There's nothing like great journalism – Weekly Worker

November 24, 2006

2–3 minutes

I’ve finally hit the big time with the Weekly Worker. Oh Christ! This week’s edition carries a piece on Socialist Resistance, Respect and me and, by a spooky coincidence, comrade Joe in Belfast who was best man at my wedding also earns an article. (I was best man at his wedding too and made what was probably the worst speech in the last thousand years but that’s another story.) The last publication which featured both of us in the same issue was Ulster, the UDA’s magazine. I spent several uncomfortable nights subsequently sleeping with a hammer under my pillow before working out that it wouldn’t be much use against a gun.

Apparently I’m a “leading ISG member in Tower Hamlets” and “discipline has broken down in the ISG”. The bit about Tower Hamlets is right but if I wanted to be a leading ISG member I would need to join the ISG first. They are quite strict about not electing non-members to the leadership. Probably some residual Leninism. The same goes for me breaking the famously ferocious ISG discipline. If I were an ISG member I wouldn’t take the risk of facing a midnight ride out to Epping Forest where my decomposing body would be found in a year or too. That’s what they normally do anyway.

As for the rest of it I’ve explained what I believe to be a largely shared ISG/SR conception of what we thought Respect could have been. Click on the Respect label underneath for details.

You can understand why the Weekly Worker gets very excited about this sort of thing but it’s not really warranted. Anyone who has read Socialist Resistance or attended its public events (and that’s hundreds of thousands of the British working class vanguard) will have known that there is a spectrum of assessments of Respect and the other left regroupment projects. Big deal. We have different opinions which reflect strands of opinion within the working class and sometimes we re-evaluate what we’ve been doing. In any case the majority of SR supporters will continue to remain members of Respect and work in it where they feel they have something to contribute.

We do though have utter unanimity on our opinion of the Weekly Worker.

19 responses to “There's nothing like great journalism – Weekly Worker”

cameron

November 24, 2006 at 5:44 pm

My apologies Liam. I had it on what I thought was good authority that you were a member of the ISG.Still, I suppose it does not bode well for the Resistance project if some of is supporters are drifting away from Respect.Btw, are you a member of any left group then?

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AN

November 24, 2006 at 6:32 pm

CameronLiam is a member of a clandestine group known as the “Communist samurai”.They take their inspiration from Trotsky’s military writings, and seek to rebuild the early traditions of Trotsky’s red army, through strict celebacy, small arms training, and all meetings are conducted only in Russian.next year there is a planned invasion of Poland by the group, hoping to reverse the result of the Pilsudski’s victory at the battle of Warsaw in the Polish/Boshevik war in 1920.If this is victrorious, the communist samurai will seek to establish a provisional international committee for reconstituting a unified independent secretariat of a workers and peasants international. With luck and ard work after several decades of wffort this organisation may aspire to double figure membership.

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Jim Jay

November 24, 2006 at 8:52 pm

“there is a spectrum of assessments of Respect and the other left regroupment projects.”AbsolutelyIt’s sad that this kind of internal life is seen as a weakness rather than what should be the standard for the left… oh well.Although I did think the title of the article “Dither Thornett?” was quite funny – I know, I should be ashamed of myself.

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Louisefeminista

November 24, 2006 at 10:51 pm

“The same goes for me breaking the famously ferocious ISG discipline. If I were an ISG member I wouldn’t take the risk of facing a midnight ride out to Epping Forest where my decomposing body would be found in a year or too. That’s what they normally do anyway”.Blimey, things have changed since I left in 1996! Gives a whole different meaning to party discipline….

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Liam Mac Uaid

November 25, 2006 at 12:49 am

Andy you bastard. Now MI5 will find out all about us.

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Anonymous

November 25, 2006 at 9:31 am

CameronYou write “I had it on what I thought was good authority that you were a member of the ISG”Given that the Weekly Worker likes to boast of its openess, I presume you would have no problem with sharing with us the name of ‘your good authority’?

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Mikeybear

November 25, 2006 at 2:04 pm

LiamHi there.Does this means that members of the Political Committee take dissidents out at night and shoot them?The thought of Dave Packer packing a pistol…!The mind bogglesMikey

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Mark P

November 25, 2006 at 2:19 pm

It’s not a sign of weakness to have different views on an issue like Respect within an organisation. It would be a sign of weakness if the people involved then just went and did what they wanted regardless of majority opinion within the organisation as a whole. What exactly is the point of being in SR/ISG* if the group can’t act as a group on something as fundamental to its outlook as left regroupment? I certainly don’t want being an ineffectual talking shop to be the standard for the left.*I use SR/ISG as an example here because they are the group already mentioned. I don’t know that the ISG acts in that way, although it appears that the wider SR does. What exactly is the relationship between the two anyway? SR is billed as a collaboration between the ISG, the SSN and some independents, but the SSN appears to be defunct and there aren’t many independents involved.

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Louisefeminista

November 25, 2006 at 2:50 pm

Mikey: “The thought of Dave Packer packing a pistol…!The mind boggles”It certainly does the same for me as well Mikey! His new party name oughta be Godfather Packer (maybe it is already..). Less Leon Trotsky more Tony Soprano. Hmmmm. Makes me consider rejoining…..;)

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Liam Mac Uaid

November 25, 2006 at 3:04 pm

Cameron a lot of the time things are just as simple as they seem. This site links to SR. There’s a label for SR. I mention that the articles get published in SR. Most other people have managed to pick up on the clues. I know it’s a technique of bourgeois journalism but sometimes they ask people involved to confirm or deny facts. Give it a go sometime and let the rest of us know if it works. But just in case you are told other things on “good authority” the stories about me, Peter Andre and Jordan were put out by their press agent and are mostly wrong. That photo of me and the goat is just from an unfortunate angle and I think the SWP may have Photoshopped it to make it look worse. That’s the sort of thing they do you know.Mark there is a rich variety of pseudo Bolshevik parties out there. I find there method of insisting on member saying the same things and voting the same way over even the pettiest tactical question pitiful. The SR method of shambling along, agreeing and disagreeing with each other and acting politically suits me fine. Come along to the ecosocialism event next Saturday and see it in action.

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cameron

November 25, 2006 at 11:09 pm

Liam, I tried to reply earlier, but my comments weren’t being accepted by google.Hmmm, my source was the Weekly Worker (yep, shoot me down), where on at least two occasions, one recently, we had you down as an ISGer. My errors are, though, my own responsibility.As to the ecosocialism event, well we too have an event in the same building, so I’ll apologise to you personally. I’ll also try to persuade Kraftwerk to open your event with a touch of Radioactivity.

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David

November 26, 2006 at 8:41 pm

Did you enjoy my letter about the Labour Party(Title “thrilled”)

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Liam Mac Uaid

November 26, 2006 at 8:49 pm

Cruel but true David. No need for apologies Cameron. It was more entertaining when the wrong version was up on the Weekly Worker site..

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Mark P

November 27, 2006 at 10:43 am

Liam, nobody is talking about pretending to think the same way or about building “pseudo Bolshevik” parties. My question was what is the point of being in a group which doesn’t have even the most rudimentary level of unified action?Taking Socialist Resistance again as an example, and leaving aside the nature of the precise relationship between the ISG and the broader group: SR is a group which makes a big deal about left regroupment and new left parties. It is the closest thing it seems to have to a feature distinct from half a dozen other groups, a key part of its politics. And yet it can’t even implement a common strategy on that question.There’s nothing wrong with being in a debating society. You can learn how to formulate an argument, public speaking and a range of other skills. You can clarify your political views through argument. But if a political group doesn’t have the capacity to then act to implement whatever point of view is held by the majority, a debating society is all it is.

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Jo

November 27, 2006 at 11:23 pm

Have a look at this……not related to your post but bloody horrible, though interesting for discussion.What to make of this by election, glad I don’t live in this part of Scarborough.Candidates?Conservative ANDBNPhere’s the Statement of Persons nominated for Thursday’s by election for Hertford ward.http://www.scarborough.gov.uk/PDF/statement%20of%20persons%20nominated.pdf

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Liam Mac Uaid

November 28, 2006 at 5:36 pm

Jo, I’m not sure where Scarborough is but I don’t think I’ll be going there anytime soon.Mark I think we’re just a bit more honest about how we function. For example Respect is one of the SWP’s major projects. Lots of SWP members don’t agree with it and don’t bother joining it. Many of those who are in it join because they’ve been told to and show little understanding of what they think its significance might be. My decision was not a freelance spur of the moment thing. It’s indicative of a strand in our thinking and had been discussed We’ll be having fuller collective discussions in the near future. Some of the fruits of this will be in the January issue of the paper. The fact that some of us do our thinking out loud on sites like this and try to engage in a comradely discussion with other socialists is just one of those things we try to do a bit differently. We’ll tighten up our act as soon as we get our first whiff of state power.

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AN

November 28, 2006 at 6:50 pm

Well let’s look at Scarborough.You see the intersting thing is that Scarborough was the last place in England to stand a Socialist Allaince election candidate officially backed by the SA national executive, which was in a local government by-election just after the national launch of Respect.The scarborough branch of the SA were – as I understand – mainly young people, independent minded, and into social forum type stuff.Now – there were at that time some several hundreds at least, and perhaps over a thousand such SA activists round the country, who remained unconvinced about Respect, and going into the 2004 elections wanted to stand SA candidates, complementary to supporting Respect in the simulateous Euro elections.the sensible strategy was to give Respect time to prove itself, and support these SA groups standing thier canidates. Instead the ISG and SR supported the SWP’s bureaucratic ban on SA candidates, adopting the FIFO (fit in or fuck off) approach to Respect. Although SR played no (active) part in the bureaucratic packing of meetings, and other SWP ruses to disperse the SA activist base, SR/ISG did in fact publically support the political basis of that dispersal. The idea that Resepct only had to be proclaimed by its London based heros, and the rest of the English left would prostrate ourselves at the feet of our London based saviors. Dismantling the patient work and relationships we have built up over decades, in favour of the endorsement by the local imam, and a morally compromised MP, who didn’t even have the support of his constituency party or parliamantary office staff!You see – i think there is a paradox here. While i can join in getting all touchy feely and empathetic about SR having different approaches to respect and genuine debate. the public face of SR – and sorry to say so Liam, but most acutely shown in your simplistic and East london centric contribution to the closing SA conference (come on in the water’s lovely)- has been to say that resepct is the only game in town, and imply that those of us who were never convinced were somehow sectarian becasue we live in towns with only 3% Muslims.Has Scarborough got a respect branch? has it fuck. Did it used to have a lively SA branch, hell yeah!IMO the bureaucratic disperal of the SA actvist base and the theft of the SA branches’ money by the SWP for Respect was a hammer blow to the creation of a pluralistic left party in England. yet while that was going on, SR were asleep on the watch, or mired in self-delusion. This isn’t just moaning (well it is a bit) – we are not going to make progress until there is a serious debate between those of us who support the building of a broad, stategicaly non-delimited, left party, about the relationship of such a party and the best way of dealing with the SWP and SP.SR’s approach was to carry the SWP’s bags, and this was shown (for example) by Thornet’s failure on Respect’s national executive to support JOhn Nicholson’s fights to i) get the national exec to actually meet; ii) to get prior notice of meetings, and proper minutes for accountability. The di were cast during that first year, when Respect entered into a Modus operandi of all importnat decsisions being taken privately in smoke filled rooms by the SWP and Galloway. (add Ken Loach lending his name to the national exec without taking any interst in what was actually going on, and that prceeding were propely coonducted).Now i like Alan, and I have enormous Respect for him as a militant. But SR’s operation in the leading bodies of respect have been disastrous.

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George T

December 2, 2006 at 12:50 am

What happened to the lively SA Branch in Scarboro? If there had been a 1000 SA activists around the country not convinced of RESPECT – why did they melt away and not continue to develop with the ‘right strategic line’? Having spent 10 years in York and knowing Scarboro, I’m acutely aware its difficult to build stable left groups in such places. Is it all RESPECT/SR’s fault for the demise of an SA group in Scarboro?No doubt RESPECT at the last elections concentrated on East London etc and neglected other areas – however it did ensure Galloway got elected and RESPECT had for a while the media spotlight and the potential to grow substantially – that was then blown by Galloway on BB and the SWP’s bureaucratic stranglehold on RESPECT with their aversion to real party building. Its difficult to imagine a far left party growing from developments in the historically Tory stronghold of Scarboro. There is nothing wrong with a far left party concentrating its resources in an election fight on the big cities. However RESPECT has focussed their energies too much on one section of the community in the big cities and has succumbed to some reactionary positions trying to court it e.g Galloway’s stance on abortion etc. If RESPECT had developed a different way, more of the far left may have felt comfortable within its ranks and it may have spread out from London and Birmingham.Its easy to say we told you so now and RESPECT was all doomed to failure. Even today, RESPECT has some healthy elements and SR is right to engage with such comrades. Probably we can’t change RESPECT but we don’t think trying to recreate the SA at present is the answer. Nor is a return to New Labour. The SP have themselves put the Campaign for a New Workers party on the backburner. Sometimes there are no easy solutions. SR has not a holier than thou approach – allowing it to discuss with various groups and people like yourself a way forward. In SR our democratic debate will continue – any left group that claims all its members are agreed on their approach to this question at present isn’t having a democratic debate.

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Liam Mac Uaid

December 8, 2006 at 9:25 am

ISG member Duncan asked me to put this up.This thread of comments is bizzare.- The idea that the Weekly Worker thinks that its own back issues are reliable guide to who is a member of the ISG is bizzare. – The idea that Resistance’s project of advocating a green-left party is overturned, because Liam is smart enough to see that there are other forums for that than his local branch, is bizzare- The idea that the reference to Epping Forest is not a joke is bizzare. – The idea that Louise would be more likely to join the ISG if Tony Soprano was in it is bizzare.The reality is this: the struggle for a new class-struggle party in Britain will be complex and will involve a series of steps forwards and steps backwards: all of the experiences — the crisis in the CPGB, the SLP, the SA and RESPECT have all led us in some way forwards even if each organisation ran its course. The successes and failures of RESPECT is less important than the overall consciousness of the vanguard. It is exactly because of these experiences, which leave behind both better political clarity and a better educated vanguard, that the prospects for a new broad party are improving. However, that struggle at no stage involves beating a head against a brick wall. That’s why no-one is critising Liam, or others, whose local RESPECT branch offers no meaningful opportunites. No-one said regroupment would be simple, or easy, or that it would be resolved by one project. It’s simply the only way to build the mass class struggle party we need.

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Liam redux