Socialist Party

and the 'Militant' tradition

Do we support banning the Socialist Party from the student movement? No. Will we stop criticising its bad politics on sexism? No.

The Socialist Party group has attacked Workers' Liberty's alleged position on excluding/banning them and the SWP from various areas of student organising – claiming that we support such bans when in fact we have consistently and publicly opposed them. (They come very close to outright lying about what we say. Before we go on, see here for our real position. There are more links included below.) The SP's statement claims that there is something like a 'witch-hunt' against it (and the SWP). We think that this refers to widespread criticism of the SWP's handling of complaints against its former...

Should the left say: "Let the Kurds die!"?

Over a thousand Kurdish people gathered in Trafalgar Square, London, on Saturday 1 November, taking part in a day of international solidarity for the Kurds fighting ISIS (Daesh, "Islamic State") in Kobane. Among the small number of people at the protest who were not Kurdish were a handful of representatives of the Socialist Party and SWP. Both these groups have a problem. Both campaign to stop the US bombing which is currently helping the Kurds resist IS. They do not just do as Solidarity does - express no confidence in the US, refuse to endorse its campaign. They specifically campaign to stop...

Solidarity with the Kurds is our first concern

As fighters from “Islamic State” (IS) enter the besieged Kurdish town of Kobani in Syria, Kurds abroad have been demonstratiing in several major European cities. In a conflict between the democratic, secular Kurdish forces and the fascistic barbarism of IS, Kurds should expect the support and solidarity of the UK left. Over the summer, British socialist organisations were rightly a dynamic force in building demonstrations against Israel’s murderous attacks on Gaza, with up to 150,000 marching in London alone. Like the Palestinians, the Kurds are an oppressed nation struggling for self...

Right and left on Iraq

The right and Iraq The USA and most other big-power governments (including China, which has huge oil interests in Iraq) have followed a Saudi call for “a national conciliation government” in Iraq. Vladimir Putin’s Russia has confined itself to saying: “We warned long ago that the affair that the Americans and the Britons stirred up there [in Iraq] wouldn’t end well”. The US has got a pledge from Maliki to form a new government by 1 July, but may resign itself to Maliki heading it. The Sunni minority in Baghdad is reckoned to have fallen to 12% (as against 35% pre-2003) over ten years of...

PCS discusses Unite takeover

Two contrasting views of the proposed takeover of civil service union PCS by Unite by a PCS activist and a Unite community member. PCS-Unite: no to merger! A PCS activist The annual conference of PCS, the largest civil service trade union, on 20-22 May will debate a motion submitted by the union’s Executive (NEC) on PCS merging into the big general union Unite. The motion would instruct the NEC, on completion of talks with Unite, to convene a special delegate conference to debate the terms of “merger” and decide whether to proceed to a membership ballot to authorise the “merger”. Strictly...

May elections

In the 22 May council elections, the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) is making a big effort to stand 561 candidates. In the European elections on the same day, No2EU will field 46 candidates in seven regions. The Left Unity group is standing only 12 council candidates across the country. TUSC is an electoral alliance mainly of the Socialist Party and the leadership of the RMT union. It also involves the Independent Socialist Network and the Socialist Workers’ Party. Its platform is pretty much limited to opposing cuts. Steve Hedley of the RMT is a TUSC candidate in East Ham; the...

For a Trotskyist regroupment (1967)

This appeal for revolutionary socialist regroupment, based on unity in action and debate on differences, was one of the first public political statements of our tendency, in 1967.The RSL referred to would come to be better known as Militant, now the Socialist Party and Socialist Appeal. The SLL would become the Workers Revolutionary Party. IS would become the Socialist Workers Party. The need for a healthy revolutionary socialist Trotskyist movement in Britain has rarely been more obvious. Not for a decade and a half has there been such an opportunity as now to advance revolutionary politics...

Teachers' dispute must escalate

Members of the National Union of Teachers will strike on Wednesday 26 March. Talks with the Department of Education are ongoing, but the government has made it very clear that these talks will not deal with the issues at the heart of the teachers’ dispute. They will only discuss the implementation of policies, including the raising of the retirement age to 69, the end of final salary pensions, and the end of automatic annual pay progression. Unfortunately, the other main teaching union, NASUWT, will not strike. This has left some NUT members in schools demoralised and frustrated and where...

The left in the miners' strike

This year is the thirtieth anniversary of the great miners' strike. A new book by Workers’ Liberty, out this week, tells the story of how working-class communities fought a Tory ruling-class government. But how did the left conduct itself? The Labour Party, led then by the former "soft left" Neil Kinnock, refused to indict the government and brand its activities for the vicious class war they were. Many thousands of rank and file Labour Party activists were, however, active organisers of the miners’ support groups. If the organised revolutionary socialist left had worked together seriously —...

Expulsions, exclusions, and “punishments”

Some union branches which previously nominated SWP members as left candidates in union elections have not done so this year. The motive is to register a protest against the SWP’s 18 months or so of crass mishandling of charges of sexual harassment and then rape against a leading organiser. Some of those refusing to nominate explain that in the actual vote between an SWPer and a right-winger, they will vote for the SWPer. The refusal to nominate is intended as a gesture of reprimand. It’s not clear if any significant number of left-wing union activists actually intend to vote for the right...

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