Support SWP comrades being thrown out of the party
Prince | 23.11.2009 16:44
Tensions within the Socialist Workers' Party (SWP) are starting to come to the surface, both nationally and locally, with a purge under way of SWP members critical of the leadership around Martin Smith.
In a nutshell, the spat over Respect and the SWP's approach to electoral fronts seems to be the main bone of contention with a faction called the 'Left Platform' forming around John Rees, at one time a head honcho in George Galloway's Respect party and his wife, Lindsey German, who is prominent within the 'Stop the War' front group. Although Smith himself has been very prominent at UAF demos, most notably against the English Defence League and even managing to get himself arrested outside the BBC HQ in the run-up to Nick Griffin's appearance on Question Time, he is seen as offering no other strategy than 'build the party', particularly after the Respect debacle when the SWP faction were booted out of the party after an acrimonious row with Galloway and his supporters.
In a ham-fisted attempt to head off the rebellion, Smith is now in the process of purging supporters of Rees and German from the party. In London, two student SWP members have just been expelled. While in the North East, Smith's bully-boy full-time organiser, Yunus Bakhsh (recently sacked from the NHS and kicked out of Unison because of his dubious behaviour), is happily ridding himself of critics. Already, SWP blogger Alex Snowdon from Tyneside has been expelled, while Tony Dowling and all seven members of the Sunderland SWP branch look likely to follow Snowdon out of the party. Rumblings of discontent are spreading throughout the SWP and the forthcoming conference looks likely to be an explosive affair.
Using the sexist thug Yunus Bakhsh to purged SWP members is beyond belief.
Solidarity to expelled comrades from the SWP.
Throw Smith and his cronies out of the SWP!
In a nutshell, the spat over Respect and the SWP's approach to electoral fronts seems to be the main bone of contention with a faction called the 'Left Platform' forming around John Rees, at one time a head honcho in George Galloway's Respect party and his wife, Lindsey German, who is prominent within the 'Stop the War' front group. Although Smith himself has been very prominent at UAF demos, most notably against the English Defence League and even managing to get himself arrested outside the BBC HQ in the run-up to Nick Griffin's appearance on Question Time, he is seen as offering no other strategy than 'build the party', particularly after the Respect debacle when the SWP faction were booted out of the party after an acrimonious row with Galloway and his supporters.
In a ham-fisted attempt to head off the rebellion, Smith is now in the process of purging supporters of Rees and German from the party. In London, two student SWP members have just been expelled. While in the North East, Smith's bully-boy full-time organiser, Yunus Bakhsh (recently sacked from the NHS and kicked out of Unison because of his dubious behaviour), is happily ridding himself of critics. Already, SWP blogger Alex Snowdon from Tyneside has been expelled, while Tony Dowling and all seven members of the Sunderland SWP branch look likely to follow Snowdon out of the party. Rumblings of discontent are spreading throughout the SWP and the forthcoming conference looks likely to be an explosive affair.
Using the sexist thug Yunus Bakhsh to purged SWP members is beyond belief.
Solidarity to expelled comrades from the SWP.
Throw Smith and his cronies out of the SWP!
Prince
Comments
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Whatever
23.11.2009 17:16
Nout but bunch of authoritarian statists. Fuck off to the lot of you!
Black flag
A plague on all their houses
23.11.2009 17:17
communist
mate, i think you got the wrong website
23.11.2009 17:24
partyless politcs
Never mind
23.11.2009 17:29
PFJ
This calls for a response!
23.11.2009 17:40
Trotergate
immature?
23.11.2009 17:48
(A) Sab x
Fuck the SWP
23.11.2009 18:41
The SWP are the main reason the majority of students in London are put off left politics and radicalism.
Seeing as we are leaving muscial contributions here is one I like.
Anarchanon
Marx wasnt originally into an vangaurd dictsctorship, if some marxists are
23.11.2009 18:54
James
Partyless Poker.
23.11.2009 20:27
Damn right too. Why would anybody here care about he politics of the Labour government!!
Please, do go away.
Mr Thatch Trotsky.
(A) sab is right.
23.11.2009 20:37
I am also good freinds with my workmates, a lot of them vote labour, or liberal, and some even conservative. should I in the same way, have the attutude towards them I am hearing about rank and file SWP members? hell no! I have freinds in the army too, some of whom are incredibly pissed off about the war.
I would also go as far as to talk to BNP voters, and have done in places I have worked at. although I draw the line at members and activists, if someone from the BNP was trying to organise somewhere I worked, I would be taking action, if someone told me they were, or were thinking of voting BNP, I would openly discuss it with them.
Anarchists do have a problem in sticking within the safely of anarchist circles, having closed groups, organising actions on a secret level, and being seperate from the very people we should be, or are in fact part of. I am an Anarchist, and sometimes for me it can be a spectator role, where some action is organised that I knew nothing about until it occurs, As that's the case, imagine how far removed from it all people feel who are not involved, and never get to talk to an "anarchist".
When ever I mention it in the various places I work (naturally in conversation, I am not evangelical), I get a barrage of questions. I enjoy talking about it in a light-hearted way, and I really enjoy meeting people who are very different to me.
We have to come to terms with the fact that from the outside, we are not very welcoming, or appealling.
Anarchist who was once in the SWP
@ anarchanon
23.11.2009 20:50
I think many class concious anarchists realise that we are in united front with socialists wheather we like it or not (i.e the progressive working class), so we might as well push for a united radical movement that reflects our views as much as possible, rather than cutting ourself off from swathes of the progressive working class out of a puritanical adherance to our views on trots.
I'm gonna stop not coz 'anarchist who used to be in the SWP' put it better than I could
(A) Sab x
Here's what I think...
23.11.2009 20:51
I attended an SWP conference once, actually it was called Marxism 2000,or 2001, cant quite remember the exact year, but around that time, and I found it a) not that radical or confrontational towards the state, and b) totally dependent upon the idea of being responsible for organising workers revolt and c) controlling that workers revolt should it actually happen.
Thats the three things I learnt about the SWP after I attended that conference, I was there for two days as well. My insurrectionalist ideas were put down, as were my arguments for an anarchists militia/armed struggle of the workers and I witnessed lots of other 'up for a fight' socialists/anarchists getting their ideas stomped on with party rhetoric and sound bites.
Apart from attending a half decent lecture on the tactics of ghandi and one about slavery, the whole thing was a party recruitment fair, with those two half decent lectures as good as it got for me (and i call myself an anarchist).
So, lets say that the workers did overthrow their paymasters, bosses and corporate leaders and owners, and a full workers revolution ensued. Where would that leave the anarchists if SWP types were in control?
In the Spanish civil war, lots of anarchists got shat on by communists and other marxist/statist 'types', even executing major anarchic figures during the war with the fascists - not to mention selling out Barcelona during the seige and letting them fend for themselves against air raids and eventual surrender. Anarchists joined in with 'reds' during the spanish civil war because they were led to believe that the republican government actually wanted to 'equal' out the power to all those involved. But that lie, which hid the truth that the 'reds' hated anarchists at worst, put up with them at best and despised them in secret, surfaced during the rise of the fascists and Franco knew that the Left, as it is called, would implode - especially as UK and US and other states would not help the republican government.
Basically, to get to the point. The civil war in spain is a great example of anarchic action, but probably not a great example of anarchism and communist meeting in harmony.
So, in terms of what about the SWP?
Well, if Spain is anything to think about, then a workers revolution in this country would be doomed if the SWP got their hands on it! And any anarchists around at the time would probably get stabbed in the back......
i agree, fuck the SWP. and the party political horse they rode in on......
prince kropotkin
gosh the SWP is authoritarian! Now you know what its like...
23.11.2009 21:14
anonymous
\the UAF....
23.11.2009 21:31
Hmmm, i smell the middle class! Give me my ice pick :)
UAUAF
Why tear our broader movement apart from the inside?
23.11.2009 23:41
The way I see it the SWP is way for people to first get involved and made aware of the world around them, like a pair of stabalisers on a bike.
The problem comes when you gain a better understanding of their tactics and the way in which they seem to "hi-jack" many movements, tieing into their vanguardist ideas.
However they are present at every demonstration, have a weekly paper and have huge confrences, we can learn lessons from them and the way in which they have organised. As unpopular is it is amongst radical circles I think they are very good at what they do.
Lets be honest here how widespread is the Anarchist ideal spread in working class communities/movements in comparison?
All I am saying is give co-operation a chance as bad as some of their tactics are and as wishy washy as they are in practice when compared to their rhetoric, this widespread automatic disdain is not useful to our movement in a broader sense.
At the end of the day we have the same enemy to confront and we can settle our differences once the revolution is won. :)
Buther Llisset the nonpartisan/ideological anti capitalist.
cooperation...
24.11.2009 00:40
unnecessary
Rees and German are not rank and file
24.11.2009 01:27
Solidarity with the misguided SWP members, sure, but not with their bullying authoritarian leaders!
...
response.
24.11.2009 01:30
I just feel that people are far too quick to dismiss the SWP with a knee jerk reaction without giving it much though. Don't get me wrong I hate some of their tactics and they have really pissed me off at times, but I think if their party were to change radically they would be a useful part of the wider anti-capitalist movement. Like you said I'm not going to waste my time trying to do that for them, that change needs to come from within from it's own members.
It is supposedly a worker's party but is run by a select group of leftist inteligentsia who need to be told to stick their A to B marches, their revile for direct action, inability to co-operate with other groups where the sun doesn't shine. Most of all they need to give their pro-labour elitist leaders the fucking boot. Then maybe they will be able to be an important part of the wider anti-capitalist movement without being so reviled.
Buther Llisett
No moderation then?
24.11.2009 10:56
Ex IMC activist.
Power to the people!
24.11.2009 11:37
Citizen Smith
a see-through attempt from one of the factions, then?
25.11.2009 12:52
On to the factions - if anything martin smiths idea about building the sodding party sounds more appetising than german and rees if those two want to do more RESTPC and Stop The Walkingaboutcenttrallondon shitty "united" fronts. Since the RESTPC debacle we have actually seen the SWP returning to the same party-building hack-tivism mostkly in the student scene. Well fuck, at least its political.
But neither need to worry anyone not in the SWP which has been wrecked for years - declining numbers, resources, not even in ownership of a press... The author assumes we think fronts like UAF and STW are actually worth defending from the internal squabbles of of their dominant groupuscles. They aren't. United fronts are *meant* to be united fronts of socialists acting on socilialist/class issues, not alliances with totally oppositional groups anyway.
PS - fuck me i had no idea German and Rees were ACTUALLY MARRIED thats not a happy concept.
Billy Mays
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