Workers' Liberty

There are a sizable number of “unite the left” calls, campaigns, conglomerates and projects in Britain now.

From the mid-1890s, British socialists tried to unite under one umbrella. Tom Mann, as Secretary of the Independent Labour Party, was at the centre of the negotiations and debates that took place between the ILP and the Social Democratic Federation. These moves, popular with the members, were scuppered by the leaderships, mainly that of the ILP.

ENS has nominated four candidates for the full-time positions on National Union of Students National Executive.

From 1 – 3 June the Workers Party of New Zealand hosted its annual “Marxism” conference which featured international speakers and interventions by other NZ left groups. Around 60 mainly young people met in a serious-minded, yet lively and comradely atmosphere to discuss the class struggle and the prospects for socialism.

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.

Fascism — rampant, unashamedly racist and would-be pogromist fascism — is now stronger than it has been in Britain since the 1970s. In the number of council seats held by the fascists, it is stronger now than in the 1970s.

I want to hear from anyone.
I'm interested in the marxist movement in Briain/London and more importantly why it is so divided?
I would appreciate some answers from anyone

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Socialist Green Unity Coalition: IN THE looming general election a joint campaign against Blair is being mounted by five left parties and some independent socialists.

Unite the socialists for the general election!

Some union leaders are claiming that they have won significant concessions from Blair and reshaped New Labour's manifesto for 2005. But even they cannot seriously deny that John Cridland of the bosses' federation, the CBI, was basically right when he said that New Labour's deal with the unions at its 23-25 July Policy Forum "left things roughly where they were".

The Socialist Alliance, the Respect Unity Coalition and the future of the left

On 25 January, short of a political miracle, a tarpaulin will be pulled over much of working-class socialist politics in England. The Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and a large part of the activist left will sign up the "Respect" coalition as their political vehicle for the coming months.

Its politics: a bland collation of sops for various constituencies (peace, green, Muslim, trade-union). Its figurehead: George "I need £150,000 a year" Galloway.

The right wing of Labour Students and its allies have run NUS for more than 20 years, resulting in defeat after defeat for the student movement. Since 1998, however, they have faced increasing opposition, with a united left slate challenging the Labour/"independent" leadership in the elections at every NUS conference.

This article is from Hackney Solidarity, the local Workers' Liberty newsletter. It was published in an edition produced for a Socialist Alliance public meeting at which Tommy Sheridan and Michael Lavalette spoke, the title of which was 'The Left Strikes Back'.

Martin Thomas

To "campaign for a workers' party" means three things:

1. Setting out and grouping people round basic working-class political objectives-independent working-class political representation, a workers' government, a working-class "Third Camp" in international politics.

In June the Socialist Workers Party packed a meeting of Birmingham Socialist Alliance with newly signed-up SWP members to remove the entire executive of the local Alliance - including the chair, victimised FBU militant Steve Godward - and replace them with SWP members and fellow travellers. In Birmingham the SWP want to see a "Peace and Justice" candidate - mounted jointly with the leaders of local mosques - that is an alliance with a religious hierarchy. Comrades in Birmingham rightly fear that such an alliance would be a betrayal of independent working-class politics and full civil equality for lesbian and gay people and for women. Those comrades had to go.

• Two pleas for unity in action

• Protestant autonomy: imperialist prop?

A plea for unity in action

A bother, upset and disappointment I have is to see the continuing 'spat' between the many 'left'/Marxist groups. All seem to concentrate not on a main enemy, capitalism, but on each other.

Bolshy supports the Alliance for Workers' Liberty, but the AWL is just one of many socialist groups in Britain. Why is the left so divided? How can it be united? And, in the meantime, how do you choose?

Two comments on Alan Johnson's discussion of how to unite the left ("Left Unity with the movement of movements", Solidarity 3/28) - one positive and one negative. The negative one is that I think he spins fantasies about the SWP.

• "You are not the only true socialists" - Andrew Berry
  
• "The AWL wants unity" - Mark Osborn

You are not the only true socialists

Re Solidarity 28 editorial. You seem to behave very much like the SWP - "we are the only true socialists", etc. That is arrogant. How can you be sure that every left group was on a different side in the war and did not agree with you?

In recent issues Solidarity has been running a discussion on left unity, opened by a statement in Solidarity 26. This issue we carry excerpts from two relevant proposals drafted for the Socialist Alliance conference on 10 May.

In Solidarity 26 we printed an appeal for discussion and collaboration on the left so that we can united the maximum forces for effective action in the new political ferment around us. Over the coming weeks we will carry comments and responses, starting this week with a contribution from Alan Johnson, author of a forthcoming biography of Hal Draper. (Full text of the appeal here).

In Solidarity 3/26 we printed an appeal for discussion and collaboration on the left so that we can unite the maximum forces for effective action in the new political ferment around us.
Over the coming weeks we will carry comments, responses, objections, starting in our next issue with a contribution from Alan Johnson.

There are openings for the growth of the revolutionary left such as we have not had for two decades. The tremendous upsurge of opposition to Bush's and Blair's war on Iraq, together with the rise of the anti-capitalist movements and the as yet limited, but radically important, revival of real trade unionism in Britain, have combined to create this situation.

A further response to Dave Spencer's article and letters in WW.

by Gerry Byrne

Dave Spencer’s extraordinarily self-serving explanation in the WW is that Workers Fight /ICL /WSL was all fine and then turned overnight into a sect – the AWL. That’s not how I remember it. Dave allows that none of the attempts at uniting the left were predatory exercises, that they were entered into sincerely.

In Weekly Worker 466, Dave Spencer gives an account of the history of the AWL, in which he concludes that after our split in 1984 with the 'Thornett group' (now in the ISG) - when Dave himself left - we became a 'sect'. See http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/466/awl.html

Clive Bradley replies

handed out at London asylum (SWP) rally, 24/05/00

On 4 May the London Socialist Alliance polled over 46,000 in the constituency ballots for the GLA. 2.9%, overall, is a useful start; the LSA votes for Theresa Bennett (6.2%) in Lambeth and for Cecilia Prosper (7%) are impressive votes for an organisation which has not contested an election before.