Left Unity.org / People’s Assembly
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Good to hear mcolome because what you describe regarding ML groups where not only political power but also theoretical knowledge is concentrated in a self perpetuating unaccountable clique. The CC in such groups also are reluctant if not hostile to members developing independent theoretical positions. Seems to me that what is required is that Marxists need to be able to engage fellow workers, friends, neighbours in a open manner and try to win them to a socialist perspective. This engagement should take a variety of forms from campaigns to elections but always critically not sycophantically as LU and PA does.
Interesting analysis here from some who don't seem to have many illusions about the new Left Unity Party to be founded on 30 November, at least not about it having any chance of becoming anything more than another small leftwing party:http://www.independentsocialistnetwork.org/?p=2613
Dave wrote:A problem I have with Left Unity, Peoples assembly is that they are increasingly relying on left celebs to boost large meetings and then call this a success. Where are the local based groups? Nowhere to be seen. Now to me socialism has to be the conscious self emancipation of the working class against the capitalist class. This self emancipation has to somehow facilitate the mass activity of workers not only by voting every five years or so but the continual expression of working class interests through some form of workers organisations where political decisions are hammered out democratically and then implemented.What I like about the SPGB is the emphasis on winning workers to socialism and to an understanding what socialism will mean.===================================================================================================MColome commentary:That is the reason why some of them have a large membership of followers of leaders, and then someone will come to the WSM forum to say that our membership is very small, but we do not follow any personality, and we do not have any splits, we have not needs to rectify anything, we are based on socialist principlesThey are like the world of Hollywood which always needs a celebrity, a movie star, a Grammy winner, or the religion who always needs a pastor, or a priest for the revival of the faith, born again.campaign That is the concept of leadership and cadres created by the Bolsheviks Take a look at what happened in Venezuela, Hugo Chavez is dead an everything collapsed, they do not even mention the so called Bolivarian revolution like in prior years, and now he is immortal like the gods of the Olympus, and his spirit sometimes shows up, some of his friends are moving toward the right, like the president of Ecuador ( a peon of the Vatican ) now he is against abortion, like in Nicaragua that in order to obtain votes they supported the Catholic church. They oscillate between right and left, left and right like a clock pendulum, why they do that ? Because there is not difference between right wing and left wing, they are birds of the same nestTake a look at what happened in China and Albania, their gods Mao Tse Tung, and Enver Hoxha died, no more Long Live Mao !!! and Long Live Enver Hoxha !!!. The struggle for power showed up immediately. The stampede was enormous and most of their followers they dropped from the so called working class movement, went back to the rocking chair and some of them hate what they used to call Marxism ( or Blanchism-Leninism )This lefty groups will spend their whole life rectifying their party line, as soon as their leaders come with another brainy idea, the same thing happened with Hardial Vains in Canada, later on others groups accusing him of being an agent of the CIA, and from Enverism he ended up supporting Castroism. There were parties formed or composed by two or three individuals only making a lot of noisy through a magazineWith all these stories we can write a comic book, or a soap opera,
ALB wrote:Interesting analysis here from some who don't seem to have many illusions about the new Left Unity Party to be founded on 30 November, at least not about it having any chance of becoming anything more than another small leftwing party:http://www.independentsocialistnetwork.org/?p=2613Then this group wil form its own unity. If they do not wipe Leninism from their books they will not move into the correct direction, and if they do that the left will disappear. The Albania tendency broke with everybody, they isolated themselves, they claimed that Albania was the only socialist country in the whole world, all the followers and parties subscribed to them repeated the same phrase, and then, when they started to question Hoxha, Stalin, they had another split, and those that tried to question Lenin they vanished from the face of the earth. Our stand is correct, we do not make alliance with the left
It's a good report, but it suffers from the same attitude that plagues this forum and the party that hosts it: patronisingly warning people of what they are already fully aware of (in fact more aware of than the sages doing the warning since they're there at the heart of it doing the work), and pointing out "illusions" that no one holds. If that's how you want to operate, that's up to you. But then why be surprised at what the ISN report calls "anti left group sectarianism" – or what I would call healthy contempt for patronising sectarian groups?Members of this forum might be interested to hear that, in just a few short months, Left Unity has already exceeded 1,000 founding members, and has been respectfully if critically reported in The Guardian, BBC Radio 4, The Huffington Post, New Statesman, Russia Today, Sky News and other media outlets. So, yes, we've got a long way to go. But we've already come further than you have – and you've had a 110 year head start.
PS Good interview here with one of our founding members:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRAEP2J8fsgStuart (founding member, Left Unity)
stuartw2112 wrote:Members of this forum might be interested to hear that, in just a few short months, Left Unity has already exceeded 1,000 founding members, and has been respectfully if critically reported in The Guardian, BBC Radio 4, The Huffington Post, New Statesman, Russia Today, Sky News and other media outlets. So, yes, we've got a long way to go. But we've already come further than you have – and you've had a 110 year head start.Well, we can piss higher than you and for longer:http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2000s/2004/no-1198-june-2004/others-have-seen-usAnd it remains to be seen if the new Left (pseudo-Unity) Party (or whatever it's going to be called) is going to last 2 years let alone a hundred. Yet another leftwing reformist party is the last thing that's needed. I can't see you getting more than 2 to 3% of votes when you put your money where your mouth is and put up candidates. Rendez-vous after the local elections of 22 May next year.
The 1000 founding members that stuartw2112 mentions are they active members or are they paper members? I suspect the latter rather than the former. Also the idea that Left Unity is something original is wide of the mark for LU is in the mass party tradition which always falls apart at the first serious test. The reality is that there is not a small never mind large political space to the left of labour. Also with Miliband talking left for the next election then whatever space there is will be closed down. No if you want to build a left sstyle Labour Party then surely the best strategy is to join the LP. At least the International Marxist Tendency is doing this.Myself I do beleive that there is a need for an independent SOCIALIST party that recognises that as capitalism fails to deliver a decent quality of life for workers while ensuring that the wealthy become even more obscenely wealthy then workers will be open to a socialist argument and will do something about it. Reformism will fail and there is a need for a network of socialists of however small amount of members and supporters.
"Left Unity has already exceeded 1,000 founding members" Whooopeeee!!! Come back and patronise us when you have a 1,000 socialist members. Some may have forgotten that unity is not an aim in itself but a means to reach the aim. Come back when unity is more than just an empty phrase as it is at the moment. From my observations, the differences to ends and means, objectives and tactics, methods and traditions are too deeply rooted for unity to be a sustainable lasting realistic objective. Perhaps you and your new comrades will prove me wrong. i hope so. i am not averse to eating crow when i am proved wrong. Unity can only be for definite and limited aims such as defence of the NHS, the Wefare State, and so on, where there exists some agreement on the Left, irrespective of differences on other issues. Left Unity is about uniting in defence of the gains workers have already made and which are being removed. But unity for socialism…ahhhh, that is a different question altogether. Some will argue that the attacks on our living standards, our wages , our working conditions – these aspects of the day-today class struggle – are not a party affair but one for trade unions. Removing the type of society that imposes the class struggle upon us, however, is the responsibility of a socialist party. But i'm being patronising again, saying things you already know….but ignore.
There's no political space to the left of Labour? Well, a majority of the population of this country would beg to differ:http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/519684/20131105/left-wing-price-controls-nationalisation-yougov-poll.htm
alanjjohnstone wrote:Come back and patronise us when you have a 1,000 socialist members.Or one for that matter
And more than half the country would support a new right-wing party….(albeit a bit dated poll) http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/shock-poll-shows-rising-tide-113067 So what do you suggest to follow uninformed sentiment …a populist Strasserite third party?
Just had a look at Adam's attempt to piss higher, and I see that the SPGB has indeed made it into the footnotes of such august journals as that of the International Communist Current, and has been mentioned in passing in a sentence or two by former Labour leaders. I shall put my willy away and slouch off thoroughly ashamed.
Seriously though, you must be secretly hoping that Left Unity is a great success and will take off? You lot could be the left wing of it, berate it for its deviastions and reformism, and have a reason for existence again!
1,000 active or passive members the distinction is important in deciding whether there is a serious base for a party which can be something more than a passing fad. How many members, where are they geographically located, what literature is being sold, to how many people, who are the regular buyers etc will give one an idea whether the organisation is well placed to be a serious competitor with Labour Party.The reality is that left reformist parties such as TUSC, Socialist Alliance, Respect etc all received small votes and never looked like being a serious challenger to the Labour Party. The same will be true for LU.Alanjjohnstone hits the nail on the head when he makes reference to the task of a socialist party is to help bring about a socialist transformation of society but LU is not a socialist organisation. Also struggles to defend workers within the parameters of a capitalist society will occur even without a socialist input.The first task of socialists is to recognise reality before we can change it.
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