Party and class

The Russians Withdraw from Afghanistan (1988)

The withdrawal of Russian troops from Afghanistan must be perplexing for those on the left who supported their invasion or did not oppose their presence. They argued that Afghanistan was a different case from Vietnam or other battles against imperialism. The USSR claims to be socialist; and even if we reject this claim we can point to the frankly reactionary prograrnme of the Afghan rebels and the support for them from the United States. In comparison the Afghan government and its Russian backers are , if no more, 'progressive'. The People's Democratic Party (PDP) government which took power...

How the working-class party was built

The German Social-Democratic Party (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SPD) was the largest working class party built so far by Marxists, yet it is mostly remembered today with infamy for the great betrayal of 1914. When its Reichstag deputies voted for war credits, Lenin was so shocked by a copy of the party’s paper Vorwärts justifying the decision he thought it was forgery. How could a party with over a million members, that garnered over four million votes (a third of the electorate) and 110 MPs, capitulate to its own government and throw sand in the face of international solidarity...

The Portuguese Revolution of 1974-5: “The left had no strategy and the right did”

Miguel Perez, a Lisbon-based socialist activist and historian who delivered a talk on the Portuguese Revolution of 1974-5, spoke to Solidarity about his view of events. Why was there so much left-wing ferment in the Portuguese officer corps in the 1970s? Why did Portugal’s colonial war have such a big effect on the officer corps, the army and society? The colonial wars in Africa exhausted the state. People found themselves pushed into a war they didn’t want. The officers knew, by looking at the experience that French colonialism had been through in Algeria, that the war could not be won. So...

Gaddafi’s Foreign Legion to Knight’s Rescue (1981)

(This article was the subject of a five-year long libel case brought by the WRP in the name of the actress Vanessa Redgrave against its author, Sean Matgamna, and John Bloxham, who had repeated some of it in a circular letter to supporters of Socialist Organiser. The libel case collapsed when the WRP imploded at the end of 1985.) SOMETHING strange and nasty happened at the "Local Government in Crisis" conference. Gerry Healy’s so-called Workers Revolutionary Party turned up to support Ted Knight and rent and rate rises. Perhaps as many as forty delegates were members or sympathisers of the WRP...

Debating with Vladimir Derer on socialist strategy

In the early 1980s, both John Bloxam and Sean Matgamna (John O'Mahony) of Socialist Organiser (forerunner of AWL) worked closely with Vladimir Derer, the founder and long-time secretary of the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy who died aged 94 on 10 June 2014, and debated frequently with him on tactical and strategic issues. This debate, in early 1980, set out the underlying differences of strategy. "We need a workers' government" - article by John O'Mahony [Sean Matgamna] "The first task of the left" - Vladimir Derer's critical response "The fight for socialism: now or never" - reply by...

Que fait la "micro-secte"(1) marxiste au sein du mouvement ouvrier?

Cette présentation positive du rôle d'un "groupe d'éducation et de combat" marxiste dans la lutte de classe et dans la transformation des mouvements ouvriers existants a été rédigé contre le choix de trois camarades qui ont quitté l'AWL en 1996 pour rejoindre Labour Briefing (3) et se noyer dans l'activité routinière au sein du Parti travailliste. Ils avaient été influencés par les polémiques de Hal Draper contre ce qu'il appelait la forme "micro-secte" d'organisation. " Il faut savoir trouver, à chaque moment donné, le maillon précis dont on doit se saisir de toutes ses forces pour retenir...

The Basis of Workers’ Democracy

Ciliga’s purpose in writing the last chapter of his book, The Russian Enigma (published as an article in the August issue of Politics) was to prove that it was Lenin who laid the foundation for the betrayal of the Russian Revolution by Stalin. To prove his thesis he relies on certain specific policies adopted by Lenin. To answer Ciliga fully it would be necessary to take up in detail the specific policies he cites and to arrive at a conclusion as to their correctness or incorrectness on the basis of a thorough analysis of all the factors that prevailed at the time they were adopted. Such an...

Lenin, Trotsky, and Soviet democracy

What did Lenin mean by "Dictatorship of the Proletariat? What was Soviet democracy? By What did Lenin mean by "Dictatorship of the Proletariat"? What was Soviet democracy? By Maurice Spector, who after reading Trotsky's critique of the Communist International at its 6th World Congress in 1928 became one of the founders of American Trotskyism. IMMEDIATELY AFTER the accession of Hitler, Trotsky wrote that the issue presenting itself to the masses was no longer Bolshevism versus Fascism but Fascism versus Democracy. Our subsequent critique of the Popular Front might make it appear that we had...

Lenin, Trotsky and Soviet Democracy

IMMEDIATELY AFTER the accession of Hitler, Trotsky wrote that the issue presenting itself to the masses was no longer Bolshevism versus Fascism but Fascism versus Democracy. Our subsequent critique of the Popular Front might make it appear that we had perversely abandoned this view when Moscow adopted it. That would be a complete misunderstanding. We rejected the whole conception of the Popular Front precisely because it was impotent to combat fascism. The struggle for the democracy vital to the workers could not be waged in a bourgeois alliance for the maintenance of a corrupt parliamentary...

Lenin, Trotsky and Soviet Democracy

IMMEDIATELY AFTER the accession of Hitler, Trotsky wrote that the issue presenting itself to the masses was no longer Bolshevism versus Fascism but Fascism versus Democracy. Our subsequent critique of the Popular Front might make it appear that we had perversely abandoned this view when Moscow adopted it. That would be a complete misunderstanding. We rejected the whole conception of the Popular Front precisely because it was impotent to combat fascism. The struggle for the democracy vital to the workers could not be waged in a bourgeois alliance for the maintenance of a corrupt parliamentary...

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.