Re: SWP and the petrol protests

[Philip Ferguson <plf13@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

David Welch posted the following form the SWP's 'International Socialism'
theoretical journal:

>"It is increasingly obvious that even one major national strike or an
>all-out strike in one city would lead to a rapid crisis of Blairism and
>Labourism as society polarised along class lines"
>(International Socialism No82, spring 1999, p35)


The SWP justified its call for a vote for Blair/Labour in the british
elections a few years ago on the basis that Labour would fail to meet
workers' high expectations, after 18 or whatever years of Tory rule.

As more sensible people on the left - including David's own group, the
CPGB/Weekly Worker, Red Action and LM (to the extent that LM then was still
'on the left') - pointed out, the big problem was that workers didn't have
expectations.  Workers' expectations had been lowered dramatically, not
only by the Tories but also by Labour (and the collapse of the Soviet bloc
etc).  So there was unlikely to be a crisis for Labour caused by not being
able to meet workers' expectations.

Since then, the SWP, and others on the British left who had the same basic
line, have been stuck with the problem of reality.  Namely, there has been
no crisis because there were no high expectations.

How to solve the fact that they were proven wrong?

Well, the SWP has resorted to its usual tactic - invention.  Every minor
dispute has been blown up into some major significant action.  We are, they
cliam, living in a period which is 'the 1930s in slow motion'.  The petrol
protests, which disappeared as suddenly as they began, became - for the SWP
- another sign of the validity of the '1930s in slow motion' thesis.  And
if next week, five workers in the Shetland Islands stage a lunchtime
protest, that will be further evidence.

We have the same thing in New Zealand, with the clone group, the SWO.  When
days lost through strikes had plummeted by 95 percent (from the 1908s to
the mid-90s) and when union membership had dropped to about 20 percent of
the workforce (in one of the formerly most unionised countries in the
world), the SWO paper ran a huge frontpage heading that there was 'A Mass
Uprising' going on!  (I think three little old ladies had rung up a
talkback show that week to complain about the cost of minties.)

Now, I would much rather that there was a mass uprising going on.  But we
are not going to get one, by creating a fantasy world and underestimating
the real problems of today.  That's a recipe for burn out and
demoralisation.  At a certain point it also becomes sheer cynicism, as
groups like the SWP and the clones in other countries go through members at
a rapid rate, making them run round like headless chickens on the premise
that war, fascism and revolution are around the corner.

What we need is a sober analysis of the period and what we can do to move
things forward.

Philip Ferguson