06.06.1996

Those who wait

Around the left

The relatively sudden appearance of the Socialist Labour Party has served the useful function of highlighting the political inadequacies of many ‘far left’ groups. Some of these never hesitate to denounce the “reformism” and “centrism” of organisations like Militant Labour and the Socialist Workers Party - and love to pose really ‘hard’.

Yet if you examine the publications of these ‘hard’ groups the reality is somewhat different. In fact, a distinctly flabby conservatism can be detected, which takes the form of a fatalistic, do-nothing passivity: ‘Comrades, we would love to help you but the time is not right.’ When it is, we will give you a ring ...

Workers News, publication of the Workers International League,is a perfect example. In the latest edition, Al Richardson beams down the following message from Mount Olympus:

“The working class depends upon unity for its very survival under capitalism. Splitting its institutions is a very serious matter ... and it has to be justified before the working class in the clearest possible way” (May-June, my italics).

What is this - is Richardson referring to the Labour Party by any chance? Yes he is. He characterises this “institution” as one which is “still organically linked to the trade unions, still contains the majority of politically active workers, and is about to be voted into office by millions of others”. In other words, Richardson is telling us that the Labour Party is the ‘organised expression of the working class’, a mistake which Lenin lambasted many years ago.

Richardson, gazing into his crystal ball, tells us that the SLP “took place at the wrong time”. Do not fear though, a couple of years into a Blair government and a “major split could follow”. It is all in the bag, comrades ... eventually.

Workers Power has a similar lackadaisical approach to the SLP. Having stayed outside of the SLP, as it is not the revolutionary alternative, it insouciantly observes:

“The founding conference indicated that the SLP is a party that remains in the process of formation ... with a significant minority seeking revolutionary policies and answers” (June 1996).

Excellent! So WP is going to actively intervene in the SLP, at long last? Well, not exactly. Poetically, it concludes: “The struggle for the political soul of the SLP has only just begun”.

Never mind, everything comes to those that wait.

Don Preston