31.10.1996

Sikorski and Stalin Society witch hunters

SL Kenning looks at latest developments in the Socialist Labour Party

West London SLP is the latest of many branches to take a principled stand against the anti-communist witch hunt. At its meeting on October 23 there was an eleven to three majority for the following resolution: “This branch resolves to campaign vigorously for a democratic disciplinary procedure in the SLP. Disciplinary action against a member should be decided by their branch, by a two-thirds majority of those present and voting, with the right of appeal to a national appeals committee elected by party conference.”

It will interest readers to know that two comrades who voted against a “democratic disciplinary procedure” and who actually relish the witch hunt are members of the Stalin Society - Lila Patel and partner Neil Salter. Nothing out of character here. JV Stalin was after all an anti-communist witch hunter of the most obscene proportions. He was responsible for signing the death warrants of more communists than Adolf Hitler.

However comrades Patel and Salter are keen to point out that general secretary Patrick Sikorski personally okayed their joining the SLP and that he is fully aware of their bizarre political affiliations. And this does produce what would appear on the surface to be an impossible paradox.

A founder-leader of the Fourth International Supporters Caucus becomes general secretary of a new, potentially mass party. Though privately claiming to be a disciple of Lev Bronstein, he does his utmost to steer it in a left Labourite direction. The old ‘official communist’ programme, the British road to socialism, is praised. Immigration controls are supported. Moreover he recruits Stalin Society members to aid him in his anti-communist witch hunt. The result - an anti-communist united front of pro-Labourite Trotskyites and Stalinites.

Anyway, having just returned from her beloved ‘socialist paradise’ of North Korea and extolling the great leader Kim Jong Il, comrade Patel came to the West London meeting armed with a fittingly authoritarian motion supporting the Sikorski witch hunt. I will reproduce it in part to give the flav

“This branch warmly applauds the hard work and inspiring leadership given by our national executive ... We are fortunate to have NEC members such as Arthur Scargill ... The efforts of a few persons to undermine and discredit the SLP and its leaders will not succeed. Where the NEC has voided membership, it has done so on the basis of informed decision making and in accordance with the constitution. It is obvious that certain groups will try and enter the SLP in an unconstitutional manner. The NEC has the right to take action necessary to both prevent and deal with this. The NEC has been elected democratically and constitutionally. We have thus entrusted the NEC with certain powers to act on our behalf where the NEC deems fit. Continual undermining of the NEC merely plays into the hands of our enemies, especially when they are subject to groundless criticism. It also impedes the work of branches and the SLP. The baseless grievances of a few individuals are unimportant compared to the serious work needed to be done by the SLP.”

True to form, comrade Patel decided not to put her motion to a democratic vote. Nevertheless I do think I have shown what dubious allies the NEC won itself when it fatefully decided to launch its anti-communist witch hunt.

Red Ken

SL Kenning has previously reported the pro-SLP hints and noises coming from Jeremy Corbyn. Typically, nothing is said openly or clearly written down. I have had to rely on rumours circulating in the Red Rose Club (where Corbyn has his office) and whispers among SLP tops. The suggestion is that after Blair is ensconced in No10 the SLP will get a ready-made parliamentary group through the defection of a small number of Labour left MPs. Indeed the anti-communist witch hunt is premised on the basis of making the SLP safe for the likes of these - left reformist MPs and trade union bureaucrats.

I can now bring into play another source, indicating that such a scenario is far from impossible. Unusually it is the Morning Star,or - more to the point - an article in the Morning Star on October 23 by Ken Living-stone, MP for Brent East.

According to Livingstone there is “a small destructive minority” in the Labour leadership which is “preparing for a divisive internal civil war in the immediate aftermath of our [election] victory”. The ‘Millbank Tendency’ has “infiltrated the party from the top” and is seeking to transform the Labour Party into an SDP mark II by breaking the union link, turning conference into a “mere rally” and replacing the Tories as “managers of the system”. Livingstone fears that such proposals will be pushed through the national executive “for rubber stamping at the October 1997 conference”.

One should doubt Livingstone’s commitment to socialism and on occasion even his rationality. He is a self-serving left reformist who is prone to paranoid outbursts. In the 1992 election campaign BBC’s ‘Newsroom South-East’ broadcast film of him ranting and raving at CPGB candidates because they were supposedly MI5 agents. He made similar accusations regarding Arthur Scargill when the SLP was launched.

Nevertheless he is a leading figure on the Labour left, much reduced though it is. He also thinks in the long term. Therefore what he says must be studied seriously. “If” the so-called Millbank Tendency “win next October”, he says, “the Labour Party will be finally dead and buried”. And that, of course, raises the question of where Livingstone will go then.

Goss brings discredit

Comrade Tony Goss, now London SLP election supremo, has deservedly won a bad reputation in the workers’ movement. Now Private Eye is using him - “Tony, ‘Fuck off, you shits’ Goss”, it dubs him - to discredit the SLP.

Echoing our reports of his outrageous undemocratic behaviour, abuse and thuggery in his SLP branch, Private Eye sarcastically notes that “vigorous socialist debate was alive and well in South London last month” (October 18 1996). Private Eye says it “chronicled” Goss’s career as a Southwark councillor in the 1980s.

As confirmation of the information I carried in this column, we are told that he was

“expelled from the [Labour] party in 1988 after allegations of violence and intimidation against other party members and after a scandal over his occupation of a council flat he wasn’t entitled to” (readers are recommended to read Private Eye nos 659, 662, 669 and 691 for further information on comrade Goss).

Now I have received the following communication:

“Discredited election supremo Tony Goss has launched a last-ditch effort to save his political skin. Following the democratic decision to break up South London into South-East and South-West branches, Goss, his wife and Helen Drummond have now declared that they want nothing to do with the South-East branch. Instead they have manipulated the SLP constitution and intend setting up a Peckham branch. Goss has been overwhelmingly rejected by the vast majority of South London SLPers who have voted him out of the chair on two occasions and forced him to apologise to the membership because of his violent behaviour. The only way he can save himself is to set up a branch in Peckham where his tiny handful of supporters live.”

Three questions immediately arise. Why do our dark forces, the Fiscites, defend Goss? Why did they give this man, who is doing so much damage to the reputation of the SLP, all-London powers and responsibilities? When will there be a rank and file rebellion demanding the removal of comrade Goss?

Socialist Labour Action

Comrade Chris Boylan of Leicester SLP is to be congratulated on the production of the first edition of Socialist Labour Action. Though only 14 photocopied pages, it makes encouraging reading. Advocating a fighting SLP, the comrade says this is only possible by ending the witch hunting of “dissidents”. “[We]  must put paid to the exclusions and expulsions of socialists .... Our fire should be directed at Blair and the right,” declares comrade Boylan.

Why produce the bulletin? The comrade favours debate and wants to promote the position on the economy he presented to the May 4 conference in opposition to comrade Scargill’s. Crucially though, Socialist News “is not going to carry articles dealing with internal debates”. Unfortunately comrade Boylan himself does not appear to be fully committed to openness. He announces that “Socialist Labour Action is a bulletin for party members only” ... so non-members and those not in contact with him will have to write to SL Kenning (£1 should cover post and reproduction).

Having been incubated within a particular Trotskyite tradition, the articles still show all the muddle and contradiction of their external co-thinkers, in particular the contribution of comrade Bernie McAdam of Birmingham SLP. He says we “should call for a Labour vote where there is no SLP candidate”. Using the familiar justification put forward by the pro-Labour left - eg, Socialist Workers Party, Workers Liberty and Workers Power - comrade McAdam argues that, as  “Labour, despite Blair, still has the support of millions of workers”, we ought to “support what is progressive about their illusions in the Labour Party - the class hatred of the Tories and an active desire to get them out of government”.

Comrade McAdam is for an SLP vote wherever it stands. That is very good. It will be interesting to see whether or not the next edition of Workers Power denounces Socialist Labour Action or adopts its line. Where the SWP called for an SLP vote in Hemsworth, Workers Power loyally backed the suit imposed by Walworth Road.

Of course, comrade McAdams’ lesser-of-two-evils approach could be applied to the Liberals in the 19th century or the US Democratic Party today. It is a typically Menshevik method. The erroneous idea is that before workers tackle the state they have to go through the stage of a Labour government. Surely, when it comes to electoral tactics, it is the nature of the illusions the masses have that is important. In 1920 Lenin suggested critically supporting the British Labour Party in elections because of the weakness of the CPGB and the fact that a whole swathe of militant workers had socialist illusions in it. Who, apart from the pro-Labourite left, has such illusions nowadays? Most workers simply imagine Labour will be better at running capitalism than the Tories, or perhaps no worse.

The sad fact of the matter is that by implication the SLP leadership does advocate a Labour vote where we have no candidate - given Socialist News, I am not surprised at comrade McAdams’ ignorance. The slippery formulation is: vote for candidates with policies nearest to those of the SLP. Unfortunately this will allow comrade McAdam and his co-thinkers in the SLP to do their own thing and vote Labour with a good conscience. More to the point, it lets the SLP leadership off the hook and provides the opportunity for all manner of backroom deals with selected Labour opportunists. An automatic Labour vote in the absence of SLP candidates is unprincipled and tactically wrong at the present time.

On the contrary we should be actively building the biggest possible left alternative to Blair. What is needed is a workers’ front: ie, SLP, SWP, Militant Labour, CPGB, Scottish Socialist Alliance, etc. Should we exclude the Labour left? Certainly not. When it comes to the Labour left, we should put them to the test by presenting them with a minimum platform of working class and democratic rights. A beginning could be: a minimum wage of £275; a maximum working week of 35 hours; work or full benefit; benefit and pensions to be set at the minimum wage level; free abortion and contraception on demand; free 24-hour crèche facilities; unconditional withdrawal of British troops from Ireland; the right of self-determination in Scotland and Wales. Those who refuse to defend the working class and democracy exclude themselves and consequentially deserve no support.