17.10.2001

Party notes

Cleaning up

Communist Party comrades were very pleased with a successful intervention on the October 13 Campaign  for Nuclear Disarmament demonstration in London.

Close to 400 papers were sold and hundreds more swapped with interested but still wary politicos or ?donated? - mostly to young people, fresh to politics. (The Socialist Workers Party?s internal bulletin of October 15 informs the ranks that 3,000 Socialist Workers were sold on the march - so, taking into account the relative size of our two organisations, our comrades did an excellent job). Thousands of leaflets were distributed and our stalls in Hyde Park and Trafalgar Square (the assembly and end points of the march respectively) did a brisk trade.

Also useful for some of our newer comrades was the opportunity to observe the left in a different environment from our usual encounters in Socialist Alliance meetings or union conferences. Some comrades were intrigued by the differences in paper-selling techniques between different groups: the high visibility of some, and the practical invisibility of others.

One incident hugely amused a particular comrade. It is funny, but also sad, as it underlines just how crass the culture of much of the left in this country still is. Lois Austin, a long-standing full-timer with the floundering Socialist Party, approached a CPGBer, as our comrade spoke with a representative of an Afghan women?s exile organisation who had recently made a speech denouncing softness on the Taliban. Initially, Lois was all smiles as plans were mooted for taking this important issue further in the Stop the War Coalition.

But when our comrade happened to say that she was from the Communist Party, Lois, SP pussycat, morphed into Lois, Taaffeite tigress. There was no question of any joint work with us, she snarled. Our paper was a ?divisive, dirty rag?. Warming to her theme - visibly, apparently - she went on: ?The whole left is talking about you lot?, as we apparently have some ?very dubious sources of money?. Pressed for details, she assured our by now thoroughly bemused comrade that we are bankrolled by ?a millionaire?s son?. Specifically, the heir to a nationwide dry-cleaning chain.

First, can I say how pleased I am to see this accusation making a reappearance? I am immensely grateful to comrade Austin. The last time this column had occasion to address this nonsense, I enjoyed myself hugely with a series of painful puns about ?washing our dirty linen?, our well-heeled comrade using the Party to ?launder money?, being able to ?press full steam ahead? with our political tasks, and so on (Weekly Worker May 6 1999). On this occasion I am determined that I won?t succumb, though the temptation is almost unbearable.

Back to Lois, by now apparently doing a fair impression of a dry-cleaning shop herself, with steam blowing from every (visible) orifice. She deduced that our source of finance was bound to be dodgy, as we have ?only 10 members? (?and a dog?, oddly) and she estimated the circulation of the Weekly Worker to be - at its peak - somewhere in the region of ?50?. This molehill contrasted with the mountains of The Socialist snatched up by eager proletarian hands every week - ?50,000 to 60,000,? Lois stated firmly with an admirably straight face.

When I later related the incident to him, this last figure brought guffaws of laughter from a comrade of ours who was in Militant/SP during its poll tax zenith. Even back then, he assured me, paper circulation did not amount to even half that - and today? After the damaging splits, the loss of cadre, Scotland, morale and resources? Pull the other one, Lois ?

Our comrades - the real source of the finance that keeps this organisation alive and kicking - will understandably be amused by comrade Austin making such a fool of herself, but there are more serious points here.

First, unless comrade Austin is aware of something ?dubious? about the profession of dry-cleaning per se, I fail to understand her outrage, premised on false information though it is. Is she suggesting that every dry-cleaning shop front in the land in fact hides a backroom industry of drug manufacture and vice? Is dry-cleaning intrinsically anti-working class?

Second, if the heir to a multi-million pound fortune did want to join our ranks, why not? Historically, the workers? movement has been full of defectors from the enemy class - and very useful some of them have been too, financially and politically. Does she think Marx and Engels were from proletarian stock? Engels had certainly been inside a factory in his time - after all, he owned one.

Third, if Lois - or anyone else - had real accusations about the ?dubious sources? of finance of this group (no one takes this dry-cleaning claptrap seriously, including, I suspect, Lois), they should be made public. The workers? movement could then judge. In contrast to this type of approach, Lois and her ilk spread innuendo, half-truths and downright lies about us. Of course, this is a function of the SP?s profound political weakness. Unable to answer the politics of the Communist Party, it instead attempts to seal its gullible members off by convincing them there is something ?dubious? about us. Worryingly, Lois and her ?Trotskyist? comrades share a common methodology here with some particularly poisonous Stalinist individuals who are likewise consumed by hatred for our organisation, but lack the guts or gumption to challenge it politically.

Fourth, it is telling that that Lois finds it incomprehensible that a small organisation (a little bigger than 10, actually, comrade) has the energy and commitment to maintain the level of political work and intervention we do. It speaks volumes for the slack standards of discipline and work that prevail in the social-democratised ranks of the dwindling SP.

Thus, Lois?s frothing hostility to our group springs from her politics. Given the nature of those SP politics, comrades should accept this with a degree of pride. To mutilate Oscar Wilde, there is one thing worse than having your organisation gossiped about, and that?s having SPers like it.

In fact, I want to end this column with an appeal for all Party members to look seriously at the question of finance. Party Centre is producing newly revamped standing order forms for use by members. We want our comrades to first reappraise their own contributions and consider if there is any scope for increasing their regular dues. But, importantly, we want them to use these forms more widely, to approach comrades who buy or e-read our press regularly and express a degree of sympathy with our politics.

The political argument can be won with this periphery to start making regular donations to support the work of the organisation and its press. Even modest contributions are useful because of their regularity and comrades must recognise that the size of the donation is related to the political level of the comrade, their degree of sympathy with our politics.

In other words, we don?t have to take everyone to the cleaners.

Damn. Nearly made it ?

Mark Fischer
national organiser