SWP

The SWP / IS tradition

Far right targets socialist bookshop

The socialist bookshop Bookmarks was invaded by far-right activists on Saturday 4 August. The activists threw books, tore up placards and posters, and threatened staff and customers. Fortunately no-one was injured. The bookshop, which is run by the Socialist Workers Party, is located in Bloomsbury, central London. The attack appears to be an opportunistic action carried out by protesters returning from a protest against alleged “censorship” of Alex Jones’s far-right conspiracy-theory platform “InfoWars”. One of those involved was wearing a Donald Tump mask. A video taken by the assailants...

Statement: No to violence in the labour movement!

This statement appeared in Solidarity 245, out on 18 July, referring to events at 'Marxism 2018', on 7/8 July. For our initial report, see here . For witness statements describing what happened in more detail, see below. To add your name to the statement please email awl@workersliberty.org "According to the following report – bit.ly/2LexXt3 – at the Socialist Workers’ Party’s “Marxism 2018” event, SWP members turned over and broke Workers’ Liberty’s stall; threw on the floor, tore up and stole some of the AWL literature and materials; and engaged in harassment of AWLers, including challenging...

SWP "stewards" police debate

Today (Saturday 7 July), a group of Workers’ Liberty supporters went along to the SWP’s annual Marxism festival. We wanted to talk to attendees and challenge some of the SWP’s politics, and especially their support for “Lexit” during the European referendum. We were leafleting for a fringe meeting hosted by ourselves – The Left Should Oppose Brexit . One of the guest speakers was from Another Europe is Possible/Left Against Brexit. The result of this activity? The SWP first overturning and breaking our stall while it was set up outside the Institute of Education. The material overturned from...

Cliff's "55 years a revolutionary" in Socialist Worker Review 100 (Jul-Aug 1987)

Tony Cliff's interview, "55 Years A Revolutionary", in Socialist Worker Review (July-August 1987) is often quoted in discussions of SWP history (including by us), but that issue of the SWP monthly magazine (called Socialist Review for most of its life) is not among those archived online. Here it is. Socialist Worker Review 100 . It includes Cliff"s statement that in the late 1930s: "I was for defending the Arabs, and anti-Zionist. But I used to argue that poor Jewish refugees should be allowed to come to Palestine, that they shouldn't be excluded. That was an unjustified compromise, when you...

The 1980s and left antisemitism

Consider Ken Livingstone and the Labour Party, Al Capone and the US government. They jailed Alphonse Capone, a multiple-murderer gangster, for tax evasion. That was odd, but I think it better they got him for that than that they didn’t get him at all. So with Ken Livingstone’s separation from the Labour Party on antisemitism. Livingstone has for nearly four decades been a public purveyor of political antisemitism. Here I want to consider how serious antisemitism has spread into the Labour Party by way of the ostensibly revolutionary left — the WRP and the SWP — and their ex-members migrating...

Going coalition-ready

Dublin Central TD Mary Lou McDonald has been elected unopposed as President of Sinn Féin, replacing Gerry Adams who held the job for almost 35 years. McDonald joined Fianna Fáil in the late 1990s, before switching to Sinn Féin. She was elected as the party’s first MEP in 2004, before gaining a seat in the Dáil in 2011. Along with the election of Sinn Féin’s northern leader Michelle O’Neill as the party’s vice president, McDonald’s elevation signals a handover to a “post-conflict” generation. Both are long-time Adams allies but Sinn Féin hopes that passing the leadership to figures with no IRA...

Catalonia: right to choose yes, new borders no!

As Solidarity goes to press on 10 October, Carles Puigdemont, the president of Catalonia, has announced his response to the referendum on independence in Catalonia his government called on 1 October. The Spanish government declared the referendum illegal, and deployed heavy Spanish police force to try to stop it, but it largely went ahead. 92% voted yes, on a 43% turnout. A series of opinion polls carried out by the Catalan government since 2011 has in recent years shown a slight majority against independence, most recently 49%-41% in July this year. Puigdemont asked the Catalan parliament...

How Israel came to be the world’s hyperimperialism

“For the... Arab-chauvinist logic, we need look no further than the [second] main ‘world Trotskyist’ group, the International Workers’ League. They want a ‘democratic, secular and non-racist Palestine’ — but with no rights for Jews! “An article by... Nahuel Moreno argues against the slogan of a constituent assembly even after the destruction of Israel. ‘[This] is precisely the shameful manner to support the Zionists and justify their presence, giving a ‘democratic’ veneer to their fascist usurpation. If you want to insinuate that this assembly would be made with non-Zionist Jews... these...

Support ex-Muslim LGBT peoples’ right to protest

The presence of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB) on London Pride has caused a politically awful backlash by the left and others. Counterfire commented “Islamophobic placards have no place at Pride”. Socialist Worker state, “a small group of around ten racists also joined the parade with placards attacking Muslims.” This was followed by an official complaint against them by the East London Mosque. Counterfire compared some of the placards carried by the CEMB as “something the EDL or a Nazi would carry... so how were they even allowed on the parade?” What did the placards say? “Fuck...

SWP: fifth wheel of Corbynism?

There were about 500 at the opening rally of the SWP's "Marxism" summer event in London on 6 July. That's fewer than in some previous years, I think, and an older crowd - about a third grey or white-haired. Nevertheless, enough not to sneeze at, and the event will attract more over the weekend. The worrying thing was more the politics. Most of the rally was given over to speakers, some eloquent, from the Parts cleaners' dispute, the LSE cleaners' dispute, a Grenfell Tower campaign, the Scottish further education lecturers' dispute, and the campaign about Edson da Costa's death in custody. Two...

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.