http://4glengate.net/node/399
The above link outlines the distressing case of two comrades who have just been expelled from the Labour Party , apparently for being members of the Alliance For Workers Liberty. I am NOT a member of that organisation . If I were, would that be grounds for expelling me ? A question I pose as I do know several AWL supporters and would not like to see them thrown out. As far as I know, AWL does not stand at elections nor oppose Labour. If that's so, how can these two comrades have been expelled? If there are any messages of support we can send can I be informed. Thanks. Because if there is one thing I cannot stand, it is witchhunts.
Friday, 31 October 2008
WITCHHUNTS
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
10 comments:
The AWL are a registered political party with the Electoral Commission, therefore it is technically a breach of the Labour rulebook. In 2005 it stood against Labour as part of a coalition.
I'm not a Labour member so don't take a view on this as such, but if the AWL wishes for its members to participate in Labour then perhaps it should follow Socialist Appeal's example and not be registered as a party.
http://www.workersliberty.org/story/2006/03/03/why-vote-janine-booth-and-charlie-mcdonald-socialist-unity
What about Janine Booth?
More to the point, why do you think that a party formed to represent the working class in parliament should tolerate those who oppose parliamentary means? People who join Labour for revolutionary purposes are joining a party which has always opposed revolutionary socialism, and always should.
If you want us to work for revolution, please wait until we feel like joining the AWL, rather than signing up to a party you oppose in an attempt to wreck it.
Quite clearly the AWL does NOT oppose parliamentary means and to my knowledge has never stood canddiates against Labour. If it does, members will be expelled.
Idon't think AWL members currently in the Party want to wreck it. I think they are sincere socialiosts. But if they go down the road of standing candidates they will lose their membership - a strategy I profoundly disagree with but it's down to them really.
Susan,
But that's the point
The AWL has stood candidates against Labour at national and local level.
Where, exactly?
There have been cases of AWL members standing against Labour candidates and you could make an argument that AWL has attempted something of a split personality on the issue at times (some members taking the Labour route, others the Socialist Unity or Socialist Alliance one).
Then again there are high profile Labourites who have stood against Labour candidates in the past. Ken Livingstone, one or two former Tory ministers that are floating around, not to mention quite a lot of former SDPers.
Then of course there's the point that the Co-operative Party is registered with the electoral commission. I'm not sure Gordon Brown isn't a member of that party? Certainly a lot of cabinet ministers are.
Okay - I'm being faintly disingenuous. I think it entirely wrong for AWL to stand candidates against Labour candidates as an organisation and if they currently are doing, that would be a reason for expulsions (I'm unaware of this, but I'm not saying it hasn't happened). I also would think it wrong of AWL to call for support for candidates standing against Labour in elections and that might be a reason for expulsion of individuals (was Clare Short expelled from the party or just from the PLP? I hope the former really, for poetic justice, after her shameful conference attack on Liz Davies many moons ago...)
But if we're honest, if a member of the Co-operative Party stood against the Labour candidate in a ward in Barnsley (it quite possibly has happened - not necessarily in Barnsley - where various 'independent Labour' candidates have run) that would not be a reason for expelling Co-op members from the party willy-nilly.
I don't like expulsion and witch-hunts full stop. I think there has to be a genuine, current reason for an expulsion. Reference to the past is an absurdity, otherwise we can never accept a member who once supported another party, never readmit the RMT or PCS, never have let Ken back, never have let Nye Bevan or Stafford Cripps back...
I think people should pull themselves together.
Excellent post, Duncan, Agree entirely. The problem is of course that if higher-profile AWL supporters stand against Labour it would be an excuse for witch-hunting. Which is why the AWL should not move this resolution. We had this debate last year and it was soundly defeated, It will be so again. To be honest, I think it's a waste of time debsating it yet again.
Miller, I don't "oppose parliamentary means", I just don't think they're enough. If you do, then does Compass promise to never do anything except stand for parliamentary seats? Of course it doesn't, because even the most ardent "parliamentary means" advocate recognises that you can't secure any kind of change in the House of Commons alone.
There are plenty of instances in the Labour Party's history (and pre-history) where it has been the right thing to do to stand publicly against the Labour machine in elections. It can't be a principle never to do that, Susan, otherwise the left is agreeing to limit its ability to organise amongst the working class only to those who are not presently hostile to the Labour Party. That might be possible in the socialist republic of Hebden Bridge, but not in many places - where Labour councils are carrying out Labour government policy and causing misery in the process.
There is a responsibility on us all to get this issue right, and I understand why people say we shouldn't provide the Labour Party leadership with an excuse for witch-hunting. There is a risk, a cost, in standing against Labour, in challenging publically their claim to be the political representatives of our movement. But if that becomes our guiding light, and we restrict our politics or our activity to suit the prevailing climate, then we've already lost.
Nick, my argument is that it is NOT the right thing to do at present. Why? Because it will only weaken what little remains of the Labour Left, it will probably destroy the LRC , and worsat of all what will it actually achieve in terms of helping those we wish to help and the causes we wish to advocate.
It will give great delight to the right-wing ie John Gray etc and take us backwards, not forwards. In the meantime, of course we can work with groups outside the Labour Party. We just don't stand candidates at elections. And hang on to the left Labour MPs we HAVE got.
Post a Comment