SWP activist being paid for out of GR funds

Dan | 11.02.2002 17:54

An e-mail from the GR e-group asking why an SWP member/ex-activist is being paid for out of GR funds.

I've recently heard that GR funds are being used to pay for a full-time activist who is, surprise surprise, an SWP member and one of their ex-organisers. If this is true this is yet another example of the SWP using GR as a front. Where was the democracy in this decision? I'm a GR member and was never consulted. These funds are raised by GR supporters and surely they should be consulted if a big chunk is gonna be spent on an SWP activist!!! As I said if this is true it's an outrage.

Dan

Comments

Hide the following 16 comments

GR pays for SWP

11.02.2002 18:10

A few weeks ago, The Guardian had an article which quoted this man extensively. It gave his name, but I can't remember what it was. Either way, it will come as no surprise to anyone and should serve as a lesson for everyone involved in SWP front groups. They're out to rip you off one way or another!

Ivor the Engine.

Questions

11.02.2002 18:27

How do you define paid? Do you wan't travel expences decided by a national vote? It would only be objectional to me if funds were used to carry out SWP activities rather than GR ones, the same goes for anybody else on the steering group. Is there any evidence for this? Not that i've seen.

GR supporter

Guy Taylor

11.02.2002 18:30

The bloke who was interviewed for that article in The Guardian is called Guy Taylor. He's been an SWP organiser for years and is the head honcho for Globalise Resistance. If someone from the SWP is getting paid out of GR funds I'm pretty sure it must be him as he's the main activist.

Interestingly enough, it said in that article that he said he was an EX organiser for the SWP! In fact he is still an SWP member and an activist for them in GR. Talk about being economical with the truth!

John

Guy Taylor gets about £500 pm from GR

11.02.2002 18:46

From what I know GR gets about £1000 per month from standing orders and donations and stuff and Guy Taylor gets about £500 of that (if the information is true and I'm pretty deifinate it is). I'd hardly call that travel expenses, would you? And if you think that GR is being used as an SWP front (as a member of the steering committee is stating in the subject post before this) then you would see this £500 as being used for SWP activities. And apart from anything else the point is he is being paid £500 pm out of GR funds with absolutely no consultation. Not even with the steering commitee. By any democratic standards that can't be right!

Dan

grow up

11.02.2002 18:49

can you all grow up and get on with the real struggle? i am sure a council near you is making a cut or perhaps you can begin organising for the next demo against bush and blairs bombs. instead youd rather spend all your life wingeing (this isnt the first time is it dan?) Or are you a copper/MI5 im beginning to suspect.
so what if someone who organises for Gr is in the swp? youve got a right to do that. so have they...or are you "officially" against communism.
now stop moaning and get on with your struggle mate.

richard

To "GR Supporter"

11.02.2002 19:00

the fact that you DON'T KNOW who Guy Taylor is, where the money that you've helped raise is spent, or ANYTHING else about how GR organizes itself suggests that your position within that organization is the same as that of an employee of a business (except that you're paying not being paid).
The amount of hostility that you see directed to the SWP is because they use secret, covert, under-handed methods to infiltrate groups which have mass appeal. Their track record is one of great success in doing this, but little success in building a movement with any chance of accomplishing real change.
(Add to that that when you do read their stated policies they are complete "dictatorship of the proletariat" authoritarians and you have a group of people that don't deserve the time of day from you.)

Democratic Activist

What are you talking about Richard?!?!

11.02.2002 19:01

This is the first time I've ever posted comments on Indymedia so what are you talking about Richard!!!

I'm a Communist and a Trotskyist if you must know, so I don't know what the communist point is about. I think you may have got me mixed up with someone else.

And for your information I spend a large part of my life organising for and going on demos, including helping GR demos. But anyway, the point is that I'm in GR and don't like the fact that an SWP organiser is being give 50% of its funds without any consultation what so ever (not that someone who organises for GR is in the SWP!). All I want is for GR to be a democratic organisation. Is that whinging, or aren't we allowed any debate without pathetic references to me being a copper?!

Dan

Grow up!!!!!

11.02.2002 20:18

Just as soon as any criticism of the SWP appears on this site, you can guarantee some Trot running dog will come along with the 'can we please just fight the real enemy' line. YOU should grow up. The SWP are as much the enemy as their friends in the TUC or the Labour Party, or the NF, BNP, Tories etc. In other words, they are part of the problem and they by no means offer any solution to capitalism. This Guy Taylor business is just another chapter in a long list of SWP cons. If people are immature enough not to see that the SWP are a cul-de-sac up which to lead youthful protest, then they will continue to be ripped-off by them. (To the tune of 500 quid a month for every boss they impose on their front groups, probably).

Bill

Dangerous accusations

11.02.2002 21:47

Dan: You may have 'heard' that Guy Taylor receives funds from GR, but you have no proof. I note that you avoid directly accusing him of siphoning funds because you know this could land IMC in big shit. Personally, I think these kind of unsubstantiated personal attacks should be deleted by the IMC moderators, since they open up the way for legal action. It defames someone's character in a deliberate smear campaign - it goes beyond mere criticism of the SWP and goes into the realm of nasty personal mud-slinging. I have referred this article to GR so they can have right of reply. Maybe you should have brought the issue up with GR itself and asked to see its accounts before mouthing off.

Bill: I think it's rather ignorant of you to suggest that the SWP or the TUC can be compared to the BNP/NF/C18. The fascist right has been involved in violence, murder and bombing campaigns against innocent people who they wish to kill. There is no way you can make a moral equivalence between the fascists and trade unionists. It is deeply insulting to people like me who work hard in the trade union movement and have been committed to anti-racism.

Daniel Brett
mail e-mail: dan@danielbrett.co.uk

Is this a threat of legal action!!?

11.02.2002 22:16

This is not a good argument comrade! Do you seriously think our Guy should take indymedia to the capitalist courts?
On the serious point - organisations sometimes need paid organisers...lots of groups like CND do as well, No probs here, and Guy even seems like quite a nice bloke.
But the real problem seems to be that disgruntled GR members have no say in the running or finances of GR, so it all comes out in angry accusations on this wire, for all to see!
People object to the way GR is so obviously run from the top down by the SWP. People feel betrayed because GR sounds like a good idea. When you join you think you are going to find anarchists and communists and greens etc. working together. Instead you find somthing like the old Socialist Worker Student Society. This is a great pity!

strewth

no!

11.02.2002 23:18

by asking for these posts to be deleted you are trying to silence another voice of dissent...

jimmer

tribal w\ar

11.02.2002 23:57

Guy Taylor was the one who said it!!!!

12.02.2002 00:58

Daniel Brett for your information it was Guy Taylor himself who told people he was getting £500 pm from GR, so I'd be more than happy for you to e-mail this to GR and get a response. In fact the e-mail that I posted above was posted on the GR discussion group, so I'm pretty sure they know about it! And guess what, no reply was given. I want them to respond, instead of a wall of silence when questions like this are raised and anything else that points out that GR is undemocratic.

This is a serious point and not just a slanging match and is certainly not "nasty mud-slinging". For GR to be successful (as I want it to be) it has to stop being an SWP front and have real participation from its members. So please, go ahead, e-mail GR, I'd love an answer and stop talking about ridiculous things like people taking people to court.

Dan

it's in GR's hands now

12.02.2002 10:53

I've informed GR and given them the link to this article, so they have right-of-reply and Guy Taylor has a chance to defend himself. I'm not a member or supporter of GR, but hope that we can talk politics instead of shit-stirring. If the claims Dan made are wrong, then it's only right that Guy Taylor has a chance to clear his name and everyone, SWP or not, should support him. If GR is breaking its own constitution with regards to allocating funds, then it could be the subject of a criminal investigation - far more serious than a libel action. Worse than that, it will lose all credibility and harm groups and individuals beyond GR. These are serious matters and affect us all, so a bit more sobriety and reason is needed instead of bickering.

Daniel Brett
mail e-mail: dan@danielbrett.co.uk

show me the money!

12.02.2002 17:19

I confess I don't know exact details of how much time Guy spends with which 'hat' on.

But what I can say with absolute confidence is that Globalise Resistance doesn't subsidise the SWP. It's the other way round; the SWP provided most of the funds and resources to get GR up and running.

Frankly, if our participation in GR was supposed to be a money-spinner, it's been a dramatic failure! ;-)

internationalist
Homepage: http://www.resist.org.uk

Speculate!

12.02.2002 19:17

Every capitalist, including the state capitalist SWP knows you have to speculate to accumulate. The SWP might lose a bit of cash short term, but they know they will reap the profits eventually in paper sales, merchandise and to a lesser degree, membership subs from the dupes who join for the almost universal two month trial while you find out your new comrades are about as socialist as Ramsay McDonald, and as working class as Tariq Ali.

Inter-National-Ist