SWP expulsions and squabbles

[emanymton]

From Bridget: "In January our district received an email with the subject “Birmingham: Some good news!” I opened it during a boring work meeting, excited to find out what
it was about and discovered that we had been chosen as a Socialist Worker sales
improvement area!...

This sounds like the sort of shit managers would come up with.

 

[Spanky Longhorn]

There's still one die-hard optimist with an article in calling for more internal democracy. Other than that, it's as boring as a pre crisis bulletin, although mercifully shorter and lacking the old confidence.

Presumably shorter due to the lack of actual members

 

[rekil]

There's only one seat up for grabs and Sinn Fein will win by a mile. However in a general election it is a 5 seater and there's definitely a far left (I.e. further left of Sinn Fein) seat for the taking. Paul is the highest profile left candidate who got a good vote in the constituency in the European elections. The hope is to get a good vote for Paul to put him in a strong position for the general election.

Paul's campaign has been up and running for a month. The SWP have declared with about a month before the by election. Now, the SWP/PBPA can run where they like but people on the left are entitled to draw conclusions about their real reasons for doing so.

Generally lefts don't stand against sitting lefts in Ireland. The exception to this rule is the SWP/PBPA. The decision to stand a candidate in the Euros was to build a profile to stand against a sitting left TD (MP) in the General Election. In the local elections the SWP/PBPA ran against sitting SP councillors in Mulhuddert in Dublin West. I'm told they ran in Tipperary where another left group the Tipperary Workers Unemployed Action Group who have a number of councillors and were hoping to gain more. Basically the SWP/PBPA have declared war on the rest of the left in Ireland.

Longstanding observers of the SWP here will know that when they decide to do something particularly sectarian they are normally smart enough to have some sort of bag carriers on board (variously at different times Labour lefts, Socialist Resistance, etc) to give the illusion of cooperation. They seem to have dispensed completely with that method in Ireland for a kamikaze mission.

There's no love lost for the Irish SP with the rest of the left in Ireland but the SWP are increasingly regarded as an out and out menace. Personally I think they've lost the plot completely, even on their own terms.

Murphy just about ahead with 36/98 boxes open according to tallies.

Murphy (AAA) 26.8%
King (SF) 26%
Keane (FG) 10.1%
Kearns (Lab) 9.7%
Lahart (FF) 9.3%
McMahon (ind) 9%

SWP/PBP on about 3% - well played comrades!

==========

e2a: From @gavreilly

SF's own #dsw14 tally now complete...

SF King 30.4%
AAA Murphy 27.4%
FF Lahart 8.9%
Ind McMahon 8.6%
FG Keane 8.4%
Lab Kearns 8.4%

 

[Limerick Red]

I see o'cuiv has said the by-election results will mean much soul searching for FF and they need to decide whether they are a party of the upper middle class or a Republican Party, I would have thought that was decided when they started executing IRA members.

 

[treelover]

We wonder perhaps if we will soon start seeing a slightly hunted look in the eyes of Bianca Todd.
Comrade Todd, one of the four directly elected principal speakers of Left Unity, apparently cannot turn up at an LU national council meeting without facing a motion of censure directed at her.
The latest was referred to briefly in Yassamine Mather’s report last week of the September 20 NC meeting, brought by Simon Hardy on behalf of Lambeth branch. Comrade Mather was one of many who gave the motion a cold reception - it “seemed to me like a witch-hunt … It is unfortunate that comrades who are now part of a culture that is liable to refer to the expression of political opinions different from their own as ‘bullying’ have submitted a critical motion to the NC targeted at one named comrade.”1

http://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1028/no-clean-hands/

Oh dear, it seems Left Unity is now attacking each other

actually, its quite sad.

 

[treelover]

Since its formation last spring, the ISN has become completely crippled by its intersectionalist commitments, to the point where it notoriously split over a controversial work of contemporary sculpture. We have, by lucky happenstance, come upon the minutes of the group’s latest leadership meeting, a good part of which seems to have been taken up by report-backs from no less than six caucuses (disabled members, “LGBTQ+ members”, “members who identify as women”, and their three complements - non-disabled members and so on). The more members the ISN loses, the more caucuses it sprouts.

The ISN also looks like supporting...

 

[rekil]

Murphy elected thanks to transfers from Fine Gael voters.

Spoiler

 

[belboid]

The ISN also looks like supporting...

anyone who believes everything that they read in the Weekly Wanker is a bigger fool than they are

 

[Nigel Irritable]

The last two Dail by-elections in urban Ireland have now had the same result - the Socialist Party / Anti Austerity Alliance winning, Sinn Fein coming second and the establishment parties nowhere. Today each of Murphy and King individually got a bigger vote than all of the three parties that have dominated politics here since the foundation of the state combined!

It is interesting to see the difference across the Irish Sea, where anti-establishment or protest votes are tending strongly to the right.

 

[Nigel Irritable]

Or to put it another way, in May in the Dublin West by-election, 50% of an entire constituency voted Trot or Provo. Today in the Dublin South West by election, 60% of the entire constituency voted Trot or Provo.

 

[Limerick Red]

SHOE IN

 

[Hocus Eye.]

Nigel, are you really saying that these voters voted either Sinn Fein or SWP? Or is there another deconstruction of your words that makes more sense?

 

[Nigel Irritable]

Almost. In these by-elections, the Socialist

Nigel, are you really saying that these voters voted either Sinn Fein or SWP? Or is there another deconstruction of your words that makes more sense?

No not the SWP, the Socialist Party. But other than that , yes. The Socialist Party (the Irish section of the Committee for a Worker's International) has just won the last two parliamentary by-elections in Dublin. In both by-elections, Sinn Fein came second, while the traditional establishment parties were not in the running.

 

[Hocus Eye.]

Almost. In these by-elections, the Socialist


No not the SWP, the Socialist Party. But other than that , yes. The Socialist Party (the Irish section of the Committee for a Worker's International) has just won the last two parliamentary by-elections in Dublin. In both by-elections, Sinn Fein came second, while the traditional establishment parties were not in the running.

Right, got it.

 

[Nigel Irritable]

@IrelandSWP: Well done to Paul Murphy AAA- a radical left victory in #DublinSouthWest shows the thirst for a fightback out there!

There is no reply rude enough.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Is it my imagination or is Delta trying to self-rehabilitate as a street art aficionado?

 

[Spanky Longhorn]

Not sure it needs a thread of its own but Bianca Todd one of the leaders of Left Unity has resigned and is demanding to stand again in the election to replace her. Shades of Reckless and Carswell?

it's over her behaviour as a director of a charity and stealing wages from her staff

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...when-youve-got-fancy-restaurants-9215416.html

 

[Karmickameleon]

Here's the Prof in the latest SW:

"We have to shake off the petty narcissism of our different projects and work together to create united left wing alternatives to neoliberalism both sides of the border."

Sounds like a change of line .... or is it just desperation kicking in?

 

[killer b]

Dunno, haven't the SWP always paid lip service to the idea of 'working together' (while acting against it, obviously).

He's right, but it's difficult to see what place he can have in such a coalition, considering.

 

[rekil]

Boyd-Barrett in big business beverage bust.

I expect he got that shirt and jacket from a "shop" as well. Of all the ways they could attack him and the SWP they go for this?

 

[Nigel Irritable]

Boyd-Barrett in big business beverage bust.

I expect he got that shirt and jacket from a "shop" as well. Of all the ways they could attack him and the SWP they go for this?

He's wearing shoes too. Doesn't the hypocrite know that shoes are made by capitalist businesses?

 

[JHE]

Boyd-Barrett in big business beverage bust.

I expect he got that shirt and jacket from a "shop" as well. Of all the ways they could attack him and the SWP they go for this?

In what way is that article linked to the poor old Social Workers?

 

[Nigel Irritable]

In what way is that article linked to the poor old Social Workers?

Richard Boyd Barrett is the main face of People Before Profit and behind the scenes an SWP leader.

 

[comrade spurski]

Was on the demo yesterday in London and was surprised to see far less swp paper sellers than I expected...was also surprised to see so few printed placards from left parties....there were mostly uion flags and placards from united, gmb, unison and pcs etc.

 

[Nigel Irritable]

Was on the demo yesterday in London and was surprised to see far less swp paper sellers than I expected...was also surprised to sell so few printed placards from left parties....there were mostly uion flags and placards from united, gmb, unison and pcs etc.

Why would you be surprised that the SWP are smaller and less visible? You are posting on this thread: you must know what happened.

 

[comrade spurski]

Why would you be surprised that the SWP are smaller and less visible? You are posting on this thread: you must know what happened.

Cos they are desperate to pretend they were not devasted as an organisation by their disgusting behaviour...I thought theyd concentrate on getting their placards out as a way of giving an illusion that they are a big organisation.
Im glad they could not do that...I am just a bit surprised

 

[chilango]

Was on the demo yesterday in London and was surprised to see far less swp paper sellers than I expected...was also surprised to sell so few printed placards from left parties....there were mostly uion flags and placards from united, gmb, unison and pcs etc.

I saw a SWP stall outside Blackfriars sometime after the march had passed. Manned by a lonely, but vaguely familiar, face.

 

[JHE]

...was also surprised to sell so few printed placards from left parties....

You'll have to lower the price.

Have you considered special offers? For a customer who buys, say, a full set of lefty placards you could provide a complimentary shouty trotogram

 

[treelover]

I saw a SWP stall outside Blackfriars sometime after the march had passed. Manned by a lonely, but vaguely familiar, face.

how the mighty have fallen, lost count how many times I nearly came to blows with the en masse stalls, paper sellers, etc, who used to dominate such events, progress at last maybe.

 

[chilango]

how the mighty have fallen, lost count how many times I nearly came to blows with the en masse stalls, paper sellers, etc, who used to dominate such events, progress at last maybe.

They may have just stuck with the march, I'd missed it and was seeing if I could catch up with the rear.