03.10.2001
Rally against Blair
Socialist Worker Party shows pacifist face
Over 5,000 people gathered in Brighton on September 30 despite torrential rain. They had come to protest outside the Labour Party conference against the imperialist war drive to be launched in reprisal for the September 11 terrorist attacks on the USA.
What used to be known as the ?lobby? of Labour?s gathering - organised by the Socialist Workers Party in one guise or another - has become something of an annual fixture. This year it was originally planned as an anti-privatisation protest, but thankfully this was relegated to the status of a side-issue. There was no doubting what everybody present viewed as the question.
This time the SWP bowed to the views of its Socialist Alliance partners and agreed that the left should coordinate its intervention under the SA umbrella. Sure enough, everywhere there were alliance banners, placards and leaflets and, commendably, the SWP?s own public face was limited to a handful of flags and posters, along with the odd bandanna.
Of course there was many a Socialist Worker on sale - along with a dozen or so other left papers and flyers. While SWP comrades made up a majority of those on the march, there were also small contingents from the Socialist Party, Alliance for Workers? Liberty and the International Socialist Group. Workers Power (together with its youth section, Revolution) and the CPGB had a bigger presence. The Socialist Labour Party was completely absent.
Several union banners were also on display, along with those from three or four single-issue campaigns, including, of course, Globalise Resistance, the other SWP ?face?. The Green Party and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, although advertised prominently in advance, had only a few people each. In addition there was an assortment of anarcho-peaceniks and environmentalists, including a couple of women who braved the elements bare-breasted.
The event started with a rally in the park, where comrades gathered to hear a number of speeches. Chaired by the SWP?s Guy Taylor of Globalise Resistance, the composition of the platform and the nature of the speeches very much reflected the ability of the SWP to exert its hegemony. Overwhelmingly the speeches were of a pacifist nature.
Keith Taylor of the Green Party talked about his ?vision of civilisation? where everybody would behave reasonably and be nice to one another, while Carol Naughton, the chair of CND, read out the words of the parents of one of the World Trade Center victims, calling on the US government not to go down the path of ?violent revenge?.
A speaker from the Italian anarchist group, Ya Basta, was applauded by the largely SWP crowd for his combination of militant anti-globalisation and dire pacifism: ?No to war. No to terrorism.? Then there was the first of three SWPers, Jim Fagan of Tower Hamlets Unison: ?They say there?s no money for a new hospital,? he complained, ?yet there?s money for arms? - one of the economistic left?s constant reformist themes.
The best speaker was undoubtedly the Socialist Alliance?s national chair, Dave Nellist of the Socialist Party, who was forthright in his condemnation of both the reactionary WTC terrorists and the imperialists? war plans. There was a remarkable contrast though in the reception he got for his denunciation of the September 11 atrocities, compared to that for his lambasting of Bush and Blair. The first was heard in silence by the vast majority of the by now sodden audience remained silent. However, they erupted into cheers when he slated the US and Britain for their warmongering: it was the job of the people of Afghanistan and the Middle East to get rid of their oppressive rulers, he said
Comrade Nellist?s was very much a Socialist Alliance speech. He seemed at first to be going along the SP?s ?mass workers? party? road when he called for the building of a socialist alternative, but, no, it was only the SA that he specifically promoted. However, his vision of the kind of formation the SA ought to be seems to be stuck in the past - replete with ?greens and environmentalists? as well as socialists.
Next came the SWP speaker. Not one of the organisation?s big names, but a young female comrade, Jo Cardwell from Sheffield. After the previous pacifistic dross (excluding by and large comrade Nellist?s contribution), comrade Cardwell?s excited speech was meant to enthuse the faithful. We are, she shouted, the ?armed wing of globalisation?. We must ?wage war on capitalism?. The contrast with the earlier speakers was quite intentional and the message was clear: the SWP might be helping to build a ?broad movement?, but it was the revolutionary organisation.
However, if comrade Cardwell had put fire in the bellies of her fellow SWPers, it was the job of the final speaker, Jonathan Neale of Globalise Resistance - another SWP member - to dampen their revolutionary ardour. Speaking as someone who was in the thick of it in Genoa, he warned the assembled that ?now is not the time for direct action?. Pictures in the media of the ?police attacking demonstrators? (he meant the other way round) would be the ?wrong image? for a march for peace.
Globalise Resistance may have been one of the sponsors, but this was not an anti-capitalist demo. And of course the SWP knows how to keep its various fronts in their neat compartments: ?direct action? with GR in Genoa; pacifism with CND in Brighton. Nevertheless we should be grateful that the comrades had no thought of storming the conference centre: the streets of the seaside town were filled with heavily tooled up police, no doubt under instructions to suppress the slightest sign of disorder. There was none.
Instead we were treated to chants of ?One, two, three, four - we don?t want no racist war. Five, six, seven, eight - spend it on the welfare state.? What could be safer than this absurd combination of misplaced anti-racism and concern for your local hospital? I did though, allowing for the poetic licence, enjoy this refrain, chanted to the rhythm of the recent Baha Men hit: ?Who trained bin Laden? Bush! Bush! Bush! Bush!?.
Peter Manson