22.11.2001

Coalition of Socialist Alliance Minority Organisations

1. Preamble

One important positive feature of the Socialist Alliance has been the drawing together of a wide variety of political organisations. These include:

a) Organisations that have been called the ?principal organisations? of the SA: ie, Socialist Workers Party, Socialist Party, Alliance for Workers? Liberty, Workers Power, International Socialist Group and Communist Party of Great Britain. These organisations form part of the leadership of the SA represented on the SA executive. They are also represented in the SA Liaison Committee.

b) All other political organisations, which we will term the ?minority organisations?. These organisations include the Merseyside Socialists, the International Socialist League, Walsall Democratic Labour Party, Red Action, Revolutionary Democratic Group, Green Socialist Network, Leeds Left Alliance. Leicester Radical Alliance, Workers International to Rebuild the Fourth International. These are not represented in the national leadership (ie, SA executive). But they currently have the right to send a voting representative to the Liaison Committee.

2. Minority representation

We note that proposals for a new constitution for the SA call for the replacement of the Liaison Committee with a National Council. Whilst we do not object to a change of name, we are concerned that some proposals, if carried, will remove the right of affiliated minority organisations to representation on a future National Council.

We oppose all such proposals. Removing the rights of the affiliated minority organisations to representation would exclude these organisations from the national network of Socialist Alliances. This would represent a setback for the project of building a democratic and inclusive SA.

We urge all SA members and political organisations to support the rights of minority organisations to representation on any future national committees (ie, Liaison or Council and executive).

Supported by: International Socialist League, Leeds Left Alliance, Revolutionary Democratic Group, Walsall Democratic Labour Party, Workers International to Rebuild the Fourth International.

Some leading members of the Green Socialist Network support this statement, but there is no meeting until after the SA conference.