05.05.2004

Damaged credibility

Open Letter to the Communist Party of Great Britain from the Socialist Alliance Democracy Platform

Dear comrades

We are writing to invite you to rejoin the Socialist Alliance Democracy Platform (SADP). The Socialist Alliance (SA) has been the major initiative on the left for socialist unity over the last few years. Despite the weaknesses of the SA, it represented a positive gain for the socialist movement in terms of programme and open and inclusive democracy.

At our last general meeting on April 3 2004 the SADP confirmed the fight for the gains of the Socialist Alliance will continue. We reaffirmed our decisions:

-“to reach out to other socialists and organisations of socialists, in order to build unity”;

-“to develop the SA programme, People before profit;

-“to take forward the project of socialist unity in the context of building a new working class party”;

-“to organise to secure a majority supporting [these] aims and objectives at the SA conference later this year”.

The decision of the March 2004 special conference to effectively close down the SA in favour of the Respect Unity Coalition (RUC) has created a real divide between the Socialist Workers Party-International Socialist Group majority and the minority organised around the Democracy Platform. Whether the RUC will gain significantly more votes than the SA remains to be seen. What cannot be denied is that the RUC is inferior to the SA in terms of its programme and democratic constitution. This is why we are determined to continue activity and resist any retreat from the SA programme and its open and inclusive democracy.

Many of us were disappointed and dismayed when you left the SADP two weeks prior to the SA special conference. This weakened opposition to the SWP-ISG line by highlighting our internal differences in a dramatic way. The issue that led to your walkout was the decision to allow non-members of the SA to join the SADP. It is worth noting that, like you, a number of other comrades were also opposed to that decision, but, given the crisis in the SA, they recognised that the unity of the SADP was more important.

However, since the decisions of the SA special conference to abandon SA activity, this is no longer something that should divide us. It would be unreasonable to make it a condition that those who want to join the SADP must pay subscriptions to the SA nationally when it has ceased activity.

Many comrades think the real motive for the CPGB’s exit from the SADP was that it was abandoning the fight for the SA project, its programme and constitution, for Respect. The issue of membership conditions for the SADP was therefore a convenient excuse and the beginning of a CPGB move to realign itself with the SWP-ISG bloc.

Some would argue that the resignation of Marcus Ström as SA nominating officer gives credence to this theory. Given that some SA branches were determined to stand SA candidates in local elections, the support of the nominating officer would have been helpful, even if the SWP had eventually forced Marcus out. By resigning without a fight, the CPGB undermined these candidates and saved the SWP from some difficulty or embarrassment.

The actions of the CPGB therefore weakened those fighting for a workers’ party and opposing the liquidation of the SA. It could be said that your actions damaged the credibility of the CPGB as a revolutionary organisation. Nevertheless despite the disagreements and criticisms previously outlined, we believe it is absolutely necessary to continue to fight for unity.

We are therefore ready to set aside the disagreements we have outlined here as ‘water under the bridge’. You played an active role in setting up the SADP. Although the SADP, as an organisation, has not joined the RUC, we have a range of views on Respect, including comrades who are active members of it (eg, our convenor is also secretary of Rugby Respect). Your involvement in Respect is not a problem and should add to our collective experience.

We are therefore calling on you to rejoin the SADP and work closely with us as comrades and allies. We request that you meet us as soon as possible to discuss this.

Yours in comradeship