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So who's really organising the ESF? national |
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news report
 Thursday July 18, 2002 15:39 by Trotwatch
 Weekely Worker gives the game away "There were no NGOs present, no environmentalists, no anarchists. The organisation of the ESF is down to Europe?s revolutionary organisations - in the main Italy?s Rifondazione Comunista. The only non-revolutionary organisations of any kind were the Greek trade union organisation, GSEE, and Attac, which mainly campaigns for the introduction of the Tobin tax on financial transactions. However, in most European countries Attac has been set up and dominated by revolutionary organisations and has steadily moved to the left" European Social Forum The organisation of the first European Social Forum in November is well underway. Since last weekend the official website has been up and running, registration has started and the first workshops and seminars are being prepared. As usual for these ESF meetings, debate in Thessaloniki was very fraternal and democratic. Contributions were not limited to one or two minutes, as is so common with the left in Britain. A system of self-discipline has proved much more successful. Even when a conflict between Greek comrades broke out, the plenary meeting listened patiently. The most significant decision of the meeting was to clarify the situation of political parties within the ESF. A number of minor decisions concerning the numbers of translators, deadlines for workshop proposals, etc were also taken. My suggestion of an ESF newspaper (in which, for example, the Greek comrades could have explained their dispute or the role of political parties could be discussed) was picked up and referred to by the organisation committee. However, a discussion about the nature or frequency of such a publication is still to be had: these organising meetings are not conducive to political debate - proceedings are dominated by organisational and technical matters. However, during breaks, outside the meeting hall and in the evenings, there was plenty of lively discussion. Meeting other European socialists and communists is surely the most positive experience of the whole ESF process. It was very inspiring to see how many comrades in Europe have heard of the Weekly Worker and are aware of the CPGB as a major force in the drive to unite the left in Britain. Almost every time I left the room I was approached by comrades from other European countries who wanted to introduce themselves, suggest a publication swap or closer cooperation. Almost 100 Weekly Workers were sold as well as a few copies of the CPGB book, Towards a Socialist Alliance party. In addition our Draft programme was taken by the score. Over 150 Greek comrades attended the meeting, together with about 60 from eastern European countries and around 50 from western Europe - overwhelmingly these comrades represented the main socialist organisations on the European left. There were also two dozen Palestinian comrades. There were no NGOs present, no environmentalists, no anarchists. The organisation of the ESF is down to Europe?s revolutionary organisations - in the main Italy?s Rifondazione Comunista. The only non-revolutionary organisations of any kind were the Greek trade union organisation, GSEE, and Attac, which mainly campaigns for the introduction of the Tobin tax on financial transactions. However, in most European countries Attac has been set up and dominated by revolutionary organisations and has steadily moved to the left. The delegation from Britain was sadly rather small, pretty accurately reflecting the level of class struggle in this country. Workers Power, despite its call to ?build Social Forums in Britain now? in an article comparing them with the Russian soviets of 1905 and 1917, has yet to show up to any of the international meetings (Workers Power summer). Three of WP?s Austrian comrades managed a small stall at the previous organising meeting in Vienna, but none of them intervened in the debates or handed out any ESF-specific literature. Even on a British level WP has not exactly been prominent in driving the project forward or even turning up at the regular organising meetings. In Thessaloniki, apart from the CPGB only the Socialist Workers Party was present. Or rather was not present: all five SWPers spoke as members of Globalise Resistance. Although the comrades have argued strongly against the ban on political parties, their self-identification as GR members seemed to accept it as a fait accompli. They also appeared to condone the unfortunate petty nationalist divisions of the British left. Chris Nineham always spoke as ?Globalise Resistance, England?, whereas his two female comrades stressed in every contribution that they were from ?the SSP and Globalise Resistance, Scotland?. The content of their contributions, however, along with those of a number of other European comrades, gave them away as members of the SWP?s International Socialist Tendency. The dozen or so comrades from Poland, Germany, Britain and Greece were quite obviously told to argue for the same thing: ?We need lots and lots of demonstrations in Florence?, argued Carrie Marwick, ex-SWP student organiser in Scotland and now SSP full-timer. ?In Globalise Resistance we have 90% action and only 10% politics,? she declared proudly. Chris Nineham backed her up: ?If we don?t have lots of demonstrations against the war, ordinary activists won?t come to Florence,? he warned. Luckily, nobody apart from the IST comrades agreed with what is actually an apolitical and pessimistic approach. ?Surely, one big demonstration is enough,? said filmmaker Leo Gabriel from the Austrian organising committee. ?We don?t want to take too much time away from the political debates.? In the end, comrades from Rifondazione basically ignored the SWP?s pleas and suggested quite correctly that it would be up to the Italian comrades to decide the subject of the demo. ?If the situation in Palestine deteriorates, then we might want to call a demo on that,? comrade Raffaela Bollini, the main delegate from Rifondazione Comunista, argued. ?We must be flexible.? It is interesting that the comrades from Rifondazione have now taken up a more active role in the ESF. Back in May in Vienna, they pretty much stayed in the background and hardly ever intervened. But as organisational questions become more complex and the launch date draws closer, the comrades are now openly guiding the process. They intervened several times, making suggestions on how to resolve disputes and proposing a number of compromises. Rifondazione?s leading role is, however, a little ambiguous and will soon need to be clarified. Its 100,000 comrades obviously play an important part in the Italian class struggle. They are heavily involved in the leftwing trade union federation, GCIL, and the local Social Forums, which have sprung up since last year?s huge demonstration in Genoa. There, thousands of young people have been propelled into politics by the rightwing Berlusconi government that is openly challenging trade union rights and working conditions. This is quite different from the rest of Europe, where anti-capitalist protests have found their expression mainly in the established political organisations. In Britain, Germany and other northern European countries of course there is no real anti-capitalist movement to talk of. A few years back, the comrades from Rifondazione consciously decided on a policy of ?contaminating? the movement, whereby they are attempting to draw the newly politicised anti-capitalists into their orbit, but also want to be ?contaminated? by them in turn. Maybe that is why in the ESF they actually play a rather conservative role. It seems they want to represent and substitute for all the non-revolutionary anti-capitalists, anarchists and environmentalists that could not make it to the organising meetings. The comrades have almost taken on the role of mediators between the more openly revolutionary organisations in Europe and the World Social Forum (based in Brazil), which is far more dominated by rightwing NGOs such as Oxfam. However, on the other hand, representatives of Rifondazione met last week with executive members of the Socialist Alliance and Spain?s United Left to discuss how to build a strong revolutionary left inside the ESF. Unfortunately, none of this actually transpired in Thessaloniki. The comrades tell us behind closed doors that of course they are interested in establishing closer organisational links. However, our proposal for democratically elected and accountable ESF commissions on various subjects fell on deaf ears and was not taken up. ?We are not preparing the ESF to become a party formation,? comrade Bollini said in a plenary session. ?We want to use the ESF for discussions on our agreements as well as our disagreements,? she argued, implying perhaps that a party might not allow disagreements within its ranks. Her own organisation of course does actually allow the open expression of disagreement. Although it grants the right to form temporary factions formally, in practice Rifondazione allows them on a permanent basis. More likely comrade Bollini is reflecting her organisation?s orientation towards the anti-capitalist movement in Italy. Draw them into your orbit without scaring them with party membership. Rifondazione will need to resolve these questions pretty soon. If the comrades want the ESF to move to the left, they need to start debating this process in front of the working class. We should fight openly against the influence of the NGOs, the reformist and social democratic organisations that still have a strong grip on the World Social Forum. Tina Becker |
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Comments (17 of 17)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17Organisations Supporting the Mobilisation for the European Social Forum in Britain
Globalise Resistance
Green Party
Ilisu Dam Campaign
ATTAC London
Socialist Workers Party
Socialist Alliance
World Development Movement
Red Pepper
International Socialist Group
Newham Monitoring Project
FBU Eastern Region
MSF/Amicus London Region
Rifondazione Communista
Amicus London Housing branch (MSF section)
UNISON London Region International Committee
Communist Party of Great Britain
No Sweat
Leicestershire Health UNISON
Important notes from the Charter of Principles:
The World Social Forum is a plural, diversified, non-confessional, non-governmental and non-party context that, in a decentralized fashion, interrelates organizations and movements engaged in concrete action at levels from the local to the international to built another world.
The meetings of the World Social Forum do not deliberate on behalf of the World Social Forum as a body. No-one, therefore, will be authorized, on behalf of any of the editions of the Forum, to express positions claiming to be those of all its participants.
IN FULL:
World Social Forum Charter of Principles
The committee of Brazilian organizations that conceived of, and organized, the first World Social Forum, held in Porto Alegre from January 25th to 30th, 2001, after evaluating the results of that Forum and the expectations it raised, consider it necessary and legitimate to draw up a Charter of Principles to guide the continued pursuit of that initiative. While the principles contained in this Charter - to be respected by all those who wish to take part in the process and to organize new editions of the World Social Forum - are a consolidation of the decisions that presided over the holding of the Porto Alegre Forum and ensured its success, they extend the reach of those decisions and define orientations that flow from their logic.
1) The World Social Forum is an open meeting place for reflective thinking, democratic debate of ideas, formulation of proposals, free exchange of experiences and interlinking for effective action, by groups and movements of civil society that are opposed to neoliberalism and to domination of the world by capital and any form of imperialism, and are committed to building a planetary society directed towards fruitful relationships among Mankind and between it and the Earth.
2) The World Social Forum at Porto Alegre was an event localized in time and place. From now on, in the certainty proclaimed at Porto Alegre that "another world is possible", it becomes a permanent process of seeking and building alternatives, which cannot be reduced to the events supporting it.
3) The World Social Forum is a world process. All the meetings that are held as part of this process have an international dimension.
4) The alternatives proposed at the World Social Forum stand in opposition to a process of globalization commanded by the large multinational corporations and by the governments and international institutions at the service of those corporations' interests, with the complicity of national governments. They are designed to ensure that globalization in solidarity will prevail as a new stage in world history. This will respect universal human rights, and those of all citizens - men and women - of all nations and the environment and will rest on democratic international systems and institutions at the service of social justice, equality and the sovereignty of peoples.
5) The World Social Forum brings together and interlinks only organizations and movements of civil society from all the countries in the world, but intends neither to be a body representing world civil society.
6) The meetings of the World Social Forum do not deliberate on behalf of the World Social Forum as a body. No-one, therefore, will be authorized, on behalf of any of the editions of the Forum, to express positions claiming to be those of all its participants. The participants in the Forum shall not be called on to take decisions as a body, whether by vote or acclamation, on declarations or proposals for action that would commit all, or the majority, of them and that propose to be taken as establishing positions of the Forum as a body. It thus does not constitute a locus of power to be disputed by the paarticipants in its meetings, nor does it intend to constitute the only option for interrelation and action by the organizations and movements that participate in it.
7) Nonetheless, organizations or groups of organizations that participate in the Forum's meetings must be assured the right, during such meetings, to deliberate on declarations or actions they may decide on, whether singly or in coordination with other participants. The World Social Forum undertakes to circulate such decisions widely by the means at its disposal, without directing, hierarchizing, censuring or restricting them, but as deliberations of the organizations or groups of organizations that made the decisions.
8) The World Social Forum is a plural, diversified, non-confessional, non-governmental and non-party context that, in a decentralized fashion, interrelates organizations and movements engaged in concrete action at levels from the local to the international to built another world.
9) The World Social Forum will always be a forum open to pluralism and to the diversity of activities and ways of engaging of the organizations and movements that decide to participate in it, as well as the diversity of genders, ethnicities, cultures, generations and physical capacities, providing they abide by this Charter of Principles. Neither party representations nor military organizations shall participate in the Forum. Government leaders and members of legislatures who accept the commitments of this Charter may be invited to participate in a personal capacity.
10) The World Social Forum is opposed to all totalitarian and reductionist views of economy, development and history and to the use of violence as a means of social control by the State. It upholds respect for Human Rights, the practices of real democracy, participatory democracy, peaceful relations, in equality and solidarity, among people, ethnicities, genders and peoples, and condemns all forms of domination and all subjection of one person by another.
11) As a forum for debate, the World Social Forum is a movement of ideas that prompts reflection, and the transparent circulation of the results of that reflection, on the mechanisms and instruments of domination by capital, on means and actions to resist and overcome that domination, and on the alternatives proposed to solve the problems of exclusion and social inequality that the process of capitalist globalization with its racist, sexist and environmentally destructive dimensions is creating internationally and within countries.
12) As a framework for the exchange of experiences, the World Social Forum encourages understanding and mutual recognition among its participant organizations and movements, and places special value on the exchange among them, particularly on all that society is building to centre economic activity and political action on meeting the needs of people and respecting nature, in the present and for future generations.
13) As a context for interrelations, the World Social Forum seeks to strengthen and create new national and international links among organizations and movements of society, that - in both public and private life - will increase the capacity for non-violent social resistance to the process of dehumanization the world is undergoing and to the violence used by the State, and reinforce the humanizing measures being taken by the action of these movements and organizations.
14) The World Social Forum is a process that encourages its participant organizations and movements to situate their actions, from the local level to the national level and seeking active participation in international contexts, as issues of planetary citizenship, and to introduce onto the global agenda the change-inducing practices that they are experimenting in building a new world in solidarity.
APPROVED AND ADOPTED IN SÃO PAULO, ON APRIL 9, 2001, BY THE ORGANIZATIONS THAT MAKE UP THE WORLD SOCIAL FORUM ORGANIZATING COMMITTEE, APPROVED WITH MODIFICATIONS BY THE WORLD SOCIAL FORUM INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON JUNE 10, 2001
This ESF is under the control of the SWP and other sectarian groups. The Committee for a Workers' International has been excluded for sectarian reasons. Read recent editions of the Weekly Worker (www.cpgb.org.uk) to see.
The CWI by far had the largest group at the Brussels anti-capitalist demo. The CWI are the only left group to have substantial support from ordinary people. A number of Councillors in Holland, a member of Parliament in Ireland, and a number of councillors in England. The SWP etc have failed on this front.
What is this garbage? As far as I'm aware most anarchists are "revolutionary". They may not be "party dictatorship fightin' rump o' the true inherent will o' the people revolutionary", but they sure as hell believe in revolution.
Also, what's the point of the European Social Forum? Why would a "revolutionary" organisation be interested in flying off its "special representatives what will negotiate for the people" to a junket to exchange CVs with NGO bosses?
Is the ESF dedicated to revolution or is it like the World Social Forum in Porto Allegre a talking shop for those in the BUSINESS of anti-globalization?
You are getting the European Social Forum mixed up with the European Conference of the Anti-Capitalist Left.
The latter is a series of meetings of left wing organisations arranged by the French LCR. They refused to allow the Irish Socialist Party to attend but invited the English Socialist Party. Then they stopped the English Socialist Party from going as well. Basically the LCR is getting a little bit friendly with the English SWP who didn't want us there.
Not very important, but it does serve as yet another example of the petty sectarianism of the SWP. Did we really need reminding?
Michael with the glasses representin.
As for the Socialist Party not being involved with the European Conferences of the Anti Capitalist left along with the Scottish Socialist Party, the Ligue Communiste Revolutionaire, Rifondazione Comunista, the Socialist Workers Party etc, that probably has more to do with the split with the CWI and Tommy Sheridan's more outward looking ISM who have played a leading role in the Scottish Socialist Party
Wow,what a success!We sold 100 of weekly worker!!!The revolution is near!!!
I'm afraid that your interpretation is simply incorrect Winston. When the Socialist Party was not invited to the last Conference, we wrote to Francois Verkamen of the LCR asking why not. He replied that the English Socialist Alliance (ie the SWP) had requested that we not be invited again. I can dig up a link for the correspondence if you like.
The European Conference of the Anti-Capitalist left isn't very important, of course, but it is interesting none the less
I thought that the CWI were a platform in the Scottish Socialist Party, and for that matter, were part of the Socialist Alliance.
It appears that the split you had with Tommy Sheridan and the Socialist Alliance in Britain was one that the CWI initiated.
So you were represented in the European Conferences of the Anti Captalist Left by the SSP and the SA, until you left those coalitions.
SWP really wind me up. They are a sectarian party that exploits their members. Yet they say they are left wing. They alienate everybody and they give out sectarianism. They oppose Siptu bureaucrats in the SWP and support them in Globalise Resistance.
SWP are not a socialist party. They are an opportunist party with a different agenda in each constituency.
SWP are in no way a party of the working class. They see the answer to things as 'leave it to me I'll sort it'. The modern well dressed SWP academic says leave it to me, listen to me and I'll sort things out. SWP cannot see that the only way to change things is through disbanding their silly sect.
and your Socialist Party membership card.
Supporting Organisations
The Socialist Alliance is supported by many individuals and organisations. The organisations supporting us are:
Alliance for Workers' Liberty
Communist Party of Great Britain
Democratic Labour Party
International Socialist Group
International Socialist League
Leeds Left Alliance
Lewisham Independent Socialists
Revolutionary Democratic Group
Socialist Perspectives
Socialist Solidarity Network
Socialist Workers Party
Workers International
Workers Power
Arguing with some Irish activists about the English Socialist Alliance is a strange experience. Almost nobody here has any real experience of the SA, but a few *want* it to be a functioning, open and democratic organisation and are unwilling to subject it to the same scrutiny that they would any other SWP dominated "organisation".
Here we have the example of "Orwell" producing a list of organisations affiliated to the Socialist Alliance. All of these organisations, bar the SWP, are absolutely tiny. Some of them barely exist. And at least one of them is no longer affiliated. You could come up with a more impressive list of affiliates to the Anti-Nazi League if you tried, though nobody doubts for a second that the the ANL is just an SWP front. The same goes for Globalise Resistance, the Campaign for Palestinian Rights and whatever other organisation is this months front name of choice.
Nowadays the English Socialist Alliance is barely an organisation at all. It is a name pulled in and out at the whim of the SWP leadership. An election coming up? The SA appears. An anti-capitalist mobalisation? The SA disappears and GR appears.
That is sad. The Socialist Alliances had some potential as broad democratic loose organisations. They have no potential as an SWP front. Sorry to disappoint.
On the precise issue which sparked "Orwell's" defense of the SA, there is no possibility of the "Alliance" making a request to exclude the Socialist Party from the Conferences except on the say so of the SWP. No possibility at all.
The decision of the majority of the Scottish Section of the CWI - the International Socialist Movement to leave the CWI was taken with regret. The vast majority of members believed that we had no alternative. We believe that the method and approach of the International Secretariat of the CWI who have refused to collaborate with the elected leadership of the section and instead have worked with a small faction, usurped the democratic rights of the membership of the ISM.
Three years ago the leadership of the section which was then called Scottish Militant Labour, put forward a set of proposals. SML proposed that based on our experience within the Scottish Socialist Alliance, we should launch a new political party in Scotland the Scottish Socialist Party and that we should put most of our resources into the launch of this party.
By doing this we would attract a new layer of people into socialist politics and begin to build widespread support for the ideas of socialism. Given that we would be part of the leadership of this party and that we would be an organised platform within it, our view was that over a period of time - given the experience of this party in action and in political debate we could help this party develop into the vehide through which the working class in Scotland could carry through socialism.
This was completely opposed by Peter Taaffe and the leadership of the CWI. The comrades argued against this and demanded that the Scottish Section implement the 1998 World Congress resolution which specifically states in the first sentence."This World Congress of the CWI places on record it's strongest possible opposition to the decision of SML to launch the Scottish Socialist Party". The Scottish section could not accept the resolution and instead implemented the proposal to launch the SSP.
It is clear that in the three years since we launched the SSP, the strategy of the Scottish Section has proved correct. The success of the SSP in this short time has surpassed our expectations. The creation of the party has involved thousands of new comrades in the party and has extended it's ideas to hundreds of thousands of people who consistently say in opinion polls that they will vote SSP. ( 5%-6%)
We have also launched the book " Imagine" through which we begin to go on the ideological offensive against the ideas of Globalisation and provide a vision of an alternative type of society for today's anti globalisation generation. The book was in the top ten of the leading bookshops in both Glasgow and Edinburgh over Christmas.
The SSP has had a huge impact, not only in Scotland but also in England and Wales.
Launching the SSP was a risk. There were no guarantees of success. However three years on, it is possible to say that the political understanding together with the courage to put it into action, proved SML correct.
This experience in Scotland unfortunately has been written off by the CWI leadership as a disaster.
The recent resolutions of both the International Executive Committee of the CWI and the Scottish Minority Faction confirm this. There is not one sentence about the success of the SSP. Instead the Scottish section of the CWI stand charged with the disintegration, liquidation and political degeneration. This is the balance sheet of the CWI leaders and the minority faction.
Disintegration
The last five years in the change in orientation of our work from SML, through the launch of fhe SSP, to the establishment of our organisation as a platform within the SSP, now called the lnternational Socialist Movement, we have not lost any comrades from political activity. On the contrary, the launch of the SSP reactivated a whole number of comrades who had been inactive. And now we have comrades coming back into the SSP and the ISM who were in Militant in the 1980's and after a decade of absence are re joining the struggle. We would pose the question to those still within the CWI, which yardstick is being used to make this judgement. We could equally pose the question, in the last five years how many members of the SP in England and Wales have left, dropped out of activity and are now hostile to the SP? The CWI leadership have failed to provide the evidence for their claim of disintegration.
Liquidation
This charge implies that we have simply merged our ideas and political analysis into the SSP and that we have no distinct policies or analysis. But the fact is that our comrades do defend within the SSP, from branch level up to the National Council and National Conference, clear positions on such questions as Kosova, Serbia, the Middle East, Ireland, the National Question, Nader, Globalisation, the SNP, Europe, etc. Furthermore the positions we defend have won wide support within the party at large. Again the comrades have no evidence for this assertion. It is a myth.
Degeneration.
The charge is that we have adapted our ideas and programme to that of reformism.
We reject these claims. The rather threadbare "evidence" cited is our approach to the Scottish Service Tax, phrases in the economy section of the SSP manifesto, and on the issue of how you pose a wealth tax. We have set up a web site (details below) which contains all the statements that we have been attacked on by the CWI and we would invite the comrades to read for themselves the ideas and programme which we are putting forward.
For two years the CWI have conducted the great international heresy hunt. Tommy Sheridan in particular has come under attack. Of the 75 columns he wrote for the Daily Record only one has made intemational headlines in the CWI. The column contains a reference to Cuba which is uncritical. But we do not let our support for the Cuban Revolution prevent us from putting forward criticisms when necessary, as was done by comrades of the ISM majority at the last SSP conference. And we have made the point to the CWI leaders that a discussion is needed on the whole issue of Cuba, particularly in the light of the last ten years' experience, and on perspectives in the current period. Such a discussion is not helped by empty name-calling. Does anyone actually believe that Tommy Shendan is a neo Stalinist? Words supplied by the CWI!
If Tommy has written 75 Record columns he has been quoted thousands of times in the press. As part of the proof of this political degeneration the CWI choose an ambiguous quote from the Observer, which could mistakenly give the impression that Tommy is in favour of a coalition with the SNP. However there is a considerable body of evidence which proves the opposite: our attitude to the SNP has been carried in the manifesto, centre pages in the Voice even Tommy's columns in the Daily Record. Why don't the comrades cite this evidence? Because it doesn't prove their case.
We will make mistakes every revolutionary organisation will. But the method of the CWI leadership is outright distortion of our organisation and it's analysis
Minority faction
After 3 years the CWI leadership are still claiming that they were co~rect in their opposition to the launch of the SSP. It is complete arrogance. The CWI leadership have not been prepared to admit their mistaken analysis. Instead they have sought to attack and undennine the position we have built in Scotland. Accompanying this with a refusal to collaborate with the elected leadership of the section.
The CWI leadership have chosen to work with a small minority faction to the exclusion of the elected leadership. At a meeting in May 2000 Lynn Walsh made it crystal clear that the CWI leaders were not prepared to collaborate with the elected leadership of the section. In using this undemocratic method the CWI leadership we believe was working towards splitting the section. For over 2 years we have effectively been expelled with a new de facto section of the CWI in Scotland being recognised by the international in the form of the minority faction. The minority faction hold secret meetings and have secret finances and members. We have been treated as the enemy within for a number of years.
This has been confinned within two days of our decision to leave. The CWI and faction have distributed to the bourgeois press in Scotland a press statement attacking Tommy Sheridan and the ISM. Part of which was carried in the Daily Record describing Tommy as a "neo Stalinist capitalist"' No doubt the comrades will cry misquote which is a bit rich since they distributed their attacks to the bourgeois press. This merely reinforces the sectarianism of the CWI. Since when have we used the bourgeois press to attack other sections of the left?
The way the CWI leaders have dealt with the Scottish Section is a major mistake. The ISM is leading one of the most developed and programmatically advanced parties of the new socialist formations which have emerged, especially in Europe.
The question of regroupment of the anti capitalist and revolutionary left is one of the most important questions facing us. The ISM in Scotland now has considerable experience under our belt in this development. We are being approached by all sorts of parties and organisations internationally who are hoping to learn from our experience, in order to advance the situation in their country.
Earlier last year we produced a document which is available on our website, outlining our analysis of the period we are in, the role of revolutionaries and the question of orientation and programme. We would direct comrades to that material for a detailed analysis of our approach.
By leaving the CWI we will not cease to be internationalists. We aim to be involved in and support the anti globalisation actions which take place across the world. We will develop solidarity with the struggles of workers and the oppressed peoples in other countries.
Through the SSP we are involved in discussion with other socialist organisations with the aim of launching a European Socialist alliance which could develop wider than just Europe.
Any new international socialist alliance will be politically heterogeneous. Therefore there is an opportunity for the ideas of Trotskyism which the ISM represents to play a decisive role in shaping this international, provided that we can put forward these ideas in a constructive, creative and non sectarian way.
The ISM must be prepared to take initiatives to link up with groups and individuals within this international alliance and outside who consider themselves Trotskyists or Marxists with a view to debate land discuss. The idea that there is only one international which holds ah the answers to the problems facing the workers movement and that a mass revolutionary intemational will only be created if everyone joins that organisation is mistaken. There is a great need for a mass revolutionary international of the working class. But it's creation will be a much more complicated process involving revolutionaries from different backgrounds.
We will work towards the regroupment of those forces still committed to the defence of the interests of the working class and of socialism with the aim of building a pluralist international. Within that international we will work with other groups to strengthen the influence of Marxism within it. We hope that in the future the CWI will abandon its present sectarian course and be part of this process.
ISM majority 17.01.01
The documents spanning three years of the debate with the CWI can be found at http://www.redflag.org.uk
It's very nice of you John, to dig up an article from a few years ago written by the Scottish ISM to justify their descent into open reformism. Soon after that article was produced Tommy Sheridan was calling for the lowest rate of taxation to be increased to pay for public services - i.e. tax the poor - and celebrating Fidel Castro's birthday. The history lesson is much appreciated.
The question remains, though, why are you posting it here? Are you just a member of the ISM looking to bury a very old hatchet and not too bothered about the relevance of your comments to the article or the earlier comments it follows?
Or, as is more likely, are you a member of the SWP cynically and hypocritically using an article produced by the ISM to defend themselves against charges of reformism even though the SWP shares our view of the ISM as reformist. Any source will do as long as it's an attack on the Socialist Party?
The debate about CWI sectarianism towards Tommy Sheridan cannot be disgusied as an SWP plot.The following letter was sent by Tommy Sheridan to Peter Taaffe and the CWI, on behalf of the SSP. It was in protest at the release to the capitalist press of a statement attacking the SSP and Tommy personally. The CWI press release was carried by a number of papers including the mass circulation Daily Record who wrote an article describing Tommy as a 'neo-Stalinist capitalist'
To: Peter Taaffe
C/o Committee for a Workers' International
Dear Peter
It is with a mixture of sheer astonishment and deep disappointment that I feel compelled to write this letter to condemn your actions and those of the CWI leadership in releasing the attached press release to the enemies of the socialist movement internationally and the working class in general.
We have engaged in a very robust debate over tactics, strategy and programme within the CWI during the last two years. You have politically attacked and criticised the Scottish leadership and we have in turn defended ourselves and criticised the CWI leadership. This discussion and debate were sometimes heated but always took place in a democratic and comradely manner and atmosphere. It was very much a family affair.
Unfortunately you and the CWI have now committed a cardinal sin within the socialist movement. You have put our disagreements into the hands of the anti-working class, anti-democratic and anti-socialist press and media. They exist to distort and denigrate the ideas of socialism and often socialists individually. Yet you, the so-called leaders of a socialist International have placed our discussions and our disagreements in their grateful laps.
I note your pathetic complaints when one of these grateful capitalist lapdogs "distorts" what you had to say. For goodness' sake, Peter, what did you expect? You are certainly not wet behind the ears. This press release was a serious mistake which will win you no friends in the socialist movement internationally and will probably convince the 75% of the CWI members in Scotland who voted to leave that they were right to do so.
We had the debate, Peter. You and the other comrades have made your voices heard consistently over the last two years. You simply lost the argument. Over 75% of the Scottish membership believe the Scottish leadership have been leading from the front in a principled and revolutionary manner trying to build both a new mass Socialist Party in Scotland with a Marxist and revolutionary leadership and programme.
Time will ultimately tell who is right but in the meantime you and the CWI stand condemned for distinctly anti-socialist and anti-Labour movement actions. You don't run to our enemies when you fall out with socialists, Peter. They are not our friends and never will be. We may not be in the same organisation any longer but we should still be allies in the struggle for socialism generally. You should be ashamed of your actions.
Yours in disappointment
TOMMY SHERIDAN
none of the above explains why the sp in ireland weren't invited to the conference. We have more influence then the SA in england and wales and the same as the ssp. So whatever about the SP in england being excluded because of splits in the SA and SSP it doesn't expalin why the we in Ireland were excluded.