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There is utter confusion amongst the comrades within the faction on the question of the revolutionary party. There seems to be little conception of where the International Socialist Movement and for that matter the Committee for a Workers’ International is now, and where it has to go in order to achieve the building of a mass revolutionary party.

The comrades repeatedly insist that the International Socialist Movement is a revolutionary party. They state "we are building our own revolutionary party within the Scottish Socialist Party" and castigate the majority for describing the International Socialist Movement not as a party, but as a platform or tendency. This, the comrades assert, is "liquidationism".

But we need a serious debate on the distinction between a party and a tendency or platform. The description of the International Socialist Movement as a party within a party is a recipe for confusion. Most people would understand a party to be an organisation which directly campaigns among the working class and the wider population in its own name, leads campaigns under its own name, fights elections and exists as a separate force.

A tendency or platform, on the other hand, is part of a wider party which seeks to shape and influence that party. Under certain conditions, a tendency can become a party and vice versa.

The question at this stage is: What is the role of the International Socialist Movement now and in the immediate future? Is our primary role to lead campaigns under the name of the International Socialist Movement, intervene among the broad working class in the name of the International Socialist Movement, stand in elections under the name of the International Socialist Movement - or is our main aim to intervene, politicise and organisationally develop the Scottish Socialist Party, while expanding the membership of the International Socialist Movement itself through recruiting principally from the Scottish Socialist Party?

When the comrades lapse into hysteria over terminology, they forget the history of their own organisation. When we launched Scottish Militant Labour there was some discussion around whether we should call ourselves a party. The comrades on the Socialist Party EC (then Militant EC) were vehement in their opposition to describing Scottish Militant Labour as a party. Even in internal material, they insisted that Scottish Militant Labour was not a party.

For example, in EC Reply to the 'Open Letter' from the ex-minority the British Militant EC in 1993 stated: "Nowhere have we proposed ‘an open revolutionary party’. The ex-minority try to build the case on the basis of one or two isolated off-the-cuff comments. Such enthusiastic statements made at the moment of sensational victories take nothing away from what we have constantly stressed and re-stressed both in our written material and in other statements to the press which the Open Letter dishonestly ignores. We have repeatedly and specifically explained why we are NOT establishing a 'Party’." (Our emphasis)

The references to 'enthusiastic' and 'off-the-cuff' refer to statements in the press and elsewhere by Scottish Militant Labour members describing Scottish Militant Labour as a party. In fact, there was disagreement on this issue. The Scottish comrades were repeatedly taken to task for calling Scottish Militant Labour a party - even in election material where the British leadership insisted that we did not use the term.

The argument of the comrades then was that Scottish Militant Labour was a 'detour' and our long term orientation would be back towards the Labour Party as the party itself moved back to the left. This perspective was treated extremely sceptically in Scotland some years before the British and International leadership finally drew the conclusions that the Labour Party tactic was untenable.

When Scottish Militant Labour was fighting elections, campaigning among the working class, recruiting directly from the working class - in other words acting as a party - the comrades denied that we were a party. Now that we are acting as an organised tendency in a much bigger party that we lead, the comrades insist that we call our organisation "a party". The old proverb springs to mind about someone singing a wedding song at a funeral, and a funeral dirge at a wedding.

Until relatively recently, no section of the Committee for a Workers’ International described itself as "the revolutionary party". The reason was because the creation of a revolutionary party was seen as a long term goal rather than an accomplished fact. The sections of the Committee for a Workers’ International were - and in our opinion still are - nuclei which, providing the tactics, strategy and orientation are correct, may eventually succeed in bringing into existence genuine revolutionary parties with roots in the working class.

The accumulation of the forces which will make up the ranks of the revolutionary party will require many different orientations. In each situation the aim will be to either to win over individuals, or organisations and parties to the political analysis and programme that we advance for the taking of power.

Sometimes this will be as open independent organisations; at other times we will find ourselves working in new parties or formations. We may also find that when we are successful in reaching political agreement with other organisations this can lead to the formation of new revolutionary organisations through fusion and merger. We cannot map out the road to a mass revolutionary party at this stage with all the junctions clearly signposted.

Our orientation within the Scottish Socialist Party does not merely consist of trying to win over ones and twos, it actually consists of attempting, over a period of time, to win over the whole party to our political position. Instead of leading campaigns or standing in elections under the banner of Scottish Militant Labour we approach the class with the more effective banner of the Scottish Socialist Party. The role of the International Socialist Movement is different to the role of Scottish Militant Labour.

The International Socialist Movement is not a party in the sense of Scottish Militant Labour, which provided the entire campaigning structure for our intervention amongst the class. The International Socialist Movement plays a more ideological role within the Scottish Socialist Party, trying to develop the party in a revolutionary direction.

The recruits which we have and will attract have a much higher political level that those we attracted under Scottish Militant Labour, or those who currently are attracted to the Socialist Party in England and Wales or the Socialist Party in Ireland. Like the Socialist Party in England and Ireland, the Scottish Socialist Party - albeit on a much larger scale - attracts workers who want to fight for socialism. Those who take a further step towards joining the International Socialist Movement are, as a general rule, more politically developed.

The role of the International Socialist Movement is to develop a cadre and to promote political ideas and discussion inside the party on the philosophical, economic and the political analysis which we stand on. We also have the task of assisting the Scottish Socialist Party to become a combative party which is involved centre stage in the class struggle using the best methods of Scottish Militant Labour.

Of course a majority of our comrades are also leading the Scottish Socialist Party in terms of campaigns, elections, building the branches selling the Voice etc. So we also influence all the leading bodies of the Scottish Socialist Party on day to day propaganda, campaigning and tactical issues. Our leadership gives the Scottish Socialist Party a combative cutting edge and a far more developed Marxist political analysis than is the case with other "broad socialist parties".

In 1934 the perspective of Trotsky was that the ILP in Britain, on the basis of events, could be won over to a revolutionary position. The ILP had come out of the Labour Party with around 15,000 members and had a sizeable apparatus and influence, including 5 MPs in Glasgow.

Nevertheless the international organisation around Trotsky advised the 40 inexperienced members in Britain to enter the ILP. The objective was not to recruit ones and twos to a separate organisation but to win over the whole party. The British group refused, but a minority split and agreed to enter, Trotsky's advice to the organisation was this: "I am entirely in agreement with the proposal of the International Secretariat which you subject to criticism in your letter of January 5. We all agreed that after its entry into the ILP, the British section should cease its independent organisational existence".

Was Trotsky a liquidationist? The first question most comrades will ask was: in what political context did Trotsky give this advice? And here we have the nub of the question. Organisational forms flow from political orientation - not the other way around. How you organise depends on the size of your organisation who you are orientating to, whether you are reaching the class as an independent organisation or through working in other parties and formations, and the character of these broader parties and formations.

The faction comrades and the International leadership promote the position that one size fits all. The sections of the Committee for a Workers’ International must have identikit organisational structures regardless of the conditions in which they are working. Anything less, anything different is "liquidationism."

This has absolutely nothing in common with the experience of Marxism/Trotskyism. The whole experience of the left Opposition illustrates the consistent ability of Trotskyists in the inter war years to have the utmost flexibility in both orientation and in organisational forms as they attempted to accumulate the forces for a mass revolutionary party.

The organisational structures which we have put in place in Scotland of monthly political committees, monthly branch meetings, a public journal, a website, a newsletter/bulletin, a political committee, quarterly all members meetings - all backed up with political education programmes - are more than sufficient to attract new recruits and attend to their political education as well.

This coupled with an open profile within the Scottish Socialist Party has and will attract new members. But there are also many workers in the Scottish Socialist Party who will observe over a period of time our activity, political clarity and ability to lead the party. In the future we can expect to win over whole branches and regions to the International Socialist Movement. We could be doing with a more regular journal, but this is a question which we can address.

Will the International Socialist Movement at some stage in the future become a party like Scottish Militant Labour, standing in elections, intervening in the class struggle etc? That depends upon the development of the Scottish Socialist Party.

If the Scottish Socialist Party were to disintegrate at some stage, then in the absence of any serious socialist party in Scotland, the International Socialist Movement would have the responsibility of picking up the pieces, embarking on an Option One strategy and launching a new socialist party.

No-one can foretell exactly how events will unfold. Fortunately, however, the perspective that the Scottish Socialist Party will collapse or disintegrate is not the most likely scenario that we face, to put it mildly.

We also have to state that such a scenario would be a serious defeat for our organisation and for the Scottish working class, because the Scottish Socialist Party itself represents a historic conquest. After 18 months it now commands the support of around one in twenty of the Scottish electorate and a higher proportion still among the working class and the youth.

But what if we face exactly the opposite problem: that the Scottish Socialist Party were to be swamped with an influx of new members on an even bigger scale than we have seen up to now? What if entire trade unions moved in and effectively took over the Scottish Socialist Party? What if a number of Labour and SNP MSPs (Members of the Scottish Parliament) defected to the Scottish Socialist Party?

In the first place, we would welcome the development of the Scottish Socialist Party into a real mass workers' party. Undoubtedly, our tasks would become more complicated. We may find ourselves in a minority at least on certain issues.

However, the Scottish Socialist Party is not the Labour Party whose constitution even in its best days was effectively rigged in favour of the parliamentary leadership. Unless the democratic constitution was replaced by a bureaucratised regime, we would still orientate towards the Scottish Socialist Party and work through it rather than pronounce the International Socialist Movement a rival party.

We would probably adjust the organisational structures of the International Socialist Movement, for example to produce more public material presenting our ideas, if these were no longer being promoted by the Scottish Socialist Party. But while there remained a democratic structure in place, we would fight to re-establish our ideas and position. Our orientation would still be towards the Scottish Socialist Party. In other words, we would still be a tendency / platform rather than a party.

In the long term, whether our ideas prevail in the Scottish Socialist Party will be determined not by organisational forms, nor by whether we define the International Socialist Movement as a party – but by our political intervention and by events themselves.

The development of the Scottish Socialist Party into a mass workers' party is not immediately posed. Nor is it likely to be posed in the next two to three years. Our structures and orientation have to reflect the tasks of the next period, not of the distant future.

In the meantime, the structures that have been agreed and implemented are more than adequate to intervene effectively in the Scottish Socialist Party and to build the forces of Marxism within the party.

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