SWP and Mark Thomas
Tony Greenstein | 23.05.2003 19:15
I am a marxist, not a member of any party and certainly not an anarchist. My only claim to fame is being Secretary of the only independent Unemployed Centre in Britain.
I fully agree with Mark Thomas's critique of the SWP. They have a terrible history of setting up 'united fronts' which they treat as playthings through which they can recruit members. In the Socialist Alliance, which they have all but destroyed, they refuse ANY internal democracy (they have Tony Blair's slate/fixed list system). They refuse to help build a Scottish Socialist Party type organisation in England and Wales with which we could challenge New Labour, indeed they found space for all sorts of wishy washy liberals on the February 15th Peace Demo platform in London but noone from the SA was able to speak.
The SWP's sectarianism has led us to the situation where the ANL claims to be the only anti-fascist group in existence. It's sole strategy is to label the BNP 'Nazi' rather than fascist. Not surprisingly the BNP is gaining huge support where it stands (an average of 17% for its 209 candidates). Yet Julie Waterson claims at the SA Conference that the BNP has been marginalised and the ANL is on the point of crushing them. THe ANL is undemocratic, controlled by SWP fulltimers and with no independent or healthy life of its own.
Absolutely agree that when the SWP talk about Globalise Resistance it means Monopolise Resistance. Actually its even worse. They talk anti-capitalism in GR and when working in STWC they refuse to even mention socialism or class issues. It's no surprise that the main beneficiaries of the Peace Movement were the Green Party and the Liberal Democrats. THe latter ended up supporting 'our troops' and the Green Party do not see any connection between capitalism, war and the environment, believing as most (no not all!) of its members do that capitalism itself can be greened.
The SWP suffer from the same faults as most far-left sects. They believe that by building themselves they build a movement for socialism and against capitalism. In reality they destroy any such movements.
Tony Greenstein
I fully agree with Mark Thomas's critique of the SWP. They have a terrible history of setting up 'united fronts' which they treat as playthings through which they can recruit members. In the Socialist Alliance, which they have all but destroyed, they refuse ANY internal democracy (they have Tony Blair's slate/fixed list system). They refuse to help build a Scottish Socialist Party type organisation in England and Wales with which we could challenge New Labour, indeed they found space for all sorts of wishy washy liberals on the February 15th Peace Demo platform in London but noone from the SA was able to speak.
The SWP's sectarianism has led us to the situation where the ANL claims to be the only anti-fascist group in existence. It's sole strategy is to label the BNP 'Nazi' rather than fascist. Not surprisingly the BNP is gaining huge support where it stands (an average of 17% for its 209 candidates). Yet Julie Waterson claims at the SA Conference that the BNP has been marginalised and the ANL is on the point of crushing them. THe ANL is undemocratic, controlled by SWP fulltimers and with no independent or healthy life of its own.
Absolutely agree that when the SWP talk about Globalise Resistance it means Monopolise Resistance. Actually its even worse. They talk anti-capitalism in GR and when working in STWC they refuse to even mention socialism or class issues. It's no surprise that the main beneficiaries of the Peace Movement were the Green Party and the Liberal Democrats. THe latter ended up supporting 'our troops' and the Green Party do not see any connection between capitalism, war and the environment, believing as most (no not all!) of its members do that capitalism itself can be greened.
The SWP suffer from the same faults as most far-left sects. They believe that by building themselves they build a movement for socialism and against capitalism. In reality they destroy any such movements.
Tony Greenstein
Tony Greenstein
e-mail:
brightonunemployedcentre2000@yahoo.co.uk
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