Received this report from one my spies on events in Luton, concerning the Bedfordshire Socialist Alliance and Luton SWP, a sad tale, but all too familiar to those acquainted with the SWP and its attitudes towards democracy, read on and weep. (Sorry about the length, that's how it came)

SubVert

########################
Sunday 27th January 2002

Events today could effectively mean the end of the road for Beds SA. Since it’s inception, the Beds SA has been something of a maverick within the Alliance, thanks largely to the fact that it has been run by independents, not by the local SWP group, and has therefore attempted to organize on democratic lines, and has also displayed a more radical outlook than the SA nationally. The local SWP were involved in the creation of the Beds SA, but only as a minority, and their position was further weakened following their expulsion of the one member who sat on the officers group of the Beds SA. From that point, things began to turn nasty, with the SWP members using disruptive tactics within meetings, phony complaints against officers, whispering campaigns and other such tactics to try to take over the Beds SA, or simply to disrupt its smooth operation and discredit the incumbent officers, these tactics led by a full timer, in constant contact with her Central Committee bosses by mobile phone.
In spite of this, the SWP have remained firmly in the minority within the organization, with their proposals being time and time again defeated by the independents within the group. At one point last year, they even walked out of the Beds SA after being defeated yet again in a vote, and called in National officers to try to ‘sort things out’. Unfortunately for them, the national officers accepted the autonomy of the local group, and accepted that the group had done nothing wrong. This view was strengthened by a ‘leaked’ email from one local SWP member to a national SWP representative, which spelt out their intention to ‘get them’ (meaning the elected officers), and referring to the national executive members in very uncomplimentary terms. Strangely they dropped their pursuit of their claims after this, and meekly came back into the fold of the Beds SA, tails between their legs.

In December last year, Beds SA held its AGM, at which election of new officers was to take place. The SWP’s response was to try to get the meeting postponed until this year, no doubt to give them time to organize their forces better, this despite the fact that the meeting had already been postponed from earlier in the year because of the election. The meeting went ahead, and the existing officers were elected unopposed with a couple of additions, with the SWP voting AGAINST all the positions, without being able to propose a single officer of their own!! No doubt their reluctance to stand was an acceptance that none of their members would have been voted in by the membership!

Because the AGM was inquorate, the outcome had to be ratified at the next steering committee meeting held today, Sunday 27th. The SWP at last moved into gear, and actually began to organize (one of the very few times SWP have organized anything under the name Beds SA). In recent weeks they have begun a scurrilous whispering campaign against one of the existing officers in an attempt to destabilize the officers group, and they have mysteriously recruited a whole bunch of members and supporters who have previously been noticeable by their non-existence! Their intention was to use the ‘unified membership’ as agreed at the December Conference of the National SA, to swamp the meeting with national members who have NOT previously joined or been involved in ANY Beds SA activity. In other words, this battle would have nothing to do with politics, and everything to do with numbers. Their plan was to reject the local constitution and elect their own group of officers, in particular, ousting those officers they felt were most hostile to themselves.
It is worth noting that an open letter circulated before the meeting was supported by four individuals who have made NO contribution to the formation or growth of the Beds SA, just like the sea of new faces who attended the meeting to support its content, and at least one of those named supporters couldn’t even attend the meeting himself! Also, the slate of officers proposed in the document included existing officers who had not been approached beforehand, and had clear reservations about standing on this slate!

The battleground of the meeting is itself quite informative of the nature of the SWP’s intent. The meeting began by verifying the outcome of the AGM in December. This was done with no opposition, and no debate, and yet logically, given the nature of the SWP’s later proposals, how could they accept the conclusions of the AGM? Clearly they were saving themselves for later. Next on the agenda was perspectives, and two similar documents from the RDG, and SWP. After debate on the RDG document, it was eventually decided to merge both documents as there was little difference in the two. This was done after a short debate in which the SWP claimed the right to propose their motion. Again one suspects they were avoiding too much argument early on in the meeting.
Next up, came the big one, the constitution. There was a constitution proposed by the RDG and supporters, which was an amended version of the existing Beds SA constitution, amended largely to take account of the National Conference decisions on membership last December, and the SWP proposal to scrap the local constitution completely in favour of the national one (despite the fact that as an affiliated organization, the Beds SA already accepts the national constitution). Here was the SWP’s attempt to remove all autonomy and radicalism from Beds SA, and make it simply a compliant branch of the National SA, controlled by the SWP, and serving its purpose of providing an audience for SWP ideas without ever being a real alternative to the SWP locally as the existing Beds SA HAS been. The local programme of the Beds SA places the organization as a serious rival on the left for the SWP, and the constitution enshrines the democratic structures of that organization, setting out the principles by which officers can be elected and removed, and how policy can be formed and amended. In this atmosphere of autonomy, radicalism and open democracy, the SWP has been consistently defeated over the last year, and only by removing the constitution can they have any hope of controlling the local SA, and only through lies, gossip, and swamping the meeting with ‘phony’ members could they even achieve that. The RDG’s amended constitution was defeated, which effectively left the floor for the SWP. At this point the existing officers read a statement to the meeting stating that they were unhappy to continue in their positions without a local constitution in place, and that they would therefore seek to review their position in consultation with national officers (a national officer was present observing), and consequently they were adjourning the meeting. At that, the officers and their supporters left. The SWP were then in some disarray, with some members wanting to continue and elect new officers, while some of the supporters were more concerned at the events. The officers eventually returned and formally closed the meeting, so technically no further progress was made. It would seem the SWP had not been entirely clear to some of its newfound supporters what their intentions were, and consequently they were unable to fully seize their opportunity.

It is still unclear what the future holds for Beds SA, with the existing officers still ‘technically’ in position, but the position on the constitution unclear. The RDG proposal was rejected, but the SWP proposal wasn’t officially accepted, so the existing constitution technically still holds. However it unfolds, there seems little hope of reconciliation between the opposing sides in Bedfordshire. During this week, a leading local SWP member made it clear that they had NO intention of working with certain leading members of the Beds SA, so much for the SA uniting the left! It can only be hoped that those independents who have worked so hard to bring the Beds SA this far do not just fade away and allow the SWP to set the political agenda locally. We have seen the results of this already, with the SWP themselves attracting less than half a dozen to their own meetings (despite pulling 20 odd ‘members and supporters’ to todays meeting!), and the local anti-war group being run on the most un-democratic lines, with the least possible involvement by ordinary members, and consequently it became nothing more than a rump within a few weeks. The Beds SA project has proved two things, firstly that there is an audience for left-wing ideas in Beds, and secondly, that this audience is intelligent enough to see beyond the SWP and its control tactics, and clearly and consistently rejects it! Whatever happens, that audience needs to be given an organization to work with, be it within the SA or not!

Whatever the final outcome as the dust settles, it seems clear that any other SA’s which have any degree of autonomy should start looking over their shoulders. The SWP has already used swamping tactics like these in other SA’s to impose their will on the groups, and with the unified membership meaning that people joining the national organization are automatically members of the local group, there is the perfect opportunity for similar tactics elsewhere. With the SWP effectively taking control nationally, it seems they now wish to impose control locally as well. It doesn’t auger well for the future of the Socialist Alliance which is already being seen as an SWP front, and merely confirms what many may already think about the SWP and its tactics. As previously said, it can only be hoped that those who oppose those tactics do not allow the SWP to set the political agenda, which means not giving up without a fight, but also not expending all energy on that fight alone, there are more important struggles to be had than those against the SWP, and sooner or later those struggles have to be faced, and if that means walking away from the SA to re-organise without SWP control or disruption, then so be it, that must be faced. There are already many successful organizations formed along autonomous lines which prove that it can be done and done successfully!