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SWP expulsions and squabbles

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The SWP's Split on Tyneside

A pandemic has circled the globe several times and we see liberal democratic states assume unprecedented powers to stop the spread of cont...
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A pandemic has circled the globe several times and we see liberal democratic states assume unprecedented powers to stop the spread of contagion. We live in an emergency, and yet the wheels of the mundane continue to turn. People make new connections and fall out with each other. Shopping happens. And murky practices come to light. Unfortunately, we've had our share of that in the labour movement. Mid-month we saw those leaks about senior Labour Party staff, and April's end was graced by the general secretary of a major union resigning amid serious allegations. But unless you were adjacent to the rarefied doings of Britain's far left, you might have missed another tale of miserable woe.

The Socialist Workers Party these days is, deservedly, a shadow of its former self. Having exposed yourself as a disgusting rape cult and failing to capitalise on the fresh interest in socialism off the back of Jeremy Corbyn might do that to a self-identified vanguard of working class politics. Yet despite their reduced circumstances, the SWP have persisted through its usual round of paper sales and front groups, such as Unite Against Fascism and its own(!) front outfit, Stand Up to Racism. They are still a presence on the left, and their hope is now less focus on matters parliamentary means new pools of young activists (students) for whom Sir Keir Starmer doesn't have quite the same sheen. With new opportunities around the corner and their decade of moral collapse behind them, the return of more bullying allegations is, well, about as welcome as reality intruding in a National Committee meeting.

A small group of activists have resigned from the SWP on Tyneside over serious concerns about the branch's internal culture. These include a "bullying, misogynistic and sexist culture", and the whitewashing of complaints made by the former members against the "harassment, slander and institutional racism" they experienced. Read the statement for yourself. It's pretty much what you'd expect. Favoured acolytes of the London apparatus are supported, and critics are steamrollered. On this occasion Amy Leather herself, the SWP's de facto leader, went to Newcastle to sort the complainants out. She didn't give a monkey's about the unhealthy culture inside her organisation, she wanted the dissenters silenced - the only conclusion you can reasonably make looking at the bundles of evidence provided. Now, as seven years ago, the leadership are concerned solely with keeping the show on the road. Bad behaviour and the mistreatment of comrades, that means nothing as long as the papers get sold and the leading cadres have monies enough to indulge their little Lenin complexes.

It is, however, a sign of the times that the SWP feel the need to respond to such a small scale split. And in true SWP style, they choose not to address the substance of the complaint and go for a character assassination of someone who, until recently, was regarded as a loyal pair of hands. The classic guilt-by-association move, in other words. Because Yanus Bakhsh, a well known long-time SWP'er was suspended from the "party" for defending someone with a questionable record (to say the least), just so happens to be among the group of Tyneside dissenters, nothing else matters, there's nothing to see. Quite rightly, the comrades concerned are angry to find their concerns brushed aside and reduced to apolitical sour grapes.

Readers can look at what's happened in Newcastle and judge whether the SWP "is strongly committed to women’s liberation and seeks to combat sexism both within our own ranks and in the broader society." Again, just like what's happened in the Labour Party and what's coming to light in the GMB, on an order of magnitude of less importance, the SWP's lies about bullying on Tyneside goes to show democracy in working class organisations, whether it's a mass party, a trade union, or a two-bit outfit with revolutionary pretensions is not an optional extra. Democracy and accountability for those who run the organisations are the crucial tools by which we organise ourselves as a class with political interests distinct from and at odds with the new consensus Boris Johnson is building. When democracy fails, our organisations and institutions don't just become ineffective, they actively turn against the aspirations that founded them in the first place. Far from vehicles of liberation, they can become factories for maiming activists, vehicles for vices of the abusive kind, and instruments for keeping our people down. In mass organisations, the fight for democracy is continuous because their mass character guarantees it as a latent possibility. But in micro-sects like the SWP, organisations some 30 years out of time if ever their brand of revolutionary politics were ever appropriate, there really isn't any point. Any SWP comrades reading this should follow the Newcastle comrades out of the "party". There is a wider world out there, and it's ours to win.
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Proper Tidy said:
If they really think laymembers are going to think they are the real fighters for being dickheads during lockdown then I think wired is a mild description
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How dare you, the SP are the real class fighters, the membership will flock to their banner understanding that the Covid crisis has shown who the real class fighters are. ie those coughing like fuck but still reading Marx, Engels, Lenin and ummm errr… Stal…. Nah, Trotsky.
 
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Proper Tidy said:
Standards are slipping. What's the score with SA then spacklefrog, is it business as usual or is there any sign of a break with the past in terms of organisation, activity etc
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Apparently we've gone down a reformist route ;)

It depends what you mean by business as usual but I think it's largely too early to tell. I feel personally much better about it and more committed to being involved as of the last few months. I see it more about taking what was good about Militant/the earlier SP and attempting to build on that though. We still do stalls and paper sales etc and obvs for many of the sections in ISA the Taaffe faction didn't have any supporters so they haven't gone through any major changes.
 
SpackleFrog said:
Apparently we've gone down a reformist route ;)

It depends what you mean by business as usual but I think it's largely too early to tell. I feel personally much better about it and more committed to being involved as of the last few months. I see it more about taking what was good about Militant/the earlier SP and attempting to build on that though. We still do stalls and paper sales etc and obvs for many of the sections in ISA the Taaffe faction didn't have any supporters so they haven't gone through any major changes.
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I don't know what any of this means any more. What's the ISA? They have a Taaffe faction?
 
muscovyduck said:
Right is this the same SA as them ones who used to sell newspapers called Socialist Alternative way before the SP/CWI split
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Is it socialist action you're thinking of? Socialist Alternative is the name SP stood under in elections (as SPGB had socialist party) and the name of the US section of CWI (and some other international sections I think but fucked if I remember which ones)
 
Proper Tidy said:
Is it socialist action you're thinking of? Socialist Alternative is the name SP stood under in elections (as SPGB had socialist party) and the name of the US section of CWI (and some other international sections I think but fucked if I remember which ones)
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I thought the SP used to be SPEW in elections (Socialist Party of England and Wales) and I followed that they were in elections as Socialist Alternative now.

I was sure there was a newspaper that was called Socialist Alternative, however, even if I am right this may have been some hyper-local thing in my area that didn't exist anywhere else. We all called it a newspaper but really it was only 4-8 pages and had a vibe like the type of newspaper style flyer you get through the door from the local lib dems or whatever. Does that sound like the Socialist Action newspaper?
 
muscovyduck said:
I thought the SP used to be SPEW in elections (Socialist Party of England and Wales) and I followed that they were in elections as Socialist Alternative now.

I was sure there was a newspaper that was called Socialist Alternative, however, even if I am right this may have been some hyper-local thing in my area that didn't exist anywhere else. We all called it a newspaper but really it was only 4-8 pages and had a vibe like the type of newspaper style flyer you get through the door from the local lib dems or whatever. Does that sound like the Socialist Action newspaper?
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It sounds like most far left papers tbh haha. Nah they couldn't ever stand as SP, if they ever stood on their own ticket rather than as part of a lash up (socialist alliance, TUSC, No2EU etc) it was always as socialist alternative
 
Nigel said:
What do you not understand ?
(this a thread on SWP so don't really want to de-rail it SP issues; maybe set up a different thread for that)
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I don't understand why you think I've gone down a 'reformist route'. You just chucking that about for fun or you wanna make a point?
 
Proper Tidy said:
The new international for socialist alternative - so the split in the UK but most other CWI national sections (some of these are a handful of people I think)
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Actually the Taaffe faction got the handfuls - mostly in South East Asia.

We've got a handful in Scotland though so Scottish Trots, apply within ;):D
 
SpackleFrog said:
I don't understand why you think I've gone down a 'reformist route'. You just chucking that about for fun or you wanna make a point?
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I can point out Socialist Party's position on this, which is available all over the net; The whole accusation of Mandelism which Peter Taaffe laid on, what is now ISA from the start implies this.
However there is a lot of bad feeling about at the moment, can't see it as being a constructive way to carry this debate and is too simplistic a definition of the aberrations made towards those braking away.There are individuals within both SA & ISA that this accusation I would find very difficult to believe, significantly in places like Cov. & internationally South African comrades. America however, as far as I see & talking to American students not part of either group, have gone down a capitulating, reformist path.

However the capitulations of American Group, significantly around electoral politics (its role with DSA etc.) & move closer towards identity politics with Irish Group in my opinion gives Peter Taaffe's and official SP line credence. However there are international sections where this may not so much quantitatively be the case, e.g. W.A.S.P. South Africa.

Saying this I have a lot of respect for a significant amount of those that broke away, hopefully after the dust dies down a more clarified analysis can emerge from both perspectives and some sort of working relationship ! The power struggles, dynamics a contestation between 'blocs' & factions within, mainly white collar unions is going to be a major barrier towards this.

THIS IS THE LAST I AM WRITING ON THIS SUBJECT.
(IN FORESEEABLE SHORT TERM)
 
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Nigel said:
I can point out Socialist Party's position on this, which is available all over the net; The whole accusation of Mandelism which Peter Taaffe laid on, what is now ISA from the start implies this.
However there is a lot of bad feeling about at the moment, can't see it as being a constructive way to carry this debate and is too simplistic a definition of the aberrations made towards those braking away.There are individuals within both SA & ISA that this accusation I would find very difficult to believe, significantly in places like Cov. & internationally South African comrades. America however, as far as I see & talking to American students not part of either group, have gone down a capitulating, reformist path.

However the capitulations of American Group, significantly around electoral politics (its role with DSA etc.) & move closer towards identity politics with Irish Group in my opinion gives Peter Taaffe's and official SP line credence. However there are international sections where this may not so much quantitatively be the case, e.g. W.A.S.P. South Africa.

Saying this I have a lot of respect for a significant amount of those that broke away, hopefully after the dust dies down a more clarified analysis can emerge from both perspectives and some sort of working relationship ! The power struggles, dynamics a contestation between 'blocs' & factions within, mainly white collar unions is going to be a major barrier towards this.

THIS IS THE LAST I AM WRITING ON THIS SUBJECT.
(IN FORESEEABLE SHORT TERM)
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Repeating Taaffe wholesale then. Presumably cos you've got nothing else to say.
 
One of the greatest resignation reasons I've seen. From a split in the ISN 2014

One of us is a woman sex-worker and bdsm practitioner. After many years of self imposed isolation from politics, she believed she had finally found a space where even those comrades who disagreed with her positions would discuss controversial topics of sexuality and desire in respect and comradeship. Instead she has been browbeaten, patronised, marginalised and moralised against, and the topics she wishes to discuss with her comrades dismissed as, in the words of one SC member, self-evidently ‘sordid.’
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Nigel said:
Trying To Get Ruskin Student Union Re-Established.
Talked To Fellow Students On Youth & Community Work, Access Course & Social Work Course; Came To General Consensus To Organise A Preliminary Meeting Next Tuesday: 22nd October 2019.
Would Much Appreciate As Much Help As Possible & Anyone Interested Coming Along !
Fraternally
Nigel
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Serious Issues At Ruskin Concerning Social Work Department.

Looks Like After Continuous Process Of Over A Decade Of Divide & Rule Tactics & Salami Style Of Slicing Off Department After Department Within Higher Education Academic Disciplines The Social Work Department Has Now Gone Through What Appears Purposeful Mis-Management & Pre-Determined Scheming!

It's Important To Make As Much Noise As Possible About This By As Many People, Ex Allumi, Supporters, Groups As Possible.
Contact Governers, Education Watchdogs, Oxford Councillors M.P.'s Etc To Show Critical Concern To What Is Going On!

You searched for ruskin college | UNISON South East

southeast.unison.org.uk southeast.unison.org.uk
 
Nigel said:
Serious Issues At Ruskin Concerning Social Work Department.

Looks Like After Continuous Process Of Over A Decade Of Divide & Rule Tactics & Salami Style Of Slicing Off Department After Department Within Higher Education Academic Disciplines The Social Work Department Has Now Gone Through What Appears Purposeful Mis-Management & Pre-Determined Scheming!

It's Important To Make As Much Noise As Possible About This By As Many People, Ex Allumi, Supporters, Groups As Possible.
Contact Governers, Education Watchdogs, Oxford Councillors M.P.'s Etc To Show Critical Concern To What Is Going On!

You searched for ruskin college | UNISON South East

southeast.unison.org.uk southeast.unison.org.uk
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What's with the capital letters at the start of each word?

It looks like one of those letters from a madman to the local rag - green ink, random punctuation, references to stuff no one else has heard of....

(I was a member of SSWS at uni, but only for two weeks - I fancied a girl who was a member, but we both got bored of it and joined the climbing club instead...)
 
what's the latest twitter ding-dong about? UAF/Resisting Hate/Louise Raw(? i think she wrote some books?) and something about a pile-on about sending banana emojis to black people. Tweets being deleted so i can't figure out wtf it's about. I'm very, very bored so could do with a distraction.
 
hitmouse said:
Fuck knows, sounds like weird twitter beef to me. Had a look and found this:


Tbh, I'm not sure this is actually more interesting than actually doing work so might go back to that now.
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I appreciate this may not be the central issue (but I have no idea what that is anyway) but I find myself deeply depressed that racist abuse in emoji form is a thing.
 
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