SWP (Britain)
Scotland: Socialists discuss building a 'better left'
The Scottish Socialist Party's Colin Fox marching in the Edinburgh May Day, 2013.
Click HERE for more on Scotland.
June 17, 2013 -- Frontline, an independent Marxist magazine is Scotland, hosted a meeting recently which brought together socialists from different backgrounds to look at the question of building left unity in Scotland. In the first article below Frontline editor Alister Black reflects on the challenges ahead. Below are also articles from sections of the Scottish left that discuss the prospects for a better left in Scotland.
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"Speech by Lenin at a Rally of Workers", by Isaak Israelovitch Brodsky (1929).
Richard Seymour: The British left badly 'needs to change course'
The following are excerpts from a much longer article, "The
Britain: Encouraging left regroupment/left unity initiatives
Ken Loach has called for a new left party in Britain.
Britain: Mark Steel on the crisis in the SWP -- 'Oh Good Lord what have they gone and done NOW?'
By Mark Steel
March 13, 2013 -- Mark Steel's Blog -- It shouldn’t matter. It really shouldn’t matter, should it, what goes on in the Socialist Workers Party. Their membership is roughly the average home gate at Mansfield Town. By the time I left them, in 2007, the most common comment I heard about them was, "Oh. Are they still going?" the way you might refer to Bernard Cribbins.
But somehow they’ve got themselves in such a mess that thousands of people have been gripped by it, as if it’s a real life Trotskyite soap opera, with onlookers settling before the internet with a tub of ice cream for the latest episode and gasping, “Oh my God they’ve called the faction leader a disgraceful liberal moralist, I can’t wait to see what happens tomorrow.”
Marxism, feminism and women's liberation
Alexandra Kollontai, a leading member of the Bolshevik Party and one its
Britain: Is the left coming together or falling apart?
By Socialist Resistance (Britain)
January 29, 2013 -- This is the editorial from the latest issue of the British socialist newspaper Socialist Resistance -- Recent events on the [British] left give the impression that it is falling apart. Last summer, following George Galloway’s outrageous comments on rape, Respect suffered the resignation of Kate Hudson, Andrew Burgin, Salma Yaqoob and others. Now, the Socialist Workers Party is tearing itself apart after its leadership tried to protect one of its own from allegations of rape in order to “defend the party”.
Paul Le Blanc: Leninism is unfinished
February 1, 2013 – The crisis in the British Socialist Workers Party (SWP
Britain: Socialist Workers Party members debate 'Leninism', party democracy (updated Feb. 3)
The first document below was produced by opposition members of British Socialist Workers Party (SWP) (authors listed at its conclusion, the best known include Richard Seymour, Neil Davidson and China Miéville). The SWP is the dominant party within the International Socialist Tendency, with affiliates around the world. The SWP is presently in the midst of a major dispute over inner-party democracy. The article is a reply to SWP leader Alex Callinicos' recent article, "Is Leninism finished?"
Following that are two articles by Tom Walker, a former Socialist Worker journalist who resigned from the SWP during the current dispute.
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