Not Waving...

When posters advertising a public meeting organised by the Oxfor Socialist Alliance (OSA) appeared, the IWCA decided it would be prudent to go along on the night to investigate.RA member, C. Stewart reports

It was felt that the IWCA should attend for two reasons: Firstly because the OSA has declared that it intends to stand candidates in East Oxford, which is the neighbouring ward to the IWCA’s Blackbird Leys base, making them political rivals.

The second, equally legitimate reason for attending, was to i.d. any non-aligned working class people that may turn up to the meeting who might be persuaded by IWCA arguments.

The leaflet advertising the meeting had the dominant organisation in the OSA, the SWP, stamped all over it. Under the hackneyed title "It’s time for a socialist alterna-tive to Blair", the target audience is quickly identified... "More and more pensioners, students, trade unionists, anti-racist campaigners and Labour voters are fed up with Blair". Pensioners (not all of whom are working class of course) were only recently elevated to the top of the list in an attempt to capitalise on the Pensioners Action Group’s recent media exposure. Leaving pensioners aside then, the striking thing about this opening sentence is that it manages to exclude the mass of the working class, whom it is a safe bet would, when presented with the OSA wish list, tick none of the above.

The meeting hadn’t even got underway before IWCA activists were approached by an individual asking if they wanted to sign up for a subscnption to h s party’s magazine. "Have you heard of a man called Trotsky?’ was his alluring chat-up line. Once this character had finished his rounds the proceedings began.

The speeches were standard Lefty waffle, leading up to the inevitable call for all in attendance to sign up to the OSA. The fun only began when the audience were asked if they had any questions for the panel. First up was a representative from the Pensioners Action Group who wanted to know whether the SA would support the pensioners if they got into power. Not a difficult one you would think, but it soon became apparent that the panel had no party line worked out for this one. Rather than admit as much, they played safe and used a classic SWP set-piece. This consists of ignoring the question altogether while a ‘comrade’ in the audience asks another on a completely different subject, the answer to which they had prepared earlier. The PAG delegate was getting impatient, no doubt not relishing the thought of having to sit through the meeting until the very end. "Excuse me? I asked you a question. It is very rude of you not to answer me". "Too right, answer the man’s question" an IWCA member interjected. The answer was however unforthcoming. The next two questions came from the IWCA... "If you are serious about building in working class areas you have to address issues that are seen as important to people in those areas: grassroots issues such as anti-social behaviour, drug dealing, lack of community facilities etc. What strategies does the OSA have to deal with such issues?" Even more straightforward was question number two... "We’ve heard New Labour being slagged off all night and now you say that you intend to stand against them at the polls. Are you not embarrassed by the fact that at the General Election it was you who told people to vote for them?" Both questions were well received by the non-SA members, the second question eliciting a loud "That’s a bloody point!" from a council refuse worker in the third row.

Again, as expected, no answers were offered from the panel. One SWP member at the back of the hall did get up to make a speech about drug dealers being ‘victims of capitalism’, etc. He opened his defence of dealers with the hilarious (well he thought so anyway) "Seeing as alcohol and tobacco are the biggest killers in the country, then the comrade must surely be referring to people who sell these when he says drug dealers". It was pointed out quite firmly by a by now seriously irritated audience member, that the speaker was well aware that what was being talked about here is the dealers of heroin and crack cocaine and that he should stop trying to be a clever cunt!’ The whole SWP/OSA attitude was summed up in his statement that drug dealers are a symptom of capitalism that must be tolerated

The next person to speak was another Trotskyist, th one trying to flog his magazine before the meeting. He directed his attention to the IWCA members. "What you need to do comrade is read Marx, Lenin and Trotsky, then you will understand.’ Under their collective glare he started to falterStuttering, he trie to bale himself out but plunged even deeper. "What you need is for us intellectuals to come onto your estate and educate you". "Fuck off you patronising wanker" came the response, at which point the OSA knew that it was too late to pull the mask back up, as their potential new recruits drifted over to the IWCA. (The Pensioners Action Group delegate actually stood up, walked over and shook the IWCA delegates hand, to exchange contact numbers. His parting remark being. "These people are idiots!" Afterwards others joined the IWCA group down the pub for a fruitful discussion over a few pints).

The meeting was brought to a close, leaving the questions unanswered despite constant haranguing of the speakers. Alan Thornett, by no means the worst panelist. even summed up with the obligatory ‘Refugee’s welcome here’ chant (complete with victo-rious punching of the air), inspite of the fact that the issue hadn’t been raised anywhere else in the meeting. All the while the SWP speaker, mortified by the IWCA dominance of the evening, sat staring down at his desk wishing he were elsewhere. As far as Oxford IWCA is concerned, the Socialist Alliance must be watched closely. The IWCA has no fear in its own Blackbird Leys ward, but it has neither the finance nor the resources to take on the OSA in other constituencies at this moment in time. The concern is that they will stand candidates in these wards doing more damage than good. The worst case scenario being that the OSA with typical Trotskyist tact, will bulldoze through working class communities making such a ham-fisted job of delivering Leftist ideas, that they roll out the red carpet to more reactionary forces.

The thoughtless incompetence and political naivete is perfectly illustrated in the aforementioned offer to visit council estates to spread the teachings of Lenin and Trotsky If these people had any real desire to affect social change they would accept the fact that it is they who should be looking to us. the working class for education, not the other way around. Lenin and Trotsky we’ll leave to their disciples in the SWP et al. But in the tradition of Left wing polemic, I shall leave you with the words of another crestfallen old tyrant. Uncle junior Soprano, the Victor Meldrew of the New jersey Mob, recently hit the nail on the head with this statement that describes the leading lights of a Oxford Socialist Alliance perfectly... "Some people are so far behind in the race, that they actually believe they are leading"

Reproduced from RA vol 4, Issue 10, March / April '01

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REDNECKS OF THE WORLD�

Over a period of some three weeks during July Red Action members engaged in a �debate� on the UK Left internet discussion site. Louise Cooper reports.

News of Red Action�s affiliation to the London Socialist Alliance travelled fast and has not, it must be said, been greeted with universal approval. Within the �alliance� itself the response has been muted. In other quarters, the reaction has been vitriolic.

On the UK Left internet discussion group, for instance, there was outright hostility from the start. It all began innocently enough. We inadvertently became involved, when an SLP member, entirely off his own back, posted an item from the Red Action Newspage on the LSA showing in the GLA elections in May, that he felt deserved a wider airing among the Left. The site holder Phil Holden, among others respondedalong the lines �that�s it�s all right to criticise from the sidelines but what have Red Action got to offer as an alternative.., surely they should take this perspective into the alliance and fight for it?� When news then filtered through that Red Action had in fact affiliated, joy was hardly unconfined.

Setting the tone, Ian Donovan was first into bat: �I have been involved in the Socialist Alliance project for well over two years, before the SWP comrades, and I have never heard of Red Action having the slightest inclination to support the Socialist Alliance up till now. It looks to me like they are trying to jump on a gathering bandwagon?�

And in any case, he went on �...they do not have the wherewithal to do anything to address the masses except publish a widely unread and obscure newspaper, which of course, is not really addressing the masses at all. They have no solutions, they are lust another tiny and isolated left sect, albeit with a reputation for being �hard knocks� vis-a-vis the fascists and a libertarian aspect to their politics. They really don�t offer very much of anything at all to the working class.�

Fatefully, in the immediate exchanges that followed, the term �middle class left� was used to describe the priorities of a certain section of the left: �the age of consent�, etc. This expression was used by - and this is important - the SLP member mentioned previously. In a flash, Donovan was not only hanging the accusation on Red Action but, immediately began retaliating with some soubriquets of his own. He would continue to do so on practically every posting he would go on to make thereafter. As the debate went on for over three weeks and the total contributions amounted to over 60,000 words this was, depending on your point of view, either heroic or just plain barmy.

When Red Action�s under-representation on the LSA�s steering committee was raised, Donovan described it as �whingeing�. And added, if RA were not happy, we should go back to our �working class ghetto... why would you want to join a �middle class� alliance anyway�.

Having worked up a head of steam the IWCA, an entirely innocent in the affair, was condemned as �sectarian and redneck� and it�s slogan �Working class rule for working class areas� described as �bullshit�. For Donovan: �The working class should rule the whole of society, not just some self-defined �working class� ghetto. From this you would think that the working class are not immigrant, gay or anything else not native to Red Action�s self-defined constituency in the most deprived but less integrated sections of the white working class in the East End.� Without any prompting Donovan had begun to betray the unhealthy obsession of the liberal left with colour.

In later exchanges, he routinely employs the term �multi-ethnic working class�. Red Action�s use of the term �working class� as an all-encompassing one is quickly redefined by Donovan as really expressing an interest in the needs of the �white� working class-only! Throughout, these colour-coded prefixes are all exclusively of Mr Donovan�s own making.

A little too readily, others on the list unquestioningly accept the Donovan stereotype. Janine Booth of the Alliance for Workers Liberty piled-in to deliver her tuppence worth, �... it does not mean - as Red Action seem to do - denouncing everyone who disagrees with you as �middle class�, every concern with basic humanitarianism as �liberal�, and thinking that you�ve got all the answers because you�re hard and everyone else is a wimp.�

Liam Sharp of West Midlands RA sought to introduce some clarity. �Far from being content to produce an �obscure newspaper� or casting aside our work in the Independent Working Class Association, we are also prepared to become involved as part of a larger alliance of left wing groups in order to advance within that alliance the need for the left to re-orientate themselves back to working class communities rather than become a �rainbow coalition� of interest groups.�

This reasonable account of RA�s motives in joining the LSA, was instantly thrown back by Donovan: �What that means translated, is that your sectarian, redneck, IWCA project has failed and you now see the Socialist Alliance project as the means to revitalise your flagging fortunes, based on its relative success (which you played NO role in) against the IWCA�s failure.� (Remember that this �relative success� of the LSA is based upon them polling half as many votes as the BNP in the London election.) The torch paper really took light when, prompted by the furore, a Donovan acolyte visited the Red Action site and returned with an item attacking the slogan �Refugees Welcome Here!�

Naturally for Donovan and co. the call for �Refugees Welcome Here!� is not a well-researched tactical demand based upon the objective conditions faced by both refugees and the �host� working class communities, but is a statement of �basic socialist and working class principle� - regardless of consequences. Anyone who dares question it, can be expected to be immedi�ately categorised by Donovan and friends as �lumpen�, �redneck�, �sectarian� or as Donovan himself puts it: �If you don�t agree with this, you are a chauvinist or a racist, or both.�

In vain, Red Action�s Tony Evans fought against the increasingly warped invective of the Donovan camp: �Red Action�s �reasoning� is that against a background of a beleaguered working class, being forced to compete for resources with even more beleaguered refugees, for the left to seem so eager to take sides with the minority (to no useful effect) merely invites the BNP to take sidcs with the majority. If such thinking is �strange� what should we make of someone who calls himself a �communist� yet seems to see the working class as an enemy to be conquered?�

Donovan has no time for such pussy-footing. Either Red Action proclaims �Refugees Welcome Here!� or it stands to reason that RA must therefore be opposed to refugees.

The political fight to win over the hearts and minds of the working class to progressive politics within their communities, thereby making those communities welcoming places to all who want to live there is dismissed, in order to win some phoney point of �principle� within the confines of the left. Damn the working class and their sensitivities. If they can�t see that the left are always right, even when they are wrong, then they will just have to be coerced into what is good for them -the �socialist� alternative as prescribed by the LSA. �Confronting prejudice and reactionary chauvinism is always a �price worth paying�. It is a question of principle.�

In areas like Tipton and Bexley, according to Donovan, this might be achieved by �militarising these communities� and reminding the working class of these areas of their responsibilities to the �multi-ethnic working class� which will form the vanguard of this mythical revolution.

�Maybe such backwaters will not be won over this side of the revolution, which may be based elsewhere (perhaps in the mainstream of multi�racial London). Maybe red guards based in Brixton or somewhere similar will put Bexley under military occupation. Maybe similar formations based in Handsworth or Sparkbrook will do the same to places like Tipton. Who knows?�

Not at any time is this challenged by the 120 list members. On the contrary the gloves come off. One former WRP member, Gerry Downing, goes as far as inventing a new verb in his eagerness to join in the verbal assaults on RA, �those that seek to descend to the ideological level of the fascists in order to fight them (to the extent of skinheading to look like them!) can never defeat them.� (�skinheading�!?!)

Despite strenuous Red Action efforts to take race out of the equation, Donovan and co continually raise it and re-raise it, in relation to the refugee question. Owen Jones offered the following check-off list: �How politically healthy a group is can be judged by a number of things - principally, their attitudes to women, to other races, to homosexuality, to refugees, to nationalism, to chauvinism, and to imperialism�.

Or as Janine Booth, was forced to remind him �possibly even to the working class�. In the sectarian rampage that followed, all Red Action, AFA and IWCA initiatives were trashed. The non-racial anti-mugging campaign in Newtown, Birmingham, is dismissed as �racist� and as �KKK-style vigilantes� without so much as even a modicum of knowledge about the area, or the campaign, being volunteered. The IWCA challenge to Labour in Hertfordshire is also waved away as an irrelevance. �Council corruption� we are brusquely informed �is not a class issue�.

All Red Action arguments are invalidated by our dismissal of the left as being �middle class�, while any baiting of Red Action is, acceptable because, as Ian Donovan says, �We do not want the left to capitulate to white nationalism like Red Action.�

Even with any sense of objectivity a distant memory, Donovan finally goes too far. �You can argue about the formulation of a slogan, about what would be the best form of words to make up a strategic demand or even series of demands to forcefully express the need to defend refugees, but to go steaming in and denounce the left as �middle class� for making this a focus of agitation. I find strange and deeply distasteful... in my experience the one�s who go on about this are usually the worst middle class elements themselves.�!

It had taken more than a fortnight for the argument to come almost full circle. It would not have been entirely complete without the ritual condemnation of Red Action �intimidation�. After weeks of goading, the Donovan faction suddenly began to complain of thinly veiled threats of violence... I certainly wouldn�t trust a Red Action member on a dark night.. etc. Following appeals, the site holder decided that something would have to be done. Comically, it was by now, the equally long-suffering SLP member who, in the interests of �democratic debate�, was duly fingered and �escorted� (if that�s the right word) from the site!

Looking back, it may have proved something of a turning point. �Ubersecterianism� was suddenly on the defensive with others beginning to support the Red Action position and acknowledging that his campaign of vilification was used to �stymie debate�.

�Stop complaining about the use of �lumpen� and check the record� Donovan screeched. �The use of �middle class� preceded the use of �lumpen� in this discussion by quite a long time.� �It is very clear who started the abuse. Those who steamed in screaming that anyone who didn�t agree with their reactionary position on refugees was �middle class� were the people who �started the abuse�.

But as is all too clear from the archive, it is Donovan himself who is the �screamer�. More seriously is has taken socialism some 50 years to get to a point where it attracts significantly less than 5% of the vote in London. There are many reasons for this. Chief among them, is the apparent inability of the Left to tell the truth on any consis�tent basis. This is seriously disabling for any form of activity. In politics, where there is a perennial tussle between ends and means anyway, it is terminal. If the tolerance of the level of sophistry displayed on the UK Left site is accepted as the norm within the LSA, then it is doomed. And precisely because of that same methodology it will take them at least half a century to discover why, and yet another fifty years to publicly admit it.

Reproduced from RA vol 4, Issue 8, September/October '00

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NEITHER LONDON NOR CHICAGO?

The recent fallout between the SWP and their fraternal organisation in the USA, the International Socialist Organisation, speaks volumes for the method of analysis employed at a leadership level. S. Harper outlines the implications for the rest of us.

This dispute was, ostensibly, about what the SWP perceived as the failure of the ISO to take account of the new �anti�capitalist mood� (?) sweeping the globe. This �failure� was compounded by the ISO�s inadequate intervention in the �Battle of Seattle� during demonstrations against the World Trade Organisation.

Initially, the SWP�s perception of the American organisation�s inadequacies centred on a numbers game. Not enough importance had been attached to the demo by the ISO and therefore the numbers eventually mobilised by them were insufficient to making a proper political intervention. The arguments between both organisa�tions take on �Life Of Brian� exchanges - but, obviously, without the humour. Together they number crunch until the ISO point out some of the distances involved in mobilising almost their entire membership as the SWP advocated to the Seattle event. �To make the distances clear to comrades, the distance between Seattle and Chicago is greater than the distance between London and Moscow. The Bay Area, referred to in the letter as the �closest district� is almost as far from Seattle as London is from Vienna..:� This is treated as a mere detail and proof of the ISO�s lack of revolutionary commitment, Unlike the battle-hardened revolutionary shock troops of the SWP.

More important and even more comical are the SWP�s complete misreading and overestimation of the events in Seattle. This is not just a problem that affects the SWP. It is something that runs right through left wing groups internationally. From Stalinists to Trotskyists to Anarchists - they believe that Seattle represents a �turning point� and that the world is now in a �pre-revolutionary situation.� Turning reality on its head - of the working class being in retreat and having no representation internationally; of the rise of the far right throughout Europe; not to mention the crumbling organisations of the revolutionary left - the SWP and others argue that, rather than staring at defeat, we are actually on the point of victory!

To further emphasise the ISO�s misinterpretation of events in Seattle (the ISO are no angels here because there is a cigarette paper-thin �gulf� between them and SWP theoretically) the SWP roll out all of the theoretical big guns like Cliff, Callinicos, Trotsky and �Old Baldy� himself, Lenin, in order to drive home their point that the �anti-capitalist mood� of Seattle represents the first wave of a revolutionary tide. Bizarrely, because they can�t find a quote from the ISO to fit their next devastating use of Leninist theory, Cliff and Alex Callinicos quote the attitude of the French Trotskyist organisation Lutte Ouvrier - who are not affiliated to the SWP�s version of the Fourth International - to Seattle. Having neatly fitted the ISO into the Lutte Ouvrier camp, they end with this revolutionary flourish:

�Lenin attacked precisely this kind of abstract sectarian �Marxism� when he rounded on those revolutionaries who dismissed the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin as a �petty bourgeois putsch�

So, there you have it. Seattle represented to the SWP leadership, not just proof of �a growing anti-capitalist mood� to be followed by revolutionary ferment; Seattle was our Easter 1916 as well!

As the ISO point out in their reply to this nonsense, the SWP are not exactly on sound theoretical ground when it comes to their estimation of the new �anti-capitalist mood�: �If we followed the same method, we might ask you why you�ve decided the Green slogan �Think globally, act locally� - which incidentally, you can find plastered as a bumper sticker on thousands of yuppies� Volvos in places like California and Vermont - is �almost Leninist�

The main driving force here appears to be the SWP�s obsession with piggy-backing whatever the revolu�tionary flavour of the month is in order to build their own forces. And recruitment to �the party� is the object of the �new turn�, both in Britain and internationally. �The anti-capitalist mood offers our party the prospect of real growth.� And they go on to reveal the true intent of the exercise by stating.� To aid this process, we must use the united front tactic.

In order to take advantage of the opportunities offered by this worldwide clamour for revolutionary politics the SWP offer their own unique interpreta�tion of the Trotskyist �united front� theory. That is; present your �front� organisation publicly as a �united front� - even an �Alliance� in the case of the LSA -and then attempt to hoover up all of those elements of the left who are attracted by the rhetoric by inviting them to Marxism 2000. Cynical? Not nearly as cynical as these chancers.

Reproduced from RA vol 4, Issue 7,June/July '00

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FREE KULDIP!

FOLLOWING THE J18 demonstration in central London in 1999, a member of the Workers Power youth group, Revolution, was jailed for 21 months following his conviction for violent disorder during clashes with police. In launching a solidarity campaign �demanding his release, the release of all others imprisoned and the dropping of all charges against all those and still awaiting trial�, Revolution have issued a document explaining why, all of the events surrounding it were, well, �just not fair�. To begin with, when in the morning the group sought, as part of the wider demonstration to picket �global bloodsuckers British Petroleum�, police were waiting for them with an INCREDIBLE four van loads of police officers!

Later about two o�clock after a �couple of hours partying in a carnival atmosphere, some protesters started to vent their anger against the LiFFE building - doing superficial damage to it, and a few activists burst through security guards into the building before being ROUGHLY evicted�. Not bad enough, the evidence of guilt against their own member �turned out to consist of over 100 photographs, and SELECTIVE footage showing him strike a fully equipped riot policeman, with a THIN banner pole. Even more incredibly the video footage �did NOT� show the police brutality that caused the violence in the first place. Moreover �A plea of self defence was also excluded for the same reason. AMAZINGLY, self-defence is only accepted by a court if the action of defence occurs within seconds of being attacked�.

�Kuldip Bajwa Political Prisoner� can be reached at: DN 7230, HMP Brixton, Jebb Avenue, SW2 5XF.

In the meantime �Build the movement against global capitalism -forward to May Day and Prague 2000�! Bless.

THE END FOR LM?

SOMETIME IN the last century, December 1998 to be precise, rival column Word in your Ear drew attention to the libel case being brought by ITN broadcaster against the magazine LM, formerly Living Marxism, owned by the former Revolutionary Communist Party now too defunct. As stated, the conflict arose when LM claimed footage of apparently starving Bosnians in a Serbian concentration camp was �faked�. According to LM�s version, �the starving were not inside the wire trying to get out- but outside the wire possibly trying to get in!� Or to it put another way �it had been the reporters not the starving inmates who had been enclosed by barbed wire�! Unsurprisingly, the jury took a mere four hours to return unanimous verdicts. Furthermore ITN claimed it had previously offered to waive its right to damages in return for a simple apology but LM would have none of it. As editor Mick Hume said in a statement after the verdict the magazine �apologised for nothing�. Its failure to �apologise for something� on the other hand cost the magazine in the region of a gob-smacking �675,000 in costs and damages.

Unsurprisingly both Mr Hume and the magazine are now bankrupt. But as was pointed out at the time �disaster like success does not happen overnight, or by accident, but has to be diligently worked at until it becomes a habit�. Ideology apart what borders on the genuinely bizarre is why they persisted in a lie they must have known would be exposed the instant the ITN footage was introduced as evidence. Given media speculation in relation to the overall funding of LM, what would now be genuinely spooky is if, in one guise or another, the increasingly mysterious LM project actually re-appears.

Reproduced from RA vol 4, Issue 6, April/May '00

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Socialist Outlook meeting in Birmingham

�REPUBLICANISM: IS THIS THE END?� was the title of a public meeting organised by Socialist Outlook in Birmingham recently. �Trotskyism: is this the end?� Birmingham Red Action mischie�vously countered in our own leaflet. Padraic Finn, of Socialist Democracy opened proceedings by dismissing the peace process as �the British dispensing temporary solutions to supplicate the nationalist movement�. He poured scorn on the simultaneous surge of support for Sinn Fein north and south �as nothing but community politics� adding, �republicanism had no perspective beyond that�. Furthermore by aligning themselves with �the forces of capitalism�, they had caused �the cutting off of working class nationalists in the north from those in the south - and in Britain�. �Helping Blair� he concluded �only makes problems for socialists in Ireland and here much worse�. As was so ably demonstrated, left to their own devices �socialists� are perfectly capable of making plenty of problems for themselves without any outside interference thank you very much.

Workers Power demanded the IRA live up to its �military duty� to defend Catholics from attack. A member of Troops Out coolly suggested, that if they were so keen to defend �catholics� perhaps they could take themselves off to Ireland and �arm themselves, possibly courtesy of the IRA�! Sadly WP couldn�t find it among themselves to offer even a half decent retort, and manfully swallowed the taunt with a gulp. A small incident, but which for some, epitomises the �voyeurism� of Trotskyism. �They like to look but not touch� was how the Tiochfaidh Ar La editor put it recently.

A life long member of the pro-imperialist British Labour Party declared that Sinn Fein�s participation in the Executive was evidence of their eager�ness to shore up the �status quo�. Someone who I presume can at least claim to speak on the issue of the �status quo� with some authority. The solitary Workers Action member, (not only in the meeting, but I suspect in the country) threatened at one stage �to expose what is going on�. So intricate was the conspiracy he declined to expand further. Overall the republican strategy boiled down to nothing more than an attempt to �democratise the Orange State� another whined.

But if indeed the six county statelet was democratised, then it could no longer be credibly defined as Orange surely? Even when allowed the fullest democracy themselves, Trotsky�s finest couldn�t decide when precisely the republican parrot had ceased to exist. The �collapse of the Soviet Union� was one offering. �Demobilising the solidarity forces with the Birmingham pub bombings� was another (perhaps this was the deliberate conspiracy our lonely friend was referring to?)

Generally the 30 year struggle had ended in �a historic defeat for the Irish working class.., as well as for the British working class� was Workers Powers� conclusion. Only Socialist Democracy was willing to �oppose the combination of bankrupt military strategy� and the oft mentioned �compromises with imperialism�. That the �bankrupt military strategy� they had routinely denounced, (at least as far back as the Birmingham pub bombings in 1974), was now coupled in the same sentence, with an equally withering condemnation of the IRA �for compromising with imperialism� - that is to say for finally following their advice - was breath�taking.

Yet for those few who, like them, �wanted to move forward� it would not be easy. No.They would �have to go further� they warned. This was their enigmatic Plan B. After 50 years of going nowhere, with nothing but their dogma for comfort, �going further� was politically very scary stuff indeed. But is it the end? Maybe not, but please God we are surely on the last chapter of a very thin book.

Bob Martin

Reproduced from RA Bulletin Volume 4, Issue 5, Feb/March '00

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Searchlight Conference in Birmingham

Of late the Searchlight team have circumnavigated the difficult questions that arise from any credible analysis of the state of British politics, and it�s possible consequences for the Far Right. However on November 10th Searchlight, in conjunction with B�ham Racial Attacks Monitoring Unit (BRAMU) hosted the first of three one-day conferences entitled �Combating Fascism in the Community�. Most of the �workshops� were of no particular interest to AFA, and were as far �off the mark� as not to warrant attention. However, one of the early seminars set out to summarise a recent history of fascism and anti-fascism in the Midlands, the discussion being led by Searchlight assistant editor Nick Lowles. Along the way the nervously honest Lowles made a number of interesting statements that confirm Searchlight magazine�s tendentious avoidance of political reality.

Under the �younger, more dynamic, media friendly� Griffin �the quality of intake is getting better - attracting people with more money from a less overtly nazi background.� The BNP, according to Lowles is now �much more effective, and led by much more able people�. He also cited a 41% membership growth in the last twelve months, estimating a paid membership of around 1,500 (in spite of the fact that the BNP issued 2,000 postal ballot papers for the Tyndall/Griffin contest). He went on to outline the BNP�s orientation towards community politics, be it in the Green belt or the inner cities (�the BNP have been making a big issue of pedophilia� - the alternative view of course is that pedophiles are a big issue because communities say so, and rightly so, and the BNP just set their sails to the wind).

Searchlight concludes that most of the new recruitment has come through the Internet - �where the BNP can relay their message uncontested: No mention of AFA, and no actual examples of how that �contest� was fought.

The national BNP focus for next May�s elections, Lowles reckoned, would be the Sandwell, Dudley and Walsall areas. �The BNP have set themselves a target of gaining a West Midlands seat within the next two years�, he stated. �A victory like this would make people think that a vote for the BNP was no longer a wasted vote, and open the doors for the future.� Yet when asked five minutes later whether he believed there would be a repetition of Europe here he replied, �I say no -although they will probably secure members and votes from London, West Midlands, the northwest, Dewsbury, Halifax and West Yorkshire.� Allowing for areas missed off the list, such as the southwest and north�east, that�s just about every city and conurbation in England covered anyway. A glaring contradiction from his earlier dirge.

If Searchlight can privately admit that �anybody but fascists� is not enough to address working class grievances then they should do so publicly, consequently severing State ties, and abandoning their liberal bourgeois clientele in the process. Instead their analysis is so diluted and censored the reader could be forgiven for thinking that British fascists are inept to the point of virtual extinction. �The BNP will not enter the British mainstream�, he reported confidently, because of �the inevitable conflict between urban racism and middle England. Also Britain hasn�t got a tradition of fascism. Our own nationalism is geared towards competing within Europe�. Perhaps this confused and hastily beat together analysis explains why Searchlight and all their minions don�t actually have a plan, because they feel they don�t need one. However, Nick Lowles returned to his confessional to conclude the seminar with a single line postscript, �We need to offer political, economic and cultural alternatives to the BNP.� A series of fund-raising cheese and wine evenings perhaps, followed by some hearty after dinner endorsement of the prevention of terrorism bill; there, that should do it.

Bob Martin

Reproduced from RA vol 4, Issue 4, Dec '99/Jan '00

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SWP's Continued Orientation to the Labour Party

IN FEBRUARY, I wrote in this column about the SWP's Action Programme, as being the latest in a tradition of finding something for their members to campaign around. Since then, the emphasis on the Action Programme has faded, and replaced by another 'initiative', this time a lobby of the Labour Party conference. Such activity is used to create the impression that there is some kind of movement growing against Blair in an organised way, but even the SWP's own publications show this is not the case.

"The Labour Party's annual conference takes place this month against a growing clamour of opposition to the policies of New Labour, which in all too many aspects mirror those of the Tory government" sighs central Committee member Lindsey German "but there are signs of resistance across the country. Housing workers from London's Tower Hamlets have struck for several weeks over the summer against the Blairite council's plans to replace local housing offices with a call centre. Council tenants are fighting privatisation of their homes. Pensioners have organised a national demonstration this month for decent pensions."

Hardly 'storming the winter palace' is it? The SWP have been having these lobbies for years now and, they're nothing except a day out for their members.
Under the slogans, "Let's tell New Labour: Restore the link - decent pensions; Welfare not Warfare; 35 hour week - No loss of pay; £5 an hour - tax the rich; End privatisation and PFI/PPP; Full union rights - repeal the anti-union laws; Scrap the Asylum and Immigration Act.", the SWP, despite developments, continues to orientate to Labour. Reinforced by having Labour has beens like Tony Benn and Liz Davies speaking at the rally. If they dislike Tony Blair so much, why are they still in the same party as him?

LRCI Website

It's not just the SWP who have a monopoly in ignoring reality, while talking nonsense, old favourites Workers Power have long been international leaders in this field. In December I wrote about the exciting new developments in their paper. An excitement based solely on the change of colour on their masthead: "We think the [new] look now reflects the fact that Workers Power is the only really revolutionary paper in Britain." This step forward for revolutionary newspaper design was so exciting that they decided to redesign and relaunch their website as well. The main feature on the site was a discussion page.

Predictably, the contributions were generally so uncomplimentary it led to all messages being "erased" and the site closed down. "How can the LRCI lead the international revolution if it is so intolerant and incapable of debating on its own internet space?" one asked afterward.

How indeed? Well, under the heading 'Ten years of the LRCI', Dave Stockton explains. "The LRCI has passed the test of the end of the century's historic turning point. It has a programme adapted to the new period of wars and revolutions that lies ahead. We have advanced and developed our programme and theory, expanded our range of publications... We accumulated a cadre increasingly steeled in internationalism as a day to day practice. The ten years work of the LRCI represents a basis for real advance, an achievement of which every LRCI member can be proud." Which is nice.

So confident are they of their politics, they have been forced to censor any disagreement in public. In reality, like their parent body, the SWP, they have not and never will achieve anything. The era of the sect is well and truly over.
Colin O'Brien
Reproduced from RA vol 4, Issue 3, Oct/Nov '99

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Comparison of RA with the Conservative Left

'A WEEK ', it is often said, 'is a long time in politics '. Yet it has taken a little over 750 days to lay bare the political contradiction of the century. ln May 1997 New Labour formally abandoned Social Democracy as a strategy, and in June 1999 the working class in turn abandoned Labour.

In much the same way, without the fig leaf of the 'Labour Movement ' (capital L, capital M) to hide behind, Trotskyism, which has dominated progressive politics in much of post-war western Europe, is undone. History has simply passed it by. As a recent Independent editorial commented: "the conservatives of the Left have no solutions relevant to today 's problems". As if to prove that very point, the archly conservative SWP responded by calling for a lobby of the Labour conference "in order to make them meet our demands."

The irony for a group like Red Action who at one stage very nearly turned working class self deprecation into an art form, but which took out a considerable investment in the early 1990's in freeing the decks of the Leninist legacy, now finds itself at a pivotal moment in the history of the British working class, promoted by default to the frontline. Not only has the death of progressive reform neatly coincided with the renaissance of the Far-Right in Europe, but as we have both predicted and are still preparing for, in the mainstream over here. So even while accepting that it has as much to do with organisational dotage of one as the vigour of the other, the recent head to head contests between the BNP and Scargill 's SLP in the Euro elections nonetheless confirm socialism as dead.

Far more interesting from a radical perspective than the fortunes of rivals, is 'learning the revolutionary trade ' and the sure footedness which only comes through being proved right time and time again on the essentials. It is no accident that Red Action can anticipate events and identify diverse trends the conservative Left are incapable of working out - even after the fact. SF advances, Labour and middle England, Euro Nationalist gains, SLP fiascos are some which immediately spring to mind. Now there is no mystery in this.

The key to the Red Action method for solving political conundrums, for identifying core contradictions, for getting to the heart of the matter, is simple. Internal democracy. An internal democracy combined with a working class composition not only allows, or indeed welcomes, honest and bracing discussion, but demands it. Class composition without internal democracy or internal democracy without a radical working class instinct instantly renders the advantage of one or the other void. So in effect those posing the questions are at least as important as those to whom the questions are posed, in that the ultimate responsibility is always on the membership rather than any leadership to get it right. Putting the long term interests of the working class first, at all times, completes the jigsaw.

Only by taking in the bigger picture can you accurately position yourself to make a difference, and 'making a difference ' rather than simply self promotion is what Red Action from the beginning has always been about. Only by being aware of the bigger picture is it possible to identify the cutting edge of the struggle and thereby formulate a strategy grounded in objective reality. This is the Red Action method. 'Amazing ' as the man from Vision Express says 'we are the only ones to do this '.

Self evidently, shaping the future is what politics is all about. And working class political independence or Euro-Nationalism is the radical future. Not just here but across Europe.

In such circumstances, providing a political lead, even for a 'despised outsider ' such as Red Action is not an option - but an obligation.

J. Reilly
Reproduced from RA vol 4, Issue 2, Aug/Sept '99

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Left Candidates for the Scottish and Welsh Assemblies

"THE ELECTION results in Scotland show enormous disenchantment with Labour. But they also saw a breakthrough for the Left, and hugely encouraging signs of the potential to build a socialist alternative to Labour", Charlie Kimber. "These results show that the Left is back on the agenda and there are great opportunities ahead", so said Dave Sherry, election agent for the SWP in Glasgow Cathcart (both, Socialist Worker May 14). His comments were partly about Tommy Sheridan of the Scottish Socialist Party winning a seat in the Scottish Parliament, but also about the SWP's vote in the same election. This was surprising as Sherry's candidate, Roddy Slorach, had just come bottom of the poll with 920 votes (3.41%).

Using Sheridan's vote as evidence of a swing to the Left is dubious anyway, given his high public profile, the long years of standing for seats in the same area and his recent conversion to Scottish Nationalism, it would have been a surprise if he hadn't been elected. The two comments are even stranger as Slorach got the highest vote polled out of the SWP's five candidates, all of whom brought up the rear in their respective constituencies .

In Wales, where the SWP stood on the United Socialist joint slate along with the Socialist Party and Cymru Goch, the results were exactly the same as in Scotland, around 2% or under.

So why does this pretty abject list of results lead to the SWP thinking the tide is turning in their favour. The answer is to be found in the same issue of SW: 'Socialist Worker supporters report hundreds of copies of SW sold door to door during the campaign, dozens of recruits to the SWP and some new branches established'.
However there is another, more serious, reason for them talking up the election results. Immediately after the General Election, Socialist Worker spoke of Blair's majority leading to a crisis of expectations amongst the working class and ever since have spoken of the 'growing anger' leading to a new opposition to Blair. In International Socialism no.82, the SWP's 'theoretical' journal, Central Committee member Lindsey German declared that Labour was in crisis 'in every major area of government policy' and that just 'one major national strike or an all-out strike in one city would lead to a rapid crisis of Blairism and Labourism as society polarised along class lines'. Heady stuff indeed.

In an effort to find the elusive breakthrough, they point to every little spat within Labour of being the harbringer of revolt. "I can no longer defend the indefensible. There is no alternative for me but to stand up and be counted". 'These are the words of Mark Irvine, a leading full time Scottish official for public sector union UNISON. He resigned from the Labour Party last week'; runs a recent piece in SW.
Now this quote doesn't tell us anything apart from the fact one individual has realised Labour is no longer the party of the working class. Plenty of working class people have realised this already despite the SWP's auto-Labourism over the years, particularly in the Rhondda where Labour lost 31 of their council seats. This doesn't mean much more than they've lost all faith in the main establishment parties. In protest, they voted Plaid Cymru.

In light of the above, it probably comes as no surprise then that the SWP have bottled out of standing in the Euro elections, giving the implausible reason that they don't want to split the Left vote because Scargill's SLP is standing. If all their rhetoric about the party booming and the working class champing at the bit were true, you'd think they'd relish giving a bunch of half-dead Tankies a pasting. But of course it isn't and they don't. While explaining away recent election results may have seemed easy enough, coming a poor second to the SLP (reduced to barely 200 members) might have proven a bit of a challenge even for the legendary grip of the SWP's central committee.
Colin O'Brien
Reproduced from RA vol 4, Issue 1, June/July '99

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The SWP and Ken Livingstone

FOR ABOUT six months now the Socialist Workers Party has been openly stating it's changed line on standing in elections. At the same this hasn't stopped it cheerleading the campaign to get Ken Livingstone elected as Mayor of London. The post itself is an irrelevance. But one that fits into Tony Blair's policy of coming up with shiny new ideas that are totally meaningless. In line with their policy of courting the old Labour Left it fits the SWP like a glove. As they see it they can't lose. In the increasingly unlikely event of Livingstone standing and winning, they will have shown how they're willing to help their chums on the Labour Left against the evil Blair clones. However, if, or rather when Blair dumps 'Red Ken', they have already expressed in tones of moral outrage at a recent pro-Livingstone rally, that 'Paul Foot will stand to make sure there will be a voice speaking up for socialism' (Socialist Worker, 19.2.99).
Interestingly, comedian Mark Steel appears to be equating Livingstone with Foot which will probably annoy the former more than the latter. It also, of course, assumes that Livingstone is a socialist, whatever that means. The headline of the article: 'Ken Livingstone's campaign to stand as mayor has revitalised many on the left of the Labour Party' makes him sound like cheap rate Viagra for desperate old lefties past their prime, which is quite apt. Livingstone is of course an interesting character. But for all the wrong reasons. Despite his 'leftie' reputation as leader of the Greater London Council, Livingstone is, and was, a devious bastard whose sole interest in life is his own advancement. His style is labelling anyone to his left with whom he falls out as MI5 agents'. Meanwhile he drools with envy at his old GLC mate, Tony Banks, whose chief role as Sports Minister appears to be 'licensed fool'. Livingstone has written a number of crawling articles in the press in a desperate attempt to be allowed to stand as Mayor. When Blair was predictably unmoved by this, Livingstone reinvented himself as the 'People's Candidate', knowing full well the idiots of the left would embrace him like the Prodigal son. Which of course they did. His best case scenario is a minor government post like minister for the welfare of Newts; Blair being more likely to amputate one of his own legs than be seen to be giving in to the 'Labour Left'.
In the same Socialist Worker (SW), the author laps it all up like a thirsty dog: "His speech was a breath of fresh air compared to several of his recent statements in the press. He disappointed many people when he tried to play down his disagreements with Blair. He wrote a column in the Guardian newspaper saying that he had 'no ideological conflict' with the government and agreed that if he was elected mayor he would work with the government, not against it. But last Monday,s meeting showed he is popular because people believe he opposes what Blair is doing. People want to see him attack New Labour, not make concessions to it".

All a long way from the previous issue, where Livingstone was accused of running away from providing a left alternative to Blair. But a week is a long time in the mind of anyone who thinks Livingstone could be a left alternative to anything. If SW is to believed, 'socialism' was the most overused word at his campaign launch rally, except that 'Red Ken' didn't mention it. Even once. Still for them it is the magic word, repeated often enough will... However, no one told the punters, who when presented with an SWP backed 'Socialist Unity' candidate in a recent Hackney council by election, gave them last place behind the Tories. So far so good. As an SWP member proclaimed not long afterwards, 'there never was a better time to be a socialist!'

All of which tends to disprove that Ancient Greek proverb which maintains that, "those whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first make mad." In the case of the SWP it's clearly happening simultaneously
Colin O'Brien
Reproduced from RA vol 3, Issue 6, Apr/May '99

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The SWP 'Action Programme'

THE SWP has a long tradition of creating new campaigns out of nothing in an attempt to recruit new members and convince the current ones that their organisation is 'involved in the struggle'. The impetus for the 'Action Programme', their current campaign, lies in Socialist Worker's analysis of the 1997 general election as a 'class vote' which would create 'a crisis of expectations' when Labour didn't live up to their promises. There are two problems with this scenario, the first being that it was the middle classes who voted Blair into power, and those from the working class who did vote Labour, did it with no expectations. Secondly, Labour never promised anything but more of the same, which they have delivered. To bridge the real crisis of expectation amongst their own members who were expecting a 'fightback' against Labour, the SWP has been forced to create an issue around which they can recruit, which in turn will 'prove' they were right.

The 'Action Programme' that the SWP proposes is yet another rehash of that staple of reformism: 'The British Road to Socialism' devised by the Communist Party of the 1960s, later by Militant in the 1970s and more recently by Scargill's Socialist Labour Party.

'Stop all closures and nationalise companies. Create jobs by cutting hours-for a 35 hour week with no loss of pay. For wealth distribution to the poor-£4.61 per hour minimum wage. Tax the rich. Increase welfare spending-cut the arms bill. End the Tory policy of privatisation. Full union rights. State control of international trade and commerce to combat speculation. Work for all-create jobs on full pay', blah, blah, blah...

So ever since the election Socialist Worker has been vainly trying to conjure up the phantoms of resistance and anger to Labour but to no avail. It is true however that a lot of the 'left' in the Labour Party are peeved that Blair is doing exactly what he said would, when he was in opposition, and it is this layer that the SWP is aiming at:
'At the monthly meeting last night it was proposed and seconded that Hallwood branch Labour Party would support the demands of the 'Action Programme. Our MP is aware of our decision and I should add that the resolution was passed unopposed. Fraternal greetings to our Socialist Workers Party comrades.' A letter from Ronnie Williams, chair of the Labour Party ward in Hallwood, Runcorn, Cheshire. (Socialist Worker, 10.12.98)

In essence the 'Action Programme' is pandering to the ideas of the old left. As Julie Waterson put it in Socialist Worker, (13.11.98), "The demands of the Action Programme connect with the 'Old Labour' ideas large numbers of workers already hold. One rail union rep in London said the 'Action Programme' was 'common sense.'" We may be on the verge of a new century but the SWP are still pushing the discredited ideas of the current one. If Labour won't keep the old policies going, then the SWP will shoulder the burden itself. Without a trace of irony, comrade Alastair proudly stated at the recent SWP conference, "The first group of people I asked to sign [the Action Programme] was a group of pensioners. One said, 'That's what Labour used to argue in the 1950s. The aims of the 'Action Programme', though laudable in an abstract sense, are the epitome of the SWP's bankrupt politics and cynical recruitment techniques. In the SWP conference report, they say: "The Action Programme is about helping to build a climate which can lead to resistance to factory closures, to occupations and to a fightback against attacks on working class people."

In the current situation where we have the lowest level of strikes this century, it is absurd to think that workers are going to spring into action when the SWP start waving their 1950's style Labour party programme at them. If anyone apart from Old Labourites does notice them, it will only be to confirm the view that they are a bunch of losers. But as long as they recruit enough new people to keep the show on the road, the SWP Central Committee will be happy. Despite the SWP,s long history of making student campaigns out of nothing, because the working class will have to be involved this time, the smart money is on them making nothing out of this one.
Colin O'Brien
Reproduced from RA vol 3, Issue 5, Feb/Mar '99

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The Decline of Workers Power
While the trotskyist outfit, 'Workers Power', is infamous amongst the British left for their various theoretical twists and turns; Red Action will remember them for different reasons. During the now famous, 'Battle of Waterloo', as chaos ensued all around them, they gathered for what looked to be an intense emergency meeting. All of a sudden, one of them reached inside their coat; jeez we thought we've got this lot wrong, they're seriously tooled-up. But no, they didn't disappoint, as they pulled out a bundle and attempted a papersale!

This was also the outfit that confidently predicted the IRA would be handing-in their weapons, even before the first ceasefire broke. What was needed, we were told, was an armed workers militia to defend the people the provies were about to abandon. It would have been worth the IRA offering Workers Power some gear, just to see their faces!

Since Workers Power abandoned AFA for ANL back in 1992 it has gone remorselessly backwards. Like the rest of the left, it has found it hard to come to grips with the fundamental political changes in Britain and is seriously floundering. Struggling with internal feuds and falling membership, it has in a last throw of the dice relaunched its paper.
The relaunch issue of includes such radical and innovative headlines as: "Welfare State: Safe in Labour's Hands?"; "Fight Straw's Racist asylum White Paper"; "Imperialists Support Nigerian Military as it clings to Power"; "Education as a right means No Fees and Full Grants".

Groundbreaking.
As they explain: "From this month, Workers Power has a brand new look. Our new Workers Power, in stark contrast to New Labour, still champions the old principles of socialism'. The purpose of the 'new design', we are told, is 'to remove any confusion with the 'red top' tabloids which many left papers have modelled themselves since the 1970's. Yes, including Workers Power until September 1998! The new masthead instead of being white on red is now red and black on white (see above). "We think the look now reflects the fact that Workers Power is the only really revolutionary paper in Britain." This from an outfit that demanded we all vote to put a right of centre party into government. Amazing what a simple change of mast head can achieve.

Despite the radical overhaul, evergreen is the need for a 'revolutionary party and programme for the working class and youth. What follows is what can only be described as worrying.
'The International youth movement, Revolution, held its first European Youth Camp in July. Between the meetings we had the chance to play football, volleyball, ping-pong and late-night matches of table football, which nobody involved will forget! In the evenings we had music, dancing and general partying, as well as a campfire, where we shared experiences with other youth from every corner of Europe.
The camp finished with a rousing speech... There was just enough time to sing the Internationale and have group photos taken before we had to say goodbye to our newly made friends and comrades and head home, with our heads still buzzing full of ideas'.
Now not even Enid Blyton's 'Famous Five' had that much fun.
Colin O'Brien
Reproduced from RA vol 3, Issue 4, Dec '98/Jan '99

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Analysis of Revolutionary Communist Group Strategy

In the last two issues, there have been reports in 'Community Resistance' column of IWCA activities in Islington and the West Midlands. In both cases the activities focused on the battle to reclaim our communities. Though there is a way to go before the IWCA objective: 'working class rule in working class areas' becomes evident, progress in the all important political mainstream is being made. One of the original participants in the IWCA was the Revolutionary Communist Group and it's instructive to look at what they are up to now. Two years ago they wrote enthusiastically of the initiative: 'The strength of the IWCA documents is that it consciously seeks to break with a past that has failed'. In particular they supported the idea of focussing on working class communities. One point that was emphasised at every turn was that the IWCA was conceived as a long term strategy and results could only be expected through long patient work.

Dogmatic left slogans and conceptions have not been a means of approaching the working class, but a substitute for doing so, trumpeted the RCG publication Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! Less than a year later they quietly slipped away in the night.
On the face of it the sole basis for discord was when they were disuaded from selling FRFI during an IWCA leafletting on the Isle of Dogs. For an organisation which aimed to break with all previous left tradition, it was curious that paper selling was still considered a priority.

In any case that was the last public activity they appeared on and the last time the IWCA was ever mentioned in their publication.
For some, the timing and nature of their departure was simply proof that their involvement was opportunism. In any case in the June/July issue of FRFI under the heading 'Building a New Movement' all is explained. We are told that: 'The entire capitalist system teeters on the edge of an abyss, because it cannot contain the mounting anger and resistance of the working class and oppressed. After a decade of reaction since the collapse of socialism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, we can sense a new optimism'. The justification for the 'new dawn' was the 60,000 strong demo outside the G8 summit in Birmingham. Primarily because of the involvement of people who were '... new to politics, greens, anarchists, christians, many open to anti-imperialist ideas'. Hmmm, wonder what they mean by 'open to anti-imperialist ideas'?

It wouldn't be that 'comrades sold 240 copies of FRFI, and over £100 of other literature....' (Incidentally the SWP were equally euphoric) No need for a systematic approach, a strategy 'for the long haul', if capitalism is on the point of immediate collapse anyway is of course the subliminal message. In the same paper they give a concrete example of a party preparing for social apocalypse. Under the banner headline 'Fight Poverty Pay! Dancing in Defiance - Campaign targets Polygram'. Apparently Polygram had the temerity to sack one of their members Nigel Cook.

On the first anniversary of the sacking a picket was held outside Polygram. Momentous events followed. 'Eventually due to uncompromising demands by our stewards, we walked triumphantly back down the road, past Polygram adorned with our banners and the mounted police, to the rapturous welcome of demonstrators chanting for the immediate release of Nigel Cook who'd been wrestled to the ground by two coppers as we broke through police lines'. Hard to believe that this was description of a picket of a few dozen people. Having ditched the IWCA the RCG have returned to the politics of the past with a vengeance. And no matter how many demonstrations, pickets etc take place none of this is going to effect imperialism, poverty pay or indeed the fortunes of the RCG. Their politics have no basis in reality. They talk of the 'mounting anger of the oppressed' while their own contribution is spiritual rather than practical. Which is probably what Marx meant when he described 'all sects as essentially religious'. More tea vicar?
Colin O'Brien
Reproduced from RA vol 3, Issue 3, Oct/Nov '98

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The Trotskyist Dilemma over Support for Labour
A defining feature of the Trotskyist left has been its continual support, albeit supposedly 'critical', for the Labour Party. Over recent years, some of these groups such as Militant (now the Socialist Party), have concluded that this position is no longer tenable, particularly in the light of Labour's wholesale adoption of anti-working class policies. While a step in the right direction, most of them still cling to a more 'radical' version of Labourism while calling for a Labour vote at elections.

This stance, dubious for at least half a century, has now become even harder to sustain. When Labour is perceived as being anti-working class by a hefty section of those who were once its supposed natural constituency, it's time to change the marketing strategy.

As Andrew Marr pointed out in the Observer recently, 'Crucially Blair does not believe in equality. He is not a social democrat. He has no enthusiasm for organised labour, no sentimental attachment to the post-war settlement. He feels himself to be a different kind of politician, responsive to middle England, rather than Labour Scotland. In his speeches he almost fetishises change and modernity; leadership for Blair is not about rendering social democrats more electable, but vaulting the whole idea between Left and Right. His Third Way is vague still, but Blairism, thus far means the three Cs - Christianity, community and competition. He is a market radical with decent social instincts. But he,s no kind of socialist'.

This now appears to be the position of the SWP, according to a report from a recent delegate conference. "Next year's elections to the Scottish parliament have already become the focus for official politics. The Scottish National Party is putting on a left face. We should not abstain from the argument. We are in a position to put forward class politics and stand candidates on a class basis." Lindsey German, Socialist Worker 23rd May 1998.

The catalyst for their change of heart appears to lie in a fear that they will get sidelined, not only by the Scottish National Party, but more importantly for them, by Scottish Militant Labour and the Scottish Socialist Alliance. Any call for a vote for Labour would be suicide in the current climate and to support the SML and SSA, who, incidentally, will probably have fused into one organisation by the time of the elections in 1999, would be an admission that they just can't cut it. They would run the risk of total wipeout in Scotland, an area where they've always been weak.

The only solution is to stand themselves but this creates a real presentation problem. As recently as last May they claimed a vote for Labour was a 'class vote'. To make things worse for them, much of their membership and wider support come from layers around the trade union and student left who wouldn't have touched the SWP with a barge pole when there was a substantial Labour soft left. That is why it is likely, that though they will stand in the Scottish elections out of pure necessity, they may get cold feet when it comes to future local elections. German herself inserts an instant get-out clause in the next paragraph:

"Elections are only a small part of what we do and standing underlines the need to deepen our roots, set up more workplace sales and build a layer of working class militants around us. We have no idea what vote we will get. We can look big in some workplaces and on demonstrations but elections are not the best area for us. The most important question for us is not the elections. It is building our branches for the important battles to come."

In other words, the most important thing is still to recruit new members, so they can, in turn ...recruit new members. This is backed up by a quote from a 'leading' student, who says: "We've got to use the next few weeks to sign up students to Marxism. We have got to find them in the libraries and coffee bars. The more students we sign up to Marxism this year, the bigger our SWSS (SW student societies) groups will be next year. "
The 'new road' turns out to be the old road with an extra lane on it.
Colin O'Brien
Reproduced from RA vol 3, Issue 2, Aug/Sept '98

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Paul Foot on Racism

The Guardian (24 March) saw the Paul Foot column dominated by an account of a black woman teacher attacked on her way home from school and harassed ever since. 'NF' and swastikas were daubed on her kitchen door. Police are treating the campaign as racial harassment and have installed a panic button in her home. Paul the revolutionary asked Alison the teacher "what could be done." She suggested that more money should be spent on school security. "If there had been a surveillance camera outside that school building that night, the thugs would have been caught and locked up by now. Secondly: schools should spend more time and effort teaching people not to be bullies and not to be racists." She suggested that as "these young men must have been to school somewhere" and assuming the school implemented anti-racist policies, she concluded it was presumably because 'their parents are racist'. Paul of course, concurs. "This part of London harbours racist gangs, inspired by fascist propaganda, which glorifies bludgeoning and murdering people because of the colour of their skin. They represent a tiny minority, universally hated and despised. Perhaps the Stephen Lawrence inquiry should extend its terms of reference and make some practical recommendations about how these gangs can be identified, isolated and stopped'. Theory: fascist propaganda makes racists. Racist's make children, who make race attacks. The attackers are a tiny minority universally hated. Solution: CCTV; intensive race awareness at a school; and a public inquiry to make some "practical recommendations" to stop them. Since 1986 a series of reports, often containing the very 'practical solutions' Paul Foot believes in, came to some very different conclusions. They found that:
(1) The politically correct approach proved disastrous in working class areas.
(2) Racial incidents are at an all time high and rising.
(3) Race attackers often come from homes that are non-racist
(4) Entire communities actively protect the perpetrators.
(5) The BNP though not active in an area have an important symbolic significance.
(6) Race awareness policies are themselves often the primary source of racism.
(7) Local government policies buy into racialisation in a very visible way.
(8) It is this creation of difference that sets communities against each other.
For the last thirteen years, these devastating reports have all been systematically buried or binned. This is a major scandal. A knowing determination to address the symptom rather than the cause is not a sincere attempt to resolve the problem of racial violence but to - perpetuate it. Paul Foot has a reputation for investigative reporting - well there's something to investigate Paul.

43 Group

On April 22, a film dedicated to The 43 Group was shown at Hackney Town Hall. It told the story of 43 Jewish ex services personnel, 38 men and 5 women, who returned from WW2, to find London in particular, awash with an estimated 10,000 unrepentant and undefeated fascists. They decided something needed to be done, and formed the paramilitary 43 Group. Hundreds joined; the spearhead being formed by 300 former commandos who took on the fascists with ill-disguised relish. Meetings and marches were smashed up at a rate of 3 or 4 a week. After 4 years of unrelenting violence, Moseley's boys were on their knees. As Vidal Sassoon commented 'we beat them because we hated, and were more ruthless'. In discussions afterward the consensus was that nowadays a combination of multi-ethnic coalitions, education and the Special Branch was the best solution. Militants should have the courage to stand back and let the future unfold we were told. The same political forces historically responsible for the Holocaust will concede, without another punch being thrown that 'the future belongs to us', apparently. Which is nice.
Andy Shaw
Reproduced from RA vol 3, Issue 1, June/July '98

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