Left Press Round Up

The November issue of Socialism Today is now out and unsurprisingly the main article covers Corbynism:

There's still time, argues PETER TAAFFE, for Jeremy Corbyn to act decisively in Labour's drawn out civil war - to develop a socialist alternative to capitalist crisis and misery.

Illustrating a real isolation from the real world Taaffe Immediately raises the Bolshevik Coup d'etat as a way forward as he writes:

Of course, a social revolution - which upends society from top to bottom - differs from a political revolution within a single party, which the Corbyn movement potentially represented. However, the issue of leadership is vital in both kinds of upheaval.

The Russian revolution succeeded over nine months in October 1917 for one reason: the vital role of Lenin and Trotsky in the leadership of the Bolshevik party.

They alone understood the rhythm of the revolution at each stage, particularly the consciousness of the masses, and armed it with the necessary programme and perspective for taking power.

Taffe then prattles on about the experience of the Spanish Civil War before giving a potted history of recent developments inside the Labour Party before launching into the real reason for his rant:

The Socialist Party suggested that, as with the launch of the manifesto, Jeremy Corbyn should bypass the right-wing Labour machine.

He should launch his own constitution to be voted on by all Labour Party members with mandatory reselection central.

At the same time, Labour should be reconstituted as an open federation of different socialist organisations, including the Socialist Party, while maintaining the bedrock of democratised trade union affiliations.

Here we go again. Taaffe wants in on the Labour Party so he can prop up his now isolated and declining sect. Trouble is his approaches for marriage with Labour have been rejected every time. 

Meanwhile rival former Militant group Socialist Appeal (already buried in the Labour Party much to the chagrin of Taaffe and his crew) are firstly proudly announcing a "string of victories for their Marxist student societies in getting delegates to NUS conference. That's four after a quick glance out of what a thousand or so? Hardly signs of a takeover by the comrades who admit the turnouts were somewhat low which sounds about right for these things.

Of more interest is their continuing promotion of Janice Godrich for Assistant general Secretary of the PCS Union, now split from their Socialist Party rivals:

Janice believes that she is the best candidate in the election for AGS, given her experience, support and commitment. In this race, she is up against Chris Baugh, the incumbent, who is backed by the Socialist Party.Just for seeking the nomination, Janice was accused by the Socialist Party of “dividing the left”. But she rightly dismisses this suggestion.

“I don’t think it’s divisive to seek a nomination. No socialist should have the right to remain in a post unchallenged, just as no MP has the right to be automatically reselected for their positions.”

Out of desperation, Janice was alleged by the Socialist Party to have presided over the “bureaucratisation” of the union. This laughable suggestion was simply an attempt to sling mud.

Socialist Appeal also report that Janice is picking up "widespread support" which is highly likely as the Socialist Party have never been that popular with the rest of the left even amongst the grandees of  PCS and are probably having a giggle at their expense. Shame.....

Often overlooked and probably hard to find anyway is the paper of a small group of people still calling themselves the Workers Revolutionary Party and somehow managing to produce a daily newspaper! Only ever came across them once when on a picket line of my workplace. The comrade interviewed me and lacked a sense of humour as I referred to the PCS leadership as "Pabloite revisionists". Naughty me.

In the Monday edition they write about the Brexit march and opine that:

HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of ‘Remainers’ marshalled by the likes of billionaire George Soros and other speculators set out on Saturday to try to create the conditions for a parliamentary coup against the 2016 referendum result.

This was when the masses of the people took advantage of a referendum, called by the then Prime Minister Cameron, and the then Chancellor Osborne to crush their euro-sceptics, to vote to leave the EU, sending a shocked Cameron and Osborne into early retirement, and dumping the UK ruling class into a first class disaster, completely of their own making, which they are having the greatest difficulty resolving.....

It was Lenin in Left Wing Communism who predicted that the British ruling class would make one great mistake that it would not be able recover from and would bring it down. This was the quality of the mistake that Cameron and Osborne made.....

The working class must show its power by taking to the streets, and organising a general strike to bring down the Tories and bring in a workers government that will quit the EU at once and bring in socialism, putting an end to austerity for ever.

Such a movement will spread like wildfire throughout the crisis-ridden EU, and lead to workers rising up to bring down the bankers and bosses EU and replace it with the Socialist United States of Europe. We urge workers and youth to join the WRP and the Young Socialists to rapidly build up the revolutionary leadership that the working class and its youth need to take the fight forward.

Some things never change. Total reductionism Join the party (add favourite here) and all will be solved. Yeah right.

Somewhat bemusing is the SWP's attempt to review Contemporary Trotskyism by John Kelly in the latest issue of International Socialism, the SWP's theoretical journal. That it is an "academic work" rather than toeing an acceptable line seems to be the underlying theme who do not think it is up to the standards of Al Richardson and Sam Bornsteins work on the very early years of British Trotskyism. I thoroughly disagree. 

Christian Høgsbjerg writes:

While Kelly’s work is then scholarly and sophisticated in its own way, its framing academic sociological method and approach mean he necessarily misses much of interest and importance about the contemporary British Trotskyist movement—not only aspects of the institutional, political and organisational history but also the sense of personality, lived experience and cultural dimensions of the movement in all its richness (and, yes at times, also ridiculousness).

and continues:

What Kelly calls the “extraordinarily fissiparous character of world Trotskyism” is undeniable. Kelly blames Trotsky himself for some of this, noting for example that in 1933 Trotsky wrote “with real enthusiasm about the benefits of a split” among his French followers in the Communist League, on the grounds that “what will be lost—partly only temporarily—will be regained a hundredfold already at the next stage”.

And oddly chooses this quote from Trotsky (written in 1923) to defend his position

A Bolshevik is not merely a disciplined person; he is a person who in each case and on each question forges a firm opinion of his own and defends it ­courageously and independently, not only against his enemies, but inside his own party. Today, perhaps, he will be in the minority in his organisation. He will submit, because it is his party. But this does not always signify that he is in the wrong. Perhaps he saw or understood before the others did a new task or the necessity of a turn. He will persistently raise the question a second, a third, a tenth time, if need be. Thereby he will render his party a service, helping it to meet the new task fully armed or to carry out the necessary turn without organic upheavals, without fractional convulsions.

Yeah right. That'll get you kicked out the SWP for permanent factionalism especially if others do the same. I do wonder whether anyone teaches the theory of praxis in the SWP, but then I haven't forgotten their appalling behaviour over "comrade delta" either.