tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640441812647446166.post3163856603817840276..comments2024-03-28T04:26:49.354+00:00Comments on Tony Greenstein's Blog: Coalition of Resistance or Damp Squib?Tony Greensteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14300640929161205370noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640441812647446166.post-88579064392059346312010-12-02T01:11:20.288+00:002010-12-02T01:11:20.288+00:00What is happening is too serious for more of the s...What is happening is too serious for more of the same and Liam MacUaid’s report is symptomatic of Socialist Resistance’s mode of working. You are a party loyalist par excellence. You are also a good trade unionist, but you don’t criticize your own organization and that is a weakness. You need to draw conclusions from Respect. When I criticized the first tentative steps towards forming it during the end days of the old Socialist Alliance, when I criticized Rees in no uncertain terms at the SA’s steering committee, Alan Thornett during the lunch break came up to me absolutely furious because he believed I was not entitled to speak at the meeting from Brighton. Not once then or subsequently has he tried to address the political concerns I expressed.<br /><br />It is not the job of a revolutionary organization to act as cheer leaders. It still rankles after 3 weeks that Terry Conway, at the Community Sector conference of Unison, made it clear that she opposed my criticism of personalization and individual budgets in terms of care for the disabled, even though ‘personalisation’ was a key part of Blair’s choice agenda. <br />You think that the COR will succeed? How. What is it, what does it represent? None of these questions is even addressed by Liam MacUaid<br /><br />tonyTony Greensteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14300640929161205370noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640441812647446166.post-11273710259703731362010-12-02T01:09:55.473+00:002010-12-02T01:09:55.473+00:00Hi Andy,
I don’t hold it against you that you wer...Hi Andy,<br /><br />I don’t hold it against you that you weren’t there but I notice that you chose to reprint the report of your comrade Liam MacUaid rather than link to my report, so I guess you have predetermined which report is more accurate.<br /><br />We are in unprecedented times. The post-war settlement, Beveridge as implemented by Bevan, is for the first time under serious attack and being rolled back. We have a pitifully weak and depoliticized working class, how then do we respond. Well if the organizers of the Conference have their way we will do it with slogans and bombastic speeches and the blurring over of political differences and the elimination of any political analysis. <br /><br />We will have the same united front campaigns as over the Iraq war. Now I happen to be one of those who holds that the old distinction between a united and popular front has little meaning at present, given the chronic lack of working class parties or organizations. I have no problem with a mass campaign which includes radical bourgeois elements but based on working class forces. What I oppose are pitifully weak Trotskyist and Stalinist organizations pretending to be leading something they are not.<br /><br />Just what is the COR? It doesn’t organizer, it doesn’t initiate, it doesn’t lead nor does it show much sign or coordination. Is it going to actively set up local cuts committees or link them regionally? Yes these are practical tasks but they are the bread and butter of any serious campaign.<br /><br />The workshop on benefits and pensions, where I spoke from the floor, was an example. Clearly what I said hit home as Colin Hampton of the TUC Poodle Committee [TUCPC] on unemployed centres looked more furious and my speech was punctuated with applause, not least when I called on PCS to call on their members not to implement sanctions. The TUCPC has had concordats and agreements with PCS but it has asked for nothing and gotten nothing beyond warm words of support.<br /><br />But it is illustrative. The TUCPC has been like the 3 wise monkeys during New Labour’s rule. It saw, heard and spoke nothing against the attacks of New Labour, which today broadly supports the Tories’ continuation of their welfare reforms. If the COR was aware of anything it might have been aware of this, not least because I resigned and published my letter of resignation from TUCPC broadly. But of course they didn’t so they had a representative of the TUC Committee as if completely unaware of TUC hostility to unemployed activists in the past<br /><br />I don’t suggest that Brighton Unemployed Centre should have sent a speaker instead, given that one of the other speakers was from Brighton Benefits Campaign. But there are one or two other centres which aren’t just advice or training centres, such as Salford, where Alec McFadden is based.Tony Greensteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14300640929161205370noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640441812647446166.post-61125338555151784932010-12-01T22:30:05.016+00:002010-12-01T22:30:05.016+00:00Hi Tony
I must admit that I wasn't there, so ...Hi Tony<br /><br />I must admit that I wasn't there, so you have the advantage of me in that regard. But I think it is a shame that your report is so negative, and it does not accord with what I have heard from a variety of sources.<br /><br />I think CoR does have a chance of being something different, and it has already had some success in building bridges and working jointly with both the SP and SWP organised campaigns.Andy Richardshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01441557191138845101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640441812647446166.post-3432906156994629092010-12-01T11:33:13.173+00:002010-12-01T11:33:13.173+00:00A balanced view would begin from the experience of...A balanced view would begin from the experience of anti-cuts campaigns in general, not this 'coalition'. <br /><br />But in any case, Tony is spot on about the Unemployed Centres' campaigns - I can confirm this from the grass-roots. <br /><br />The Coalition of Resistance merits criticism as well. Anything that has links with Counterfire - with its record of manipulation and worse in Respect and the StWC - is open to lots of it.Andrew Coateshttp://www.tendancecoatesy.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640441812647446166.post-67404905226290128682010-11-29T14:16:16.851+00:002010-11-29T14:16:16.851+00:00Yes I guess I'm feeling a little cynical of th...Yes I guess I'm feeling a little cynical of these rally gatherings from which little results. John Rees has form on this. Remember the TU Conference which wasn't Respect but actually was Respect where it later emerged he took a £10,000 cheque from a privatiser?<br /><br />Ok I know it's not just him but I am sceptical of anything that doesn't rest on existing campaigns.<br /><br />Take your point on Andrew Burgin and will remove it.Tony Greensteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14300640929161205370noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640441812647446166.post-73098892459178662972010-11-29T14:14:18.076+00:002010-11-29T14:14:18.076+00:00Bloody hell Tony this is a very one sided report!
...Bloody hell Tony this is a very one sided report!<br /><br />I put a more balanced view I think at:<br /><br />http://www.permanentrevolution.net/entry/3210<br /><br />A correction: As far as I know Andrew Burgin has never been a member of the<br />CP. He is an ex-WRPer who left in the 1980s and is now active in his local<br />LP.<br /><br /><br />StuartStuartnoreply@blogger.com