All is far from well on the far left...... as usual

As an inveterate "Trot spotter", I regularly visit the websites and publications of the various groups and sects on line or in print to catch up on their latest wheezes and read the weird and oddly intriguing formulations that they concoct. Every so often the whole world of the far left seems to stand on its head, take a whirl rearrange itself under varying names to proclaim the next, new way forward....

And so it has since the beginning.

One of the latest projects, Left Unity has been getting itself together, slowly bit, by bit despite clearly hampering itself with the establishment of internal factions (they call the "platforms, go figure) and are already on a par with the main two outfits of the far left, the SWP and the Socialist Party of England & Wales (SPEW for short).

Unlike others they have even opened up their internal conferences to public scrutiny by broadcasting these illustrious events, live, yes live on the Internet, recognising that in the age of the "World Wide Web" the conspiratorial era so beloved by the Bolsheviks of old is now over.... almost.

A lesson the Prof and his "lynch mob" in the SWP failed to take heed of in the year long split over the "comrade delta" affair. Little or nothing remains "secret" any more. But I digress.

The new Left Unity group has barely got its feet on the ground when inveterate sectarians decide to either (a) start an irrelevant and quite insane row or (b) quit in disgust because they don't get their own way.

The tiny and possibly quite mad Weekly Worker crew of the grandly named Communist Party of Great Britain (membership beleived to be less than 50) has been attacking Left Unity's "cowardly" leadership for rejecting the policy of "Workers Militias", you know, the groups of armed worker-soldiers necessary to combat capitalism. They take exception to comments made by Left Unity "speaker" during an interview with Andrew Neil on TV in the latest addition of their rag:

The Communist Platform’s motion calling for the “disbanding of the standing army” and the “right of the people to bear arms” reminded Neil of America’s Tea Party. Or so he said. Would Shaheen be voting for this madness at LU’s March 29 Manchester conference? No, replied the comrade. “I disagree ... I will be voting against ... the majority of Left Unity members are disaffected Labour voters.”

Patrick Black of Sheffield Left Unity. He too wants to avoid the “loony left” tag. With that end in mind he launched a furious attack on the “small, sad and lonely political ‘sects’ existing within the party”. They are in need of a serious “reality check”, since they do not “appear to possess a shred of common sense”. Naturally, he singles out the Communist Platform for “putting forward crazy motions to disband the British army and create armed people’s militias”

The CPGB's "guru" Jack Conrad concludes:

...let us put our trust in a “well regulated militia” and the “right of the people to keep and bear arms”.

Well Conrad's right about one thing revolution is about violence. And Marxist "coups" have always ended well? No? 

Oh well perhaps they can team up with permanent splitter and gobshite Tony Greenstein who offers his resignation for the world to see and mourn over in this weeks Weedy Worker. He writes rants:

I sent an open letter to Left Unity from my website earlier this year (http://azvsas.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/left-unity-conference.html) and asked that it be published on LU’s website, a request that was ignored. I notice though how Fred Leplat, a prominent member of Socialist Resistance, has an article on the website and certain other members have privileged access. Clearly some people are more equal than others.

Or maybe less self-indulgent, but let him continue:

As a political activist in the student movement, Irish, anti-fascist, unemployed and Palestine solidarity campaigns for the past 40 years, I have wondered in amazement at where LU’s leadership believes it is going and its complete lack of strategy, as the old, seasoned cooks of the left - Socialist Resistance, the Socialist Workers Party émigrés and people like Andrew Burgin, Liz Davies and Kate Hudson - have taken an organisational and political grip over LU.

In plain English they appear to ignore him so Gobby concludes:

I have therefore decided that no purpose is served by my continuing to remain a member and I have decided to resign from Left Unity.

Now whilst I might concur Left Unity is indeed a waste of time, one has to be fair and point out the organisation hasn't even had its' first official birthday since their first actual conference. Still egos do what egos must.

Talking of ego's the website I "love to hate" (or one of them anyway), that of Socialist Unity run by arch-Stalinists Andy Newman and John Wight has disappeared, at least for the 48 hours prior to the writing of this post. Domain expired is all we get. Shame, but are we really going to miss such obfuscating drivel as this penned in what may have been the final post by Cardinal-Newman, who writes of the Tienanmen square massacre:

The bloody repression of 1989 was a terrible atrocity … But the repression was actually relatively short lived … Although there was some continued circumspection, academic criticism continued within China, and the main consequence was intellectual disorientation rather than actual prohibition or censorship.

Yet another mealy mouthed gobshite.

Then there's John McInally's article on the PCS/Unite merger takeover.......

But that can wait until Sunday!