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The Scottish debate

International Socialist Movement political reply to the factional document and platform

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Editor's Note: This document, produced by the Political Committee of the International Socialist Movement, and the Committee for a Workers’ International's reply to it, Party, Programme, Reformism and the International, was printed in the August 2000 CWI members Bulletin. They are the last substantial documents to be produced in the Scottish debate. (See Introduction)

The International Socialist Movement (previously Scottish Militant Labour) was the leading organisation within the Scottish Socialist Party. The Scottish Socialist Party also contained within it various other political organisations and unaligned individual socialists. At the time this document was produced, the International Socialist Movement was still the Scottish Section of the Committee for a Workers’ International. 

However, due to the drift towards reformism by the International Socialist Movement, a Minority Faction within it was declared by Philip Stott in Dundee and other longstanding members of the CWI, in 2000. It was fully supported by the Committee for a Workers’ International, and was formed in order to:

"struggle to build a cohesive revolutionary organisation that defends the programme of the Committee for a Workers’ International." (Party, Programme, Reformism and the International)

The Platform of the Minority Faction was printed in the May 2000 CWI Members Bulletin. The Political Committee of the International Socialist Movement produced a Reply. That Reply, reproduced below, challenged many of the fundamental positions upheld by the CWI.

The CWI then produced the document entitled Party, Programme, Reformism and the International to take up the issues raised.

The Minority Faction later became the CWI's section in Scotland. Called the International Socialists, it has gained some significant support in the Scottish Socialist Party.

The text is complete and unabridged. Extra paragraph breaks have been introduced for ease of reading on screen.

Before dealing in detail with the issues raised by the launch of a faction within the Scottish section we first have to pose the question - why has a faction been established?

Most of the issues raised by the comrades are not new. The leadership in Scotland have made every attempt to reach agreement with the comrades who have signed the statement Scottish Socialist Party Conference Review and Conclusions. Our aim has not been to sweep differences under the carpet, but to find common ground in order that we can get on with the job of building and developing the International Socialist Movement and the Scottish Socialist Party, while continuing to discuss in a calm and constructive way our remaining political differences, many of which will be clarified on the basis of time and events rather than on the basis of polemics and votes.

Before the conference on February 6, a lengthy discussion took place on what was then the Scottish Militant Labour executive between Philip and the other Full-timers, around the organisational proposals which were put to that conference. The majority bent over backwards to accommodate Philip, even though he had been defeated by an overwhelming vote in the all-members meeting of November 1999.

We agreed, for example, that Philip should continue to play the key role of editing the International Socialist, even though Phil himself had repeatedly insisted that there were "fundamental political disagreements" between him and the majority. We also agreed to Philip's amendment which deleted a statement in the organisational resolution calling on the Committee for a Workers’ International leadership to withdraw it's opposition to the launch and building of the SSP. Incidentally, some comrades on the EC were strongly opposed to removing this perfectly reasonable demand. However, the majority were prepared to go to great lengths to arrive at a working agreement which would satisfy Philip, the other minority comrades and the Committee or a Workers’ International/Socialist Party leadership who have clearly been involved in discussing the issues with Philip from the outset of the debate last summer.

We also did not oppose the International Executive Committee recommendation that Philip be brought on to the International Executive Committee as one of just three comrades from Scotland, even though he represents only a tiny minority of International Socialist Movement members.

The organisational resolution was agreed unanimously by the Scottish Militant Labour EC and then by the conference. We hoped that would allow us to get on with the task of putting behind us the divisions of the past and begin building and developing the International Socialist Movement. Indeed, that was the spirit of the entire meeting.

As one of the minority speakers, Harvey Duke, stated at the conference: "We have no intention of building a faction because there is no need for a faction."

Most members of the International Socialist Movement were therefore bitterly disappointed that barely a month later when Philip, in collaboration with other comrades (and in our opinion, in collaboration also with the Committee or a Workers’ International/Socialist Party leadership who opposed tooth and nail the launch of the Scottish Socialist Party and have since systematically denigrated the International Socialist Movement and the Scottish Socialist Party the length and breadth of the International) produced a statement, Scottish Socialist Party Conference Review and Conclusions which was clearly the prelude to the establishment of a faction.

No-one bar the seven signatories to the document and the leadership of the Committee or a Workers’ International/Socialist Party had been given any prior hint, either before, during or after the Scottish Socialist Party conference that such a statement was being considered. There was not a single telephone call, email message, informal conversation - nothing.

Yet the statement was immediately circulated the length and breadth of the International before it had been discussed in the International Socialist Movement Political Committee and before it had been seen by 95 per cent of the membership of the International Socialist Movement. It was also subsequently leaked (by whom, exactly, we do not know) to the Weekly Worker the paper of the Communist Party of Great Britain which is bitterly hostile to the Committee for a Workers’ International and the International Socialist Movement.

This haste to distribute information on the part of the Committee or a Workers’ International/Socialist Party leadership stands in stark contrast to their refusal to report on the outstanding achievements and successes of the Scottish Socialist Party. Furthermore, the statement itself contained factual inaccuracies - as even the comrades who drew up the statement subsequently conceded - although by that time it had already been distributed internationally and reprinted in the Weekly Worker.

One key question we have to pose is - what changed between the International Socialist Movement conference on February 6 and March 12, when the statement was drawn up, to justify this U-turn by Philip and the other minority comrades?

Has there been a weakening of the structures of International Socialist Movement? No - there has been a strengthening of these structures. The International Socialist Movement political committee was established - a wider body replacing the old SML EC. It has met monthly; branches have elected their representatives to the political committee; all the existing branches continued to meet and have drawn up attractive programmes of political discussion; two new branches have been formed; a number of new recruits have joined; and a national political education programme has been launched.

This is despite the fact that, in the same short period we also fought the Ayr parliamentary by election in which the Scottish Socialist Party defeated the Lib Dems, one of Scotland's two governing parties. We also organised, prepared for and intervened in the Scottish Socialist Party's first policy-making conference, which resoundingly confirmed the dominant political influence of the ideas of the International Socialist Movement within the Scottish Socialist Party. The conference adopted 22 policy statements, many of which were drawn up by International Socialist Movement members, and all of which reflected our programme and analysis. All of these political statements were agreed overwhelmingly, with the sole opposition coming from the Republican Communist Network (RCN), a mish-mash of small mainly ultra-left grouplets who by no stretch of the imagination could be described as "reformist currents".

Why then did the comrades rapidly abandon the spirit of unity expressed by both sides at the International Socialist Movement conference and rush so hastily into taking the unprecedented step of forming a faction? Why were there no attempts to raise or discuss these issues verbally before going into print and circulating a one-sided and largely inaccurate diatribe against the majority of the International Socialist Movement - which was then distributed across the world and printed in publications that are hostile to the Committee or a Workers’ International?

And why, in any case, is there a need for a faction when there has been no suggestion from any quarter that there has been any stifling of debate, or suppression in any shape or form of minority views?

Nor has there been any attempt to prevent the comrades from meeting privately as they have been doing. Every document or statement produced by the faction comrades has been distributed and discussed. To some of us, it feels like we have discussed nothing else since last June. So why form a faction?

A clue to this hasty rush to form a faction can be found in Tony Saunois' intervention at the February 6 International Socialist Movement conference. Tony, as the Secretary of the Committee or a Workers’ International, registered the opposition of the International Secretariat to the proposal that France's Curran resume her duties as convenor after being off on maternity leave.

Most comrades regarded this as an utterly incredible intervention and a deliberate attempt to shatter the mood of unity of the conference. Indeed there was no other candidate nominated. This was a clear statement by the International Secretariat that they were not prepared to work with Frances and that they would instead start to seek out an alternative leadership more pliable to the International Secretariat. But you cannot impose a leadership from outside.

We believe that the driving force for the setting up of a faction has been external pressure. We believe that, since the day the decision was taken to launch the Scottish Socialist Party, the Committee or a Workers’ International/Socialist Party leadership have been determined, come hell or high water, to split the organisation in Scotland and establish a rival organisation within the Scottish Socialist Party under their direct control. Repeated visits have been made to Scotland, not in order to collaborate with the recognised leadership, but to undermine the elected leadership and find points of support within the International Socialist Movement.

We do not believe that most of the Scottish comrades involved in the faction have the same agenda. These comrades have raised some legitimate disagreements, which given the ground-breaking strategy being pursued by the International Socialist Movement are an inevitable and necessary part of mapping out a way forward.

Up until now we have deliberately refrained in any written material from attacking or condemning these comrades. Instead, we have concentrated in presenting own strategy in a positive fashion. However we believe comrades are allowing themselves to be exploited by an international leadership whose role has been to magnify differences, polarise the debate, and whip up hysteria against the Scottish leadership.

The truth is that the Committee or a Workers’ International/Socialist Party leadership - in contrast to most of those who have signed the factional statement -have opposed our strategy from the outset and are still in complete opposition. This is why there has been a blanket of silence within the International regarding the success of the Scottish Socialist Party. The sad truth is that the success of the Scottish Socialist Party, rather than being a source of pride, has been a huge embarrassment to our international leadership

We even have the ludicrous situation that in the April issue of Socialism Today there is a four and a half page article on the need for a new workers' party which fails to mention the Scottish Socialist Party. While every other left publication in Britain - including even the Socialist Worker - praised the success of the Scottish Socialist Party in the recent Ayr parliamentary by election in defeating one of the governing parties in Scotland, the publications - internal and external - of the Socialist Party and the Committee for a Workers’ International have ignored it. Material which has been sent for inclusion in the Committee for a Workers’ International newsletter has been suppressed.

The political characterisations of the Scottish section and leadership that are now doing the rounds in the meetings of the international are totally unacceptable.

We have accusations, for example, that Alan McCombes is a 'National Trotskyist' and believes in socialism in one country; that the Scottish Socialist Party has a programme of 'limited nationalisation'; that the Scottish Socialist Party opposes nationalisation of the North Sea oil companies; that the International Socialist Movement leadership have "illusions in multinational capitalism"; that the Scottish Socialist Party is simply based on a few charismatic leaders and its membership is largely a paper membership; that the International Socialist Movement is "pandering to reformism".

This is a tissue of falsifications and distortions which we would now request the right to answer in all the main sections of the Committee for a Workers’ International. There has been no attempt to constructively engage in a serious discussion on any of these issues. Instead there is a constant attempt to undermine and denigrate the work of the Scottish section.

The launch of a faction, we believe, is the culmination of a campaign by the international leadership which has the ultimate aim of splitting the International Socialist Movement and establishing a puppet organisation in Scotland

Before we even begin to answer the points raised by the comrades who have set up a faction within the Scottish organisation, it is important to look at the method they have used in this debate. The method of Marxism is critical thought. It looks at all of the evidence in a situation and then attempts to draw up an analysis based on the whole picture, taking into account all the factors involved.

The approach by the faction comrades is to begin the process the other way around. They have put forward a conclusion and are then searching around trying to find evidence to back it up. They are attempting to prove that "one trend seeks to abandon the building of an independent revolutionary organisation within the Scottish Socialist Party" and "the other trend stands for the continuation of the building of our revolutionary organisation". (Scottish Socialist Party Conference Review and Conclusions)

As they cannot develop a coherent argument to prove their case they apply a scattergun approach in their statement, Scottish Socialist Party Conference Review and Conclusion, which jumps from one issue to another, dragging in all sorts of red herrings to try to back up their assertion.

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