11.07.1996

SLP Unity

Party notes

The July Communist Party aggregate had a useful discussion on the current stage of our work around issues raised by the Socialist Labour Party. Concretely, the question of our understanding of unity in the new formation was debated sharply. 

A visitor to the aggregate from the Revolutionary Democratic Group reiterated this organisation’s position that what we have in the SLP is a de facto ‘Communist-Labour party’ or ‘alliance’. A general recognition of this would mean the acknowledgement of the right of communists and revolutionaries as well as Labourites to organise in the new party. Therefore, the left should take up the slogan, ‘For a ‘Communist-Labour Party’, as its main intervention for the coming period. While not being what we want in the long run- a reforged Communist Party - it would be a real step forward in the current circumstances, the RDG member argued.

A number of comrades were hard on this idea as an accommodation with the right. Rather than a non-aggression pact, this element of the aggregate spoke in terms of “war”, of “irreconcilable divisions” and a duel to the death. One comrade suggested that the SLP in fact was an expression - albeit an important one - of a more general process of realignment and rapprochement. Thus, even if the right strangle the babe at birth through their bureaucratic shenanigans, the ‘process’ would remain.

This stance was criticised as leftist. Without the conscious intervention of communists, the SLP is not a part of the ‘process of rapprochement’ at all. It is a small but important left split from Labour. The notion of a ‘communist-labour alliance’ is certainly problematic and open to rightist interpretations. Yet clearly revolutionaries are in some sort of relationship with the reformists at the current stage of development of the struggle.

The SLP is an important arena for the struggle for the development of a working class party. Neither the left nor the right have an interest in destroying this arena, in expelling or excluding the other. Thus, our comrades must be vigorous defenders of the unity of the organisation: we must certainly nor be casual about the possible development of a witch hunt in the SLP. I would do us no good; it would do the working class movement as a whole no good. Therefore, we must fight against it as energetically as we can.

The aggregate also discussed our work in Scotland. Criticism was made of the lack of hard political edge to our intervention in the mass Scottish Socialist Alliance. In England and Wales our paper is indispensable reading, for our foes as well as our friends. It has drawn some sharp lines of demarcation and is starting to develop a deep critique of our opponents. Articles in the paper from Scotland tend to be either low level campaign news, or bland and ‘cosy’ reports of developments in the SSA.

Where are we developing a biting, open attack on the nationalism of the organisations we are working with, of Scottish Militant Labour’s reformism, of the SSA’s Scottish parochialism?

Confidence was expressed that with work our comrades can overcome these weaknesses. The forthcoming Communist University was highlighted as an important opportunity to debate and clarify perspectives with the comrades.

Lastly, the aggregate reviewed the recently completed Summer Offensive. It was underlined that comrades must finish their targets as soon as possible. This will bring us within a hair’s breadth of our £25,000 goal.

Mark Fischer