Letters

Inconsistent WP

On September 18, at the same time as the Welsh referendum, the Socialist Labour Party participated in the Plasnewydd council by-election. The candidate was Terry Burns, who in the last general election was the only SLP candidate outside London to surpass 2,000 votes. This time Burns obtained 3.5%.

The turnout was very low (around one third of the electors) and many students were not in the area. Neither Scargill nor any NEC member came to the public meeting. Instead, Ian Driver and Chris Ford spoke. The campaign was successful and the branch recruited two new members.

The SLP national leadership is not happy with the candidate and the Cardiff central branch who achieved more general election votes than Scargill. This time it was not only the SLP NEC who refused to help the campaign. Workers Power too was openly against. It is important to note that in the May 1 election, WP said that the only revolutionary candidate in Britain was Terry Burns. They endorsed completely his candidacy, while in the rest of the country they called on workers who were thinking of voting for the SLP, Socialist Party, Scottish Socialist Alliance or CPGB candidates to vote for the Blairites. In April, when the SLP held its main election meeting in Cardiff, WP mounted a provocation: they intervened calling for a vote for a former Conservative against Scargill, and for Burns against Labour.

Now even more inexplicably they are campaigning for New Labour against the same SLP candidate and branch which they previously claimed were the only revolutionaries.

During the referendum WP had an appalling position. Like the Tories they campaigned for a ‘no’ vote. In their leaflet they recognised that most workers and unions were in favour of a Welsh assembly. However, they were against any concession to Welsh self-determination. We know the CPGB’s pro-boycott position in Scotland, but the CPGB had no line for Wales. We could discuss which course was better for Welsh self-determination (a ‘yes’ vote or a boycott of the fake assembly), but WP and many Kinockites were openly against any kind of Welsh assembly.

In July/August 1996, WP published a long article explaining that they were against any kind of assembly for Wales or Scotland because it could put at risk the unity of the UK and for that reason the unity of the proletariat. The unity of the imperialist state was seen as a prerequisite for the unity of the class. Quite recently they decided to adapt to three quarters of Scots who were for a ‘yes’ vote, while maintaining their sectarian position in Wales.

WP is becoming a sect without any consistency. They want to build a faction in the SLP but they always campaign against it in any election. They initially campaigned for Burns and later his opponents. They initially called for a ‘no’ vote against any Scottish body, but later voted double ‘yes’, while in Wales inexplicably they campaigned for the opposite alternative. No principles guide them.

H Rhonda
LCMRCI

Ban precedent

In what amounts to a landmark decision, representatives of the Camden Irish Centre became the first people in living memory to ban an anti-fascist event in Britain on political grounds.

An international conference and rally was due to take place, organised by Anti-Fascist Action, and would have been attended by anti-fascist groups from throughout the world, the culmination of preliminary discussions that have been going on since 1996 involving organisations from as far afield as Latvia to Australia, Canada to Sweden.

Representatives of the Irish Centre insist they would lose their charitable status if they were seen to support an organisation with a history of physical confrontation with fascist groups and because it is “political”; they said: “Our funding would be in jeopardy.”

At a meeting on September 26 with these representatives, we pointed out that in fact (and quite rightly so) the Irish Centre regularly hosts political events, including those associated with the republican movement in lreland and attended by individuals such as Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams MP. In reply to this, the coordinator of the Centre said: “Gerry Adams is an author.”

Representatives of the Irish Centre cite the publication of an AFA press release. In the Daily Mail on September 18 which had put them “under pressure”. The Daily Mail carried no such story on September 18 or any day since. Interestingly though, an article did appear later in The Mail on Sunday on September 28. To cite a scurrilous article in this rightwing rag as somehow reason enough to ban our events is a disgrace. Remember we are talking about the same paper that in the 1930s ran the infamous headline, ‘Hurrah for the Blackshirts’, and has regularly delighted in portraying Irish people as little more that drunken, lazy, psychotic thugs.

Officials at the Irish Centre are quoted as saying that they were “duped” as to the nature of our event. This is a lie. The facts are that we had booked the venue in April for a four­-figure fee, under our own name, and had never attempted to disguise who we were, what we stood for or what the conference was about. Our representatives held numerous meetings with the Centre management, who appeared happy with the arrangements.

Indeed AFA have never encountered any problems of this kind in our 12-year history; we are a legal and legitimate organisation that publishes a regular magazine. We have organised events such as a 4,000-strong national demo against race attacks through Bethnal Green and two unity carnivals on Hackney Downs attended by over 10,000 people.

Rallies and fundraising events have taken place in the likes of Lewisham town hall, Stoke Newington town hall, the Bathway Centre in Greenwich, the Davenant Centre in East London, etc - the list is endless. All of which passed off without any trouble.

Indeed we organised an almost identical rally and fundraising gig, in the Camden Irish Centre last year, attended by over 500 people and addressed by a veteran from the 62 group and via a video link-up by Cable Street and International Brigade veteran Charlie Goodman. All passed off without even a hint of trouble.

Although by its very nature AFA, as a single-issue organisation, does not and cannot take a position on what is often referred to as the ‘troubles’ or the ‘Irish war’; it has on countless occasions defended meetings and mobilisations by various Irish political organisations from attacks and intimidation by fascist/loyalist thugs: often our members have spilt their blood and have even served prison sentences doing so.

As far back as 1987 AFA stewards successfully repulsed an attack by fascist gangs on the Bloody Sunday demo in Sheffield, and in 1988 a full-scale attack by fascist/loyalists on a public meeting being addressed by Bernadette McAliskey was halted by AFA members who later escorted the audience (which included a high proportion of elderly Irish people) safely to a nearby tube station. In 1990 three of our members were jailed for a total of 11 years after they had been arrested following an altercation with a fascist organiser who was skulking around the fringes of a Bloody Sunday demo in Kilburn. Following the announcement of the IRA ceasefire in 1994, AFA members assisted in the stewarding of a meeting by Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams in the Camden Irish Centre, in response to a request by one of the organisers in case of a fascist attack. These are just a few examples - there are many more.

On a number of occasions it has been necessary for AFA members to ‘break the law’ in order to prevent fascists from mobilising. In this wesee ourselves as following in a proud and noble tradition that began with those who fought against Mosley’s Blackshirts during the 1930s (including the Battle of Cable Street), fought against Franco as members of the International Brigades, fought the emerging fascist parties during the 1940s to 1960s as members of the 43 and 62groups and who fought against the NF during the 1970s as part of the original Anti-Nazi League. As anybody who was involved in these organisations will tell you ... pacifism does not stop fascists. AFA is proud of its record.

Anti-Fascist Action is alarmed at the potential precedent posed within this ban. It could have extremely serious consequences for any number of political organisations.

We call upon asmany members of the Irish community, either as individuals or on behalfof their organisations, as well as any members of groups who support democracy and the right to free speech, to register their disgust with the management of the Camden Irish Centre by letteror telephone and to join the picket of the Centre on Sunday October 5 at 4pm.

Eammon Kent
AFA