19.06.1997

Call for left cooperation

The following motion, proposed by comrade Tom Delargy of Paisley SSA, was unanimously passed at the SSA’s annual conference on Saturday June 14

“This conference notes with interest that the Socialist Workers Party stood candidates in the Irish general election last Friday, June 6. This is a clear indication that its sister organisation in Britain is on the verge of ending the long-held position of abandoning the electoral arena to supporters of the capitalist system. While welcoming this, we are anxious it could herald a leap from one variety of ultra-leftism to an even more disastrous one.

“We would strongly urge Socialist Worker to reject any temptation to stand candidates against the SSA in Scotland or other socialist organisations in England and Wales.

“We would also urge you to help us pressurise Arthur Scargill’s SLP to grow up and stop recklessly splitting the anti-capitalist vote, north or south of the border.

“Further, we urge all SWP members to participate in the SSA through individual membership and affiliation.

“The SSA strives to negotiate united fronts with all genuine socialists because unity is strength. We seek electoral pacts with other socialist organisations because we know we can’t break workers from the stranglehold of Blairism under a first-past-the-post system in any other way.

“Dual membership also gives us the opportunity for constructive dialogue and fraternal debate. This allows us to clarify our real differences, putting them into perspective, possibly even overcoming some of the most serious. Dual membership is the only viable alternative to a permanent war or sectarian point-scoring and deliberate misinterpretation of what the other is arguing. The latter is an indulgence serious socialists never could afford, today less than ever. It weakens us both and the workers’ movement we are part of. The Blairites, the Tories and the SNP (not to mention the bosses) benefit from our disunity. Socialist Worker should wake up to this fact and stop assisting them.

“We invite the SWP leaders to use the opportunity of Marxism ’97 (where an estimated 6,000 socialists are expected to meet for a week of debates) to openly discuss the above arguments. We look forward to a prompt, positive response.”