If you ignore the obvious hypocrisy that the AWL themselves have no visible programme, this article is useful.
http://www.workersliberty.org/story/2009/08/18/dont-bankers-join-swp
If John Molyneux is reading this, here's something that may help:
http://www.marxists.org/archive/bukharin/works/1920/abc/intro.htm#001
Please note John, it was written after 1917. I'm seriously beginning to wonder why the SWP even calls itself Marxist anymore...
Tuesday, 18 August 2009
Great News! Capitalists and imams will save us from fascism!
What's there to say about the rank stupidity of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and the rankest of all their vile cross-class popular fronts, Unite Against Fascism (UAF)?
Well, not much, but I certainly have heard some choice morsals of bullshit being spoken by SWPers recently. 'Why would you want to exclude people?' I was asked, apparently genuinely, by one young SWP a few weeks ago after a discussion about his fab plan to mobilize the imams of Brum to boost the turnout to last Saturday's protest in Derbyshire against the BNP's summer festival. Why would I want to exclude people? I dunno, perhaps because I'm a socialist? So I believe that the emancipation of the working class must be the act of the working class itself? Perhaps SWPers have their own secret summer farm festival- on Animal Farm, to be precise, where Marx's quotes often have a new bit written on the end when you wake up in the morning- 'the emancipation of the working class must be the act of the working class itself along with as many petty bourgeois religious people, Lib Dem and Tory MPs and dodgy islamists as we can get to agree with our inane crap on any particular issue.'
About a week before the demo, I had another encounter with an SWPer, a very strange character this one- hyper enthusiastic, kitted out in brand new Love Music Hate Racism hoodie- who introduced herself saying 'I'm SWP, from the heart. But I'm also a human.' I thought this was a very worthwhile statement, as the first thing I usually do when I meet a member of the SWP is whip out my Voight-Kampff machine and check to see if they are in fact an android.
When I expressed my doubts as to whether it was going to be feasible to 'kettle' the BNP as UAF intended, bearing in mind how many thousands of people it would take to surround the massive farm on which the festival was happening, I was reassured that 'oh don't worry, it'll be massive. You won't believe how many coaches are going. You see, even the capitalists aren't fascist. Imagine if we could get all the capitalists there- that'd be brilliant!' For once I genuinely was speechless with that one. Marxist education? Pfff- that's a bourgeois distraction, comrade!
As a footnote- UAF promised to mobilize 5,000 people for the protest. In fact it managed about 1,000. The number of capitalists and imams there is unknown.
Well, not much, but I certainly have heard some choice morsals of bullshit being spoken by SWPers recently. 'Why would you want to exclude people?' I was asked, apparently genuinely, by one young SWP a few weeks ago after a discussion about his fab plan to mobilize the imams of Brum to boost the turnout to last Saturday's protest in Derbyshire against the BNP's summer festival. Why would I want to exclude people? I dunno, perhaps because I'm a socialist? So I believe that the emancipation of the working class must be the act of the working class itself? Perhaps SWPers have their own secret summer farm festival- on Animal Farm, to be precise, where Marx's quotes often have a new bit written on the end when you wake up in the morning- 'the emancipation of the working class must be the act of the working class itself along with as many petty bourgeois religious people, Lib Dem and Tory MPs and dodgy islamists as we can get to agree with our inane crap on any particular issue.'
About a week before the demo, I had another encounter with an SWPer, a very strange character this one- hyper enthusiastic, kitted out in brand new Love Music Hate Racism hoodie- who introduced herself saying 'I'm SWP, from the heart. But I'm also a human.' I thought this was a very worthwhile statement, as the first thing I usually do when I meet a member of the SWP is whip out my Voight-Kampff machine and check to see if they are in fact an android.
When I expressed my doubts as to whether it was going to be feasible to 'kettle' the BNP as UAF intended, bearing in mind how many thousands of people it would take to surround the massive farm on which the festival was happening, I was reassured that 'oh don't worry, it'll be massive. You won't believe how many coaches are going. You see, even the capitalists aren't fascist. Imagine if we could get all the capitalists there- that'd be brilliant!' For once I genuinely was speechless with that one. Marxist education? Pfff- that's a bourgeois distraction, comrade!
As a footnote- UAF promised to mobilize 5,000 people for the protest. In fact it managed about 1,000. The number of capitalists and imams there is unknown.
Secretarians of the World Unite!
I thought I'd use a second post to elaborate a little on what I intend to use the blog for.
It does seem to me that comrades in the SPEW and SWP, in particular, are taught to look at smaller groups as 'wreckers' (to use a Crowite term!) i.e. irrelevent mosquitos irritating the 'real', 'realist' socialists. Well, much as in real life I tend to be fairly conciliatory in my tone when talking to people with that mindset, here on this blog is the place for me and anyone else who fancies it to vent some serious spleen and be proud to be 'secretarian' wreckers! Let's fucking wreck the cosy consensus mentality within left groups that allows basic marxist principles to be roasted on the bonfire in the name of cheap votes or recruitment tactics.
It's even worse when they use 'unity' as the excuse. Like most people, I'm in favour of motherhood, apple pie and left unity. But unity is not apolitical. You have to unite based on some kind of principle. In No2EU, the SPEW united behind the principles of the Stalinist Communist Party of Britain (CPB) i.e. dodgy 'left' nationalism. Having set that precendent I am highly doubtful that any General Election platform this rotten bloc comes up with will be any better, although this is what desperate SPEWers are trying to maintain.
My position is that the marxist left desperately needs unity. Maybe not so desperately that I am prepared to drop all my industrial/direct class struggle work to write articles about it (i.e. I am not a member of the CPGB) but pretty desperately nonetheless. The unity I'm talking about would involve not just some shitty federalist structure a la the old Socialist Alliance (although even that would be a big step forward) but something where we hold a series of debates, conferences and conduct serious polemics in our newspapers and thrash out a programme which the majority of us could sign up to. There will always be some who choose not to take part, but once rank and filers have the opportunity to witness genuine cross-sect free debate on the big issues, I believe wide consensus on many issues would take place.
What might stop that happening is if most rank and filers have been so utterly starved of education that they are left literally unable to think for themselves when presented with such an opportunity. I believe most of the poor slobs I'll be referring to on this blog will actually be activists who crave education and will be willing to hear the good news of marxism if they are actually told about it. For this reason, I will be using the blog not just to ridicule the uneducated but also to comment a bit on how I am educating myself- recommending or reviewing texts or events that might be helpful for others. At least then I cannot be accused of offering nothing positive alongside my wrecking secretarian ways!
'If it is sectarianism, then all of Marxism is only sectarianism, since it is the doctrine of the class struggle and not of class collaboration.'
Trotsky defending his criticisms of Nin in the Spanish Civil War, 1936
It does seem to me that comrades in the SPEW and SWP, in particular, are taught to look at smaller groups as 'wreckers' (to use a Crowite term!) i.e. irrelevent mosquitos irritating the 'real', 'realist' socialists. Well, much as in real life I tend to be fairly conciliatory in my tone when talking to people with that mindset, here on this blog is the place for me and anyone else who fancies it to vent some serious spleen and be proud to be 'secretarian' wreckers! Let's fucking wreck the cosy consensus mentality within left groups that allows basic marxist principles to be roasted on the bonfire in the name of cheap votes or recruitment tactics.
It's even worse when they use 'unity' as the excuse. Like most people, I'm in favour of motherhood, apple pie and left unity. But unity is not apolitical. You have to unite based on some kind of principle. In No2EU, the SPEW united behind the principles of the Stalinist Communist Party of Britain (CPB) i.e. dodgy 'left' nationalism. Having set that precendent I am highly doubtful that any General Election platform this rotten bloc comes up with will be any better, although this is what desperate SPEWers are trying to maintain.
My position is that the marxist left desperately needs unity. Maybe not so desperately that I am prepared to drop all my industrial/direct class struggle work to write articles about it (i.e. I am not a member of the CPGB) but pretty desperately nonetheless. The unity I'm talking about would involve not just some shitty federalist structure a la the old Socialist Alliance (although even that would be a big step forward) but something where we hold a series of debates, conferences and conduct serious polemics in our newspapers and thrash out a programme which the majority of us could sign up to. There will always be some who choose not to take part, but once rank and filers have the opportunity to witness genuine cross-sect free debate on the big issues, I believe wide consensus on many issues would take place.
What might stop that happening is if most rank and filers have been so utterly starved of education that they are left literally unable to think for themselves when presented with such an opportunity. I believe most of the poor slobs I'll be referring to on this blog will actually be activists who crave education and will be willing to hear the good news of marxism if they are actually told about it. For this reason, I will be using the blog not just to ridicule the uneducated but also to comment a bit on how I am educating myself- recommending or reviewing texts or events that might be helpful for others. At least then I cannot be accused of offering nothing positive alongside my wrecking secretarian ways!
'If it is sectarianism, then all of Marxism is only sectarianism, since it is the doctrine of the class struggle and not of class collaboration.'
Trotsky defending his criticisms of Nin in the Spanish Civil War, 1936
Monday, 17 August 2009
Welcome to Secretarianism Central!
Welcome, my dick headed bohemian friends, to this new blog. Some might say that the left already has quite enough blogs, and that anyone with such an ego as to create a new one must be a dickhead. I won't disagree.
The blog has been named in honour of a luridly hilarious, though politically important debate which took place here: http://communiststudents.org.uk/2009/05/no-2-eu-looks-to-far-right-for-votes/comment-page-1/#comments
The debate was between unapologetic Left Nationalist supporters of the 'No2EU' election coalition, mainly close to or in the Socialist Party of England and Wales (SPEW), and people with some idea about basic socialist internationalism, mainly around the CPGB. The controversy started when the CPGB decided they would expose a SPEWer who had decided to drum up some No2EU votes by touting the red-brown alliance around dodgy nationalist Facebook groups, using slogans like 'British jobs for British workers and Italian jobs for Italian workers'. What made the whole thing more bizarre were the arguments the comrade in question, Andrew Ballard, then used in the ensuing debate- such gems as 'we're all waving flags. They don't all have to be red.' and worst of all, 'There is no point preaching international solidarity to people who’ve not had the baptism of awareness that Marxists are privy to.'
On the question of what the fuck the point of being a socialist actually is then, Comrade Ballard did not choose to enlighten us. But, abuse aside, the overall feeling you get from SPEW posters on the thread is much the same as what I have encountered from talking to young SPEWers- a sense of genuine hurt and frustration at the rest of us for not understanding how great No2EU is- after all, here is the most militant trade union in Britain putting forward a list of worker candidates against the Labour Party- isn't it brilliant?
Well no, for reasons that should be obvious- it was not 'the RMT' that came up with this, it was the union bureaucracy- the rank and file were completely disenfranchised! According to the Weekly Worker, the SWP, AWL and CPGB were banned in advance from consultation about taking part by Bob Crow- a claim which certainly has the ring of truth about it. But far worse than this, the politics of the fucking thing are terrible! At the end of the day, it's not how 'working class' your candidate is (not even if his scouse accent is impeccable, comrades!), it's what they're actually standing for. In this case, the No2EU stuff blamed all the problems of capitalism on the EU. The leaflets did not in fact even mention capitalism as the source of problems, let alone propose socialism as the answer. In my union branch you could tell people really, really wanted to support it- workers really, really want an alternative to the shit choices they have at elections just now- but we couldn't do it for this mess.
Back to the point though- I found myself feeling like I was punching a kitten in the face at times when arguing with SPEWers about this, they just didn't understand the problem. No one I spoke to came out with quite the level of crap that Ballard did but nevertheless, it is becoming increasingly obvious that little or no systematic marxist education is happening within the SPEW crew, in partial contrast, it has to be said, to their ex-pals in the peaceful revolution posse (Socialist Appeal).
This blog, while obviously a bit of a laugh, is essentially here to expose individual examples of jaw-dropping ignorance among naive young campaign-fodder mindlessly recruited to the ever more cynical and sectarian groups on the British left. My hope is that these examples- which will not be based on apocryphal tales but on things that are genuinely said to me or read by me on my travels- will be passed around anecdotally and prove a source of embarrassment to the leaderships which through bureaucratic centralism are completely failing to do what even crap sects like the SLL did back in the day- i.e. give some sort of basic marxist education to its cadre. In this way I hope to make my small contribution to the cauterising of the left which is desperately needed.
The blog has been named in honour of a luridly hilarious, though politically important debate which took place here: http://communiststudents.org.uk/2009/05/no-2-eu-looks-to-far-right-for-votes/comment-page-1/#comments
The debate was between unapologetic Left Nationalist supporters of the 'No2EU' election coalition, mainly close to or in the Socialist Party of England and Wales (SPEW), and people with some idea about basic socialist internationalism, mainly around the CPGB. The controversy started when the CPGB decided they would expose a SPEWer who had decided to drum up some No2EU votes by touting the red-brown alliance around dodgy nationalist Facebook groups, using slogans like 'British jobs for British workers and Italian jobs for Italian workers'. What made the whole thing more bizarre were the arguments the comrade in question, Andrew Ballard, then used in the ensuing debate- such gems as 'we're all waving flags. They don't all have to be red.' and worst of all, 'There is no point preaching international solidarity to people who’ve not had the baptism of awareness that Marxists are privy to.'
On the question of what the fuck the point of being a socialist actually is then, Comrade Ballard did not choose to enlighten us. But, abuse aside, the overall feeling you get from SPEW posters on the thread is much the same as what I have encountered from talking to young SPEWers- a sense of genuine hurt and frustration at the rest of us for not understanding how great No2EU is- after all, here is the most militant trade union in Britain putting forward a list of worker candidates against the Labour Party- isn't it brilliant?
Well no, for reasons that should be obvious- it was not 'the RMT' that came up with this, it was the union bureaucracy- the rank and file were completely disenfranchised! According to the Weekly Worker, the SWP, AWL and CPGB were banned in advance from consultation about taking part by Bob Crow- a claim which certainly has the ring of truth about it. But far worse than this, the politics of the fucking thing are terrible! At the end of the day, it's not how 'working class' your candidate is (not even if his scouse accent is impeccable, comrades!), it's what they're actually standing for. In this case, the No2EU stuff blamed all the problems of capitalism on the EU. The leaflets did not in fact even mention capitalism as the source of problems, let alone propose socialism as the answer. In my union branch you could tell people really, really wanted to support it- workers really, really want an alternative to the shit choices they have at elections just now- but we couldn't do it for this mess.
Back to the point though- I found myself feeling like I was punching a kitten in the face at times when arguing with SPEWers about this, they just didn't understand the problem. No one I spoke to came out with quite the level of crap that Ballard did but nevertheless, it is becoming increasingly obvious that little or no systematic marxist education is happening within the SPEW crew, in partial contrast, it has to be said, to their ex-pals in the peaceful revolution posse (Socialist Appeal).
This blog, while obviously a bit of a laugh, is essentially here to expose individual examples of jaw-dropping ignorance among naive young campaign-fodder mindlessly recruited to the ever more cynical and sectarian groups on the British left. My hope is that these examples- which will not be based on apocryphal tales but on things that are genuinely said to me or read by me on my travels- will be passed around anecdotally and prove a source of embarrassment to the leaderships which through bureaucratic centralism are completely failing to do what even crap sects like the SLL did back in the day- i.e. give some sort of basic marxist education to its cadre. In this way I hope to make my small contribution to the cauterising of the left which is desperately needed.
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