Socialist Party

and the 'Militant' tradition

Open letter to members of the SWP and SP: Keep the UK in the EU, for a workers' Europe

Both the Socialist Workers’ Party (SWP) and Socialist Party (SP) have declared that they will vote for UK withdrawal from the EU. The SWP is for withdrawal because, “[The EU is] a bosses’ organisation designed to ease the exploitation of workers and sharpen the capacity of European capitalists to beat other capitalists.” The SP say similar: the UK should get out because the EU is a “bosses’ club.” So the first problem is that the SWP and SP deliberately misunderstand the question in the referendum. We are not being asked to vote for or against capitalism. We will be asked our opinion about...

No withdrawal from EU

As the second reading of the EU referendum bill went through Parliament on 9 June, the right-wing campaign to exit Europe began in earnest. Unfortunately it is likely to be mirrored on the left. More than fifty Tory MPs have formed “Conservatives for Britain”, ostensibly to support Cameron’s push for large changes to the UK’s relationship to the EU, in current negotiations with Brussels. It is clearly poised to lead the campaign for Britain to leave the EU, whatever reforms are achieved as these are unlikely to satisfy the Tories Eurosceptics. The campaign has apparently met twice since the...

The left and the General Election

The post-mortem on the 2015 election ought to rage on the British left, though it is doubtful whether there will be much contrition from the main protagonists. Rightly, assessments will examine how the ruling classes’ first team did it, the limitations of Labour’s leadership and politics, why the Liberal Democrats collapsed, UKIP’s four million votes, the SNP’s tsunami and the Green ascendency. But one unavoidable question is the responsibility the left for this class-wide defeat. The left might appear marginal, but it is not irrelevant. The left is a political school for young people, an...

TUSC: “Immigration is not central”

Shortly before the general election, South London Workers' Liberty held a public debate with representatives of the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) and the Green Party. Andrea Carey, a member of Green Left, and Paul Callanan, who is an organiser for TUSC and for the Socialist Party, debated our comrade Jill Mountford, who was also speaking for the Socialist Campaign for a Labour Victory. Such debates are, sadly, rare on the left and we thank the comrades for coming to take part. In our view, the left needs more unity in action (where we agree) and more debate (where we disagree)...

Unite and a new Popular Front

“ … The [Labour] party’s leaders in parliament know that if they were to lose Unite, there could be an English Syriza formed with more resources and dynamism than the party it would replace”, Counterfire It hasn’t been widely publicised, but for the last couple of years Unite leader Len McCluskey has been saying that in the event of Labour losing the general election, Unite would seriously consider disaffiliating from the party. Many of us considered this a bizarre position to take: surely the aftermath of a Labour defeat, and the ensuing ideological struggle between the Blairite right and...

We need to rebuild from the bottom up

Did I “become” a socialist? I suppose I must have done. Even those of us who in a different time and place might have been dubbed “red diaper babies,” born to socialist parents, must at some point make a conscious series of decisions, which lead us to join the world’s greatest, and most consistently defeated, political movement. Like many people of my age, Palestine and Iraq were the motivating factors in my early political involvement. I remember marches in solidarity with the Second Intifada in Sheffield. I even remember when there were local Stop the War groups. I had imbibed somehow from...

Is Tower Hamlets really an Establishment conspiracy?

None of the socialist organisations politically defending ousted Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman seriously analyse the judgement made against him by election commissioner Richard Mawrey. None mention George Galloway previously hailing a judgement by Mawrey (against the Labour Party and in favour of Galloway’s Respect) in 2007 — in a speech republished in full on the Socialist Worker website! Socialists have no confidence in bourgeois judges, but the idea that Mawrey is a ruling-class assassin or bug-eyed Islamophobe is absurd. The pro-Rahman left's main argument is that he is the victim of a...

A socialist voice in the General Election

New anti-union laws which would effectively ban large strikes in public services by requiring impossibly high ballot votes for them. A drive to abolish union check-off and facility time. 153 new free schools. About £50 billion further cuts in the next five years, including £21 billion welfare cuts (according to analysis by the conservative Institute for Fiscal Studies ). A renewed pledge to cut immigration, and maybe, by referendum, to tip Britain out of the European Union and end free movement of people between Europe and Britain. If, after all they’ve done since 2010, the Tories win in May...

A response to John McInally and the Socialist Party

In a bizarre article published on the Socialist Party website, the vice-president of the civil service union PCS, and leading SP member, John McInally, has attacked the record of Workers’ Liberty within the PCS and the wider labour movement. The topic of the article is the latest Tory assault on civil servants. The two largest government departments (Department of Work and Pensions and Revenue and Customs) have been instructed to withdraw “check off”. This is the mechanism by which union subscriptions are deducted from salary and given to PCS union. PCS pays a nominal fee for this service. The...

Hold the Socialist Party and Mark Serwotka to account!

The Socialist Party (SP) has defended the PCS civil service union’s decision to “suspend” national and Group elections for up to a year. (Groups are the major sub-parts of the union.) The SP headlined its article: “PCS: Safeguarding its future in the face of vicious Tory attacks”. “Faced with a temporary but very sharp drop in income as a result of check-off ending, the PCS National Executive Commitee (NEC) has had to make difficult decisions to cut expenditure, including suspending for one year the union’s annual elections”. This is nonsense. Yes, the PCS is facing a financial tough time but...

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.