08.09.2004

Reorganisation - yet again

Ian Mahoney assesses the SWP's recent reorganisation - and doubts that this will solve the comrades' political and programmatic problems

Yet another reorganisation of the Socialist Workers Party is underway. This time it is taking place under the direction of Martin Smith, who was recently promoted to the post of national secretary, having served for years as industrial organiser. Chris Bambery now edits Socialist Worker, while Chris Harman has been eased into semi-retirement. He is a central committee member without specific responsibility.
Obviously the reorganisation takes place in the context of Respect. Doing most of the donkey work and providing a big slice of the money too has caused considerable stresses and strains. We all know about East End Offset having to be sold off to meet crippling debts. But the biggest problem, though, is political.

SWP members no longer quite know who or what they are. When they join they are grandly told that the SWP stands in the “revolutionary communist” tradition of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky and Luxemburg (SWP constitution). And yet in their day-to-day political lives they increasingly act as mere left populist foot soldiers.

Respect rightly highlights the “crisis of representation” and the “democratic deficit” which exists at the “heart of British politics” (Founding statement). But when given the opportunity to give some concrete answers the SWP balked. SWPers attending Respect’s founding convention were under strict instructions to vote down motions calling for a republic, open borders and putting elected representatives on wages equal to that of an average skilled worker. And, of course, on the doorstep, out canvassing, SWP members are expected to argue like left populists. All we need do is get rid of Blair and other such rotten politicians and elect “trustworthy” leaders like George Galloway, Lindsey German, Yvonne Ridley and John Rees.

Martin Smith’s reorganisation has three main features.

First, what is dubbed the “public face” of the SWP is getting a make-over. Marxist forums have become Socialist Worker forums. Furthermore district-wide forums have been introduced and efforts will be expended to make them successful events. (And, underlining just how desperate the SWP is, they have been sending out text-ads for their new forums to people who have given their contact details at Respect meetings for Respect activities.) With such innovations, comrade Smith is also attempting to counter the problem of shrinkage. Attendance at this year’s Marxism - the SWP’s annual school - was halved compared to 2003. Numbers recorded at the Marxist forums (now Socialist Worker forums) up and down the country are extremely variable - some branches doing well but others not managing to get much more than a handful people. But on average they are going down. District forums, will have ‘popular speakers’ and ‘popular subjects’ (eg, Che Guevara). Comrade Smith hopes that they will not only attract more people, but help build specifically SWP actions and activate that layer of card-carrying members which effectively lies dormant from one year to the next.

Second, there is the requirement that branches must meet weekly and make room for some politics at their meetings. The SWP’s “basic units” are famously turgid and purely organisational. Typically meetings concentrate on rustling up sufficient volunteers to dish out the latest leaflet, delivering the paper and staffing the Saturday petition and stall. There is no culture of seriously arguing through and clarifying ideas. Over the last year attendance has fallen away and in some areas meetings have simply spluttered to a stop through lack of interest.

Third, district committees are to be reconstituted, again in an effort to bring some coherence to the work of the membership. In the material coming from the SWP national office, there are warnings against the danger of “fragmentation”. Members work in different fronts and campaigns. There is a tendency for them to ‘go native’. Adherence to the SWP becomes formal and they effectively adapt to the politics of the host. The remit of the new district committees is to oversee the work of the local branches, stop them winking out of existence and impose discipline.
At least, that is the plan.