Left unity

Special issue of Workers Liberty on the question of left unity, and the need for an organised socialist voice in the working class. Part 1: The working class movement today Part 2: The left must reorient Part 3: In the perspective of history Part 4: Unity in action, dialogue where there are differences Part 5: The party we need , by Max Shachtman

Socialist Green Unity Coalition : IN THE looming general election a joint campaign against Blair is being mounted by five left parties and some independent socialists. These will put forward an alternative to the right-wing policies of privatisation, war and environmental destruction offered by both the major parties and the Liberal Democrats too. We believe that the New Labour party of Blair and Brown has deprived the working class of political representation, and we want to restore a workers’ voice in politics. We believe MPs should earn the average wage of a skilled worker and we are...

The Socialist Alliance, the Respect Unity Coalition and the future of the left On 25 January, short of a political miracle, a tarpaulin will be pulled over much of working-class socialist politics in England. The Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and a large part of the activist left will sign up the "Respect" coalition as their political vehicle for the coming months. Its politics: a bland collation of sops for various constituencies (peace, green, Muslim, trade-union). Its figurehead: George "I need £150,000 a year" Galloway. Marx and Engels called the Communist Manifesto communist, not...

The right wing of Labour Students and its allies have run NUS for more than 20 years, resulting in defeat after defeat for the student movement. Since 1998, however, they have faced increasing opposition, with a united left slate challenging the Labour/"independent" leadership in the elections at every NUS conference. In 1998 and 1999 this united slate was made up of the Campaign for Free Education and the SWP's student wing SWSS; since then it has also included various independents and student supporters of Socialist Action. This strong display of left unity has drawn in wider forces and...

This article is from Hackney Solidarity , the local Workers' Liberty newsletter. It was published in an edition produced for a Socialist Alliance public meeting at which Tommy Sheridan and Michael Lavalette spoke, the title of which was 'The Left Strikes Back'. In Hackney, you can find most of the ill effects of capitalism and the rotten politicians that run it. Hackney has high levels of poverty, unemployment and poor housing. Public buildings are being replaced by luxury apartments which only City high-flyers can afford. The Council is handing over public services to quangos which are run by...

Martin Thomas To "campaign for a workers' party" means three things: 1. Setting out and grouping people round basic working-class political objectives-independent working-class political representation, a workers' government, a working-class "Third Camp" in international politics. 2. Arguing for working-class socialist unity, in the form of a new Socialist Alliance-a new regroupment of the left which rejects the SWP's hijack of the present Alliance and continues what that Alliance started out to do. 3. Developing a consistent policy in the unions to mobilise them against the New Labour...

In June the Socialist Workers Party packed a meeting of Birmingham Socialist Alliance with newly signed-up SWP members to remove the entire executive of the local Alliance - including the chair, victimised FBU militant Steve Godward - and replace them with SWP members and fellow travellers. In Birmingham the SWP want to see a "Peace and Justice" candidate - mounted jointly with the leaders of local mosques - that is an alliance with a religious hierarchy. Comrades in Birmingham rightly fear that such an alliance would be a betrayal of independent working-class politics and full civil equality...

Two pleas for unity in action Protestant autonomy: imperialist prop? A plea for unity in action A bother, upset and disappointment I have is to see the continuing 'spat' between the many 'left'/Marxist groups. All seem to concentrate not on a main enemy, capitalism, but on each other. The analysis of the present situation seem pretty sound in the myriad of these groups but they are all obsessed with what was the Soviet Union. Do they all realise it's gone? Marx and Engels were right in their time, and even more right, were they here today. Would have been just as right if the Soviet Union had...