16.05.2001

And

Airbrush - 1

The latest edition of The Socialist, weekly paper of the Socialist Party in England and Wales, leads with a call to ?Vote socialist? (May 11) . The first four paragraphs each begin: ?Socialists will ...? without clearly stating that the ?Socialists? in question include forces other that Peter Taaffe?s rag-bag organisation.

Halfway through to article they let slip the fact that in addition to ?Socialist Party members [there are] nearly 200 other socialist candidates?. No names, no packdrill. Not even mention of the Socialist Alliance, which our uncom-radely comrades are members of.

How very rude!

Airbrush - 2

SPEW has recently launched its manifesto for the general election - again with not a word about the Socialist Alliance.

Our Socialist Party allies can?t even bring themselves to print photos in the document which might hint at the existence of the alliance. Instead we have  some demonstrators - none of whom are carrying SA placards - and a selection of Socialist Party councillors.

Airbrush - 3

The latest edition of The Socialist also features an article on the SSP/SWP merger, questioning whether this development will be ?beneficial for the working class.?

The article is accompanied by a short piece reporting a contribution in the Morning Star (May 3) by SSP figurehead Tommy Sheridan.

The Socialist complains that comrade Sheridan ?airbrushes out the pivotal role of Scottish Militant Labour (the former CWI section in Scotland) in establishing the Scottish Socialist Alliance, the precursor of the SSP? five years ago.

This is clearly very bad manners on comrade Sheridan?s behalf. One can only wonder where he gets it from.

Fairweather friend

Why is the Socialist Workers Party so reticent about standing an SA candidate in Bermondsey? Is it because a motley band of fascist boneheads may be standing themselves? Or is it the fact that Labour hopes to win this inner London seat back from the Lib Dems and a socialist candidate could ?split the working class vote??

Or just possibly it?s because the Labour candidate, Kingsley Abrahams, has one Piers Corbyn as campaign manager.

Readers may remember that comrade Corbyn was an active backer of the London Socialist Alliance in the Greater London Authority elections, and was nominated to sit on the LSA steering committee.

We can only hope that recent events are not an indication of the comrade?s long-term attitude towards socialist organisation  - or that our quack meteorologist?s politics are as inconsistent and as changeable as the British weather.

The working class does not need fairweather friends. We?ve had more than enough of them.