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The Scottish debate

Party, Programme, Reformism and the International

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Running throughout the material of the International Socialist Movement PC is an attempt to downgrade the work of the Committee for a Workers' International, and in particular of the Socialist Party in England and Wales. The comrades refer to the "fighting combative traditions of our organisation in Scotland" with the clear implication that the same traditions do not exist in the other sections of the Committee for a Workers' International. Yet this is in the same section of the document that talks about the magnificent struggles against the poll tax and of Liverpool City Council!

The document refers, without justification, to the "steep decline in the active Socialist Party membership over the past 18 months". At the Socialist Party National Committee (13-14 May) Alan McCombes withdrew this remark. Yet, in subsequent debates in Scotland both he and Frances Curran quite dishonestly repeated similar allegations.

This is not the place to give an account of the work of the Socialist Party. However, it is necessary to give some facts in order to counter the unfounded claims of the International Socialist Movement PC. The Socialist Party membership figure in England and Wales is currently almost exactly the same as it was eighteen months ago. However, this does not reflect the increase in the active membership that has taken place, reflecting the fact that over the last two years the section has begun to recruit a layer of youth. They are throwing themselves into the work of the party. These youth have mainly come through our work in Save Free Education and Socialist Students.

The Socialist Party is also playing a leading role in several major trade unions. This was demonstrated by the intervention at the NUT conference, the election results in Unison, the election of a comrade to the NEC of USDAW, and the success of our comrades at the PCS conference. Of the six CFDU members elected to the NEC of Unison, three are members of the Committee for a Workers' International.

The Socialist Party has also had some important electoral successes. It now has four councillors in England and Wales. We are the only party on the left that has elected councillors. The PC's document, while praising the LSA result to the skies, does not even mention the Socialist Party success in getting a fourth councillor elected.

The comrades ask for evidence that Frances Curran and Murray Smith and others only "advocate one tactic, that of developing broad formations in which we act as a loose ideological current" (paragraph 313).

There is such evidence. A statement of the International Socialist Movement majority (November 1999) clearly states that: 

"The key task, particularly in Europe, is to regroup all those who refuse to accept that there is no alternative to capitalism and are prepared to fight for the rehabilitation of socialist ideas in a mass way. This cannot be done by ideology alone, they must also be prepared to engage in the struggles of the working class. In the post-Stalinist period this is where the line should be drawn as the basis of regroupment and the creation of new parties. 

This process is already underway in a number of countries, even in an embryonic way. There will be differences, there will be debates over day-to-day issues, as well as over how to achieve socialism and more importantly on what kind of socialism we want after the experiences of Stalinism. But these differences will be hammered out as these parties fill out and engage in the class struggle. 

That is the strategy which has inspired the creation of the Scottish Socialist Party and we would argue that this experience has implications elsewhere". ('Discussion On the Question of New Workers' Parties', submitted by the EC majority of the Scottish section to the IEC November 1999).

We have quoted the whole paragraph. It is crystal clear that the comrades regard the formation of broader parties, of regroupment of Left parties, as the key task. In another paragraph (14) in the same statement they conclude that: "...the building of workers' parties on a socialist programme is the key strategic task of revolutionaries in the present period".

This statement ("Discussion On the Question of New Workers' Parties") contains in the main the same points outlined by Murray Smith in an article, 'Towards a new anti-capitalist workers' party', published in the French journal Carre Rouge no 11. Murray Smith argues that in the present situation the task of revolutionaries has changed. 

He claims that, 

"the essential task is to bring together all those who refuse to consider that we can't go beyond capitalism, who refuse the new world order, who are ready to resist the manifold attack of the government and the bosses...The exact outlines of a new party will depend on the conditions of its coming into existence, on the forces that are involved in it. But it will not be a classical revolutionary party, in the sense that Trotskyists have understood it up to now".

Although the article mainly dealt with the situation in France, it also "deals with some of the issues involved in the debate (in Scotland)". It was therefore included as an addendum to his statement, "Contribution to the debate for the Scottish congress, 21 September 1999. (An English version of the article "Carre Rouge" was distributed at the European School in July 1999.) This article also argued that it would be catastrophic if the revolutionary Marxists in such party act according to a "logic of faction against faction".

Andres Nin and other leaders of the Trotskyist Spanish Left Opposition group (ICE) argued the same case. They did this when they decided to fuse with the BOC (Workers and Peasants Bloc) in Catalonia and form the POUM (Workers' Party of Marxist Unification) in September 1935. 

The POUM was said to be a Marxist party, in favour of a new International, although not necessarily called the Fourth International. The reason for this was because the "new party would be based more or less upon the ICE". The supposed similarity between this programme and that of the Trotskyists was used to justify why there was no need for them to be organised as a faction in the unified organisation. 

The criticism made by the leadership of the International Trotskyist movement was dismissed as a "lack of understanding of Spanish affairs". It was even said that the International Secretariat wanted to manipulate the Spanish Trotskyists as if they were "puppets".

This mistake of Nin, Andrade and other members of the Left Opposition in Spain proved to be fatal. The centrist character of the POUM acted as a brake on the Spanish revolution. The tasks of Trotskyists was to either rapidly win the POUM to Trotskyism or to win as many forces from it as possible in the shortest possible time. The rhythm of events during the Spanish revolution and civil war, plus the role of the centrist POUM, demanded that these tasks needed to be achieved extremely rapidly. This clearly is not the situation that exists in Scotland today. However, the method applied by Trotsky is applicable.

The International Socialist Movement majority merge and confuse two tasks - firstly, the need to unify the working class and build a broad formation, a new workers^' party, and secondly the need to build an independent revolutionary party.

The majority of the International Socialist Movement leadership has never commented on Murray Smith's statement. The majority evidently share his view that "regroupment" and the formation of broad parties is the key task, that Marxists should not organise as a distinct revolutionary organisation inside these new parties. Instead, the Marxists should be organised as a loose current promoting socialist ideas and stimulating debate.

The comrades have also argued that the building of small mass revolutionary parties are off the agenda. The reason for this, in their view, is that it does not correspond to the objective needs of the working class at this stage. The majority have therefore recommended that our sections in Southern and Northern Ireland should enter the road of regroupment. Furthermore, according to the document and other material, the Socialist Party in England and Wales should adopt a similar tactic in Scotland.

In paragraphs 327 to 354 the comrades repeat their general criticism of the tactics adopted by the Socialist Party in England and Wales. This new document from the Scottish comrades follows in the footsteps of Frances Curran's reply to Peter Taaffe's article, 'Ken Livingstone and a New Workers' Party', published in Socialism Today, April 2000. In that reply Frances Curran claims: 

"The article completely fails to provide any strategy for comrades in England and Wales concerning socialist unity and the question of a new workers party, and therefore fails to provide a clear orientation. The main aim of this article appears to be to justify the Socialist Party's leadership opposition to the launch of the Scottish Socialist Party and its refusal to recognise the importance of Socialist Alliances in the process of rebuilding the workers movement". (Committee for a Workers' International Members Bulletin, May 2000, page 37)

Later on in the same reply the comrades write: 

"We believe that the Socialist Party in England and Wales has made a number of mistakes in relation to the LSA (London Socialist Alliance). It would be a huge error if these are repeated at a national level...The Socialist Party has to now act quickly to recoup the ground lost..."

However, the PC's document goes even further. It claims that the "Socialist Party has been marginalised in London, with the SWP allowed to grab the leadership of the movement which is now attracting the support of a significant minority of the working class and the youth" (paragraph 330). The document, of course, does not furnish any evidence to substantiate their claim. The reason for this is simple - it is not true. All the groups involved in the LSA have been forced to admit after the election that there were hardly any new, fresh forces inside in the LSA.

The authors of the document merely repeat the mendacious misinformation of 'Weekly Worker', the paper of the microscopic CPGB, most of which is devoted to attacking the Socialist Party. They state that "the Socialist Party, with the exception of individuals like Dave Nellist and lan Page has played little or no part in this development (of Socialist Alliances)". 

While the document regards the vote for the LSA as "impressive", it totally ignores the fact that the LSA top-up vote is, by comparison, nowhere near the vote scored by Socialist Party candidates in Coventry, Liverpool or Carlisle. Moreover, we are still waiting to hear exactly what these alleged "mistakes" are and "what ground has been lost" in England and Wales.

Why is the International Socialist Movement document trying to deny what is obviously the approach of the majority, i.e. that the experience in Scotland shows the way forward for the rest of the International. That means it is correct to give up all the resources of the revolutionary party to build a broader socialist party. According to the comrades, this corresponds to the objective needs of the working class. They fail to see that while a broader formation would represent a step forward for the working class this does not mean that an independent revolutionary party and programme are no longer necessary.

Never in history has there been such a sharp contrast between the potential power of the working class and the political and ideological weakness of the proletariat.

As Trotsky explained, 

"What can a revolutionary party do in this situation? In the first place give a clear, honest picture of the objective situation, of the historic tasks which flow from the situation, irrespective of whether or not the workers are today ripe for this. 

Our tasks don't depend on the mentality of the workers. The task is to develop the mentality of the workers. That is what the programme should formulate and present before advanced workers" ('The Political Backwardness of the American Workers', May 1938, published in 'The Transitional Programme For Socialist Revolution', Pathfinder Press)

In order to try to overcome the historical crisis of leadership, Marxists have to elaborate a series of transitional demands. These should act as a bridge from the present level of consciousness to the idea of a socialist revolution. We have to skillfully adapt our programme to the existing level of consciousness, the "mentality" of the working class. Our programme is determined by the objective needs of the working class and the same goes for our strategy.

We will be part of new formations and even initiate them, because this can advance and spread the idea of socialism and it could open new possibilities of building a revolutionary party. The demand for a new workers' party now forms part of our programme in most countries. Where applicable our sections campaign in favour of left unity in elections. 

Many sections have been part of left alliances contesting elections. We have a long record of working together with others at the same time as maintaining an independent Marxist position and with the aim of also building our own parties. Our position and approach is therefore qualitatively different from the position put forward by the majority inside the International Socialist Movement leadership. The tactics proposed by the comrades are a recipe for undermining and seriously weakening the forces of revolutionary Marxism in Scotland.

The Committee for a Workers' International has been able to build influential forces in countries such as Ireland, Nigeria and Sweden during the 1990s. It is correct, given the strength of the party and the potential that exists, to set as an aim the building of a small revolutionary mass party in Ireland in the coming period. 

The Swedish section has more than tripled its membership since 1993 and now publishes a weekly paper. The collective experiences of Sweden, Ireland, England and Wales, Nigeria and other sections of the Committee for a Workers' International should be discussed in the Scottish section. 

These experiences relate to building a revolutionary party or organisation, election work, work in councils or parliament, on how to take advantage of widespread publicity and youth work. This could assist the work in Scotland. However, over the last two years the comrades have shown little interest in finding out what is happening in other sections.

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