13.10.2004

Sheffield & Leeds: Left McCarthyism

After around 60-70 people had attended a Respect rally just three days earlier, it was disappointing (although hardly surprising) to only see around 20 people at the unity coalition’s pre-conference meeting in Sheffield. The overwhelming majority of the people present were Socialist Workers Party members, with a handful of independent voices.

Two new members close to the CPGB were excluded from the meeting right from the start, because, despite the fact that they had just received ‘Dear member’ correspondence, they were “not on the local database” - as if two more votes would have really mattered.

There are a large number of ‘indies’ in Sheffield Respect, but, for some reason, most were absent. Perhaps this was something to do with the fact that there had been a change of venue and some people were not informed of this (let alone notified of the agenda and deadlines for motions). Whatever the cause, criticism and debate were kept to a minimum.

Comrade Bev Laidlaw, a supporter of the CPGB and a leading militant within the PCSU, was one of those not informed of the deadline for motions. (Indeed, only by keeping abreast of developments on the Respect website was she able to find out about the changed venue.)

Thus, when she arrived that evening with a motion in support of the PCSU strike and another on abortion rights, she was told that they could not be accepted. After the chair was challenged, however, he decided that the PCSU motion could be heard as an “emergency motion” (as if all this happened in the three days between Thursday and Sunday) but the abortion motion would have to fall.

This was voted for by the SWP bloc, and so, after comrade Huw Groucutt’s motion on secularism had fallen due to the questioning of his membership, we were now down just two motions: my own on a worker’s wage and Bev’s on the PCSU strike (passed unanimously).

Just before I stood up to speak, one SWP hack intervened to inform comrades that they were about to hear a “C-P-G-B motion” so that, even at my most charming and eloquent, I know I was not going to win the vote. Obviously SWP members are under binding instructions from Martin Smith to vote down anything proposed by the CPGB.

I argued that to stop the Respect coalition becoming just another establishment party we should ensure that representatives earn no more than the people we claim to represent. People in the SWP who had been “revolutionary socialists for 30 years” were, however, having none of this. Utter tripe, they said. The demand is too “revolutionary” for our time (it is not exactly ‘All power to the soviets’, is it?) and by putting such principles across we could cut ourselves off from certain forces.

So little principle, all appeal then. Trust us. Vote Respect - we have what you want. In reality the only forces we would set ourselves apart from by adopting such a policy would be the bland parties of the establishment.

After the motions came the election of delegates to the conference. Half of the people on the SWP-sponsored slate were not actually at the meeting and, in usual SWP style, local members were dressed up in union T-shirts or presented simply as “being active in the student movement”.
Comrade Laidlaw and I both put our names forward (to no avail), but at least comrade Laidlaw is first reserve and may have a slim (a Kate Moss-type slim) chance of getting to conference. But don’t hold your breath.

The usual SWP narrative of ‘political meetings are boring’ is a cynical cover for ensuring that all the decisions are taken by the chosen few. From south Wales to the north of England, all these meetings have seen local SWP hacks carrying out orders from above, using whatever bureaucratic means are available.

It is worth noting that in the absence of comrade Laidlaw and myself there would have been no debate whatsoever - no motions at a pre-conference meeting! The sign of a truly healthy, pluralistic and democratic organisation. So the Respect conference is to feature the SWP and their ‘safe’ (usually silent) friends.

Looking at Tower Hamlets, it is so desperately clear that Respect could make a huge impact. But even to get off the starting blocks it must provide an inclusive and democratic environment. Instead what we have - in addition to its left populism - is a perverse left McCarthyism: if you’re a communist, you ain’t coming in.