Socialism 2005
I wouldn't advise buying a ticket specially, but if any of our readers are thinking of going to the annual beanfeast of the Socialist Party (don't ask me which grouplet they are cos I dunno), Aaro is apparently appearing there.
this is mainly a heads-up for the "Friday Forecast" contest some few Fridays hence after November 12-13, since Aaro is bound to write about it. If anyone cares to surmise about how this grouplet rather than any other landed Aaro as a speaker (are they successor grouplet to the CPGB??) comments are open.
this is mainly a heads-up for the "Friday Forecast" contest some few Fridays hence after November 12-13, since Aaro is bound to write about it. If anyone cares to surmise about how this grouplet rather than any other landed Aaro as a speaker (are they successor grouplet to the CPGB??) comments are open.
posted by The Rioja Kid at 10/10/2005 08:20:00 PM
9 Comments:
This is the organisation formerly known as the Militant tendency
Ex Miltant (half of it)
I assume that he is there as he hates the SWP as much as they do.
The Socialist Party are anti-war, anti-privatisation and anti-New Labour, so presumably Aaro won't be given an easy time there.
I guess Aaro will write it up in a sort of jokey nostalgic way (with references to his previous life.)
Michael, no it's not. Militant was part of the Labour Party. As Trots they had an ideology identical with the SWP at the time -- except the SW believed in being outside the Labour Party and overthrowing it, while Militant intended to do the overthrowing from the inside.
I'm not sure of the SP's ideology beyond what Bernard said. They've always been less conspicuous that their more shouty cousins. At least their name is more sensible than the others: any party with "Workers" in their name only ever recruits students and the unemployable; those called "Revolutionary" accommodated themselves very quickly to conservative policies in the 80s.
Dave
This is from the SP website
"Editor's note: The history of the Socialist Party can be traced back to the Militant, which campaigned on all the issues which affected workers and young people in the latter half of the last century. Militant became renown for its campaign for thorough-going socialist policies within the Labour movement.
The 'Militant' newspaper was first published by a small group of "pioneers" in 1964, and rose to prominence in the 1970s. The Militant Tendency fought against Margaret Thatcher's government and against the Labour Party bureaucracy's rejection of socialism.
This preface was written in October 1995, not long before Militant changed its name to the Socialist Party. Peter Taaffe, first editor of Militant, was a leading "pioneer" and this preface traces the beginnings and the motivations of the participants.
Peter Taaffe is General Secretary of the Socialist Party."
There have been splits since but it could never formally be described as part of the Labour Party rather an entryist group.
Wasn't that the whole argument at the time? Militant claimed to be just a 'tendency' a collection of like-minded individuals who happened to meet around a paper, while the people trying to kick them out said they were a party within the party. I think the latter group were more accurate, tbh.
Ray
OK, Michael, my bad. But there used to be another Socialist Party. The only member I recall was James Fenton (the smart one of the Hitchens-Amis-Fenton triumvirate) and that was long before Militant appeared on the Labour Party radar.
FWIW, I don't consider the Militant Tendency to have been particularly socialist. What distinguished them in the Labour Party was their propensity for agreeing with each other. But Militant were certainly inside the Labour Party: the disastrous tenure of yuppie spiv Derek Hatton shows that.
There's also the Socialist Party of Great Britain. They've been around for about a century, I think they're council communists.
Thank you, anon. That was the lot I was thinking of. Silly me to confuse the "Socialist Party" and the "Socialist Party of Great Britain." I should have checked of course before berating Michael.
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