03.07.1997
Revolutionaries or social workers?
Twenty-eight delegates from 23 Constituency Socialist Labour Parties in London met at the Conway Hall on Sunday June 29. They were joined by a dozen observers. The SLP now has 455 members in London.
The meeting was called to discuss SLP work in the capital and to elect a London regional committee. What it got was a bastard replica of the NEC and Fisc’s big idea on the way forward for the SLP.
Comrades from the voided Vauxhall CSLP in south London attempted to gain access to the meeting but were blocked by doorkeeper Carolyn Sikorski. Comrades Marcus Larsen and Kirstie Paton were advised that they were not members although neither had been notified of this. Comrade Sikorski summoned the help of leading fellow Fiscites Brian Heron and Pat Sikorski to reinforce the message: democracy was not on the agenda.
Having dealt with this little matter, the comrades opened the meeting.
Debate centred around the nature of the SLP, the forthcoming local elections and the Socialist Party.
Comrade Stuart Goodman of Finchley and Golders Green CSLP called for electoral agreements with communists and socialists to avoid splitting the left vote. Clashing at the ballot box reinforced the idea of the left as weak, divided against itself and irrelevant.
He argued that for the SLP to become mass required it to open itself up to members of the Socialist Party. (If the comrade is sincere and he is serious about the SLP he must join with those forces fighting for this. I do not recall seeing his face at the recent conference of the Campaign for a Democratic SLP).
On the Socialist Party, Comrade Heron pooh-poohed any suggestion of electoral agreements. The SLP and the SP were fundamentally different. The SP wanted to build “a revolutionary Marxist current in the working class.” How preposterous! The meeting was told that the SLP has a far bigger base than the SP will ever have. Slipping into United Secretariat-speak, an excited comrade Heron explained that the SLP had within its ranks “class struggle leaders”. The SP’s Tommy Sheridan and Dave Nellist will no doubt be devastated to learn that they do not meet Fisc’s criteria for “class struggle leaders”.
It was left to NEC hard man Tony Goss and his partner Ann to signal the existence of Fisc’s big idea: advice surgeries!
It would appear - at least to comrades Goss, Heron, et al - that tens of thousands would rally to our banner if we championed their right to clean streets, sorted out that little misunderstanding with the landlord or won the installation of dog toilets in the local park.
The elections for the London regional committee saw a more or less straight fight between democrats and bureaucrats, left and right. Six leftwingers faced a twenty-strong right bloc. Only for elections to the positions of trade union organiser, London agent and Socialist News organiser did this bloc lose its unity.
Nominations for trade union organiser saw John Mulrenan seconded by Tony Goss. Harpal Brar of the Indian Workers Association nominated Steve Cowan of Ealing Southall for the position of publicity officer. This split the right vote 15:6. Fiscite Polly Radcliffe was elected. The other successful candidates were Brian Heron (president), Roshan Dadoo (secretary), Imran Khan (vice president), Lila Patel of the Stalin Society (fundraiser), John Mulrenan (trade union organiser), Brian McEwan (Socialist News organiser) and Tony Goss (London agent). A solid right bloc.
Three comrades from the Marxist Bulletin stood as a platform. Although comrade Heron winced every time they made reference to MB, the comrades were not challenged. Clearly the witch hunt for Heron and Sikorski is a covert action hidden as much as possible from the ‘ordinary member’.
Frank Lore