Socialist Alliance
Call time on Socialist Party sectarianism
The Socialist Alliance was strengthened considerably by the Election campaign. Now plans have been quickly laid to build on this with through a conference in November which will consider proposals to restructure the organisation in a more effective way.
Such new structures need to take into account the way the Alliance developed in the course of the election and the big expansion of its membership.
In the immediate post-election period, it seemed that the Socialist Party was in agreement with this and was moving towards a more constructive attitude. This was in positive contrast with the way they had operated during the election itself .
Where Socialist Party members were candidates for the Alliance, the broader banner was really a formality. They ran the campaigns themselves and didn’t involve the broader forces in the Alliance or use much of the general material produced by the Alliance.
But after the election, leading SP representatives were saying that they were now in favour of consolidating the Alliance with a new and more integrated structure.
The Socialist of June 9 carried a positive report of the Socialist Alliance election campaign and concluded by saying that the Socialist Party would be putting forward proposals in the Alliance to build on what has been achieved.
This has not happened, however – apparently because the Peter Taaffe wing which is sceptical about the Alliance has won out over the more positive and constructive wing represented by Dave Nellist.
In recent weeks the SP has reverted to type with destructive interventions into some areas – most notably Walthamstow and Hackney. More generally it has started to oppose the further consolidation of the Alliance.
Instead it argues for an Alliance which would be even looser than the current format based on arrangements between the affiliated organisations, and would completely fail to include the expanded number of individual members who joined during the election.
At Marxism 2001 the SP distributed a bizarre leaflet which both accused the SWP of being reluctant to move the Socialist Alliance towards becoming a party (which is fair comment) but at the same time accused it of wanting to over-centralise the Alliance – i.e. make it too much like a party!
This shows that the SP call for the formation of a new party is pure propaganda. It makes calls for a party but at the same time puts every practical obstacle in the way of the Alliance actually becoming a party.
In the end this call for a new party becomes a cover for a sectarian operation inside the Alliance simply seeking some advantage for itself. The SPs call for a new party is in reality an obstacle to a new party.
The main tool the SP have now developed to block strengthening and developing the structures of the Alliance takes is a resolution they have pushed through the Coventry and Warwickshire Socialist Alliance.
This argues that the forthcoming conference should simply be a starting point of the discussion rather than taking any decisions on new structures. This is argued on the basis that "more time is needed to build trust between the different organisations within the Alliance".
But the main problem with building trust rests with the SP itself. Until it decides to come fully into the Alliance and build it, there will be a problem of trust between it and most of the rest of those in the Alliance.
It is very important to keep the SP in the Alliance, but it is also important not to be held to ransom by them.
The Alliance which has emerged from the election campaign is not the same organisation as it was at the beginning of the campaign. Many individual activists joined up both at a local level and nationally during the course of the campaign and who are disadvantaged by the existing structure.
The Socialist Party cannot be allowed to put their own narrow sectarian interests before the need for the Alliance.
These are to build on the gains of the election campaign by becoming a effective national organisation which can continue to fight against the neo-liberal policies of new Labour and win new support through doing so.