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Sheffield SWP cash-in on job losses

Trotwatch | 12.07.2009 16:12 | Analysis | Workers' Movements | Sheffield

Exposé on the scandalous behaviour of local Socialist Workers Party (SWP) branch raising money for their organising fund through exploiting the public's sympathy with sacked workers.

Many of you who frequent Sheffield city centre on the weekends will see the Socialist Worker Party (SWP) stall as a regular fixture on Fargate. Typical activity will see members of the local SWP branch selling their papers, attempting to gather signatures for the latest campaign and usually a bit of empty sloganeering on the megaphone. Having now seemingly abandoned their commitment to fighting fascism (the activities of the SWP controlled Unite Against Fascism group having completely failed on a local level) they have now turned their attention to the economic crisis and particularly the lost jobs in local manufacturing. Sheffield's steel industry has been hit hard by the economic crisis and local people are rightly worried about their futures. In that spirit this Saturday many members of the public greeted the SWP's efforts to raise awareness on this issue with enthusiasm, signing petitions in support of the workforce and donating to the cause... or not. You see hidden in the small print on the bottom of their uniform petition sheets is the clause that the money raised does not in fact go to support steel workers, their union or even a fighting fund for them, it goes to Sheffield SWP's organising fund! The plight of these workers is nothing more than a cash-in for the local branch. Once again the true, vile face of Trotskyism is revealed. This organisation does not care about the struggle of the working class, just the economic struggle of their own organisation from disappearing into even greater irrelevance!

Trotwatch
- Homepage: http://www.geocities.com/~Johngray/bolsh.htm

Comments

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So, no change there then.

12.07.2009 21:46

There is nothing new in the Swappies 'diverting' donations to their own funds, they've always done it.
Same with the petition signatures. They use petitions to draw people to the stall in the hope of conning some poor sucker into parting with their hard earned cash and the names are kept for other purposes never for what the public believe they will be used for, i.e. petitioning.

Bob


best thing about the swp

13.07.2009 09:32

the ones holding the "petitions" usually have no idea what its for and as soon as it was pointed out to them by me and a friend that, the petition they tried to get us to sign will never stop police brutality and is merely a reactionary act on their part to gain more members just like everything else they do. We got called fascists for that and told we do not understand revolutionary politics.

ballz