 |
Business | Industries | Finance | Tax |
| Index: > A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
|
|||||
| First Prev [ 1 2 3 4 ] Next Last |
In 1962 the Socialist Review Group became the International Socialists (IS) after the name of their new journal, first published in 1960. They also began publishing a paper called Industrial Worker later renamed Labour Worker. This was the forerunner of Socialist Worker which was launched in 1968 with Roger Protz as editor.
The IS in this period worked in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and, following the departure of the Socialist Labour League, won leadership of the Labour Party Young Socialists , but with the growth of an audience outside the labour party drifted out over the course of 1968. In the early 1980s the SWP would be critical of those tendencies which continued to work within the Labour Party or joined it at that time.
In 1969, the IS put out an appeal for revolutionry unity, aiming the appeal at the industrial militants aligned with the Communist Party, although it was also at the newly formed International Marxist Group and the libertarian Solidarity group. In the event only the small Workers' Fight group responded favourably and as soon as they became members of the IS they constituted themselves as the Trotskyist Tendency faction. The Trotskyist Tendency left again in 1971, claiming they had been expelled, the IS leadership claiming the much smaller TT had been democratically "defused" at a special conference held in 1971.
Despite such internal controversies the IS grew substantially in the early 1970's gaining a foothold in industry and forming several rank and file groups in the unions. However internal debate did not cease with the departure of the TT and in 1973 there were several expulsions, including those of the Right Opposition, part of which became the Revolutionary Communist Group. A little later the Left Faction, which became Workers Power, was also expelled.
During the 1960s the rise of unofficial strike action led the International Socialists to place emphasis on the building of a rank and file movement within the trade unions in order to combat the bureaucratic leaders of those organisations. This led to the development of a series of rank and file papers including The Collier (Mining), Redder Tape (Civil Service), Rank and File Teacher, etc. These were briefly brought together in a National Rank and File Organising Committee in 1974, the peak of IS influence in the workers movement.
Another aspect of this work was that a number of historians in the IS devoted themselves to a rediscovery of the past history of rank and file movements in the labour movement. A series of articles by Jim Higgins on this topic was published in the groups journal International Socialism. Other related work appeared in book or pamphlet form including books on the Communist Party related Minority Movement of the 1920's and the industrial politics of the CPGB in that period. Work was also done on the pre-World War 1 period with Ray Challinors book on the Socialist Labour Party entitled The First British Bolsheviks.
In the mid-1970s Cliff argued that the older workers leaders, including shop steward s, were corrupted by reformism and therefore IS had to turn to untried young workers - the more cynically minded claimed Cliff wanted the party to turn to them as being more gullible to Cliff's more idiosyncratic flights of fancy. This was part of the reason for the attempt made at this time to popularise Socialist Worker. This turn was unanimously rejected months later, but by then Jim Higgins was removed as National Secretary and Roger Protz from his position as editor of Socialist Worker for opposing these changes. Prompted by Duncan Hallas, they formed an International Socialist Opposition. Ultimately, a large section of the leadership, in particular Jim Higgins, Roger Protz and John Palmer, were expelled or left in solidarity with those expelled in 1975 and formed the Workers League. In 1977 the IS launched the SWP.
Soon after becoming the SWP it launched the Anti Nazi League (ANL) in response to the danger of the National Front. The ANL followed on from the relative success of the Right to Work Campaign which had been launched by the National Rank and File Organising Committee, and had organised a series of marches against unemployment. These marches were annual events between 1976 and 1981. The ANL was far larger than the Right to Work Campaign and was able to call upon support far outside the ranks of the SWP.
In its own terms the ANL was relatively successful holding a series of large demonstrations against the National Front and was to some considerable degree responsible for the marginalisation of that grouping, if for no other reason than it meant taking part in any public NF activities meant running the very real risk of being resisted - the same risk many non-whites faced in areas where NF public activities were being held.
However, the ANL suffered a blow in March 1979 amid claims of financial 'irregularities' (ie. funds being diverted to the SWP), and the violence between ANL and NF members compromising support from celebrity members in the ANL - Nottingham Forest manager Brian Clough being the first of many celebrities to renounce his support, whilst despite the success of the Rock Against Racism concerts (an ANL affiliated campaign), many of the punk rock bands that had been outspoken against the NF from the start - such as the Sex Pistols/PiL, Bob Geldof's Boomtown Rats and The Stranglers - refused outright to have anything to do with an organisation they perceived as little more than an SWP front (The Clash did headline the 1978 Carnival however). Tony Cliff told a Guardian reporter during the March 1979 crisis, "The leadership of the ANL is the SWP & we don't give a damn".
In 1981 the ANL was formally wound up as it was felt to be no longer needed and was then dissolved. Some individuals who had been involved in the ANL disagreed with this, & also wanted to show solidarity with the more militant side of the republican movement in Northern Ireland grouping around Provisional Sinn Fein. Expelled, they were to form Red Action.
Since then, the SWP has affiliated with groups in various countries which comprise the International Socialist Tendency, and has been involved in a wide range of organisations, including the relaunch of the Anti Nazi League (which has evolved into Unite Against Fascism), and Globalise Resistance. The SWP has also participated in the Socialist Alliance, and were instrumental in setting up the Stop the War Coalition and the RESPECT Unity Coalition.
In Scotland SWP members joined the Scottish Socialist Party as an officially recognised platform in 2001 known as the Socialist Worker Platform.
The membership of the SWP cannot be verified and with the exception of unprovable verbal claims is not known other than to the leadership of the SWP. It has been claimed by SWP members that the group has 4,000 members. However few outside the ranks of the SWP would accept this claim as accurate and most estimates of membership range from 1,200 up to 3,000. Members must hold membership of the applicable trade union.
| Politics | Business | Finance |
 |
 |
 |
|