SWP

The SWP / IS tradition

The Paradoxes of Tony Cliff, 1917-2000: A Critical Memoir

"The miners' strike is an extreme example of what we in the Socialist Workers Party have called the 'downturn' in the movement." Tony Cliff, Socialist Worker, 14th April 1984 "Sammy lugged his papers up and down Fourteenth Street yelling about a war in Europe. He used to come home with a hoarse throat and 30 or 40 cents in pennies. He would count the money and say, 'God dammit, I'm yellin' my brains out for nuttin'. "Several weeks later Sammy came in with a dollar seventy-eight. Papa, Momma and Israel danced around him. "'Sammy, you sold out all the papers?' said Papa in amazement. "'Yeah,'...

Still rejoicing at the pogrom?

Socialist Worker ’s coverage of their annual conference at the turn of the year records that someone queried their headline calling on readers to “rejoice” at the 7 October Hamas atrocity. We aren’t told whether the critic also took up SW’s claims that Hamas took no hostages, only prisoners of war, and attacked only military targets. Or its failure to report the multiple rapes on 7 October. SW reports the response from the platform: it was about “recognis[ing] something transformative has happened. We rejoice in anyone who humbles imperialism”. At the time SW equated the Hamas atrocity with...

SWP on “anti-imperialism”: cowardice and opportunism

The Socialist Workers Party’s immediate response to the 7 October massacre of Israeli civilians (“Rejoice”) and its repeated statements of support for Hamas — all that is aimed at presenting an image of being the most militant “anti-imperialists” in the hope of recruiting people who are appalled by Israel’s horrific actions in Gaza Now, the SWP’s hatred of Israel and Israelis is long-standing. But its “tough-guy” pro-Hamas stance is sheer opportunism and entirely in line with a record of inconsistency and cowardice. The SWP’s forerunners, the Socialist Review group, started out in 1950 on the...

Against bans, against slippery slogans

Rishi Sunak, Home Secretary Suella Braverman, and deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden have urged the police to ban the 11 November Israel-Gaza protest in London. The Tories say it might harm the anniversary of the World War One Armistice on 11 November. But the march is planned to go to the US embassy in South London, nowhere near the Cenotaph, and the Remembrance ceremonies are 12 November, not 11 November. The Tories also talk of officially defining as “extremist” any effort deemed to “undermine the UK’s values”. Solidarity opposes state bans on protests. Where protests have reactionary...

Does the BBC hate Palestine?

Why does the BBC hate Palestine? Yuri Prasad asks rhetorically in Socialist Worker . Prasad asserts that the BBC’s interest in the Hamas tunnel networks and use of civilians as human shields is minimising the bombing of Gaza. In fact most people horrified by the Israeli onslaught in Gaza know about the horrors from the BBC and similar media. The BBC interviews lots of Israeli journalists, government and IDF spokespeople, retired diplomats, ex-prime ministers and similar; but it reports the figures provided by Hamas for casualties. It has reporters in Gaza, and they have reported on the ground...

A tale of two SWPs

The massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972 caused genuine shock and horror around the world. There was considerable sympathy for Israel in the wake of the tragedy. But not so for the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) in the United States. Their response to the terrorist attack was to claim that the “real victims” were Palestinians. For supporters of the Socialist Party, the SWP had crossed a red line. A national campaign was launched to spread the word that the SWP was now openly taking an antisemitic position. The SWP’s reaction was an interesting one. In their weekly...

Slogans on Gaza protests

Workers’ Liberty’s slogans on Israel-Palestine are as they have been for many years, with minor variants: Two states, equal rights; Israel out of the occupied territories; a real independent Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel; Arab-Jewish workers’ unity. And of course immediate demands like “Stop the massacre”. We used to use “solidarity with the Palestinians”, because in the first intifada (1987-8) and long afterwards it was clear: general solidarity with the oppressed, specific solidarity with an immediate struggle to get Israel out of the occupied territories. It is not clear when...

Socialist Worker doubles down

Socialist Worker of 18 October gave 20 of 24 pages to Israel and Gaza, doubling down on its “Rejoice” headline (11 October) about the Hamas massacre of 7 October. It printed without comment a claim (solicited from Hamas) about 7 October that it “targeted only military bases”, which other evidence contradicts. SW has a statement from an Egyptian group linked to it saying 7 October “dazzled the world with its valour”. It talks down the rise in antisemitic attacks in Europe since 7 October. Its headline “Smash Israeli terror state” means “Smash Israel”. The framing of the 20 pages is that Israel...

Israel has the right to defend itself, but not to raze Gaza. The Palestinians have the right to win a state of their own, but not to despoil Israel

To Israeli Jews, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh declared on 7 October, when Hamas forces invaded Israel to kill over 1,300 people, overwhelmingly civilians, and take over 100 hostage. “We have only one thing to say to you: get out of our land... There is no place or safety for you”. This was not an “excess” on the fringe of a basically justified struggle, but an effort to kill or panic as many Jews as possible. And probably done by Hamas as part of the network of a regional-imperialist power, Iran, pledged to the destruction of Israel. The rise of Hamas has been framed by Israeli governments’...

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