Irish SWP branch to disafiliate from party
distrobuterz | 27.04.2002 09:12
interesting and revealing article about whole branch leaving Irish SWP, the begining of the end.
UCD branch disaffiliates from S.W.P
by UCD SWSS Branch Committee - Socialist Alternative Fri, Apr 26 2002, 6:11pm
rogerprotzlives@yahoo.co.uk
The UCD branch of the Socialist WorkersEParty have recently decided to disaffiliate from the main party and form an independent socialist group, Socialist Alternative. Since most people active on the left in Ireland have to deal with the SWP, we believe the reasons for our decision may be of general interest.
As most people will remember, this time last year there was a genuine buzz on the radical left. Globalise Resistance was founded and brought together many disparate groups and individuals. Two buses of Irish activists went to Genoa and returned full of ideas and enthusiasm. The general outlook seemed positive. Yet soon things turned sour. GR was torn apart by squabbling; Gluaiseacht and the WSM walked out, along with many others. The SWP has generally been blamed for this degeneration, and with some cause: by using GR purely as a recruitment front, they alienated potential allies and squandered a promising opportunity.
However, it would be wrong to attribute this behaviour to malice or stupidity on the part of the SWP; the real cause lies deeper . For the last few years the SWP leadership has adopted a daft approach of predicting the imminence of revolution at any given time and driving the rank-and-file membership into a frenzy of activism. Eventually they get tired and disillusioned and a new crop are recruited. With party members dropping like flies and the revolution always just around the corner, recruitment takes priority over anything else: certainly over the task of creating a broad-based anti-globalisation group.
The turnover of membership is so high that few party activists have the experience to challenge the leadership, so their political analysis is free to wander ever further away from reality. Wishful thinking and hyper-activism take the place of any realistic assessment of the situation. Since party members spend all their time running around from campaign to campaign, they have little time to read and discuss about politics; if you get the impression that someone from the SWP is just quoting from a leaflet, its probably because its true.
This sort of thing was going on long before Seattle but the last two years have seen matters get steadily worse. The SWP is heading for collapse within a few years if it doesnt change course. Unfortunately, because of the partys undemocratic internal regime, a debate could only begin if it was initiated by the leadership. Since most of the Belfast branch of the SWP were expelled a few months ago for raising similar points, the chances of such a debate taking place are slim. Therefore weve decided that the only course open to us is to leave and work as independent socialists. Weve published a much more detailed account of the problems within the SWP at our website for anyone interested.
related link: www.ucdswss.cjb.net
add your comments
UCD branch disaffiliates from S.W.P
by UCD SWSS Branch Committee - Socialist Alternative Fri, Apr 26 2002, 6:11pm
rogerprotzlives@yahoo.co.uk The UCD branch of the Socialist WorkersEParty have recently decided to disaffiliate from the main party and form an independent socialist group, Socialist Alternative. Since most people active on the left in Ireland have to deal with the SWP, we believe the reasons for our decision may be of general interest.
As most people will remember, this time last year there was a genuine buzz on the radical left. Globalise Resistance was founded and brought together many disparate groups and individuals. Two buses of Irish activists went to Genoa and returned full of ideas and enthusiasm. The general outlook seemed positive. Yet soon things turned sour. GR was torn apart by squabbling; Gluaiseacht and the WSM walked out, along with many others. The SWP has generally been blamed for this degeneration, and with some cause: by using GR purely as a recruitment front, they alienated potential allies and squandered a promising opportunity.
However, it would be wrong to attribute this behaviour to malice or stupidity on the part of the SWP; the real cause lies deeper . For the last few years the SWP leadership has adopted a daft approach of predicting the imminence of revolution at any given time and driving the rank-and-file membership into a frenzy of activism. Eventually they get tired and disillusioned and a new crop are recruited. With party members dropping like flies and the revolution always just around the corner, recruitment takes priority over anything else: certainly over the task of creating a broad-based anti-globalisation group.
The turnover of membership is so high that few party activists have the experience to challenge the leadership, so their political analysis is free to wander ever further away from reality. Wishful thinking and hyper-activism take the place of any realistic assessment of the situation. Since party members spend all their time running around from campaign to campaign, they have little time to read and discuss about politics; if you get the impression that someone from the SWP is just quoting from a leaflet, its probably because its true.
This sort of thing was going on long before Seattle but the last two years have seen matters get steadily worse. The SWP is heading for collapse within a few years if it doesnt change course. Unfortunately, because of the partys undemocratic internal regime, a debate could only begin if it was initiated by the leadership. Since most of the Belfast branch of the SWP were expelled a few months ago for raising similar points, the chances of such a debate taking place are slim. Therefore weve decided that the only course open to us is to leave and work as independent socialists. Weve published a much more detailed account of the problems within the SWP at our website for anyone interested.
related link: www.ucdswss.cjb.net
add your comments
distrobuterz
Comments
Hide the following 3 comments
READ THE LINK
27.04.2002 09:25
err, pardon the expression!
www.ucdswss.cjb.net
ME
well said
27.04.2002 09:37
The thing is- the leadership must be aware of this turnover of members, so if they intend the party to be anything more than a particularly ineffective lobby group, how come they carry on with this approach?
This is what leads plenty of anarchists to believe that the SWP is controlled at the highest level by the state precisely for the purpose of channelling dissent into easily dissmissable forms.
Anyway, good on yer Dublin!
apres-frenzy lotion
A Welsh perspective
27.04.2002 11:49
Yeah, good analysis here. The only thing I'd add is that the SWP is collapsing in Wales as much as in Ireland, and it makes you wonder whether it has a lot to do with their whole London-centric approach to things. The SWP in Wales jumped into bed with the Welsh Socialist Alliance (the Welsh equivalent of the SA in England) and used it as a front organisation in the same way as they've used GR. But there's a strong component in the SWP who basically are anti-Welsh and want to see Wales made into a part of England. They want an SA and not even a WSA. This has leD even SSP members to re-brand the WSA as the "White Settler Alliance".
I think Socialists in the "Celtic Periphery" need to be aware that there is an element of English Chauvanism in the SWP and that this defines their relationship to branches and other parties, including mine (Cymru Goch), in the Celtic lands. The Brit state is slowly collapsing and the Left in Wales (as it is in Scotland) is re-orienting itself as an anti-colonial movement committed to liberation from the British capitalist state.
Jim D.
e-mail:
serengoch@hotmail.com