Back in 1990 a group found to be around the newspaper Socialist Organiser was proscribed by the Labour Party on the ground that it was just like the Militant Tendency, a distinct and separate organisation to the Labour Party. Yes it was a lot smaller, barely over 100 people but that's not the point.
Fast forward to today and the group still exists but as is the way for Trotskyist organisations they have changed the name of their newspaper and the party behind it. Solidarity is the paper of the Alliance for Workers Liberty. They have some pretty interesting (and sometimes quite sane) views on politics having come out firmly against Islamism and anti-Semitism which is frankly a breath of fresh air on the far left.
Contrast that to the other vile groupscules on the far left such as Counterfire (the group behind the mis-named Stop the War Campaign) and Socialist Action (Trots turned Stalinists) who see Zionism in everything and seek the destruction of the only democracy in the Middle East, which also happens to be the only Jewish state in the world.
For most of the far-left the destruction of "Imperialism" (unless it's Russian or Chinese) is THE priority regardless of the consequences. Organisations like Counterfire cow-tow to Putin's growing dictatorship, back the murderous President Assad of Syria, the genocidal maniacs of Hamas and Hezbollah work for the clerical-fascist Iranian run "Press TV". The list is endless but similar to the nonsense espoused by Jeremy Corbyn.
Here the AWL run into a problem. Like the rest of the far-left they have jumped on the Corbyn bandwagon despite their rather obvious differences with the man himself on these major issues. They have "wound down" their electoral front" with the Electoral Commission so they can enter "en-mass" (if a hundred or so members can be described as such) the Labour Party.
Hence their current problem.
They are actively disliked by the rest of the left for their "social imperialism" (whatever the hell tht's supposed to mean. The far left are not renowned for their use of plain English) and are running into trouble. Four of the (cough) members have been excluded/expelled from the Labour Party for being members of the AWL.
Like Militant it's not supposed to exist and we are all, laughably supposed to believe they are just a publishers of a newspaper.
No one believes that. The even smaller Workers Power group has embarked on a similar strategy with it's "Red Flag" project.
Of all the left papers Solidarity is an interesting read but then so was the Weekly Worker before it became obsessed with the minutiae of the goings on in the now failed Left Unity party set up by film director Ken Loach.
Still I digress.
The point is this small group of sometimes quite shouty individuals are a separate party and there is no way round it. Not that this stops them from protesting.
A statement calling for an end to the expulsions/witch hunt etc has been posted on line by "Red Labour" (No idea either before you ask).
Statement by Red Labour on the recent expulsion of some of our Labour Party comrades:
In the course of a rather grotesquely titled 'operation ice-pick' (ice pick being the murder weapon used on Trotsky by an agent of Stalin) a number of long-standing party members have been expelled despite being energetic Labour supporters for all recent elections.
The charge against them is that they are suspected of being members of the Alliance for Workers Liberty (AWL)
- or to “have been” associated with AWL in the past
- or just to be suspected of having contributed
- or circulated Solidarity (the weekly paper linked to the AWL)
- or having attended AWL public events
- or selling or writing for its paper 'Solidarity'.
Some have received letters saying only that they have been expelled for being members of "political groups other than official Labour groups", a criterion drawn from the rules but so vague that if taken literally it could be a mandate for expelling probably the majority of Labour's members.
Read the rest here: http://www.workersliberty.org/node/25806
A disingenuous statement. CND and Greenpeace are "single issue" pressure groups. The AWL is a political party no matter how you pretend otherwise. So is Socialist Action (Ken Livingstones aides in County Hall), Workers Power and Left Unity despite Ken Loaches protests.
A faux outrage. No other way to put it.
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