03.12.1998

Fisc in a quandary

Simon Harvey of the SLP

The demoralisation within the ranks of our party following the election of Roy Bull as vice-president last month provides fertile ground for rumours of all kinds. The latest to surface within some quarters concerns the man he replaced in the job, comrade Pat Sikorski.

Sikorski, it was said, had decided to call it a day. According to the rumour, he had resigned his SLP membership. He had after all seen his hopes for a British ‘party of recomposition’ dashed by the humiliating replacement of his Fourth International Supporters Caucus as chief courtiers in the court of king Arthur by an alliance of ultra-Stalinites and rabid homophobes at last month’s special congress in Manchester.

You can see how such tales come to be believed. Firstly, Fisc does not believe in openness. You can only guess at what they are planning. For example, only their close contacts and those around Scargill were aware in Manchester that Fisc had already launched an ‘Appeal for a special congress’, which had at that time received the backing of 53 signatories. Although Fisc, along with Terry Dunn and Helen Drummond, had correctly called for a fully democratic, two-day congress, instead of last month’s rally, where no membership motions were allowed, amazingly they did not utter a word about it from the floor.

The same can be said for comrade Sikorski’s recent criticism of Scargill’s “over-centralised” running of the party - ie, his autocratic rule. He circulated it only amongst a handful of supporters and trusted allies, and it was only through the Weekly Worker (November 12) that most SLP activists came to know of its existence.

Last week however, fellow Fiscites Brian Heron and Carolyn Sikorski launched what was by their standards an extremely up-front campaign. Comrade Heron moved a resolution at the London regional committee (LRC) meeting calling on Scargill to remove Bull, editor of the homophobic Economic and Philosophic Science Review, from the vice-presidency. It was a pathetic, undemocratic demand, but at least it is out in the open. Heron, the London regional president, is to circulate all the London branches with copies of the resolution (see Weekly Worker November 26).

At the LRC meeting comrades Heron and Sikorski described the election of Bull, along with three other EPSR supporters, as “a disaster”. If there was a big dispute in the RMT - a union where the SLP has a high profile - the press would seize hold of Bull’s rantings to discredit the whole party. This is a particularly disturbing prospect for Pat Sikorski, who can envisage not only RMT action being undermined, but his own career in the union going up in smoke through being tarnished with the Bullite brush.

At a meeting last week of the SLP-sponsored Reclaim Our Rights campaign to repeal the anti-union laws Scargill triumphantly announced that Bob Crow had at last decided to oppose Jimmy Knapp in the contest for general secretary of the RMT. Comrade Crow, who was not present, let it be known as soon as he found out about Scargill’s remarks that this was just another of our general secretary’s fantasies. Since Bull’s election he is even more reluctant to make such a move.

Fascist scuffles

Talking of the EPSR,I was interested to read the comments of Bullite Adrian Greenman in the last issue of the Weekly Worker. Greenman complains about the “fascist” provocations after the Manchester special congress. Apparently comrade Dunn was “shouting bad language”, while Weekly Worker supporters and comrade Heron “stood menacingly close in a ring”. Just how fascists behave.

Speaking as a witness to the incident, I have a slightly different recollection. Heron stepped in sharply between comrade Dunn and EPSR man Dave Roberts, after our Terry had called him a “homophobe”. It was Greenman himself who looked more likely to lash out, while comrade Heron remained stoically calm.

But surely all this complaining about violence is misplaced? After all, “Angry scuffles are [not] alien to British labour movement meetings ... they are completely routine.” No, I have not taken leave of my senses. I am just quoting an article which was published on March 11 1997 in ... the Economic and Philosophic Science Review. The author? A certain “RB”.