Weekly Worker 945 - Communist Party of Great Britain

Weekly Worker issue 945 - January 17 2013

SWP crisis: Opposition emboldened as demand for recall grows

The leadership can no longer lead - but a positive outcome to the crisis requires more than the removal of the entire CC, argues Paul Demarty

The Socialist Workers Party has been waiting a long time for a revolutionary situation. On some occasions, as with the fatuous ‘All out, stay out’ slogan it advanced to striking public sector workers last winter, it has tried, with dismal results, to force one - or delude itself into thinking there is one. Now, it has got one. But there is only one catch - it is not Britain that has been plunged into such a crisis, but the SWP itself.

Letters

Rebellion; Shocking; Victim; Quantity left; Conflict site?; Coining it; Crippled; ‘Anti-Germans’; Erfurt required?;

Opposition blog?: Doubts exist over authenticity

The Weekly Worker is publishing a statement from the new 'SWP Opposition' blog, but doubts over the blogs authenticity remain, reports Peter Manson

The left: Rebellion, regroupment and the party we need

Ben Lewis surveys the British left’s response to the crisis gripping the SWP, and calls for a radical change of culture

SWP and women: Countless zigs and zags over women’s oppression

The central committee claims that the SWP has a consistent record of fighting for women’s liberation. Former national committee member Dave Isaacson sheds light on the not so excellent truth

SWP: Another week, another resignation

Jon Hosier explains why he has chosen to resign from the SWP

Sexism: Macho culture and the lessons we can learn from the Middle East

How should sexism be combated? Yassamine Mather compares the situation in Britain with the practice of two guerrilla organisations

UKIP: Cameron’s Pandora’s box

With Ukip riding high in the polls, writes Eddie Ford, the Tories are desperate to steal its votes

Fighting fund: Upsurge

Robbie Rix feels that the interest in the CPGB's coverage of the crisis in the SWP proves that the Weekly Worker is serving its purpose

Supplement: Origins of the crisis in the SWP - part two

Third-period Blairism and the necessity of demystifying Bolshevism, Jack Conrad continues his analysis of Cliff and the SWP's politics

Weekly Worker 945 is also available in PDF format.

Fighting fund: Upsurge

Readers may not be surprised to learn that our online readership has shot up over the last couple of weeks. In the seven days since the last issue came out, no fewer than 31,851 people read us on the web. That represents a threefold increase compared to the average readership over recent months. In fact last Thursday alone (the day Weekly Worker No944 hit the internet) we had 8,489 readers - a similar figure to what we have sometimes notched up in a week in the past.

The reason for this upsurge is no secret. It is entirely due to our coverage of the crisis engulfing the Socialist Workers Party. This fact alone gives the lie to those who say that the role of any socialist or communist paper must be to ‘appeal to workers’ - they mean the mass of ordinary workers, rather than the class-conscious, politically aware minority. In reality there is a role for publications of both types, depending on given circumstances.