06.12.2001
Non-aligned members unite
Derided by the Socialist Party as "so-called" independents and mere dupes of the Socialist Workers Party. Dismissed in the pages of Socialist Worker as "the national association of non-aligned socialists". Yet deemed sufficiently important to the future of the Socialist Alliance project to be worthy of heavy overrepresentation on the executive.
Such is the fate of alliance activists who are not members of any of the affiliated organisations, and who probably make up somewhere between 10% and 20% of the alliance's still limited forces. Numerically, there are probably more indies in the alliance than members of any group save the SWP. That said, we come in more than one flavour.
Broadly speaking, there is both a layer of former Labour lefts, and a slightly larger layer of revolutionary socialists who are former members of far left groups, regarded in some quarters as the alliance's awkward squad. So far, most members of both groups have lacked any real mechanisms for making their collective concerns felt. Now the 'indies' are beginning to organise, so that could be about to change.
The form this organisation takes will obviously be shaped by our independence. By definition, we cannot become a tight bloc or a political tendency in the classic sense of the word. There are indies both for and against federalism, for and against an alliance paper, and for and against the goal of a party, to name but three current issues. What people are starting to cohere around instead is a shared interest in democracy and individual members' rights, and in ensuring that we do not get squeezed out by the sheer weight of the organisations.
The role of independents in the alliance featured in pre-conference discussions on the Socialist Alliance press list. After the initiative was taken to organise a fringe meeting at the conference, Exeter's Dave Parks set up the 'IndieSA' egroup - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IndieSA - specifically to address the concerns of independents.
IndieSA is not restricted to non-aligned members and is open to contributions from others, provided they are constructive and do not seek to dominate the list.
The fringe meeting we called at conference proved a hurried, 25-minute, lunchtime huddle at the top of the hall after a mix-up over timing. Attendance, at around 70, was higher than the organisers expected. Even discounting curious observers from the groups, the turnout still represented around 10% of delegates. This was the first opportunity many comrades from around the country had to meet one another and swap email addresses, and would have been worthwhile purely at that level. In the event, it served many other purposes.
After a short lead-off by Mike Marqusee, the discussion opened up to the floor. We soon learnt of the existence of another egroup, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/socialist-alliance-open-left, formed by northern comrades around Chris Croome in Sheffield along similar lines to IndieSA. By the time this is in print, the two will probably have merged.
There was clearly a consensus for a full day's discussion session. After an Olympic-style bidding process in which various cities competed for the honour of hosting this prestigious event, it was decided to opt for Birmingham. Steve Godward, the Socialist Alliance general election candidate for Birmingham Erdington, agreed to take on the basic organisational tasks, and the forum is likely to take place on a Saturday in late January.
The one item agreed for discussion is the launch of a discussion bulletin for indies, an idea which has already seen differing opinions already expressed on IndieSA. Other than that, the agenda for the day will presumably be formulated over the united elist. But if the enthusiasm at the meeting next month is anything like that evident last Saturday, something worthwhile is pretty certain to emerge.
David Osler