More SWP shenanigans
international |
politics / elections |
other press 
Monday November 08, 2004 16:35
by ReSect Watch
And they wonder why nobody loves them
The October 30-31 conference of Respect showed the SWP at its worst, writes Peter Manson: fixing delegations, voting down socialist and democratic principles, demonising opponents and riding roughshod over any remaining pretence of inclusivity
http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/551/respect%20-%20const.htm
http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/551/respect%20-%20quotes.htm
http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/551/respect%20-%20resignation.htm
http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/551/respect%20-%20wales.htm
http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/551/respect%20-%20tu.htm
Comments (7 of 7)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7Be fair every vote was a majority decision.
Thats democracy.
You can't handle the meaning of the word fair.
Using your example - all elections are democratic.
When the Blacks in the US and the Catholics in the North were disenfranchsised you would could say that there was democratic elections because the majority of those voting picked a certain party?
Most sane people know this is rubbish but I assume you are a swper and therefore sanity doesn't come into your analysis.
The articles are well worth reading to get an idea of just what the SWP means be democracy. If this is how they carry on when a tiny organisation can you imagine how they'd behave in power.
The account is also a very good illustration of the old anarchist slogan that democracy is more then two wolves and a sheep voting on what is for lunch.
Ah yes, Benjamin Franklin that famous anarchist?
what's going on in RESPECT and previous. lt in the Socialist Alliance is not democracy. These formations need to be federal in structure as they are meant to be made up of a broad group on the socialist left. A majoritarian approach will not work in the creation of these formations. In the case of the latest RESPECT conference the SWP deliberatly went out of their way to block representatives of smaller groups from being elected delegates - How is this democracy, it is a classic case of tyranny of the majority. In a conference delegates shoudl be elected on a proportional basis.
People in Ireland shoudl look at what the SWP have done in Britain and be VERY VERY careful before jumping into alliances with them. They are not genuine, all they want to do is abuse broader formations. Socialist Party, ISN, Joan collins etc shoudl steer clear of the SWP!!
Warning the ISN of the SWP after the IAWM - funny.
Warning Joan Collins of the SWP in the same sentence as the SP - funnier.
Oh I'd no idea that was as old as Benjamin Franklin. It's not that much of a surprise though as the initial democratic republican movement was far more aware of the limitations of the sort of parliamentary democracy we ended up with then most are today. And of course anarchism developed in part out of the realisation that the European republican movement of the 1840s 50s and 60s was not capable of becoming a vehicle for the liberation of the working class (many early anarchists were previously left republicans).
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