03.10.1996

Working class united

Party notes

I was in the pub the other night. No particular reason, I was just in the pub. Two young lads draped over the bar were discussing - with gentle laughter and innumerable bon mots - the relative merits of Arsenal and Spurs. One thought Spurs were “crap”; the other thought Arsenal were “arseholes”. Not a great deal of collateral evidence was offered to prove either contention, it must be said. Nevertheless, it was a highly animated and at times entertaining discussion, sadly cut short by that outrageous bourgeois infringement on the working class’s democratic rights, last orders.

Despite myself, I was reminded of the Socialist Labour Party’s Bob ‘Chopper’ Crow and his contention that “You can’t play for two teams at the same time”. Crow and his co-thinkers have attempted to instil in members of the SLP the same type of irrational, idiot loyalty to the SLP as an institution as large sections of our class have to capitalist football teams: ‘Militant Labour, mate? Arseholes. The Socialist Workers Party - they’re crap’.

It was incredibly refreshing therefore to read the interview with Jimmy Nolan in last week’s paper. His decision to join the SLP is prompted by what he sees as its “potential to rebuild” the movement we are all part of.

An essential element of that “potential” is to “overcome our past divisions and join in one party”. He correctly cites the Socialist Alliances as a positive example of where “all groups can maintain their own identity and participate in discussions”. Thus - he hopes - the Liverpool SLP will play an important role in the local SA.

Jimmy is the chair of the Mersey Ports Shops Stewards Committee, which has been embroiled in an intense and bitter dispute for the past year. His non-sectarian approach to the workers’ movement is an organic product of the struggle itself: as he puts it “the splits in our movement have only been demoralising. We need a strong, fighting alternative to Labour” (all quotes, Weekly Worker September 26).

Thus comrade Nolan shows a mature attitude to the rest of the left. I note that collection sheets for the Socialist Workers Party’s current £150,000 appeal prominently feature a quote from Jimmy, where he states that “Socialist Worker has been instrumental in leading the way and that is why everyone should support its fighting fund”.

In the same spirit, in Militant of September 27 he congratulates “all Militant Labour representatives” for their “highly principled” role in the dispute. In the same issue, he puts his money where his mouth is and it is reported in the Militant fighting fund column that he has “pledged two hundred pounds, payable when they win their dispute”.

Now, comrade Nolan’s attitude is in stark contrast with many in the current leadership of the SLP, but he is unlikely to be pulled up for it, given who he is. I’m sure many criticisms could be made of the details of his approach. It can lean to political agnosticism and a tendency to view important theoretical differences as unimportant. Yet I think in its essentials it expresses a sound proletarian desire for unity against the class enemy.

It certainly has more to recommend it than Bob Crow’s loutish attitude to every political organisation in the workers’ movement - apart from the one he currently supports.

Mark Fischer
national organiser