30.05.2001

And

Forget canvassing

Some kindly comrade has forwarded me a copy of the Socialist Workers Party?s internal Party notes of May 29. It makes for interesting reading.

Up and down the country SWP members in the Socialist Alliance have insisted that the priority is to subject streets and estates to ?mass leafleting? rather than systematic canvassing. When asked why, this has often resulted in blank expressions - and an uncomfortable silence.

We now have an explanation. According to Party notes, ?The SA/SSP don?t need to persuade people of what they stand for.? Eloquently put, comrade.

Apparently the dastardly swine who would have us on the knocker, talking to workers and discussing politics at the expense of mass leafleting, are an unholy bloc of ?ex-Labour people who don?t understand? and ?pessimistic lefties ... looking for a few contacts and extra paper sales?.

Its good to talk

In the same Party notes we have a rather contradictory piece from Ian Mitchell in Glasgow. The comrade reports that as a result of street petitioning around ?star wars? ?we sold 127 Scottish Socialist Voices, 31 manifestos? and ?recruited 25 people? to the Scottish Socialist Party.

So talking politics to our class can be useful! Will comrade Mitchell get his knuckles rapped for not being out and about the estates of Glasgow ?mass leafleting?? We wait to see.

Read all about it

After dismissing ?pessimistic lefties? for wanting to canvass and criticising those who want to make ?contacts and extra paper sales?, Party notes has a section entitled ?Why we need the SWP?.

Referring to the recent round of postal strikes, Party notes states that the SWP ?operated brilliantly?. How does it judge its sucess? ?We sold 49 Postworkers and 40 Socialist Workers in Watford, 73 PWs and 26 SWs in Liverpool, 254 PWs and 27 SWs across Manchester ... South London ... Greenford ...?

And finally

The SWP have a short memory. Party notes claims that the SWP ?has been central to creating a mass Socialist Alliance. In doing so we have had to fight the pessimism of the rest of the left down the line.?

Would this be the same SWP which dismissed the CPGB?s argument to field sufficient candidates for an election broadcast and were less than keen on the idea of a national office for our fledgling organisation? Would this be the same SWP which tailed the conservatism of John Nicholson? Surely not.

Interestingly, Party notes states two criteria for judging the success of the election campaign.

Firstly, the vote the Socialist Alliance receives on June 7. Secondly, ?how bigger and stronger the SWP emerges?. Fair enough. We all want to see a growth in influence for both the SA and its components. But why knock those ?pessimistic lefties? for thinking the same way?