SHOULD socialists work Labour Party, or stay outside it?
That question has been asked and argued about for years. Often it is discussed in terms of which is the lesser evil. Enter the Labour Party, bury yourself in it so become part of the problem? Or stay outside and remain isolated?
Not an attractive choice, but there is a third An alternative instance, by the early Great Britain, who, under the guidance of the Third International, argued that a fight should be made to transform the Labour Party.
Their reasoning was simple.
Party bureaucrats and careerists who ran the party in WaS controlled •by the interests of capitalism. On the other hand, Labour was more a federation than a political party, and it was based on the trade unions, TOSt posserful *TimE sa had In its possession.
maintain existence, but insist on the right of all working class organisations to affiliate and be part of Socialist Challenge 13 March 1980 inside the party, party apparatus.
that you too early days.
party chiefs. on the unions. adopted, Communist Party of waging.
The Labour own bunch of organisations that independent the workers' movement to try and control the rather than being controlled by the There have been many changes since those The most important is that bans and proscriptions have been imposed by the But the Labour Party is still based It still claims to represent all streams of working class opinion. the fight for affiliation remains a battle worth This is not only a worthy principle in its right. rank and organisations, single issue campaigns, and all working class political parties had the right to affiliate it would bring the experience of class struggle into the Labour Party.
As It 1s the reverse nappens: generamon after generation of honest socialists have been swallowed up in the daily grind of electoral life, unable to influence the direction of the party. Until this situation changes the tail will continue to wag the dog of the grouplet stage would WUIKILY revolutionary politics.
That is why union
that revolutionaries have put the CP under most pressure. Acting in a united fashion with the Labour lefts, the distinctive class politics of revolutionaries have outflanked the CP which fails to distinguish itself from the politics of LAD FIT Revolutionaries have defeated the CP in elections — in most places where the CP stood against Socialist Unity in the last elections we organisation involving the SWP and the IMG would have a smaller paper membership than the CP, in terms of active membership there would be little difference.
Of course such a united organisation would compared to the CP, but the attractions of a single revolutionary organisation would tend to counteract this over time.
Such a united revolutionary organisation would have a range of activity and resources that would compare well to those of the CP, that is a clear alternative pole for thosé workers moving leftwards from the Labour Party — the decisive step towards the longer term goal of breaking the hold of the Labour Party itself does. he within Creating such a clear revolutionary pole is also the precondition for chailenging Labour's hold on the working class. Union between the forces of the SWP and the IMG is therefore not just an abstract idea but a real objective need on the road towards a mass revolutionary BUT of course there are major achieving a unity between the SWP and the IMG, particulary if that unity is to be lasting and strong. It would be extremely foolish to ignore them.
Two points need to be made at the outset. In fighting for a fusion with the SWP we would dissolve the key political between us — a polemic on our positions on the TO HIL movement and so on will be conducted before, during and after any fusion.
equal importance is the question or internal democracy — without a resolution of this problem no unification is possible.
The SWP does not have democratic internal regime. For example, at its ConCeite minorities Jeffries and others won 30 and 40 per cent of the vote on some questions, bul lncy initially excluded from the leadership bodies that were elected. Only a rank-and-file revolt ensurco sennes a place the Committee.
This attitude to minorities is made even worse by the SWP's ban on the formation of t tendencies and factions on any questions of difference outside the few months of a pre-conference discussion period. within the revolutionary organisation cannot confine themselves to the routine of bi-annual conferences. Discussion differences arise if they must.
Party continually developed
factions as part of a healthy internal political Any attempt to forbid the elaboration of political differences is contrary to the positions of a working class Leninist organisation. The right of tendency and faction, not the tin-pot committee, is the precondition for developing a stable and lasting revolutionary organisation This is even more true in bourgeois-democratic No organisation, even with a few hundred let alone thousands or tens of thousands of pressures that are present within the working class. Anv attempt to create a nomorenous organisation will fail to produce politics arising from the real Lives of revolutionary workers The fused organisation that we are fighting debate and disagreement but capable of acting together in a firm and within the class struggle. Such an organisation depends upon an internally democratic regime. Internationalism & the IN a country like Britain, where imperialism has helped establish a deeply insular tradition internationalism is more vital than ever.
Both the SWP and the IMG are committed, on paper, to the building of an international revolutionary organisation. The ruling class is thoroughly international in the way it operates obstacles to of bourgeois leaders. tionally and has to respond to, equal and go beyond the international organisation of the differences working class organisation is, and always has Over a period of 30 years, the SWP has not been able to make one serious step towards estabusning sucn a revolunionary micrnanonal national'organisations and then link them up internalionally by Steve further apart, not bribuilding ser Fourt were sections has not been an untroubled one, but National the balance sheet is clear. It is not only the International that is stronger today than in the past, but its national sections have been aided by their connection to the FI, not hampered by it. The reason that whole national sections of Differences Mexican and Swedish sections are examples is because the weight of the International was used, together with existing strong organisatmust be ongoing, The Bolshevik tendencies debate this discussion. which However, affiliation to alternatives are open, committed manner success. that it is possible to first build leaders and the like.
Line green light proportions.
approach false choice include the reformist leaders?
skip Attempts leaders, 'Rank strikes.
choose.
ANL activity.
ions in other countries, to assemble forces.
We think that the SWP should draw out the conclusions of the last 30 years. In the the SWP Socialism before the lIth World Congress of the Fourth International, we suggested holding discussions on the issues which prevent the SWP from affiliating to the FI. We still want We cannot comprehend the prevent the SWP affiliating to the Fourth International. between the IMG does make the Fourth precondition for fusion with the SWP: Other such as becoming viduals to become members of the FI. ourselves. The United Front THERE are other differences between the SWP and the IMG — those on the character of the Soviet Union and the use of transitional debated and discussed in the process of forging unity between the two organisations.
thinks is particularly important in fighting the Tories concerns the united front. Most of the distinctive features of the IMG's and SWP's The theses on the importance of the united front were first adopted at the Third Congress emphasised the need to bring together revolutionaries and reformists on the basis of a This was the character of movements like the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Soldarity Campaign, and the high points of the struggle against the Industrial Relations Act. It was a key factor in their Sometimes the SWP chooses the method of the united front, as it did with the Anti-Nazi Socialist Challenge campaign lay in the thousands of 'rank and file' activists who built and participated in it locally. But the ANL was launched as a united front of the SWP, Labour MPs, trade union It was this combination at the top that gave for the united front of thousands of local activists at the base which swept the campaign forward to such dramatic But the SWP does not always choose this On other occasions it follows a totally: different tactic summed up by the phrase the 'rank and file movement' The 'rank and file' approach starts from a - do we base ourselves on the activity of the rank and file or do we also In the words of Trotsky, the author of the Comintern's theses on the united front: 'If we were able to simply unite the working masses around our practical immediațe slogans and reformist organisations. Whats party or trade union, that would of course be the very best thing in the world.' (Struggk Against Fascism in Germany)
The fact is, of course, that we cannot 'skip over' the Labour Party or the trade unions.
• tO unite rank and file workers around the demands of revolutionaries may attract small groups of militant workers, but will crucially fail to confront the reformist who will go on misleading without being challenged. The mass of the working class will remain within the reformist fold The SWP betweet two approaches. With the 'Defend Our Unions' initiative, it has a rank and filist conception of the campaign, but actually builds it as a united front. With the ANL, the tactic employed to launch and build the campaign was clearly that of the united front.
In the teachers' union, the contradictions of the SWP's approach become clear. Despite a right-wing bureaucracy and SWP member Dick North on the national executive, , their and File Teacher" still fetishises school-based actions and unofficial Sometimes the SWP can avoid making a practical choice between these two approaches, but on big matters it will always be forced to The IMG stands for the approach of the 'Defend Our Unions' conference; application the approach of the united front to all fields of This is particularly relevant building mass opposition to the Tory government. Scargill, Benn, Moss Evans and the rest can mobilise huge numbers against the Tories we must lend our weight to forcing them to do this, not let them off the hook while revolutionaries try to go it alone. Naturally, inside the united front we never abandon ou political approach.
THERE are no • short-cuts to a lasting unity the SWP and the IMG. We are interested in the real step towards a mass, working class, _revolutionary party in Britain that would be represented by such a fusion. We are not after a cheap entry raid to win a few members, and wreck the SWP, or perhap Such a move would not solve the problems of creating a revolutionary party in There are no short-cuts to unity, but there are steps that can be taken to advance the possibility of an understanding between the A public discussion of all the points that It would preclude unity; it would combat suspicion between our memberships; it might even allow members of both organisations, and other groups and individuals on the left, would be come clearer on the need for unity and what It is vital that any debate and discussion is public — no points of significance can ever be primarily decided by small closed discussions.
Clearly any steps towards unity would have to be tested out by a period of joint work. This would demonstrate whether a principled basi whether the two currents could productively combine to form one organisation in practice are opposed to a now-or-nothing fusion. Even more are we opposed to a fusion where one side call the other 'centrist' rather than 'revolutionary", , as with the 1968 fusion between IS and Workers' Fight.' Joint work would reassure both sides that internal democracy differences would be approached constructthat debate, though firm, would be comradely and not at all a dialogue between the deaf.
The path to unity will take time and will not be easy. But if successful the end produc would be something of real importance for the the working class movement in this country.
Let us echo the words of Lenin when he any promises about setting aside differences we are working together for a common cause.
It is this common cause that we share with the SWP - the world proletarian revolution which makes the IMG commit itself to forging unity between our two organisations The fight has only just begun, but we are confident the future is on the side of both our organisations. And it is along these lines thai we shall approach the SWP leadership to Socialist Challenge 13 March 1980 Page 11
TAKE a look at this trade union banner, It is rather exceptional in the history of the British working class. It takes the side of the struggle of the Irish people against British imperialism. But, than good by speaking out?, they argue. 'We can't support terrorists, they explain.
the 'terrorists' of the Irish Republican Army did not exist when Wilson sent in the troops in 1969; in this context the Provisionals are no more than a justifiable reaction to
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The obstacle to unity: internal democracy
The next steps towards unity