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 Monopolise
Resistance
The SWP try to hijack anti-war protests
Schnews published a pamphlet Monopolise Resistance - how
Globalise Resistance would hijack revolt in early
September last year, just before the attacks on New York and Washington.
We published it in response to the Socialist Workers Party (SWP)'s
sudden involvement in the anti-capitalist movement through its wholly-owned
subsidiary Globalise Resistance. We warned that the Labour-voting-slogan-shouting-anti-direct-action
politics of the SWP posed a real danger to the vitality and independence
of the anti-capitalist movement. We also argued that we would only
be able to stand up to this attack if we became better organised,
more open to new people and more grounded in our communities. All
this still stands, despite the attacks.
September 11th saw a monster that the US state had created
come back to bite its maker. The gangsters who carried out the attacks
on the Twin Towers and Pentagon were established, nurtured, pay-rolled,
trained and supported by the US government, much like the death
squads in South America and puppet regimes in south east Asia, installed
to carry out its fight against 'world communism'. All this is denied
of course, as the attack is used by the more powerful and heavily
armed gangsters in the White House to launch a 'war against terrorism'
that marks a significant escalation of the war that is constantly
waged by the rich countries against the peoples of the majority
of the world. War, racism, economic domination and, increasingly,
the threat of nuclear first strikes against people the US or UK
government don't like is on the agenda. Capitalism was never nice,
but recently it has turned decidedly nastier.
The only response to this baring of capitalism's teeth is to broaden
and deepen anti-capitalism. It's a sick system and, more than ever,
people are questioning its existence - we should be building serious
opposition to get rid of it altogether. Unfortunately, the problems
we discussed in Monopolise Resistance have become even starker
than before.
In Britain, where a Labour government sends troops to Afghanistan
to turn rocks into rubble, the only reasonable response is to sabotage
the war effort and support those attacked by it. Much activity has
taken place - blockades of the British invasion force's HQ at Northwood,
lock-ons at Downing Street, civil disobedience and occupations,
sit-down protests. But at every turn the SWP has been there to calm
things down and make it all acceptable to the Labour Party.
Since the start of the war against Afghanistan, the SWP has switched
its resources from building Globalise Resistance to building another
front organisation the Stop the War Coalition which they say ".unites
Labour MPs, Asian community organisations and the Socialist Workers
Party". As ever, their aim is to make an organisation acceptable
to Labour Party members, not one that will effectively challenge
the war-drive. Meetings of the coalition would refuse to discuss
direct action, despite pleas from activists to do so. SWP stewards
on a march organised by the coalition tried to get 600 people staging
a sit-down protest in Whitehall to stand up and "go and listen
to the speakers" - Labour MPs.
These aren't isolated examples - they flow from the SWP's view
that there are millions of Labour Party members just gagging to
join the SWP if they are argued with enough. As an internal instruction
put it soon after the war against Afghanistan started,
"There are many people who are very critical of Bush and American
imperialism's interventions and attacks over the last decade. We
should go big on recruiting these people. We are likely to have
long conversations with people over this but we could also get some
very big sales".
So we can't do anything that might upset these potential recruits
- even sit down protests are too hardcore for these 'revolutionaries'.
In Dublin on Mayday - our day, for christ sake - Globalise
Resistance even went as far as apologising to a trade union leader
for getting heckled -
"Globalise Resistance regrets the inappropriate behaviour
of some of its members on Mayday, and would like to assure you that
most of those involved were not GR members. As you know we are a
diverse group and some of our members have strong views concerning
the trade union leadership. We would like you to know that the behaviour
of these members does not reflect the views of Globalise Resistance
as a group".
Hand in hand with this pathetic brown-nosing of pro-capitalist
politicians goes the denial that it is possible to be involved in
anti-capitalism without being in the SWP - or, at the very least,
one of its many subsidiaries like Globalise Resistance or Stop The
War Coalition. In order to portray themselves as revolutionary,
they play down the day-in, day-out activities of thousands of anti-capitalists
involved in campaigns, groups and collectives that have nothing
to do with their sect.
Recently SWP leader Alex Callinicos described the fight against
the Criminal Justice Bill in the mid 1990s as "reflect(ing)
a broad anti-Tory consciousness that did not go beyond, for most
of those involved, supporting the election of a Labour government".
In fact, the thousands of people actively involved in that fight
shut down motorways, occupied decaying buildings in order to turn
them into community centres and faced arrest and imprisonment -
all the time attacking all politicians, Labour or Tory, for their
support of repressive laws. The SWP were not involved in any of
this activity. Instead, the SWP were forcibly arguing with those
involved in this direct action to "support the election of
a Labour government".
Monopolise Resistance was an attempt to challenge this sort
of hypocrisy. The SWP can only pose as 'revolutionary' by rewriting
history, denying the existence of a living, organic anti-capitalist
culture in this country - one that sides with the majority of humanity
in its fight against capitalism - and turning the anti-capitalist
movement into sad little pressure group thanking 'left-wing' Labour
MPs for speaking at their meetings. Well thanks, but no thanks -
we want more than that. We want a movement that doesn't compromise
with war, with racism, with exploitation, with all the day-to-day
shit that capitalism throws at us. And it's up to us to make it
happen.
Read 'Monopolise Resistance - How Globalise Resistance Would
Hijack Revolt' in full at www.schnews.org.uk/monopresist/index.htm
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