SLP

[Adam Rose <adam@xxxxxxxx>]

The SLP was actually formed this weekend.

It has made no public pronouncements as yet, but Arthur Scargill
wrote an article in the Guardian on Monday.

There was nothing I disagreed with in the article.
Scargill goes through the drift of Labour to the right.
He says this was symbolised by ditching clause IV, the
"socialist" clause in the Labour Party constitution, and
its replacement with a clause positively embracing the market.
He lists the practical consequences of this shift, most
importantly on trade union rights where Blair has said he will
keep most or all of the Tories legislation.

Crucially, he says "the Labour Party has never been a socialist
party but at best social democratic. This position I now agree
with". This is a decisive break for him, and reflects the feelings
of many activists.

He then attacked all the press criticism writing the SLP off,
which I also agreed with. He says that the original proposers
of today's Labour Party in the late 1800's had not only been
ridiculed but actually stoned by Liberal Party supporting
miners. The people writing him off have already writen off
socialism and the working class.

However, he only makes comparisons with the foundation of
the Labour Party and never with the Communist Party. At no
point in the article does he actually examine why the Labour
Party has ended up like it has. The obvious deduction from
the article, although it is never explicitly stated, is that
the SLP will be primarilly an election fighting machine, not
a party which sees the main force for change as working class
action outside of parliamnent.

In this respect, for Scargill himself, while the organisational
break with Labour is undoubtedly a step forward, the foundation
of the SLP is a step backwards from 1984-5 or even the early
1990's, when the alternative he offered was extra parliamentary.

The question of how the new party sees change coming about is
crucial. If the primary aim is to win elections, a vote
of 5% or 10% is demoralising, whereas if the primary aim is to
build a fightback outside of parliament it is a good starting
point. Unfortunately, the focus of the SLP so far seems to be
on elections, on replacing Labour as the main electoral party
on the left.

What we need is a party which can draw together the various battles
against the system, drawing the practical and political links between
them. Such a party needs to encourage and help organise action outside
of parliament, centered on the workplace, where the working class is
most powerful. This is neccessary to maintain the reforms we have won
in the past and to win new ones. But it is also neccessary to overthrow
the system as a whole.

The organisation break with Labour is a first step in this direction.
But a complete break with politics of the Labour Party is also
neccessary.

Adam.

Adam Rose
SWP
Manchester
UK


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