Since I wrote the first part of my reply (Allan Armstrong (RCN) replies to David Jamieson (ISG) – part 1) I have met David for the first time. Face-to-face discussions are a better way of trying to understand the thinking and positions that others hold. They can also help to overcome some preconceived notions. In the…
Blacklist – Enough Is Enough, Time For Action
Blacklisting continues on a daily basis up and down the country. Why, oh why? With our best trade union activists denied work and kept off-sits, this massively lessens our ability to organise and stand up to building employers on site. This means no ELECTED conveners or other shop stewards or safety reps, and our lives…
We did not win but we are now the Left in UNITE
The results of the election for the General Secretary of UNITE election have been announced. This was a contest between the incumbent Broad Left Len McLuskey and the Rank & File challenger, Jerry Hicks. McCluskey had the support of the Right (they offered no challenger of their own, which speaks volumes) and much of the…
Feminism and the crisis In the British Socialist Workers Party
Below we are posting a statement about the crisis in the SWP from the Freedom Socialist Party of the USA. The immediate cause of the current crisis is the SWP CC’s attempt to prevent the accusation of rape, directed against a CC member, from becoming a wider issue. This despite the issue being used by the…
Jerry Hicks – UNITE General Secretary Election Update
George Osborne said ‘Faster deeper’ cuts he meant it. Our side calls for strike action against those cuts – but do we mean it? The announcement that Unite, is calling for a 24-hour general strike against austerity measures is very welcome. A serious program of strikes to defeat the Con Dem government is long overdue…
Riding Two Horses At Once – The SWP and Scottish independence
The following extended review of Keir McKechnie’s pamphlet, Scotland – Yes to Independence: No to Nationalism, was started before the most recent crisis in the SWP became public. Until the SWP resolves this crisis, its political interventions are likely to have more limited impact on the Left than in the past. Socialists should support those…
David Douglass reviews – Adrian Kerr, ‘Free Derry: protest and resistance’.
Adrian Kerr, Free Derry – protest and resistance, Guildhall Press, 2013, pp. 224, £11.95 From the declaration of ‘Free Derry’ on August 9 1971, when the solidly working class and republican community seized control of their own area of the city of Londonderry, to the time of the Provisional Irish Republican Army ceasefire in 1994, the…
Allan Armstrong (RCN) replies to David Jamieson (ISG) – part 1
David Jamieson of the International Socialist Group has replied to two contributions made by Allan Armstrong of the Republican Communist Network (see David Jamieson of the ISG replies to Allan Armstrong). These took a critical look at ISG member, James Foley’s pamphlet, Britain Must Break, and examined the prospects for the Radical Independence Campaign, and the role…
Red Baiting And Slurs
The SWP Central Committee has tried to draw a hard line between recent events inside the party and the wider Socialist and Trade Union movement. The SWP CC has made two arguments to defend the indefensible. The first is that affairs inside the SWP are a purely internal matter, and of no concern to other…
The Crisis In The SWP:- The failure of the Central Committee’s ‘recruit, recruit, recruit’ tactics
This article examines one aspect of the current crisis enveloping the SWP. The SWP has not had a programme, so it has no real strategy for achieving the socialism it claims to support. Instead, the SWP leadership concentrates on the tactics it thinks will bring it new members. In the SWP leadership’s thinking, socialism will come about…