[Pen-l] The fight in the SWP, part two

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

This is a reply to John Rees's article "Where We Stand" that appeared 
on the Socialist Unity blog.

As many of you know, Rees was in the eye of the storm over Respect. 
The SWP assigned him to work in the party, where he became National 
Secretary. He also ran as a Respect candidate in the 2004 elections.

One of the main theoretical documents that underpinned the SWP's 
intervention in Respect was written by Rees. Titled "The broad party, 
the revolutionary party and the united front", it is deeply flawed by 
confusion over what Lenin and Trotsky meant by a united front. They 
never applied this tactic to electoral politics, but to specific 
actions that united socialists, communists and other left formations 
on a temporary basis. Since Respect did grow out of the genuine 
united front against the war in Iraq that involved George Galloway as 
a leading figure, it is understandable how Rees would make such a 
mistake. However, the British anti-war coalition was understood by 
its participants to be a bloc of parties who agreed on little else 
except the need to fight against the war. Turning that alliance into 
the more homogenous political culture required to build an electoral 
party is another story altogether as the ultimate breakup of Respect 
would indicate. Divided loyalties between the SWP and Respect would 
be the undoing of the SWP.

It is not surprising that Rees repeats the talking points of the SWP 
in his article, starting off with the proposal that Respect was a "coalition":

"Respect was always a coalition involving forces that came together 
in the antiwar movement. Much of the left including the Communist 
Party of Britain abstained from the beginning, as did other left 
Labour MPs. So we were left with George Galloway, a talented and high 
profile anti-war campaigner but one whose record historically was not 
on the hard left of Labour; radicalised Muslims; a number of other 
activists radicalised by the war and disenchanted with Labour, and 
the far left, predominantly ourselves."

Missing from this calculation is any understanding of the potential 
minefield represented by a disciplined "Leninist" party working in a 
party with people whose main loyalty was to Respect and not the SWP. 
When those "radicalized Muslims" had tried to persuade John Rees of 
the wisdom of this or that motion at a supposedly democratic 
decision-making meeting of Respect, they surely expected that he took 
their ideas more seriously than those of his comrades on the SWP 
Central Committee. When they began to figure out that the decisions 
had been worked out in advance at the CC meeting and presented to 
Respect as a fait accompli, no wonder they might have felt alienated.

full: 
http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2008/12/21/the-fight-in-the-swp-part-two/

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