tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640441812647446166.post8975229756903282869..comments2024-03-28T04:26:49.354+00:00Comments on Tony Greenstein's Blog: The Self-Destruction of the Socialist Workers Party – Now is the Time for a New Left PartyTony Greensteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14300640929161205370noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640441812647446166.post-23595841995377950502013-04-24T12:55:59.597+01:002013-04-24T12:55:59.597+01:00I wrote this back in January: PART II - by Will ...I wrote this back in January: PART II - by Will Howley<br /><br />A couple of years back the SWP and the Socialist Party leadership instructed their members not to talk to ‘non-comrades’ on the internet and use Facebook. And the Socialist Party turned its Facebook Group from being an open one to being closed…that’s the way to recruit new members! When I heard and saw this I nearly fell off my laptop laughing. <br />Like rape, where nearly two thirds of men do not orgasm at the time of rape, it’s all about power and control. Correct me if I’m wrong here, as this is an old stat, 1 in 20 rapes get formerly reported, and only 1 in 5 results in a conviction. I do not apologise for asking you to examine the parallels between the treatment of women in these groups and the wider treatment of Comrade Members? To me there is one. <br />Extract form the 1951 resignation letter of Natalia Trotsky from the SWP’s Fourth International, first published in 1971 [see link to read in full: http://www.marxists.org/archive/sedova-natalia/1951/05/09.htm]<br />‘I know very well how often you repeat that you are criticizing Stalinism and fighting it. But the fact is that your criticism and your fight lost their value and can yield no results because they are determined by and subordinated to your position of defence of the Stalinist state’. NT<br />Extract from my voluminous doc about my experience in the Militant circa 1980-83. It has its moments while some might find it an aide to fight insomnia either way it’s in my notes on Facebook: [see link: https://www.facebook.com/notes/will-howley/my-experiences-in-the-tendency-written-in-1992-part-i/248449108528144]<br />1980- ‘One thing that disturbed me was when I noticed that some in the male Branch members were behaving in a chauvinist manner towards women. When I raised the issue with Ray Apps, another CC [Central Committee] member, he told me that ‘we cannot reflect the type of society we are trying to create’? I did not agree with this dismissive analysis’.<br />Keep in internal, what like a fart? If you get forced to keep that wind internal to your body you will explode. But the political breakdown is a sign of implosion which has been going on for years whilst the various left groups or parties behave in a sectarian and incestuous manner not wanting to form alliances but take control. A terrible fact is before the split in the Militant the turnover of members was over 36%. Do calculations on the back of a fag packet and you might agree that various Leninist/Trotskyist organisations have been through over 1 million people over a 40 year period? <br />I for one do not want to be a follower and am too old and jaded to be a convert. I want to lead only myself and whilst the much used axiom of ‘Agitate educate and organise’ has validity I have for years used the axiom of ‘Inform, entertain and always amuse’. When all else fails I go back to basics, and quote the classics: my Mum ‘Laugh and the world Laughs with you Cry and you Cry alone’.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640441812647446166.post-78572945944948372862013-04-24T12:53:55.992+01:002013-04-24T12:53:55.992+01:00I wrote this back in January: PARTI
“Keep it inte...I wrote this back in January: PARTI<br /><br />“Keep it internal?”<br />This expression has covered a multitude of sins from rape to debate. <br />Some on the left, very few in society, will be aware of the ‘debates’ taking place in the British SWP [Socialist Workers Party] about ‘DC’ [Democratic Centralism] and the nature of debates in socialist revolutionary parties of ‘Is Leninism dead’ to the obscene criminal accusation of rape of a member of the SWP by an older leader<br />The endless debate about ‘DC’ and is Leninism dead has been going on for decades. The various discussions have not been known to the wider membership of the Leninist/Trotskyist movements. They are often marginalised, smothered with rhetoric or used to malign another’s commitment to change. If you dare to raise criticisms, questions or queries, all of which comrades are told are ‘essential’, you can end up being called an ‘Agent, agent-provocateur, informer, spy, reformist, dilatant, petty-bourgeois moralist, weak in character, lacking in real commitment and revolutionary discipline…’add your own superlative.<br />But the debate about the future of ‘Leninism’ goes to the heart of a mater that has often failed to address historical mistakes of the left.<br />I see the most recent accusations of rape in the SWP as nothing new. Abuse of women, whilst calling for the ‘need’ for inequality in society, is endemic and may be a reflection of a deeper problem within the left movement. Which has only occasionally been addressed but in most cases is failed to be recognised or resolved? It is not just women who have suffered, but mostly, and many examples do and have existed of sexual harassment, abuse, rape as well as general bullying of members.<br />Accusation swirled around the former deputy leader of Liverpool City Council, Derek Hatton, about his macho-sexual-predatory nature. And more recently, the perjury trial of sexual-predator former Member of the Scottish Parliament Tommy Sheridan when he denied sexual accusations that eventually found him guilty. Who even though he was found guilty, with overwhelming evidence from his own side, that included one of his closest mates who had been best man at his wedding, the SWP and the Socialist Party [formerly Militant] came to Tommy’s aide to defend this ‘tireless political activist who had been a victim of a stitch up by the Bourgeois Press’ of Murdoch’s press News of the World. During Tommy’s time in prison there was no remorse shown by him or recognition of any guilt, we just saw bullish-bravado that continued the denial.<br />And even more recently sections of the left-grandees where used to malign assessors of rape in Sweden against wikileakes founder Julian Assange. The worst example of which was demonstrated by George Galloway MP of the Respect Party who suffered a barrage of criticism when the accusation of rape was called ‘Bad manners or bad sexual etiquette but it was not rape’ in his podcast. [see link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l95SNGX0Ttk]<br />Rape and sexual harassment in society is common and we can all tell stories of them. But we expect better of the highest standards in a movement for social change that promotes equality. But the mark, as is demonstrated by the attitude of the SWP’s leadership, falls well short. Accusations of leaks on the internet not going to the ‘Bourgeois Courts’ are used to distract criticism and examination of the facts. And long winded polemic is used to marginalise or smother debate on the issue. An accusation of a serious crime was committed so why was it not formerly reported as one but kept ‘internal’?<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640441812647446166.post-11445952216139552312013-03-26T21:08:53.208+00:002013-03-26T21:08:53.208+00:00The CP did not call for a National Government or a...The CP did not call for a National Government or a coalition after 1945. Some time before the 1945 General Election, it called for a Labour-led coalition to continue when the war ended - in the hope of containing Churchill's anti-communism.<br />Before and during the 1945 election campaign, the CP called for an outright Labour victory and a Labour government (not a coalition).<br />Nor did the SACP "support" the mine massacre. Try a little basic research before peddling the usual anti-communist tripe.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640441812647446166.post-3548436353345452542013-03-26T16:47:19.123+00:002013-03-26T16:47:19.123+00:00I hesistate to ask this, but it's been on my m... I hesistate to ask this, but it's been on my mind. Did anybody, either in the interest of seeking justice, or in the interest of being cleared of these accusations, ever call the police?<br />Just asking...<br />Mooserhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12294208692136002450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640441812647446166.post-5767068432466915092013-03-24T03:13:10.064+00:002013-03-24T03:13:10.064+00:00Reasonable analysis, and consistent with most of t...Reasonable analysis, and consistent with most of the same evidence discussed in the by now voluminous correspondence on this matter. If all that comes from this is yet another socialist literary circle cum sloganeering society, it will have been in vain...save for the fact that it will make it slightly harder for the same rapists to keep on enjoying their chosen lifestyle.Harry Hallernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640441812647446166.post-71973813825346190112013-03-23T16:41:26.929+00:002013-03-23T16:41:26.929+00:00The left is dead for years already.
If you don'...The left is dead for years already.<br />If you don't smell its dead body, get a some medicineIvannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640441812647446166.post-3591077724671560522013-03-22T19:44:03.345+00:002013-03-22T19:44:03.345+00:00Seems to me this entire brew-ha-ha could have been... Seems to me this entire brew-ha-ha could have been avoided if certain people sat themselves down and asked themselves: "Am I acting as a Gentleman ought to act in his relations?" <br />An honest examination of that question could have avoided this sorry pass they find themselves headed off at.<br />Smith probably didn't get enough sleep, but you know how that is when your evenings are all taken up.Mooserhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12294208692136002450noreply@blogger.com