WW archive > Issue 439 - 04 July 2002
Europe versus America
SWP drags its feet
SA votes for union networks
Bad apples, rotten system
Imperialism, oil and the House of Saud
Saà¯d Aburish - The rise, corruption and coming fall of the House of Saud - Bloomsbury 1994, £8.99, pp326
Disaffiliate or democratise
Reality and dogma
John Rose - Israel: the hijack state - Socialist Workers Party, originally published 1986, republished 2002, 74pp
Anti-Socialist Workers Party
'Independents' meet
The second conference of Socialist Alliance 'independents' was a small affair with large numbers staying away - it seems that the flotsam have fallen out with the jetsam. It was also politically confused. Battered and bruised from their bad experiences in the sects, the comrades carry with them all the problems of the past and precious few of its virtues. The approach remains bottom-up and decidedly localist. When it comes to big politics - ie, fighting fascism - the comrades appear to want to give out vainglorious orders to an army that they do not lead. Their vision of the Scottish Socialist Party is rose-tinted, while in the Socialist Alliance they have no perspectives other than moaning about the SWP being a majority. The hard factions in the Socialist Alliance would be ill-advised to look to these 'independents' for answers. Only by taking the lead - making an SA paper a reality by launching one ourselves - can we turn such comrades from being part of the problem into part of the answer
For those who will come after us
Susan Weissman - Victor Serge: the course is set on hope - Verso 2001, pp364, £22
Socialist Party excluded from Euro conference
Last month's conference of the European anti-capitalist left, sponsored by the United Secretariat of the Fourth International, was held in Madrid. The Socialist Party was not invited. This is the revealing correspondence between the SP and a member of the conference preparatory committee
Paper, plain and simple
Andy Gunton of Streatham SA adds his name to a growing list of those calling for a Socialist Alliance paper and gives his reasons why it is so urgent