Weekly Worker 689 Thursday September 20 2007 Subscribe to the Weekly Worker

Make or break moment

Here, the CPGB introduces its motions to conference - if you support them, sign up now!

Respect’s annual conference, to be held over the weekend of November 17-18, will be a decisive moment. Not so much for the Respect coalition itself. While it was impossible to predict its exact form, it was inevitable that this unprincipled and extremely unstable lash-up would hit the buffers at some point.

Clearly, this will be a make or break moment for the Socialist Workers Party itself. The SWP central committee document replying to Galloway’s bombshell letter to Respect national committee members will perhaps raise a smile from more seasoned members of the organisation when it states that Respect’s socialists have “made plenty of compromises” in order to keep the show on the road. However, the SWP now wants to draw a line in the sand. It refuses to withdraw John Rees from Respect’s leadership, as demanded by George Galloway. Amazingly, that would amount to “subordination of the socialist left within Respect”.

In fact the SWP took the lead in subordinating the socialist element of Respect to non-working class politics right from the very beginning. Indeed, it is this that gives it its distinctive - popular frontist - character. The CPGB is sponsoring a motion that highlights SWP’s past betrayal and gives the comrades the chance to redeem themselves (motion 1). Will they vote for socialist principles this time around, or will they continue the voluntary “subordination” of principled socialist politics?

Our second motion calls for the setting up of a commission of enquiry into a violent incident that took place on July 7 during the second full day of the annual Marxism event (see Weekly Worker July 12). Martin Smith, the SWP national organiser, attacked our comrade, Simon D. This event - outrageous enough as it is - has a relevance to the current crisis of Respect and the SWP. Simon was expelled from the SWP in 2006 for a few minor political differences.

Martin Smith subsequently informed him that it was in the organisations “constitution” that “An expelled member of the SWP cannot attend SWP public events (that includes Marxism/rallies/public meetings)” (Weekly Worker June 8 2006). The current buzz phrase for this sort of practice is “anathematisation”.

This is not the first time that CPGBers have been attacked at Marxism. The last time it happened we wrote to the SWP CC making it clear that it was “incumbent on the leadership of what is currently the largest group on the revolutionary left to make its position on violence in the workers’ movement crystal clear to people both in the wider movement and to all members of the SWP, at every level of the organisation” (see Weekly Worker July 7 2003).

We received no reply to this letter and commented at the time: “It is a requirement of the leadership of [the SWP] to condemn physical attacks on political opponents in the movement - including ones undertaken by their own membership. Unless this is forthcoming, the movement is justified in the presumption that the SWP actually supports the resolution of political differences with fists and boots.”

Now, as controversy and differences begin to emerge in the ranks of the SWP-Respect, it is important that thuggishness is rejected and replaced by a culture of civilised debate.

If you are a Respect member and would like to register your support for either or both of these two motions, please contact us via our box number or sign up online.

CPGB motions to Respect conference

If you support these motions and are a signed up member of Respect, send us an email, stating your Respect branch

Motion 1

On ‘the subordination of the socialist left’ in Respect

1. Conference notes:

1.1. That compromises are an essential part of the armoury of any serious political organisation.

1.2. That the refusal to make compromises is effectively the refusal to engage in politics and is useless to the cause of socialism.

1.3. That to understand whether they are principled or unprincipled, compromises must be assessed by the extent to which they serve the ultimate aim of socialism and liberation. They must not be judged by the criterion of ‘making a difference’ in terms of short-term electoral successes.

2. Conference believes:

2.1. That the socialist left of Respect has already subordinated too many principles of socialism to other political forces.

2.2. That the demand for the socialist left - the effective majority of Respect’s activists - to vote against its own principles is an opportunist method and must be rejected.

2.3. That socialist principles are strong because they are universal and offer the prospect of general human liberation.

2.4. That these principles include:

l No immigration controls. For open borders.

l All political representatives and workers’ movement representatives to receive no more than a skilled worker’s wage.

l For free abortion and contraception on demand.

l For full equality for gays and lesbians.

l Abolish the monarchy and the House of Lords. For a federal republic.

l For working class socialism.

Motion 2

Against violence and anathematisation in the movement

1. Conference notes:

1.1. That there have been allegations of violence at this year’s Marxism, the annual school of the Socialist Workers Party.

1.2. That the alleged violent incident primarily involved two members of Respect.

1.3. That this is not the first time that such claims have been made involving people who now work as comrades in Respect.

2. Conference believes:

2.1. That violence in our movement is intolerable. Disputes and differences of opinion should be settled through civilised debate. In particular, members of Respect must show each other respect and there must be no culture of anathematisation.

3. Conference resolves:

3.1. To support calls for an independent commission of inquiry to establish the facts in the alleged incident on July 7.

3.2. To call on individuals and organisations in Respect to cooperate with any such inquiry and abide by its decisions and recommendations.

Read on: Respect Weekly Worker archive

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