Left unity

Why is the left so divided? How can we bring about unity? Includes sections on the Socialist Green Unity Coalition and the (former) Socialist Alliance.

Left Unity: Progress in Newcastle

In Newcastle we have a Tyneside Socialist Forum which has existed for a long time — before the Socialist Alliance. It was relaunched last year. Along with AWL members it includes independent socialists, left anarchists, ex-CPers and some people from FRFI. It meets regularly and has political discussions, it could be the springboard for greater left unity. Our next meeting will be discussing precisely that. The SWP have said they will come to the meeting, which is good. The Socialist Party haven’t said they won’t… at least not yet. It would be good if the group could initiate its own campaigns...

Left Unity: SWP presents its left unity initiative

The SWP has held meetings about its “left unity initiative” on the fringe of the Unison union conference and in Sheffield and other cities. Ed Whitby reports from the meetings in Middlesbrough and Gateshead: “The SWP have little to say, but these two meetings were useful for us in opening up the discussion and for showing to the SWP periphery that we are serious about working with them even when we are very, very critical of them ideologically. And that we have concrete ideas for united activity when they just say ‘unity’ and UAF and demos”. At the Unison conference fringe, Charlie Kimber was...

Left Unity: The Socialist Party responds

At the Left Unity Liaison Committee meeting on 13 June, the Socialist Party said that it is not interested in a new Socialist Alliance for now. Instead, it hopes to continue its “No2EU” alliance with RMT general secretary Bob Crow, the Communist Party of Britain (Morning Star), and the Alliance for Green Socialism, into some “son of No2EU” coalition for the general election. The Socialist Party has also responded to the SWP’s call for unity, by rehashing an argument the SP had inside the Socialist Alliance which led to it leaving the alliance in December 2001. Its argument about the SWP is apt...

Battle yet to get new Socialist Alliance; possible "son-of-No2EU" coalition

The "No2EU" coalition may be continued into a new coalition at the General Election. But it looks as if we still have a big battle on our hands to pull the socialist left into a new Socialist Alliance. The Left Unity Liaison Committee, which has existed in a low-key way for some time, met on 13 June. Although the SWP's "Left Alternative" has been represented at some meetings in the past, and the organisers had made special efforts to get the SWP along this time, the SWP did not come. The meeting was valuable for information and discussion on what the left groups involved in "No2EU" make of...

Left unity? Yes! But why is the “left” divided now?

There are a sizable number of “unite the left” calls, campaigns, conglomerates and projects in Britain now. Do any of those calling for “unity”, a “new Marxist Party”, etc., have any prospect of uniting? Not at all! The unity projects serve as mere hypocritical packaging for the real message — “come join us”! (The exception may be a small re-grouping between the International Socialist Group — Alan Thornett and Dr John Lister, a writer for the Stalinist Morning Star — and a few ex-Socialist Workers Party activists who sided with George Galloway when “Respect” split. The rumour that they will...

Left unity in the 1890s

From the mid-1890s, British socialists tried to unite under one umbrella. Tom Mann, as Secretary of the Independent Labour Party, was at the centre of the negotiations and debates that took place between the ILP and the Social Democratic Federation. These moves, popular with the members, were scuppered by the leaderships, mainly that of the ILP. Left unity was an inevitable question thrown up by the formation of the Independent Labour Party in 1893. Why were there separate organisations of socialists, asked the members. Shouldn’t the groups merge, fuse or federate? Both organisations were...

For left unity in the student movement!

ENS has nominated four candidates for the full-time positions on National Union of Students National Executive. These are: • President: Daniel Randall, Sheffield University • National Secretary (and Block of 12): Heather Shaw, Sheffield College • National Treasurer: Koos Couvée, Sussex University • VP Further Education: Laura Simmons, Park Lane College, Leeds Our common statement outlines why we are standing: We are standing because we want a campaigning NUS that mobilises many thousands of students in mass action to win; because we want a democratic union controlled from below by its members...

'Apparatus Marxism', Impoverished Twin of 'Academic Marxism'

“You who have really done something, must have noticed yourself how few of the young literary men who attach themselves to the Party take the trouble to study economics, the history of trade, of industry, of agriculture, of the social formations… The self-conceit of the journalist must therefore accomplish everything and the result looks like it…" — Friedrich Engels Introduction Watching the accelerating political and moral degeneration of the Stalinised “Communist International" in the mid-1930s, Leon Trotsky entitled one of his commentaries “Is There No End To The Fall?" Had he been forced...

New Zealand Left meets

From 1 – 3 June the Workers Party of New Zealand hosted its annual “Marxism” conference which featured international speakers and interventions by other NZ left groups. Around 60 mainly young people met in a serious-minded, yet lively and comradely atmosphere to discuss the class struggle and the prospects for socialism. Dennis Maga from the Philippines addressed the conference on state repression, focusing on the plight of imprisoned congressman and former leader of the KMU union federation Crispin Beltran (a.k.a. “Ka Bel”). Maga’s campaign has dogged President Gloria Arroyo’s recent visit to...

Socialist Alliance ended: we still need left unity!

By Martin thomas After 12 years as a coalition of the left the Socialist Alliance was shut down at a conference on Saturday 5 February. It was a close vote: 73 to 63, with two abstentions. The 63 votes against closure were the same number as for the main “left” position at the last SA conference, in March 2004, Lesley Mahmood’s amendment against the SA supporting Respect and for standing SA candidates in the 2004 council elections. Immediately after the March 2004 SA conference voted to support Respect, the SWP and its friends shut down the SA at national level (in contradiction to the text of...

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