Since this is the season of goodwill to all I checked out
the Socialist Unity website to see the latest brother and sisterhood back stabbing,
infighting, petty point scoring, abuse and general hatred. I was not
disappointed. The reader comments are just amazing.
While the SWP are busy as usual ritually expelling “traitors”
in advance of their annual conference, I was surprised at the post by SU editor
Andy Newman “THE “ALLIANCE FOR WORKERS LIBERTY” – THE DYNAMICS OF A MALIGNANT CULT
I must admit to wondering why Andy has picked on the AWL?
Who in my perhaps limited contact so far, have not appeared to be as narrow and
dogmatic as the other various Heinz 57 Trotskyite/Anarchist sects? However, I think that this is actually all just
a bit of a red herring (no pun intended).
Since surely all of the “ultra left” are by definition going
to be in some form of a cult since they all profess to be “revolutionaries”. If you think the world is so horrible you need
revolutionary change, then you are going to have to have some sort of tight discipline
and control to try and bring it about?
The real problem is not that they are “cults” or that they
are “revolutionaries”. Good luck to them
if that is what they believe (dare I say, it’s
a free country!). The real problem is that they think that by their actions
they can bring about “the Revolution” in this country sometime soon.
How on earth can anyone honestly think there any practical likelihood
of there being any sort of a revolution in this country?
Now, I want radical change in our society. But all my adult
life I have seen articles and posters advertising meetings that proclaim the “great
day of the revolution” is just around the corner. What complete and utter rubbish.
The idea that if the unions were just more militant,
organised more demos, occupied some phone box and took more strike action, then
the masses would come to their senses and storm Buckingham Place is just fantasy
and indulgent politics. There was more chance of the Mayan prophesies
happening.
Since 2007 there has been an open goal due to the economic
crisis and there is not the slightest interest whatsoever in revolutionary class
politics.
This is not about the “politics”. I am a fully paid up
believer in reformism, parliamentary democracy, rule of law, equality in all aspects, strong trade unions and a genuine mixed
economy. Yet I will work with anyone who may completely disagree with me in the
long run but will sees the sense in unity to bring about common and achievable immediate
goals.
There cannot in my view be any unity with those who think
that their primary purpose is to bring about something (the Great Day) that is silly,
ridiculous and laughable. Everything they do is driven by this obsession. So we
cannot trust them nor their many and competing “Fronts”. We also cannot work
with those who will do what they are told by their central committees
regardless of what they believe in or were elected to do.
My father believed that communism in this country was
inevitable, but he thought it would not happen in his lifetime nor for many
generations. In the meanwhile he would support the Labour Party and work with
others such as the Communist Party of the time, in the interests of working
class people. While they and others may believe
in revolution, they are realistic about the prospects and will not sell out the
interests of working people to satisfy nonsensical dogma.
So my New Year 2012 Modest Proposal is - we can have a socialist unity of sorts. But not with LaLa-ism
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