04.09.1997

Autumn of decision

Simon Harvey of the SLP

August is normally a quiet time in British politics. For most organisations of the left this is no exception. The SLP has also been particularly quiet of late. Now that summer’s silly season is over, hopefully our party will be able to turn its attention to the important issues we face over the coming period.

To start with, we have the coming conference season. An intervention at the Labour Party conference through fringe meetings, stunts and publicity is essential. The TUC and union conferences will also be vital arenas for party activity. With Blair set to speak at TUC conference, SLP delegates must think creatively how they will take the initiative to develop debate around, and dissent from, Labour’s anti-working class agenda.

The end of September sees the second anniversary of the beginning of the Liverpool dockers’ historic strike. It is vital that the SLP take a leading role in building for the demonstration in Liverpool on September 27.

Then there is the dispute which is brewing on the London underground. Our party is represented at the top of the RMT union structure and is active on the tubes. Disputes such as these are opportunities to coordinate party-wide activity in support of strikes and to lead them so they do not remain purely economic but develop a political form - exactly what did not happen during the last tube drivers’ strike. The problem is, just as with the Labour Party and - in a different way - the old CPGB, industrial activity by SLP members is seen only as the concern of the union involved.

And, of course, there is party congress. Motions are actually due in the hands of the general secretary by September 5, 14 weeks before congress takes place. Branches ought to receive them two weeks later - according to Scargill’s ‘constitution’.

Comrades will be interested and amazed to hear that despite there being no trade unions affiliated to our party, SLP members will be able to attend as union delegates. This farcical attempt to satisfy the ‘constitution’ is yet more evidence of how the SLP has been formed and is operating as a restrictive, bureaucratic, yet federal organisation of the working class.

Despite comrade Scargill being forced into print to rail against the evils of federalism (see Socialist News August 1997), he continues to preside over a narrowly defined federalism in our party. I would not be at all surprised if the NEC suddenly invented a youth organisation which sends delegates. This will be in addition to delegates from constituency parties and the womens’ and black sections. The clauses prohibiting affiliation only affect political organisations, whose members and supporters are also prevented from joining our party. But those groups that are prepared to give Scargill unquestioned loyalty are allowed free rein.

The composition of the new NEC will be interesting, but don’t be surprised if those who have pursued or acquiesced in the witch hunt are rewarded.

Spycatchers

Those who can recall news coverage before the crash (and I don’t mean the film) will remember the embarrassment the government and MI5 faced over the revelations of former agent David Shayler.

I am sure no one was surprised by his claims that the files on our party’s acting general secretary runs to 40 volumes. Scargill has certainly been the most militant of our union leaders to have taken on the ruling class and its state in open class struggle. MI5 was certainly targeting its enemy. And, despite its claims that its agents are no longer interested in leftwing subversives, but are pursuing instead drug dealers, they are no doubt snooping around in the SLP nonetheless.

Also of interest to the SLP is the fact that party member Victoria Brittain was alleged to have helped the former Ghanaian head of internal security, Kojo Tsikata, to take libel action against The Independent newspaper. The paper, whose defeat of the action was upheld in the Court of Appeal, mentioned Tsikata in a 1992 report which referred to the 1982 murder of three Ghanaian high court judges.

Comrade Brittain is reported to have suggested Tsikata sue The Independent. Not only that, she wrote the cheques which paid for the action. The reason why MI5 was interested is that, contrary to Brittain’s knowledge, Libyan sources were allegedly supplying money to her account. It is said she also received funds from Ghana, although she was ignorant of their origins. More than £300,000 was paid into her account, it is claimed.

Readers may be aware that comrade Brittain is deputy foreign editor of The Guardian. She is also the author of the regular column, ‘In our world’, which appears in our party newspaper. It is noticeable that her articles in Socialist News are ‘dumbed down’ for the working class. She would never write such tosh for The Guardian.

Now, in pointing out Victoria Brittain’s links with the head of internal security of a military regime, comrades may think I am just having a cheap shot. Far from it. I am highlighting this because it is party business and not a personal matter. I am no expert on the history of Ghanaian politics and would welcome a debate on the matter. However, I am concerned that a party member, one with a relatively high public profile and one who has a regular column in the paper, maintains such close trusted links with a figure who has a dubious political pedigree, to say the least.