Updates on two previous posts about the SWP

I have received a couple of updates to two posts about the continuing crisis in and around the Socialist Workers Party which I thought worth drawing to your attention.

Comrade Delta goes to university:

The campaign launched by the Angry Women of Liverpool website has been responded to by Hope University. Unsurprisingly they are not happy and have issued the following letter:

To the owners of the Angry Women of Liverpool website,

Over the last week your website has made a series of allegations about Professor Lavalette, Liverpool Hope University and the appointment of a PhD student. 

As Professor Lavalette knew one of the candidates for a part-time PhD place he backed off from the recruitment process. Two proposals were reviewed by four professors (three from Hope and one from an external university) and four members of staff in the Social Work Department. For clarification, none of these people were members of the Socialist Workers Party.

The eight reviewers all thought the University should accept both proposals.

The two applicants were then offered places at Liverpool Hope University. One of these is a qualified social worker and is based in the Department of Social Work. The other is based in another Department at Liverpool Hope.

The version of the appointment of these PhD students that has appeared on the web is therefore quite inaccurate. The University and Professor Lavalette believe it is libellous and they would ask you to remove your post and stop your campaign. The University and Professor Lavalette reserve the right to pursue legal means if you fail to do so.

Kind regards

Graham Donelan
University Secretary
Liverpool Hope University


Unison United Left split over SWP:

The Socialist Workers Party have responded to Jon Rogers and others who quit the UUL over the continued involvement of the SWP in the organisation. It's quite clear from their response the comrades still don't get it!

SWP reply to Jon Rogers

Many of you will have seen a statement put out by Jon Rogers a well know Unison activists and seven others withdrawing from the Unison United Left and citing their relations with the SWP as their reason.

This is a reply that’s been worked on by the SWP Unison fraction committee and the industrial department. It will be posted up as a reply to Jon Rogers’ statement on his blog today.

SWP statement on Unison United Left

Recently a statement was made by eight members of the UNISON United Left in London, including NEC member Jon Rogers, announcing their decision to resign from the UNISON United Left because they are not prepared to work alongside members of the Socialist Workers Party.

We believe that this decision is highly regrettable.

The decision to leave the United Left with the aim of setting up a rival grouping in the union will make it harder for the left to intervene effectively in Unison. It will make it harder to keep up the pressure on the union leadership to lead the fightback and to build support for the battles that are taking place.

It is just three weeks since the magnificent TUC demonstration in Manchester in defence of the NHS in which our union played such a prominent part. The size and mood of the UNISON delegation showed clearly that our members are angry and want to fight against the Tories and their austerity policies.

The teachers and fire-fighters’ strikes and the votes for action at Royal Mail and in Higher Education show that this mood can generalise across the working class.

There are signs in our union that the leadership is at last recognising the need to fight. They seem more willing to approve strike ballots in many parts of the country and provide branches with the resources they need.

It would be at tragedy if the left in our union becomes more divided and allows the opportunity to build resistance to pass us by.

The Socialist Workers Party has recently been through a major internal crisis.

We don’t agree with Jon’s outline of that crisis, and believe his version of events contains some serious factual errors. Our party is doing its best to resolve an extremely difficult situation.

We are proud of our record over many decades of standing up to all forms of oppression. We have been in the front line of the fight for women’s liberation, LGBT rights and against racism and fascism.

A united left by its nature will involve organisations with very different traditions, backgrounds and experiences. Sometimes these organisations will have arguments. Sometimes organisations will go through internal debates and crisis.

Some on the left have argued that Labour’s record on war and austerity means that we cannot work with the party’s activists. We have always argued this was a completely wrong approach.

As SWP members in UNISON we are committed to continuing to work with everyone in the union on the left and beyond that is serous about fighting against the Tory attacks and all the forms of oppression that they use to divide us.

Just read the post below and tell the SWP to get stuffed!