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So What of the SWP Now?

Northern A | 13.01.2013 20:18 | Analysis | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements | World

What's going to happen to the SWP? Maybe now it's time for good Socialists to do something worthwhile.

The revelations of the shameful behaviour of the Central Committee of the SWP won't come as a great surprise to those on the left outside of the SWP. Why is this? Because the SWP have always had something a bit odd about them. The SWP never seem interested in revolution or any of their throw away causes that spring up whenever they seem they might be popular. The SWP's main goal is always to expand the party and create a cushy life for their Central Committee and to hell with anything else. A good example of this is Red Action, a group of committed working class members who became too militant and out of control of the leadership and so were expelled.

The current fiasco, namely a cliquey group of mates covering up a sexual assault in order to seem like a united front and legitimise it in the name of democratic centralism is disgraceful for a party who are meant to be concerned with feminist politics. So what does this mean for the membership?

The SWP gobbles up socialist youths and sucks all the fight out of them, jading them from ever being interested in doing anything worthwhile. There are plenty of good comrades in the SWP, now is the time for you to rip up that membership card and go out into the community, become involved in anti-cuts and genuine working class associations and turn your back on the misogynistic, anti-working class hierarchy of the SWP.

Northern A

Comments

Hide the following 7 comments

I guess this person doesn't like the SWP

13.01.2013 21:03

If you had the authority and power, would you ban SWP?

questioner


Of Course Not

13.01.2013 23:00

I wouldn't ban any political groups but as an anarchist, I'm never going to be in that sort of power anyways so that's irrelevant. I'm not a huge fan of the SWP like most of the left outside the SWP and its front groups but I see a golden oppurtunity for the good comrades trapped in the party and the next generation about to be trapped, for them to abandon the SWP and do someting actually worthwile and revolutionary.

Northern A


Suspiciously W**king for the enemies of Society

14.01.2013 10:03



That is the SWP must have been set up to upset the genuine organisation by ordinary people.
They arrive with banners
placards at the ready
they have bad manners
mocking poor the needy
they look as a mob, a gang
living socialism by the fang
they are never where i am
in my daily battled state
they set off weird spate
of demos that are all the same
they are mostly youthful age
they attack if asked a question
they defy reason showing rage
they end the day by capitulation
of the cause the morality nullified
they justify by having u vilified
for daring to want their accountability
they fucked up so many causes
adding them up will take eternity
makes you wonder:
who are their bosses?
1000
Monday
14 January 2013

focusontheletterinthemiddle


So What of the Anarchists Now?

15.01.2013 00:17

The accusation previously posted on Indymedia is that the SWP mis-handled this case because they DIDN'T hand this allegation over to the police. Bottom-line, no matter how poorly the SWP handled it, the SWP were still RIGHT, in that respect at least, not to hand this issue over to the police, because the police are as we all know totally corrupt and the ALLEGED abuser is someone who has campaigned against that corruption for many years.

Whatever issues anarchists, or even ex-SWP "squads", ex-AFA etc have or had with the SWP, it's an extreme irony that any self-styled anarchist could try to jump on this band-wagon.

How the fuck would Anarchists have handled it, given that, while tens of thousands of people march in India, physically attacking the police for the cops' failure to ENFORCE laws against rape, while here in the UK the Anarchist Black Cross for instance openly campaign for all prisons to be CLOSED ?!

A1


The agenda behind these allegations

15.01.2013 00:25

The agenda behind these allegations is transparently obvious from the language in which it's been framed... the mainstream media talk of SWP holding "Sharia style" courts - the language is exactly that used against the activist left by the British National Party and by the English Defence League

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2261220/Socialist-Workers-Party-held-sharia-style-court-exonerate-party-member-accused-raping-female-comrade.html

If the people opposing the SWP in this context think this should have been handled by the police, then one option they have, if there's any truth to the allegation, is to take it to the police. I'm not personally advocating that, but if critics of the SWP think the police can do it better and/or they think think the allegation isn't just totally made-up then presumably the way to test their theories would be to actually place their evidence in the hands of the police

A2


The problem

15.01.2013 17:08

You may notice I didn't comment on whether or not they involved the police. What I have pointed out however is that the Central Committee are no better than how the police would have dealt with it. The accused was personal friends with those investigating and the victim was not listened to. This is tantamount to a cover up to protect the party image and using democratic centralism as a way to quiten down any dissenting members. This is not just accusations levelled by those on the left who have problems with the SWP organisationaly anyways but also party members. Follow the debate over on Lenins Tomb blog.

Northern A


Furthermore

15.01.2013 19:28

Sexiist and personal questions levelled at the victim are completely out of order and go against the politics of what the members would expect from their leadership.

Northern A