07.03.2002
Factional alignments and fights
The fourth annual conference of the Scottish Socialist Party took place in Dundee over the weekend of March 2-3. Our team of journalists provide an in-depth account
The Socialist Worker platform picked its issues at the SSP's conference carefully, reflecting the fact that this was the platform's first conference test since it joined on May 1 last year. About 50 SW members were in attendance, along with Alex Callinicos, a fraternal visitor who got to address the conference on behalf of his organisation during the anti-capitalist debate. Although the International Socialist Movement (ex-Scottish Militant Labour majority) probably had the biggest single factional presence, the ISM could also usually rely on substantial support from the factionally non-aligned. During the debate on the war, the SW platform concentrated its fire on the Committee for a Workers' International amendment that criticised the idea of an international criminal court. For Neil Davidson (SWP) opposing this was "sectarian" and would potentially "split the movement". Of course we can use bourgeois courts when necessary, but using them is a slightly different matter to positively agitating for their creation. Initial teething problems - over both the sale of Socialist Worker and the SWP's relaunch of the Anti-Nazi League - seem to have been overcome. This has partly been due to the willingness of the leadership to pay lip service to SWP campaigns. Thus conference committed itself to both the ANL and Globalise Resistance (though not without reservation, especially in the case of the ANL) at the urging of a majority of the executive. Some elements resisted. Govan branch, supported by some members of the ISM, including Frances Curren, the SSP's international coordinator, proposed an amendment to the anti-fascist motion removing its commitment to attend an ANL relaunch conference in Scotland, instead arguing that, "The SSP should be at the forefront of encouraging the formation of a broad-based anti-racist/fascist group." Programmatically the ANL is hobbled by the absence of democracy and narrow perspectives. Simplistic propaganda of the 'Don't vote Nazi' variety ignore both what British fascism is and why it wins support within working class communities. As Allan Armstrong of the Republican Communist Network (Scotland) correctly pointed out, "Fascism in Britain will not come with a swastika, but wrapped in a union jack." Govan's reasoning was thus understandable. Especially as in the past year the SSP has performed some sterling work around Sighthill, which has shown that anti-racist and anti-fascist work, given a class perspective, can be effective. However, proponents of the Govan amendment by and large failed to focus on the ANL's programmatic weakness and thus - despite their insistence that they had nothing against the ANL - made their motion look rather like a petty factional gripe. As well as loosely associating the SSP with the ANL and GR, the executive also stood aside to allow a change over Palestine. Previously its policy was to call for a 'socialist Middle East'. Now that maximalist abstraction has been redefined in minimalist terms with a call for a "democratic, secular Palestine" - clearly at the behest of the SW platform. Donny Gluckstein was one of the key speakers in favour of the motion. He rubbished the idea of two states as a "dead-end solution" favoured only by the likes of Sharon and Arafat. Which of course, spectacularly and deliberately misses the point - the point being that workers' unity can only be achieved on the basis of the recognition of the legitimate national rights of both the Palestinians and the Israeli jews, who are at present gripped in the murderous cycle of bloodletting, with one side organised under a strong national state and the other organised under a weak statelet. Whether the SWP was responsible for some of the other faults of the North-East Fife motion is less than clear. The arguable lowlight of its reductio ad absurdam view of the world was that oil "motivates the US to support Israel". Thankfully this clause was balanced by amendment and addition. One committed the SSP to fight those "who attempt to utilise the conflict in the Middle East "¦ to racially attack jewish organisations and individuals", recognising implicitly that the programme of Hamas is every bit as reactionary as Sharon's. However, the final motion retains all the weaknesses of the SWP's politics on Israel/Palestine, refusing to recognise the right of the Israeli jews to self-determination and incorrectly ignoring the Israeli working class as a potential force for the desperately needed progressive change in the region. A group of 'floating voters' who issued a leaflet expressing concern about the SSP's 'half-heartedness' over independence will have had their ultra-nationalist fears assuaged. Posters declaring for 'An independent socialist Scotland' were frequently backed up by the speeches anticipating the Scottish socialist paradise. Tommy Sheridan, in his opening remarks emphasised this commitment with his usual passion and skilful oratory. He spoke of his "vision" of an independent socialist Scotland, free from poverty and injustice and an end to the monarchy - but his republicanism stops at Gretna Green. His fight for a republic does not embrace all workers in Britain. Internal opposition to left nationalism is painfully weak. It has been further set back by the split along nationalist lines by the majority of Republican Communist Network (Scotland) which has just issued a new journal, Emancipation and Liberation. This rump's intervention at the conference concentrated on the jubilee. However, its motion to involve the SSP in anti-jubilee campaigning was watered down with an economistic amendment and then easily passed. There is now no significant anti-nationalist force within the SSP. While the ISM operates a notably less rigid factional discipline than either the CWI or SWP, freely allowing opposition to emerge from within, this did not take an nationalist v internationalist or even left v right form. Rather differences within the ISM - heated though they were in private - concerned secondary or episodic, matters. And, of course, the ISM is a faction which does not require factional discipline - its main personalities are the leading, and hegemonic, figures in the SSP. Peter Taaffe's CWI rump registered as a small blip on the SSP's radar. It is attempting to position itself to the left of the ISM, bemoaning "the abandonment of a number of fundamental political ideas by our former members" (International Socialist February 2002). In other words the CWI is prepared to use words like 'Marxist' and 'revolutionary' with slightly more frequency. Though its latest paper promises a more regular, monthly, appearance, it has found itself increasingly squeezed by the arrival of the numerically stronger SW platform. As with all other factions, the major test for the SWP will inevitably be the national question. As expected, though repudiating any prospect of a formal coalition with the Scottish National Party, the executive's 2003 perspectives document did promise that "socialist MSPs will work with Greens and the SNP for an independence referendum". Formally the SW platform is committed to working class unity against the British state, but it looks unlikely that they will be keen to organise and lead opposition to the executive on this question, opportunist-ically recasting the question as one that should be viewed purely as a 'tactical' issue: ie, a 'referendum on Blairism'. There is no coherent intervention within the SSP from a revolutionary perspective. This was illustrated by the debates on Palestine, the euro and 50-50. It was with this vacuum in mind that a small number of activists gathered at a fringe meeting jointly organised by the Alliance for Workers' Liberty and CPGB to discuss the way forward for the SSP internationalists. Clearly the main problem is organisational disunity, but we are also hampered by the backwardness and lethargy of the Socialist Alliance - in no small measure due to SWP misleadership. SSPers, with some degree of legitimacy, ask what exactly they are supposed to unite with. The fight against left nationalism in Scotland therefore goes hand in hand with the fight for a Socialist Alliance party. James Mallory * Scottish socialists aim for 8 MSPs * Euro conference * Internationalist gestures, nationalist reality * Tokenism wins the day
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