-capitalists involved in direct action should be clear that these views represent a clear attempt to pull back our movement into legalistic, dead-end ‘protests’ that achieve nothing - and to destroy the militancy and vitality of our movement from within.
Guy Taylor, SWP member and GR’s full-time organiser, said that “direct action doesn’t have to be confrontational” and declared GR’s counter conference and protest at last year’s Labour Party conference a great success that should be built on because “nothing happened”.
In Seattle, thousands of workers left a boring union march to join anti-capitalists in confronting police and closing down the WTO meeting by force of numbers. This resulted in a major, practical success for our movement. The SWP, who describe themselves as “the only people with an overall strategy for the anti-capitalist movement”, seem intent on doing the very opposite at Labour’s conference - convincing anti-capitalists to avoid “confrontational” direct action and join a march to nowhere with a few union banners instead.
The SWP are entitled to put forward their views. But anti-capitalists involved in direct action should be clear that these views represent a clear attempt to pull back our movement into legalistic, dead-end ‘protests’ that achieve nothing - and to destroy the militancy and vitality of our movement from within.
Whoever
Comments
Hide the following 37 comments
Unity please
17.08.2001 16:23
Some bloke
Where does SWP stand?
17.08.2001 18:48
joram
e-mail: joram@geek.com
View from the labour backbench relevant here?
17.08.2001 20:08
So says Alan Simpson in Wednesday's Blairian - so they ain't all Blairians...
Check the full article here before closing down the Labour OR the SWP Conferences :-)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4239232,00.html
mango
Homepage: http://www.environment.org.uk/activist/
swp/Globalise Resistance
17.08.2001 21:13
luther blisset
same old shite
17.08.2001 23:23
I'm a member of GR and we are going to join the blockade so where you got the idea from i will never know.
the people who abuse us on here abuse us just as much as the state does. so just fuckin stop!!!!
c ya
SWPer
SWP/GR
17.08.2001 23:46
I want a society that is equal and free. I do not want to swap one bunch of bosses for another.
xoxoxox
GR is GR
18.08.2001 00:13
So who is responsible for Corporate Globalisation in the twenty odd years since MT came to power in the UK? We are. Both the people who walked away and the people who emphasised division rather than cooperation. We were fighting amongst ourselves rather than focusing on the real enemy. We are responsible.
An umbrella group contains many different groups. In any umbrella group there will be more more members of one group than any of the others. That may be so with GR and the SWP. No member of the SWP (and I know many) has tried to persuade me to join the SWP. I don't care if they started GR. The mere fact that an umbrella group exists which suppresses the differences between the parties that make it up to focus on the main target is the one necessary step forward that needed to be taken. We have it. We have the means at last. If you are not SWP and you don't like the power that you believe they have within GR then join it and dilute that power. (I have not had one person try to feed me SWP propaganda, I have not heard anyone in GR propose SWP policy to the exclusion of the policy of any other group and I have massive respect for the people who work hard to make GR work whether they are SWP or not).
GR is in the mainstream of Global Action against the policies of the IMF/World Bank. This is one massive World wide Movement many of whom will not even have heard of the SWP. Any party who goes on about one party having more power within GR simply because they have more numbers misses the point. GR is issued based: we are against the consequences of corporate globalisation. That is all. It is enough. If you are against Corporate Globalisation then GR is for you. You are not expected to agree with any aspect of SWP policy on any issue except the one they have towards Corporate Globalisation. You can if you want. That's not what I do.
If you start fighting amongst yourselves you miss the chance we have to achieve something worthwhile. It is because of this in-fighting that we have arrived at the position we were in before Seattle and Quebec. We must come together. There is a common enemy and we all know who it is. We have a massive responsibility to too many people to let tiny local disputes interfere. We have raised awareness of the issues, more people are joining us day by day, the politicians are on the run. We are winning.
Politicians divide and rule. We cooperate and win. There is no other way.
Bill
exactly
18.08.2001 10:07
their tactics tend to breed disunity, because this movement was built on diversity but they are alone in thinking they have the 'strategic vision' for us all to fall under. which they don't, and we won't.
and they turn meetings into membership drives, actions into rallies, and individual encounters into opportunities to sell papers. it's not big and its not funny, and if we are worried that they are trying to reverse the achievements of seattle and beyond, it's not saying 'let's split', it's saying 'please, SWP people, have humility, learn from the past and try to be like any other group in this movement - participating without trying to dominate, speaking without trying to lead, being equals..'
until they do that, it's inevitable that some people will feel that the SWP (controlled hierarchically by a very few, unaccountable people) is being used to disrupt and disempower the increasing strength, unity and creativity of our movement. and it's getting increasingly hard to argue against this view, for example in the light of the report by whoever above.
so please, swpers of good faith, have a thought for the greater goals and don't let yourselves be used to undermine them.
thank you
some bird
but they have heard of confrontational NVDA..
18.08.2001 10:44
'GR is in the mainstream of Global Action against the policies of the IMF/World Bank. This is one massive World wide Movement many of whom will not even have heard of the SWP.'
funny that a group can identify and join such a 'mainstream' in a year or so of existence, when I've been involved in WB/IMF stuff for many years and have not yet spotted anything like a mainstream in it at all. but I take it on faith that you speak with your own truth.
meanwhile I agree that many worldwide have not heard of the SWP - wsith good reason. Historically, they have played almost no role in the movement. however, i know from my own experience that many have heard of the recent British history of direct action protest, and it was particularly clear in Prague and Genoa how many have been inspired by it.
How many are inspired by non-confrontational protest marches to nowhere? I can tell you. only the equivalents of SWP in all those other countries.
so let's please keep up the momentum for creativity and change, and not give it up to people who advocate going back to old, stale and useless tactics!
This is no call for disunity, it's a call for a movement not to commit suicide by default!
zedhead
Don't understand
18.08.2001 10:45
Cliff Richard
because
18.08.2001 10:54
Contrary to the opinions of SWP and GR people expressed here, nobody wants to work in opposition to others protesting the same issues. But it is very hard to co-operate with people who have a regressive agenda, and seek to promote it at the expense of any other.
does that make more sense?
zedhead
LOL
18.08.2001 11:10
I do hope you are not serious, or else I will have to ask to see your warrant card.
Good luck with the pots and kettles,and your alliances with anyone that is convenient.
:-)
Mustermann
e-mail: spam@spam.spam
whoops!
18.08.2001 11:15
I think, after re-reading you I may have tripped up over some quaotations???
;-)
Mustermann
e-mail: spam@spam.spam
Blockade - Its Our Choice
18.08.2001 11:33
Globalise Resistance want a march, a lobby, a protest. Fine. Many will want to blockade Labour Party conference, to delay its start for an hour, two hours longer. Fine!! Globalise Resistance/SWP cannot stop the potentially thousands of activists who will join the blockade. Its up to us. A march behind banners to some sort of rally, or sitting in the road, blocking the conference entry points to stop Blair's party meeting. I know which I'd rather be doing, I know which one will capture the imagination, inspire further actions. Don't you? Forget the march, join the blackade when you get to Brighton. Nothing can stop us except our own lack of imagination, as Guy Debord probably would have put it.
Mark P
Mark P
grow up boys and girls
18.08.2001 12:22
To be clear, I am not in GR or the SWP. I know the way they work is not for me, so that is why I choose to promote different ways of working.
I do not describe myself as an anti-capitalist (though some people would doubtless put me in that so-called 'movement'). Why? Because it does not mean much - the SWP are anti-capitalist, as are many in, for example, Earth First! The SWP are hierarchical, EF! non-hierarchical. The first has policies, the second stresses diversity and autonomy. Etc.
So what to do, if you are not in the SWP or GR for your own good reasons?
You could criticise them at every opportunity on the internet and in other places.
Or you could log off, and use your energy instead to promote/organise your own preferred way of doing things. You will not convince them to change by ranting, nor will you convince newer people that they are sectarian when you sound worse!
The best way to get more people to take part in what people have called inspirational direct action, exciting blockades rather than marches, or whatever, is to get off your arses and organise them. Then people will have the choice, and if you promote why you are doing it differently from the SWP, then if people agree, they'll do it (y)our way instead of the GR way. If they choose to march with GR, then it is either because they choose to, or because you/we have not got out there and said why clearly enough it should be done differently.
love n rage
vs.hierarchy, pro-direct actioner
e-mail: .
Message for the SWP!!!
18.08.2001 12:46
Anarchist Rioter
e-mail: andyblackbird@hotmail.com
Party Political Broadcast Against the SWP?
18.08.2001 12:54
Chris Edwards
e-mail: drcce@yahoo.com
and finally...
18.08.2001 14:07
2pm Conway Hall London
noel x
noel
e-mail: noel@desiderium.org
Please sir?
18.08.2001 16:36
As for "newswire": I think it is rather nice that people spreading the news can be challenged/queried/rectified/praised directly and openly, unlike the authoritarian dissemination methods... in fact, isn't this the whole point???
Just hy humble opinion...
:-(
Mustermann
e-mail: spam@spam.spam
hey chris
18.08.2001 16:45
so what happened at the meeting today, noel?
cheers
zedhead
Whats the beef?
18.08.2001 23:08
When it comes to the Labour conference we have to see the difference between the Labour delegates and activists and the Labour government. Many of those delegates, even now, will be miners, school cleaners, Hospital staff, nurses. They are not the enemy! Blair is the enemy! We need to take the Movement to Blair give him the shock of his life and at he same time win over the ordinary labor punter. This calls for thought and imagination. In Italy the Blairite DS party was FORCED to suuport the march at the end. Why? Because most of its members where going along anyway! We need to build a mass movement that has the POWER to smash the system.
Or of course you could just do what you want instead.
Sandy (SWP since 1977)
Sandy
e-mail: dvgil@ecosse.net
IMC hypocisy
19.08.2001 00:36
"The Indymedia web site is a 'newswire' not a noticeboard for political parties, or any other hierarchically structured organization. While we struggle to maintain it as a completely open forum we do monitor and on occasions remove posts."
But it is a "noticeboard", apparently, for non-hierarchically structured Anarchist muddleheads.
Seems that British Anarchist are too small minded to build a big movement. They prefer to waste everyone's time with this kind of hole in corner slag-off than start co-operating with the rest of the left to help get the working class off its knees again.
Chris Edwards
e-mail: drcce@yahoo.com
the working class do not need you
19.08.2001 01:17
(or whatever guise you choose to give it, at any particular time).
'GET YOUR SOCIALIST WORKER!
'get the working class off its knees'
you patronising, party sheep piece of shit.
when did the working class ever need your crap hand me down, bourgeois revolutionary shite?
answer: never
being a 'non hierarchial muddlehead', all i can say is read some (history) books, other than the ones on your parties reading list, it might make you understand why the working class will never listen to your deadly party propaganda again.
lenin varnish
Give me strength!
19.08.2001 10:26
Sandy & Chris: perhaps, you overlook that many anarchists by their very nature do not aspire to form massive oraganisations of terror and force. And despite how much you pull your hair out at the "wasted exploiatble resource" the notion that you are going to get anti-authoritarian into bed with authoritarian is quite amusing. What is the next suggestion? We form strategic alliances with the KKK, the Mafia, the CIA, the IRA or Libya?
If we went down that road, we'd be nothing better than everything we despise and mistrust.
This sentiment does NOT equate to: I hate everyone that does not agree with me and wish them gone; but merely: I do not want to associate with certain groups.
Is that really so difficult to grasp?
Stamping your feet and going red in the face just because some people don't want to play your game is futile.
:-)
Mustermann
e-mail: spam@spam.spam
Post Scriptum
19.08.2001 10:46
By quoting the editorial guidlines you have drawn attention to the fact that you have come here and acted anti-socially and futhermore despite ignoring the wishes of the participants no-one has stopped you from expressing yourself.
It was very nice of you to be so gracious to point out how laid-back and tolernat "small-minded British ( hehehe nice nationalist touch ) anarchists" have been of your agressive rudeness.
:-)
Mustermann
e-mail: spam@spam.spam
A Clarification
19.08.2001 11:25
Anarchist Rioter
e-mail: andyblackbird@hotmail.com
Chris must be annoyed
19.08.2001 11:56
Bolshevik groups, with their outdated ideology and patronising language have been either marginal, or non-existent in the struggle.
amused
Homepage: http://flag.blackened.net
Oh look! You had the map round the wrong way!
19.08.2001 12:12
To hear someone professing to be an anarchist defending Thatcher and the theft from public of their "own property" ( did I miss the bit where they lowered the effective level of taxation in repsect to the fact they no longer needed the money for national resources??? And let's not forget the community charge, the withering of workers' rights, the decimation of manufacturing, the erosion of democracy of local councils, the frozen pensioners in Noerthern Britain, the end of assured homes, the decline in health, the brain drain etc etc etc ) ... leads me to the conclusion you may be better suited to the Young Conservatives? Just like our Tony himself.
Would it not have been better not to privatise our resources and simply resist globalisation even in Thatcher's era? Why should we be paying for the necessities of life at all???
You'll be telling us that policeman do a good job next and that we need to protect ourselves against immigrants that steal our jobs and steal our women???
Pardon me, when I state that I cannot take this thread seriously any longer.
Two tyrannies don't make a utopia.
:-)
Mustermann
e-mail: spam@spam.spam
Oh dear
19.08.2001 13:58
Anarchist Rioter
e-mail: andyblackbird@hotmail.com
The Classless Society
19.08.2001 15:45
point taken. I just think that in thinking in those terms is a little unhelpful.
Peace!
:-)
Mustermann
e-mail: spam@spam.spam
Something simple
19.08.2001 16:01
SOCIALIST ALLIANCE = SOCIALIST WORKERS PARTY
ANTI NAZI LEAGUE = SOCIALIST WORKERS PARTY
If you've joined one of these in good faith,
better check where you're money went.
U.R. joking
Globalise Resistance Open Meeting?
19.08.2001 17:00
MarkP
accuracy please
19.08.2001 20:10
and in reply to UR joking - In the area I live in central london the socialist alliance is mainly (80-90%) made up of disillusioned labour party activists, some of whom haven't left labour yet - similarly the GR central london group is at the last meeting I was at was 70% (out of around 70) made up of non-swp people, that's what it means to deepen things locally, but then who cares about the truth when you want a rant...
;-)
noel
noel
e-mail: noel@desiderium.org
oops!
19.08.2001 20:15
noel
anarcho bollox
20.08.2001 10:55
I'm coming to the conclusion that for all the wailing the reason GR is dominated by the SWP is because most anarchos are too holier-than-thou to get involved with it. I went to the GR Genoa report back meeting and Noel is right to say that the bulk were non-SWP. For some bizarre reason a bloke from Workers Power even gave a quick speech praising the tactics of the BB.
The "traditional" Left can't achieve anything? Only the establishment of the welfare state, workplace protection, the minimum wage etc etc. No it isn't good enough but it is a real achievement. It is sixth-form level debate to argue for "revolution or nothing".
Why the fuck does everyone keep bandying the word Fascist around with so little thought? Western Europe lives under relatively undemocratic liberal capitalist regimes - they are not in any sense fascist. If we lived under a Fascist regime you would know about it. Indymedia wouldn't exist and we would get arrested for attending GR type meetings.
Tom
Wales and the SWP.
21.08.2001 09:16
Just want to add a few observations of what's been discussed here. I think there's a difference between sectarianism and openly drawing attention to an organisation/party's way of operating. From the point of view of someone who has worked in an alliance with the SWP (the Welsh Socialist Alliance), along with the Socialist Party, it seems to me that the SWP doesn't work in a particular open and democratic way and seems to have a penchant for taking over organisations and using them as a front for it's own agenda. So it is with the WSA, which is now little more than a front for the SWP, with the SP and a few independents (most of them have left) engaged in a sectarian shit-fight with them.
As a Socialist in a party called Cymru Goch, we put a lot of time into the alliance to the EXPENSE of our own party, and what we got was maneuvering, manipulation, and a total lack of understanding of what makes Wales different. The SWP has no links into the community in Wales, has a very hierarchical attitude which alienates and causes resentment among it's own members, let alone everyone else. As a result the SWP in Wales is falling to bits slowly.
Compare and contrast with a pretty vibrant environmental/direct action movement which is slowly springing up here. In two years the direct action movement in Wales has totally outflanked the Welsh Assembly and prevented the planting of GM-crops. We have a growing grassroots movement to defend Welsh-speaking communities from the worst excesses of global capitalism which is totally trashing our cultural and linguistic heritage. The SWP ignores these things. It has a London-centred agenda and it's own members tell me that all the orders come down from London. It's too centralist.
As a libertarian socialist I want to extend my solidarity to anarchists/direct activists and ecos everywhere. These are the people who are carrying really carrying things forward at the moment. We need unity and tolerance for different ways of doing things, and less of this attitude of wanting to take crap over all the time. It's pretty sad when it comes down to it, and hasn't got the SWP anywhere at all in Wales.
Solidarity.
Dic Penderyn
children, children
21.08.2001 23:51
Now apart from my patronising headings, I've given the time to read the ranters rants, and so I hope they can take a breath long enough before they hit send to think a little, maybe re-read some posts in this 'discussion'.
How can someone complain about broadcasts against the SWP, and then do exactly the same thing themselves, but against 'anarchism?? Then wait a bit, and do it again?! Why do other people have to make such childish jibes, comparing the SWP with the German Nazi Party for fucks sake?
Please read read my previous post, and think what you could put your energy into (instead of squabbling)... Ask yourselves - how have you changed things/people by ranting from your corner, and if you haven't, why are you bothering?
Get out there and organise the way YOU want to, create and resist! The screen is but a pixel dance.
vs.hierarchy, pro-direct actioner