This article is in the current issue of Socialist Outlook. It looks at how Marxists should participate in a broader formation like Respect and offers some suggestions for an action programme.
A reply to this post from a supporter of Permanent Revolution can be found here.
David Packer looks at the recent events in Respect and at the role of revolutionaries
Respect Renewal was established in November last year with a remarkably successful conference, called because of a deepening split in the old Respect. It was made up of those comrades who rejected the political control and organizational methods of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP).[1] The RR Conference was a lively and highly political affair involving over 350 comrades, from many parts of the country – and organized with only two weeks notice. Most importantly, it was an open and democratic event. There was a palpable enthusiasm, due to a widespread recognition that for the first time there was the possibility of building Respect by broadening its political base of support inside the working class and social movements. Despite sectarian mudslinging in the blogosphere, this successful event showed that the leadership wizards of the SWP did not succeed in turning gold into lead.
Despite the negative consequences of any split – the working class tends to have a healthy instinct for unity – Respect Renewal can now campaign openly and for the first time seriously for the unity of the left; those comrades from the existing currents and individuals who stand clearly to the left of New Labour, into a broader militant socialist party based on working class struggles and interests. In this new century of imperialist wars, catastrophic global warming, neo-liberalism and now a looming financial crisis, with all its consequences for working people, a new left party must be built that can act as an alternative leadership and pole of attraction for the working class and its potential allies.
We believe the proposed founding conference of Respect Renewal, planned in 2008, should centrally address the pressing need for ‘unity of the left’ – it should be its raison d’etre – an appeal for a new party that must be based on workers’ resistance, the militant forces driving the anti-war movement, the hard left of New Labour, who have no future in that party, those left forces organised in the trade unions, and unity with the most radical youth of the anti-globalisation and environmental movements. Respect Renewal must also be the true mouthpiece of the most oppressed and socially excluded and build bridges between communities and working class organisations. Forging this unity will be difficult but is an essential objective for any would-be new party of the left in Britain.
Nor can a unity drive at this time be based on leftist ultimatums and posturing as sectarian currents might demand. To argue, in a non-revolutionary period in Britain, for the adoption by RR of a revolutionary programme would condemn the Marxist left to irrelevance. Nor is the programme we need today a minimum reformist one, but a limited anti-capitalist action programme. It should be against capitalist war; neo-liberalism; global warming and environmental degradation and for solutions that point in the direction of socialism. But this programme, despite its limits, should include policies that go beyond mere reforms and parliamentary elections. It should include demands that challenge the capitalist system and promote the mobilisation and self-activity of the broadest number of people. Therefore in a restricted sense it will be an anti-capitalist and class struggle platform: what Leon Trotsky described as an‘action programme’. (See box for an example of this kind of programme today.)
Such a party must also be pluralistic, democratic and transparent, with leading bodies and representatives accountable to the membership. Unfortunately, in the old Respect, the SWP did not implement this kind of democracy, preferring to keep it as an‘alliance’ (a so-called ‘united front of a special kind’), which they could manipulate and control. The real leadership of the old Respect was not the elected National Council, but the SWP Central Committee that stood behind it.
Socialist democracy will be an essential component of any successful new left party. This must include the guaranteed rights of all minorities who support the aims of such a party. Without democracy and accountability any new party of the left will go the way of the old SWP-dominated Respect. Furthermore, the arrogance and anti-democratic practices of many left groups have repelled of a lot of good militants, who correctly draw the conclusion that they would not want to live in a ‘socialist society’ dominated by the culture that exists in such organisations.
A unity drive for a new broad-left, democratic party is in our view vital to any socialist advance in British politics today. If we can succeed in building such a party, based on the mass movement, it would represent a significant step forward for the working class in Britain.[2]
The role of revolutionaries
To the question, ‘Do Marxists still need revolutionary organization?’ we answer in the affirmative. Building Respect Renewal in today’s conditions will inevitably leave open the question, ‘what road to socialism?’ or what kind of strategy and programme will be required for a socialist transformation of society. This is because RR or any genuinely broad pluralist party today, can – as argued above – only be based on a limited programme. Future big events and struggles, on a scale that we have not seen in Europe since the sixties and seventies, with one or two exceptions such as the British Miners Strike and the recent French student occupations and strike movements, will inevitably pose new questions and demand radical answers from any party of the left. In order to engage in these debates and struggles – and others of less importance – revolutionary Marxists, who are today a small minority, must remain organised as a part of the broader plurality. Nonetheless, revolutionaries within RR, or those who wish to associate themselves with building RR, must abandon the ‘sectarian propagandism’ and left posturing, such as fighting for the adoption of their full programme at every opportunity irrespective of the actual conditions in the class struggle, which has tragically been so characteristic of the small, far-left ghetto.
Nonetheless, and despite important agreements on many issues within RR and among a broad spectrum of the left, Marxists will inevitably be engaged in many controversies. While rejecting the sectarian and undemocratic practices of the type carried out by the SWP in the old Respect[3] the revolutionary currents will need higher levels of collective discussion. To do this we must remain an organized platform. History has shown us, including the recent experience of Rifondazione in Italy and the Brazilian Workers Party, the difficulties faced by such parties. To suggest that they can simply evolve to the left under the influence of the class struggle, or be transformed into revolutionary parties, would make us hostages to fortune.
The reasons for maintaining revolutionary organisation are clear. A broad pluralist party and a revolutionary Marxist current are constructed on differing political bases. The former contains many strategies and programmes (pluralism), and in today’s conditions can only be united on a limited anti-capitalist programme; in contrast revolutionary groups, which may contain many important differences over secondary issues or tactics (with the right of tendency), are united behind a revolutionary Marxist programme.
While revolutionaries can legitimately engage in complex political processes, such as constructing a broad party in unity with diverse currents that adhere to a multiplicity of programmes and strategies, and this is the character of RR today, we also need to reaffirm our objectives of building a revolutionary party. We must re-educate ourselves on the relationships between the revolutionary programme, organisation and the broad party that must be built today.
The crisis of the old Respect has also provided an important opportunity for strengthening the revolutionary current through a regroupment. The split in Respect has been accompanied by the departure from the SWP of several dozen experienced comrades, many of whom were long-standing members and who remain both committed to building a broad party like RR while still retaining their revolutionary ideas and perspectives. More are likely to leave in the future. We think they should organise themselves in order to maximise this process and to develop their critique of the false methods of the SWP. The best outcome of this process would be a regroupment of the existing revolutionary currents within Respect Renewal with the ex-members of the SWP and the creation of a new or refounded tendency within Respect Renewal, which we believe should be affiliated to the Fourth International. The strengthening of a new revolutionary tendency should go hand in hand with forging a broad pluralist party.
Some parts of the left have thrown a spotlight on the role of organisations that call themselves ‘democratic centralist’ or ‘Leninist’, mainly because of the role and practices of the SWP in the old Respect, which are a caricature of this important concept. The revolutionary socialist wing of RR should show in practice, as we have in the past, that we reject sectarian methods, which in any case have little to do with Lenin or his theories of organisation. We will continue to work in a non-sectarian and collaborative way, applying the method of the united front, which requires transparency. Accordingly we will make our discussions and deliberations, including the positions of minority currents, available to others in the broader movement, in the tradition of the Ligue Communiste Revolutionnaire, French Section of the Fourth international.
The Political Basis of a left ‘Unity Party’ – A draft action programme for discussion.
At the November conference it was proposed that we re-discuss our programme at the founding conference of Respect Renewal in the spring of 2008. It needs updating especially to re-emphasise ecosocialism.
This programme should be part of any discussion with other forces Respect Renewal hopes to unite with. We should initiate a debate explaining why left unity it is necessary, what we understand by the term and the political basis for it. We should be pro-active in arguing publicly that Gordon Brown’s refusal to break in any way from New labour’s capitalist policies shows that the time is now ripe for the various currents on the left who want to fight neo-liberalism, war and environmental catastrophe, to form a new left party.
Components of an action programme today
Respect Renewal is a campaigning, eco-socialist organisation and supports an electoral strategy that will provide us with the platform that allows our elected representatives to publicly campaign for, and where possible implement, aspects of our programme, but not to use their position to administer the logic of capitalism either nationally or locally.
- Against War and Imperialism:
· For the complete and immediate withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan
· No to war on Iran
· Against all imperialist interventions, or to NATO encirclement of Russia and China
· End all threats to Cuba and Venezuela
· No to the arms trade
· No to nuclear weapons, No to Trident – for British unilateral nuclear disarmament
· Support for the campaigns against US interceptor missile bases in Britain and Europe.
- Environment and global warming:
- Campaign for a realistic target, based on the latest science, for unilateral carbon reduction in Britain of 90% by 2030
- For radical new international treaties for global carbon reduction
- For equitable, non-market solutions and against a strategy such as the Stern Report determined by profitability, or those which make the workers pay
- All reduction to be implemented without carbon trading or strategies of green taxation
- Campaign for a massive shift from carbon fuels to sustainable energy production – a shift to non-carbon ambient energy – solar, wind and water electric power generation.
- For the immediate re-nationalisation of the energy industry, including the national grid
- No to nuclear energy
- For car-free inner cities and an expansion of cheap or free public transport. We encourage the transfer to sustainable modes of transport and adequate rural bus services. For an integrated transport system under public ownership
- For the expansion of the rail and coach networks
- No to privatisation of the tube – bring all public transport back into public ownership
- Freeze all airport expansion including the fourth runway at Heathrow
- Equitable restriction/rationing of international air flights
- For the abolition of all internal flights
- For public funding and re-establishing direct-works departments in local government as part of a massive subsidised campaign of insulating the old housing stock
- For a programme of sustainable and affordable social housing – all new houses to be carbon neutral
- For the protection of biodiversity, green and open space, and the countryside against rampant development
- Reduction of the working week and redeployment of workers as environmentally destructive industries are closed down
- For working class and socialist solution to the eco-crisis
- Defend Social services and Welfare rights
- For an end to all privatisation in the public sector. No to a privatised East London line
- No to creeping privatisation or the market inside the NHS
- For a massive public investment in the NHS and education
- No to school academies
- Tax the super-rich and big business to increase funding for public services
- For the nationalisation of the utilities
- For a return to a publicly funded student grant scheme
- No attacks on pension funds and for a living state pension with no means testing
- For Social and democratic rights
- For a decent minimum wage of at least £8 an hour
- For trade union freedom – repeal anti-union laws
- Defence of civil liberties: no deportations, no to ID cards, rights for asylum seekers
- Against racism, Islamophobia, sexism, homophobia and all forms of discrimination.
- For mass action against manifestations of racism and fascism
- For equal rights for women and the oppressed
- For a woman’s right to choose whether, when and how to have children.
- For a system of proportional representation in all elections and against any prohibitive thresholds to disqualify small parties from standing
[1] For the best account of this tragic unravelling of the old Respect see
the Socialist Resistance booklet containing some of the key documents.
[2] A unity platform is presented below for discussion.
[3] These practices included presenting themselves like a military ‘phalanx’ on almost every issue, tedious and inappropriate attempts to pack important meetings, inventing delegations to conferences, etc.
Liam redux 
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