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SWP sectarianism split the Socialist Alliance

Uno | 05.10.2001 12:31

The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) castigates the SWP for going it alone and abandoning the principle of 'left unity'.

In its October 'Notes for Action', the CPGB criticises the SWP for sectarianism and not pulling its weight in the Socialist Alliance, a body set up by several Marxist groups to campaign on a common platform. The SWP is 'hijacking' the Stop the War campaign and failing to engage in joint actions with other SA members. It accuses the SWP of not taking the SA seriously outside election time and failing to build up SA membership and political infrastructure. SWP bull-headedness, sectarianism and use of infiltrating other organisations to 'recuit and sell' appears to be confirmed by the CPGB, its erstwhile ally.

Uno

Comments

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so why were they admitted at all ?

05.10.2001 13:36

as i recall, there were doubts about letting the SWP into the Socialist Alliance to begin with, mostly because they would attempt to tie the SA to the Labour party in evry way they could.
The result of the SWPs influence has been NOT to create a clear demarcation between socialism and labourism but to exacerbate the confusion; as it stands, there is a kind of grey blur stetching all the way from Blair, through Hattersley, Cook, M. Foot, Skinner, Benn, Livingstone, P. Foot, into the distant twilight of the workers movement., without never knowing who is quite who. Well done, closet-imperialists of the SWP ! Ever since you and your forebears (the IMG) appeared, you have been trying to destroy every independent working class initiative by invoking the Labour party; you are certainly "Entryists", but Trotsky intended that tactic to be used BY socialists AGAINST labor- imperialists, NOT for them !

silly billy


erm okay but

05.10.2001 13:43

It should be noted this is nothing new. The CPGB (which confusingly is a splinter left over from the collapse of the pre-1989 CPGB) have been criticising the SWP and indeed every other group in the Socialist Alliance for years. Their paper, the Weekly Worker, contains little else but detailed criticisms of everyone else on the left. Which is their groove and that's fine; but it's not really news.

anon


Boring

05.10.2001 14:22

Hmmm... one teensy-weensy grouplet criticising another slightly larger groupuscule for being "sectarian". Judean Popular Front, Popular Front of Judea - a complete load of old bollocks that has given the Left a bad name for years. Why is this considered in any way relevant or interesting? Uno really should get out more and stop all this self-indulgent nonsense. Boring boring boring.

gibbon77


Not boring, but funny

05.10.2001 15:17

I don't think the split in the SA is boring - it's rather amusing. It's revealing itself for what it is - another vehicle for the SWP's recruitment drive. Now the election is over, the SA has collapsed and the SWP is trying to gain ground through Globalise Resistance and infiltrating the CND. If anything, it shows how pointless these bickering bullshitters are.

Uno


Are you a member of the CPGB too?

05.10.2001 15:34

Ah ha! Uno appears also to be on the internal mailing list for the CPGB. Does this mean that her project is to infiltrate every left wing group, and publish their internal documents online for the pleasure of every IMC user?

Martin E


Freedom of information

05.10.2001 15:54

I'm not a member of the CPGB. Its Notes for Action can be obtained by anyone, regardless of whether they are a member of that party.
All I'm doing is giving news on developments within these parties, their plans for the future and the nature of their organisations. I think we all deserve to know the truth of what's going on, particularly when these groups are using broad fronts and infiltrating other groups. By opening up these organisations to scrutiny, I would imagine it's a service to the entire anti-capitalist movement. Why should there be secrets?
People have asked me to publish more memos from these groups and that's what I intend to do. If you find it boring or uninteresting, then you don't have to read or respond to my messages.

Uno


student wankers

05.10.2001 22:06

i reserve the right to make use the swp fighting funds and any other fighting funds of other left wing groups, i also reserve the right to get to genoa and any other protest site, using transport supplied by the swp or any other left wing group. swp can shout and rant as much as they want, i reserve the right to my own political viewpoint, cos lets face it thats all the swp do, i hav to give them this, they r a noisy nuisance and pain in the arse to the establishment, even though their fiery rhetoric, is at worst empty hot air and at the least intellectual bullshit, just like most of the left wing alliance.we all know all that these and all political parties just want as much dosh and power as possible, and theyre all as bad as each other, but they hav their uses for the moment. my main dislike of the swp and the other socialist alliance types is that they r always targeting students for recruitment. why? becos they know that todays students are tomorrows professionals wholl be earning loads of dosh which they can donate to the swp's fighting funds. thats why they hold students in such high reverance. the elite trendy student yoof of today is the fighting fund contributors of tommorrow. i speak as a person who has experienced first hand the cow towing to student wankers, as a former member of the holylands residents association, my pleas for assistance in dealing wif the public noise nuisance vandalism of transient privileged student wankers who r making the lives of the permanent elderly and working class families of the holylands unbearable and hell on earth, just fall on the deaf ears of all political parties in belfast, why? becos students are mainly middle class and therefore they r given more respect by the pigs, than the permanent working class elderly and families living in the holylands. as any permanent holyland resident will tell u, the pigs do nothing about the vandalism and noise nuisance of the students, preferring instead to target working class people who would dare break in to the flats and houses of privileged student bastards in an attempt to give students bastards a taste of their own medicine. afterall mummy and daddy can replace student wankers possesions, but unfortunately there is no help on hand to replace the cars and property of the working class permanent residents of the holylands continually damaged by student twats on a drunken rampage. afterall student arseholes can fuk off back to mummy and daddys palacial farmhouse/villa in the cuntry to study when they want peace and quiet but for the young working class families and elderly of the holylands who are just struggling to get by or bring up there kids there is still no peace.

sista clodagh


plea for security

06.10.2001 18:20

Can I make a plea, that if you are publishing internal documents like the SWP memo that UNO printed earlier in the week, that you think security before you do?

Not that I am particularly paranoid about the state - as others have pointed out, the state does monitor emails and faxes and other stuff. I'm also sure they watch IMC sites, and discussion lists of the left, and the a/cap movement generally.

What I'm really worried about if the BNP or other fascists getting names and or phone numbers of activists. They are making a concerted effort to publish, pictures together with names and other details of activists from lots of different groups. (There is some sort of RedWatch website up and running again atm).

While I would request that you don't publish internal documents publically, you have continued to do so, but do bear the security thing in mind please.

Martin

Martin E


Point taken

06.10.2001 21:39

In future, I will omit names mentioned in memos from political parties. However, I would suggest that anyone taking up a role in the SWP or any other organisation is making their opinions known to the wider general public, which includes BNP extremists. It's a risk anyone takes, whether they are SWP or that LibDem councillor who was murdered by a man with a samurai sword. If you want anonymity and security, use a pseudonym, like I have done.

Uno


No, you're just a coward

07.10.2001 14:16

The advantage of a pseudonym, of course, is that also guarrantees a complete lack of accountability. You can say whatever the hell you like - and nobody can do very much about it.

Stan Rivington
mail e-mail: s.rivington@talk21.com


I'm no coward

08.10.2001 21:30

Stan Rivington accuses me of being a 'coward' for using a pseudonym because it makes me unaccountable. The SWP leadership is completely unaccountable. In the 18 months I've been a SWP member, I've not once been given ballot papers for electing the ruling executive. In contrast, in the same period my union has had two elections. The cowards are the SWP leaders who don't trust their own paid-up members to direct the party in a fair and democratic manner. As for the Socialist Alliance, it's a joke, set up by the ruling cliques of various parties that hate each other. It's the closet the UK has to the Afghan Mujahideen.

I don't know if Stan Rivington is an SWP member or not. But I know I've stirred up the SWP - at my local branch meeting the issue was raised. The fact is that the SWP needs to be opened up if it is to be truly democratic and accountable. Obviously, this pisses off the unelected SWP leadership and they are desperately trying to weed out any moles. If they find me out, they will set up a kangaroo court - a rigged disciplinary procedure used against anyone who threatens the authority of the leadership. So, I am anonymous. It's in the best interest of the SWP and the anti-capitalist movement.

Certainly, at a time when the SWP are trying to hijack the Stop the War campaign as part of an opportunist recruitment strategy, everyone should know the motives of the unaccountable leadership. What a fucking sick leadership to use war and the peace movement as part of the single-minded 'Recruit! Sell!' strategy, when we should put the oppressed Afghanis first. It's true - the only obsession of the SWP leadership is making money, not standing up for the victims of the Taliban/Capitalist war.

Uno
mail e-mail: uno@union.org.za


Give us a break

02.05.2004 14:32

As a former member of the CPGB, who became a member of the SWP, i think UNO is being unfair. The SWP may appear to "hyjack" organisations such as the Stop the War Coalition, but this is not the case. They are one of the few parties which has the organisation and the motivation to GET THINGS DONE. The CPGB, however, spend most of their time obsessed with small, unimportant aspects of the movement, more interest in the sectarian politics of the left than the bigger picture. This is the reason i left them and joined the SWP. However, i do agree that this petty, sectarian nonsense is grating, and gives the left a commical image.

Nelson