Dave Isaacson argues for a united revolutionary student organisation On Saturday February 6 student activists from across the country will be attending the National Convention Against Fees and Cuts hosted by University College London Students for Free Education. The organisers have written that the convention “aims to strengthen and broaden the campaigns against cuts, and for ...
Ben Lewis reviews Martin Empson's Marxism and ecology: capitalism, socialism and the future of the planet Bookmarks, pp32, £1.50 In some ways, this Socialist Workers Party pamphlet is a useful read. Although it hardly presents a thoroughgoing critique of capitalism and its plundering of nature, it carries arguments, backed up by numerous figures and statistics, that ...
Dave Isaacson condemns leading SWP members who continually undermine and sabotage attempts to forge rank and file organisation There was one significant omission in Jim Moody’s article on the sell-out of the postal strike by the Communication Workers Union leadership, which allowed CWU president Jane Loftus to come out of it looking rather good, when actually ...
What does the SWP majority think democracy looks like?, asks James Turley Last year, the dispute between the majority faction of the Socialist Workers Party central committee and John Rees and his allies erupted, and in the aftermath all manner of smaller complaints began to arise; questions about the political basis of Respect, the party regime and ...
James Turley offers an appreciation of the life of Chris Harman, 1942-2009 A prominent figure on the British far left for several decades, Chris Harman, has died aged 66. All that time, he was a member of a single organisation. Perhaps remarkably, that organisation is the Socialist Workers Party - or its antecedents in the shape of ...
James Turley sees SWP politics reduced to ultra-shrill self-parody It has been a busy week for the Socialist Workers Party - the largest and most visible far-left group in Britain today. Its members and periphery formed the biggest part of Saturday’s demo against the Afghanistan war, as well as the bulk of Thursday’s shrill protest at ...
Things did not go according to plan for the SWP, writes Huw Sheridan In the squash court beneath Wadham College bar about 40 students gathered on October 15 for an Oxford Socialist Worker Student Society meeting with Alex Callinicos, a leading member of the Socialist Workers Party central committee and noted academic, who was billed ...
The continued rise of the British National Party raises key questions about the left’s strategy. Ben Lewis takes a look at the Socialist Workers Party’s analysis and argues for a root-and-branch rethink The election of BNP leader Nick Griffin and acolyte Andrew Brons to the European parliament has been endlessly reported in both the bourgeois media ...
Unremarkable volte-face The SWP has raised more than a few eyebrows on the left with its coverage of the recent protests in Iran, writes Jim Grant Allies, opponents and even some members (the editors of the infamous Lenin’s Tomb blog, for example) expected either grim silence or tacit backing for the supposed victor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Yet it ...
James Turley welcomes the declarations supporting the masses in Iran but warns against fake anti-imperialism Hal Draper’s excellent pamphlet, The two souls of socialism, ends with a challenge: “When the demonstrations and boycotts of the southern negroes threatened to embarrass president [Lyndon] Johnson as he faced an election, the question was: which side are you on? ...
Ben Lewis reports on Hopi’s assessments and calls for the SWP to coordinate principled solidarity Over 40 comrades attended the June 20 meeting called by Hands Off the People of Iran. Those present were mainly Hopi members, but a good number of new faces came along to hear an analysis of developments in Iran rather different ...
On Tuesday 5th May around 100 people gathered at Friends Meeting House, Euston for the public launch of a new initiative entitled the 'United Campaign Against Police Violence' (UCAPV). A press release issued before the meeting outlined the provisional committee of the campaign as composed of delegates from organizations established by the friends and families of ...
Ted North reviews Martin Smith's Why ‘British jobs for British workers’ won’t solve the crisis: why we need jobs for all Socialist Workers Party, 2009, pp26, £1.50 To be fair to Martin Smith, his short pamphlet gives some useful facts ...