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...