WW archive > Issue 457 - 21 November 2002
Towards a European party
Growth of instability
Bitter taste of SWP arrogance sours day
Which way for PRC?
Food control
In a situation of economic freefall and rampant Zanu-PF corruption, Zimbabwe is facing hunger on a mass scale. Rosa Zulu of the International Socialist Organisation reports on the first steps towards workers' self-organisation
No witch-hunts, no expulsions
Building Chris Bambery's 'new' SWP sect
Kenny McEwan of the Scottish Socialist Party attended the October 18-20 conference of the Socialist Workers Party in London. Though his report to the SSP membership - which we reprint in full - is somewhat dated, it does cast a very useful light on the SWP's internal life and regime.
Capitalist characteristics
No sellout
Where members cannot reach
Politicising or opting out?
Harry Cleaver, 'Reading Capital politically', Leeds 2000, pp183, £8
Call of the European social movements
This statement was presented at the last day of the ESF on November 10. While the anodyne formulations are essentially unobjectionable, the way it was produced leaves much to be desired. The draft was never presented to any of the international preparatory meetings of the ESF, despite the urging of a number of organisations. The Italian comrades instead insisted on discussing it in front of at least 4,000 people who attended a meeting in an old, disused railway station. However, it was hard to follow the discussion in the dark, windowless hall, as translation devices ran out at an early stage. Speaker after speaker attacked neoliberalism and privatisation, but, as in the other big conferences, real debate was just not possible
Glimpse of what is possible
Tina Becker critically examines the experience of Florence and looks at the prospects for the ESF