"International": a break from opportunism
A NEW star is twinkling among the galaxies of left groupings in
Britain.
A recent split in the Editorial Board of
Socialist Action has brought the publication of the magazine International, whose supporters are pledged to offer an alternative to the opportunist line of that paper on national and international questions
Little has appeared in print from either side of the split to explain the issues involved, but the decisive differences have without doubt centred on the misers' strike
Britain and the in emergence within
Socialist Action of a substantial current of opinion which favours abandoning the
Marxist strategic conception of Permanent
Revolution.
During the miners' strike Socialist Action, like so much of the far left, opportunistically followed the bandwagon of the
NUM leadership, failing to offer either criticism or tactical proposals to advance the strike. Instead, those who in any way criticised the political weaknesses of
Scargill, or exposed the cynical role being
Victory against deportation
Mohammed
: Idrish to stay
AS OVER 200 representatives of campaigns against deportations and labour movement bodies attended a successful conference in
Hackney on November 18, there came news of a major victory in the
4-year fight to prevent the deportation of Mohammed Idrish.
the campaign has been backed by his union, NALGO, and included a national demonstration. Eventually a tribunal decision that he was too valuable in his work as a community worker in the
West Midlands for the deportation to go ahead.
But the scope and duration of the fight required to beat back the outrageous attack on Mohammed simply underlines the racist brutality of the immigration laws: though he has won his case.
hundreds have suffered the agonies of deportation.
The victory must redouble the fight within the labour movement for the repeal of all immigration laws, and the immediate defence of all black workers threatened with deportation.
The Hackney Anti-Deportation Campaign can be contacted at Box
139, Kingsland High St. London E8 2NS.
layed within the NUM by the Communis Party, were denounced as "sectarians"
But these disagreements over the role of Marxists in the strike - one of the most crucial tests of the revolutionary movement since the 1926 General Strike -were compounded by other, equally fundamental differences over orientation towards the leaderships of various nationa liberation struggles. Just as they refused to criticise Scargill, the leading elements on the Socialist Action editorial board have given uncritical support to non-Marxist lederships overseas — Including the reactionary Khomeini regime in Iran.
With one wing of the Socialist Action editorial board opting clearly for the Stalinist concept to revolution in "stages" in the underdeveloped countries, as peddied by Fidel Castro and the Communist Party-influenced leaders of many liberation movements, the paper has failed to offer a Marxist analysis or programme.
While Marx and Engels as early as 1850 were arguing that the completion of the national democratic revolution could only be achieved under the leadership of the
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• • • Socialist Viewpoint No. 9 December 1985 p24
By HARRY SLOAN working class and interlinked with the socialist revolution, the pro-Castro forces have retreated from this stance.
The consequences included Socialist Action's continued support for Khomeini's regime as "progressive", "revolutionary" and "anti-imperialist" even while it persecuted and slaughtered women and gays, jailed and executed communists, and repressed national minorities strugg!ing for self-determination.
Today in South Africa Socialist Actior advocates an uncritical line towards the CP-influenced African National Congress, with its "Freedom Charter" which sets out to separate the democratic "stage" from the socialist revolution.
International supporters have correctly declared their opposition to such non-Marxist positions, and branded them as an adaptation to Staliniam. And in the first issue of their magazine there is also a clear sign of a more independent, critical stance towards the leadership of the liberation struggle in El Salvador.
While proclaiming Itself a paper of Marxists in the Labour Party, International supporters argue that their orientation towards the left leaders and the currents of the hard left will be substantially different from Socialist Action.
Socialist Action has adapted itself to the reformist politics and takes an uncritical stance towards leaders such as Tony Benn: International supporters have argued for a more independent line, while still seeking to link up with left Labour and trade union leaders in common campaigns. And while Socialist Action has stood in isolation from Labour Briefing and the Labour Left Coordination, International pledges to build such initiatives to unite the hard left.
Few of the issues raised as differences by International will strike readers as new in the politics of Socialist Action. So why, after so many years of opportunist politics, and the acceptance of a huge spectrum of political differences within the Socialist Action Editorial Board, should the split take place now?
Internotional supporters argue that a series of manoeuvres within the Editorial Board, since January, in which the preservation of political control by a small leading caucus took precedence over the programmatic positions put forward by the paper, finally decided them that a split was the only way in which a break could be made from non-Marxist positions.
They argue strongly that despite the split they remain committed to democratic discussion of political differnces, with the line of the magazine decided by collective votes.
Socialist Viewpoint welcomes the break by the comrades of International.
While many political questions remain to be resolved and their new magazine in only in its early stages of development - we hope that their break from the old positions of Socialist Action will prove to be a thoroughgoing one, enabling the comrades of International to play a full role in the struggle for a Marxist pro gramme and a Marxist leadership in the workers movement.