so therefore we do not advo- Beyond that we think there is the possibility of creating, And we believe that this England, implies a particular type party of the left on the lines. of party - one that is organ- of the SSP in Scotland, as the ised along Leninist lines to next stage of development. carry throughrevolutionary We have argued on numerConsequently we ous occasions that such a are not for a recreated "old new workers' party must, as La first principle, be federal, The political conditions do inclusive and not exist in Britain today, The SLP was politically dead in which The from the time that Scargill diverse left which is break- rejected federalism, refused ing from Blairism can be membership to drawn together into a new and others, There individuals could only join may, in the medium term, be the SLP for bringing resigned from any sonne revolutionary of the organisation they might be a member of first. organisations into a bigger Nick Long seems to think and more effective organisa- that the SSP is more federal tion, still working within a than the Socialist Alliances. broad alliance, but that is a This is not Socialist Alliances are a loose We therefore seek to build a network of groups seeking to broad and inclusive alterna- develop an organising suruc tive to Blairism, which can ture to facilitate common revolutionary action and organisations along with sec- paigning based tions of the ex-Labour left, agreed platform. the trade union left along The SSP is a political party with environmental activists with an extens ve anti-capitalist Calm - gramme and a democratic inclusive structure, and of necessity much he best format for tralised than the 'this at the present Alliances. time is undoubt- Scottish Socialist Alliance edly the Socialist and developed into the SSP Alliances. by tightening up its structures and extending its programme and policies. new broad Neither the SAs or the SSP are revolutionary organisations, of course - nor should they be. They are coalitions between revolutionaries and those who do regard themselves as revolutionaries, at least at the predemocratic. sent time.
They are front frameworks the SP in which and said that broad spectrum of the left if they build the best possible politiother cal alternative to Blairism in today's conditions. New Labour is busily ramming though its including: • the privatisation of Air true. The Traffic Control against the wishes of the bulk of the population, • the privatisation of the London Underground against the vast majority of commonatall Londoners, • refusing even to contemplate the re-nationalisation pro- of the railways, despite a big majority of people supporting (even demanding) it.
more cen- More and more people are looking for an alternative. It started as the This was clearly reflected in the results of the recent round of by-election results. We have, today, a unique opportunity to build such an alternative against Blairism with signs that the bulk of the far-left organisations are prepared to abandon past histories of sectarian practice in tavour of building the not We must not allow a knee jerk reaction to the SWP to get in the way of this. Most people who have been active united on the left for some time will have had bad experiences with the SWP (and with the SP/Militant as well by the can way). And bad experiences are still happening in some But it is easy to sit B back and say attacks, "don't trust the SWP". This can be a self-fulfilling prophesy. The significance of the SWP is not so much how much they haven't changed but how much they have. The level of collaborawhich is now taking place between the bulk of the far left within the alliances is unique and the SWP are a central part of it.
Nick Long should appreci'ate that the best way to combat the inherent sectarianism of the SWP, indeed the whole of the British left, is to build the Socialist Alliances in the most inclusive democratic and effective way possible.