Socialist Alliance

The (former) Socialist Alliance

Socialist Alliance ended: we still need left unity!

By Martin thomas After 12 years as a coalition of the left the Socialist Alliance was shut down at a conference on Saturday 5 February. It was a close vote: 73 to 63, with two abstentions. The 63 votes against closure were the same number as for the main “left” position at the last SA conference, in March 2004, Lesley Mahmood’s amendment against the SA supporting Respect and for standing SA candidates in the 2004 council elections. Immediately after the March 2004 SA conference voted to support Respect, the SWP and its friends shut down the SA at national level (in contradiction to the text of...

Clothes with no emperor?

By Martin Thomas About 30 people attended a conference on 12 November aiming to “relaunch the Socialist Alliance”. It showed, I fear, that the erosion and dissipation of the old Socialist Alliance minority is probably irreversible. Several of those at the conference are well-respected activists in various localities and campaigns. We can only sympathise with their wish to find a flexible framework to work together; but it doesn’t look to me as if anything viable has been “relaunched”. The Socialist Alliance started in the early 1990s as a small formation — some Socialist Party members, and a...

Clothes with no emperor?

About 30 people attended a conference on 12 November aiming to "relaunch the Socialist Alliance". It showed, I fear, that the erosion and dissipation of the old Socialist Alliance minority is probably irreversible. Several of those at the conference are well-respected activists in various localities and campaigns. We can only sympathise with their wish to find a flexible framework to work together; but it doesn't look to me as if anything viable has been "relaunched". The Socialist Alliance started in the early 1990s as a small formation - some Socialist Party members, and a scattering of...

Where is the Socialist Alliance's money?

Open Letter to Nick Wrack and Rob Hoveman, Chair and Secretary of the Socialist Alliance, from current and former national executive members and national office holders of the Socialist Alliance. 13 July 2005. Matthew Caygill, Jim Jepps, Declan O'Neill, Andrew Newman, John Nicholson, Dave Church and Pete McLaren. On the 5th February the final conference of the Socialist Alliance voted by a clear majority to carry out the following actions, within closely defined time scales. 1. The Socialist Alliance's remaining funds should be used to pay off debts and the bank account closed. Any remaining...

New Socialist Alliance forms

Statement by the officers of the provisional Socialist Alliance On Saturday 9 April the new committee of the provisional Socialist Alliance elected its officers. At the subsequent meeting the SADP was formally closed down. This completes the first stage of rebuilding the SA, which began with the closure of the old SA at the February 2005 Socialist Alliance AGM. The closure of the SA was a turning point for the SADP. It could no longer continue as an SA Platform. The SADP began to shrink. A number of c omrades joined the United Socialist Party. The AWL withdrew to concentrate on the SGUC. The...

New Socialist Alliance forms

Statement by the officers of the provisional Socialist Alliance On Saturday 9 April the new committee of the provisional Socialist Alliance elected its officers. At the subsequent meeting the SADP was formally closed down. This completes the first stage of rebuilding the SA, which began with the closure of the old SA at the February 2005 Socialist Alliance AGM. The closure of the SA was a turning point for the SADP. It could no longer continue as an SA Platform. The SADP began to shrink. A number of c omrades joined the United Socialist Party. The AWL withdrew to concentrate on the SGUC. The...

End of the Alliance?

The Socialist Alliance meets for probably its last conference on 8 February, from 2pm at the University of London Union, Malet Street. The main officials of the Socialist Alliance — members of the Socialist Workers Party — have called this conference in order to shut down the Alliance and pay over its remaining funds, £6,000, to Respect, the non-socialist electoral coalition formed by the SWP with George Galloway MP. Unfortunately, the SWP has got another group — the Socialist Unity Network, a group of “loyal oppositionists” within Respect — to do the dirty work for it, and put down the formal...

SWP pushes through Socialist Alliance shutdown

After twelve years as a coalition of the left, and five years after it became a coalition including almost all the activist left groups in England and Wales, the Socialist Alliance was shut down at a conference on Saturday 5 February 2005. It was a close vote - 73 to 63, with two abstentions - and the 63 votes against closure were exactly the same number as for the main "left" position at the last SA conference, in March 2004, Lesley Mahmood's amendment against the SA supporting Respect and for the SA standing candidates in the June 2004 council elections. The appearance of closeness was...

The future of the Socialist Alliance

An AGM for the Socialist Alliance has been called for Saturday 5 February, 2pm, at ULU, Malet Street, London. If the SWP have their way it will be the last ever conference of the Socialist Alliance. They are proposing resolutions to wind up the Socialist Alliance and donate its remaining funds to Respect. Nine current or former members of the SA Executive have written a letter of protest. Open letter to the Executive Committee of the Socialist Alliance. We are current or former Executive members or officers of the Socialist Alliance. We recognise that since the launch of Respect, the SWP and a...

Open Letter to the Socialist Alliance Executive

The Socialist Alliance is holding a conference on Saturday 5 February, from 2pm at Room 101, University of London Union, Malet St, London WC1. The conference is open to anyone who was a SA member in 2003 or 2004. The SWP and its allies will propose that the SA is wound up. At the last SA conference in March 2004, the SWP and its allies voted through a decision to continue the SA while supporting Respect, but in fact (predictably) they effectively shut down the SA immediately after that conference. Activists grouped around the Socialist Alliance Democracy Platform have attempted to continue SA...

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