Alf Filer offers his reflections on the recent SWP Conference.
If the Socialist Worker conference report in this week’s Socialist Worker is anything to go by, as the official documents of its decisions and minutes have not yet been published, then again an opportunity for wider unity of the Left has been missed.
For those who were expecting more, then they will be disappointed. The new, (old) leadership offers more of the same party building with a few sops to some usual initiatives. The Left Platform faction was heavily defeated and internal debate now goes back into the cupboard until next year. It appears that some will be reduced to quiet criticism of the decisions, others may slip away and others may toe the line as “good loyal opposition”.
John Rees suggested “that the party had “responded well to individual industrial disputes but has missed some of the political aspects” such as the MPs’ expenses row”. And that “the SWP’s failure to initiate a united front organisation against the recession last year had left the party, and the left in general, in a weaker position than it should be.”
Unfortunately the response was rather banal as put by one comrade ““There’s nothing wrong with imagining a left response to the recession but you can’t suck it out of your thumb.”
Marxists don’t imagine, we analyse the objective needs of the working class and attempt to construct a response that can meet those needs in a non sectarian manner. Or so we should! The C.C. of the SWP has failed to recognize the potential for Left re-allignment and wider unity, that can both attract and mobilize potentially many thousands of militants and reach out to wider layers in building an alternative. Unfortunately the Left Platform never spelt out exactly how they were to do this if they had regained the leadership. Now they are dissolved we will never know.
In the meantime we can assume that the anti-capitalist struggle will now only take place under the leadership of the SWP and the rest of us are expected to wave our little fingers! The incoming CC has urged its members to “ stoke the resistance” but no mention is made of how this will involve participation by the rest of the non SWP world. The need for a wider Left unity does not get a mention.
The positives are welcomed. In many places, the SWP will call for a vote for candidates to the left of Labour, including Solidarity in Scotland, Respect and individuals such as Dai Davies in Blaenau Gwent and the left Green Caroline Lucas. They are also exploring how to promote other candidates. This move to electoralism is in the right direction but just think how much more influential the Left could be if there was a more co-ordinated response to the challenges opening up.
However we must now all come under the banner of the SWP initiated campaigns, dare not suggest democratic structures to increase participation and not to recognize the pluralism of the Left. We must rely on their branches to show the rest of us the way forward!
The remaining report recognizes that Scotland should be independent but no reference is made to the work of the SSP and how to help build it. There is simply the obvious point made that, “ The Scottish National Party is not a force for liberation and follows neoliberal economic policies”. Great but what about the SSP and Scottish working class ? Hopefully this means they will continue to play a key role in building up the SSP? Or is there a new twist in this!
In regard to the STW, we are no clearer as to how the SWP perspective on its role will be. The Party first, the campaign second I suppose is the watch word for the next period. Yet if we ever needed a stronger STW it is now.
Reference to the importance of SWP students and certain initiatives last year implies that student activity should continue to be a source of recruitment. However if they step over the line and use their own initiatives they could possibly be expelled. Better luck next time but check with management before you use creative thought to benefit the class struggle.
On Climate Change, instead of working with existing movements and building the campaigns, we are told, “Delegates voted for a commission pledging that the party would hold district-wide SWP meetings to discuss the movement and initiate united front meetings on climate.” We do not need another SWP led campaign, which is a recipe for further sectarianism, but working with others such as the Green Left etc.
The position of “ No Platform” was maintained in regard to the anti-fascist struggle. However, to ensure the fight against fascism, racism, homophobia and Islamophobia is successful, it requires a review of the internal structures of the UAF to ensure full participation at national and regional level of all possible anti-fascist forces. The need to build a united Left leadership and broaden out the movement applies to this campaign as well as others.
The common theme running through the Conference is a repeat of old recipes, allowing for slight variation. Some progress regarding electoral work yet basically more of the same. It makes the need for others to debate Left unity even more important. Yes we must welcome anti- capitalist initiatives and united front campaigns but continue to argue for a more broader and democratic approach which this conference failed to deliver.
Having fallen back on a more traditional approach, the SWP fail to address the International challenges presented to us by the international crises of Capitalism. Here there is even more of an urgent need to learn from the experiences and practices of the comrades in France, Portugal, Germany, Australia and elsewhere.
The building of new initiatives that can provide opportunities for greater unity appear not to get a mention. Let us hope that due to the objective needs of the present and future the comrades of the SWP may realize that in spite of the conference decisions, they may have to seriously review their practice. For the present announcement falls short of meeting the needs of the movement.
Liam redux 
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