Socialist Workers Party (UK)

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Socialist Workers Party
Leader Collective leadership
(Central Committee)
Founder Tony Cliff
International Secretary Alex Callinicos
National Secretary Charlie Kimber
Founded Socialist Review Group (1950)
International Socialists (1962)
Socialist Workers Party (1977)
Headquarters London, SW8 2WD United Kingdom
Newspaper Socialist Worker
Socialist Review
International Socialism
Party Notes,
Various pamphlets and books (through its publishing house, Bookmarks)
Rank-and-file newspapers such as Post Worker
Ideology Revolutionary socialism,
Marxism,
Leninism,
Trotskyism
Political position Far-left
National affiliation Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
International affiliation International Socialist Tendency
European affiliation European Anticapitalist Left
European Parliament Group None
Official colours Red, White, Black
Website
http://www.swp.org.uk/
Politics of the United Kingdom
Political parties
Elections

The Socialist Workers Party (SWP) is a far left party in Britain founded by Tony Cliff. The SWP's student section has groups at a number of universities. On the international level, it is part of the International Socialist Tendency.

Contents

[edit] Publications

The SWP publishes a weekly newspaper Socialist Worker, a monthly magazine, Socialist Review, and a quarterly theoretical journal, International Socialism. It also publishes an international bulletin and a public bulletin Party Notes, various pamphlets and books (through its publishing house, Bookmarks) and rank-and-file newspapers such as Post Worker.[1]

[edit] Leadership

The leadership is formed by a central committee, and a national committee. Elections on a slate to the central committee are held yearly at the national conference. As of 2012 the central committee members are: Weyman Bennett, Mark Bergfeld, Michael Bradley, Alex Callinicos, Esme Choonara, Joseph Choonara, Hannah Dee, Charlie Kimber, Amy Leather, Dan Mayer, Judith Orr, Colin Smith, Martin Smith, Mark L. Thomas and a trade union activist whose name has been withheld to protect them from their employer.[2]

The national committee consists of 50 members elected annually at national conference. At least four party councils a year are to be arranged by the central committee. At these councils two delegates elected from each branch plus the national committee will be entitled to attend.[3]

There is also a national student committee elected from members of Socialist Worker Student Societies.

Other prominent members include: Colin Barker, John Molyneux, Paul McGarr, Michael Lavalette, John Rose, Ian Birchall, Richard Seymour, Mike Gonzalez, China Miéville, Jonathan Neale,[4] Rob Owen,[5] Pat Stack,[6] Jonny Jones[7] and Tom Hickey.[8]

[edit] History

Main article: History of the Socialist Workers Party (Britain)

[edit] The Socialist Review Group

The origins of the SWP lie in the formation of the Socialist Review Group (SRG) which held its founding conference in 1950.[9] The group, initially of only 8 members[10] was formed around Tony Cliff's analysis of Russia as a bureaucratic state capitalist regime and were expelled from the Revolutionary Communist Party. Three documents formed the theoretical basis of the group: The Nature of Stalinist Russia,[11] The Class Nature of the People's Democracies[12] and Marxism and the Theory of Bureaucratic Collectivism.[13][14]

The tiny size of the group meant that they adopted a position of working in the Labour Party in order to reach an audience and recruit.[9] Of particular importance was the Labour League of Youth. Of the 33 members at the first recorded meeting, 19 were in the LLY.[10]

Through campaigning within the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Young Socialists, a new Labour Party youth movement, the Socialist Review Group was able to recruit among a new generation of activists and by 1964 had a membership of 200.[9]

[edit] Labour Worker and International Socialism Group

The paper Industrial Worker was created in 1961, and was quickly renamed Labour Worker before evolving into Socialist Worker. Socialist Review was reduced in size and then scrapped.[15] The Socialist Review Group became the International Socialism Group (IS) at the end of 1962.[10]

With the Labour Party in power, and many Labour members becoming disillusioned, IS started doing more work that was external to the Labour Party. After 1967, few IS members were active in that party. In 1965, an article in Labour Worker said "Obviously Marxists should take those positions which give access to the direct workers’ organisations. But in the wards and GMCs the practice of buying the right to discuss politics by over-fulfilling the canvassing norms, should cease or be reduced to the minimum."[9]

It marked a turn to more of a focus on work in the trade unions, and a key part of this process was the pamphlet published in 1966: Incomes policy, legislation and shop stewards, which opposed the Labour Party's incomes policy and discussed how it could be fought.[16]

1968 saw the IS heavily involved in the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign and large numbers of student struggles from which it recruited.[17] As a result the IS grew from 400 to 1000 members but also suffered many splits.[18] According to group historian Ian Birchall, "IS’s position was always one of unconditional support for the IRA in the struggle against imperialism".[19] However, Socialist Worker opposed the slogan 'Troops Out!' on the grounds that British troops would protect the nationalist population:

‘The breathing space provided by the presence of British troops is short but vital. Those who call for the immediate withdrawal of the troops before the men behind the barricades can defend themselves are inviting a pogrom which will hit first and hardest at socialists.’[20]

The early 1970s saw the creation of rank and file newspapers and a general turn to industry, including setting up factory branches.[19] During the 1972 miners strike, Socialist Worker was taken and sold by miners.[21] Between March 1972 and March 1974, the membership of IS increased from 2351 to 3310, and also recruited a large number of manual workers into membership.[21] With hindsight, Tony Cliff concluded that the years 1970-74 had been "the best years of my life".[22]

[edit] Labour in power, the SWP formed

In 1974 Labour returned to power and introduced the Social Contract which implemented a voluntary incomes policy, with the backing of many left wing union leaders such as Hugh Scanlon and Jack Jones. This period also saw an increase in the number of full time union convenors and these factors along with an increase in unemployment have been blamed by Tony Cliff and the SWP for a drastic fall in union militancy.[23] In 1974 the IS was ambitious and optimistic[24] expecting to double the number of its factory branches over the next year. In practice they declined swiftly from 38 in 1974 to only three or four by 1976. When the firefighters went on strike in 1977 against the Social Contract the IS was unable to deliver any significant solidarity. The national rank and file movement fell apart. In 1976 the SWP decided to stand in parliamentary by-elections but the results were very poor and the original idea of standing in 60 seats at the next election was dropped.[25]

In January 1977, IS was renamed the Socialist Workers Party. This decision was a result of the move to stand in elections along with a perception that: "IS’s ability to initiate activity, rather than simply join in movements launched by others, had never been greater. Industrially, there were more members than ever able to lead disputes in their own workplaces."[26] According to Martin Shaw this occurred with no real discussion within the organisation[27] and Jim Higgins has claimed "Its founding was for purely internal reasons, to give the members a sense of progress, the better to conceal the fact that there had actually been a retreat."[28]

[edit] Anti-Nazi League and Rock against Racism

A campaign in which the SWP had a significant role at this time was the Anti-Nazi League (ANL).[29] The National Front (NF) grew during the 1970s, and in the May 1976 local elections the party polled 15,340 votes in Leicester and large votes elsewhere. They were even more visible on the streets through graffiti, racist attacks and street protests. A key turning point came when, on August 13, 1977, thousands of anti-fascists, later joined by large numbers of local black youths, attempted to stop the NF from marching through Lewisham.

Following the perceived success of the 13 August mobilisation in Lewisham, the SWP launched the Anti Nazi League in the Autumn of 1977 with a series of celebrity-endorsed adverts published in the press. Although it was portrayed as a broad initiative supported by the SWP along with wide swathes of the Labour Left and figures from popular culture (singers, musicians, actors etc.), the ANL was seen by many on the left as a self-serving unilateral SWP initiative to seize the leadership of the Anti-Racist Movement and was regarded with suspicion by many Anti-Racist/Anti-Fascist activists. This was particularly true of many in the existing broad-based Anti-Fascist Committees (often with close connections to the local Labour and Trade Union Movement). The fact that local ANL groups were often launched as an SWP-led alternative to existing broad-based Anti-Fascist Committees increased the suspicions of non-SWP activists but a widespread desire not to disply public divisions (and a fear of alienating the ANL's celebrity sponsors) meant that these divisions were kept fairly quiet. The ANL also received support from other Trotskyist groups, Anarchist groups and the Communist Party of Britain (who restrained their members and supporters from openly critiscising the ANL).

In response to Eric Clapton's public support for Enoch Powell, Rock Against Racism was set up in close collaboration with the ANL, and a series of successful carnivals were organised. Among the bands involved with Rock Against Racism were The Clash (as seen in the film Rude Boy), The Buzzcocks, Steel Pulse, X-Ray Spex, The Ruts, Generation X and the Tom Robinson Band. By 1981 the NF had fragmented becoming far smaller, and the campaign was wound up.[30]

[edit] The "downturn"

From 1978 Tony Cliff became convinced by some of his comrades that the period of rising militancy had come to an end[31][32] and a downturn had begun. Cliff wrote that: "The crisis in the organisation went on for about 3 years, 1976-79". By 1982 the SWP was refocused completely to a propagandist approach, with geographical branches as the main unit of the party, a focus on Marxist theory and an abandonment of perspective of building a rank and file movement. The rank and file organisations were wound down as was the women's organisation Women's Voice and the paper for ethnic minorities Flame. The closure of Women's Voice in particular was bitterly disputed,[33] a sharp debate taking place between those who believed the result would be to ignore the specificities of women's oppression, and those who believed that feminist theories were in danger of losing contact with the united interests of men and women workers.

During the 1984-85 miners strike the SWP's propaganda concentrated on the need for solidarity and explaining why this was not happening. Cliff described the approach as one of concrete propaganda: "It had to answer the question 'What slogan fits the issue the workers are fighting over?"[34]

This change in outlook and methods was viewed by many on the left as being a retreat into sectarianism by the SWP[35] but this change in methods is credited by the SWP as allowing it to survive a very hostile period with substantial numbers of party members.[32] In contrast Murray Smith described it as "jumping from one campaign to the next and hostility towards the rest of the left."[36]

[edit] The 1990s

The early 1990s for many of the far-left was a period of demoralisation and disorientation due to the collapse of the Soviet Union. However, for the SWP this was seen as a vindication of their long held analysis that the Soviet Union was a 'state capitalist' society. They believe that "the transition from state capitalism to multinational capitalism is neither a step forward nor a step backwards, but a step sidewards. The change only involves a shift from one form of exploitation to another form for the working class as a whole."[37]

The SWP were involved in the campaign against the Poll Tax in England although it has been claimed they failed to intervene in Scotland.[36] It was this period, that the Revolutionary Democratic Group were expelled and became in their words, "an external faction". They also helped relaunch the ANL in 1992 in response to the growth of the British National Party and campaigned against the Criminal Justice Bill.

In 1997, despite being highly opposed to Tony Blair's policies, they called for a vote for the Labour Party, with the belief that there would rapidly be a crisis of expectations in Labour which would lead New Labour voters to question their allegiances and open up opportunities and space for organisation and activity to the left of Labour that are traditionally occupied by Labour when it is in opposition. John Rees wrote in July 1997: "In the mid-term the 'sado-monetarist' strategy followed by the Labour government will clash increasingly sharply with a working class movement which has drawn hope and confidence from its electoral victory over the Tories."[38]

[edit] Recent activity

A stall run by the SWP in Trafalgar Square at the 2011 anti-cuts protest in London.

The SWP's recent activity has been influenced by what it sees as a "revival in consciousness and combativity, discernible from the mid-1990s and unmistakable since the Seattle demonstration in 1999."[32]

In the aftermath of 9/11 the SWP approached other groups and individuals on the left and with them launched the Stop the War Coalition. The Coalition's aims were to oppose to the invasion of Afghanistan and subsequently Iraq and to campaign against attacks on Muslims and civil liberties. Leading SWP member Lindsey German was elected as Convenor and John Rees and Chris Nineham were appointed as national officers. In terms of mass participation, this was by far the biggest campaign that the Party had ever been ever been involved with. The Coalition organised the biggest demonstration in British history in February 2003 when up to two million people marched through London in opposition the invasion of Iraq. Activity in the Stop the War Coalition was central to the SWP for the next five years. The SWP described the Iraqi insurgency as a "resistance" movement against military occupation[39] and endorsed George Galloway's support of Hezbollah, who they describe as "the resistance",[40] leading to criticism from those who see it as supporting all groups opposed to the United States government without offering independent working-class perspectives.[41]

The SWP was involved with the Socialist Alliance in England and the Welsh Socialist Alliance. Its Scottish members joined the Scottish Socialist Party as the Socialist Worker Platform in May 2001.[36] In England and Wales involvement in the Socialist Alliance was succeeded by involvement in Respect, an electoral alliance with one Member of Parliament, George Galloway, and a small number of councillors (one of whom, Michael Lavalette, is a member of the SWP). However, after a schism within Respect a faction led by the SWP formed the Left List (now called Left Alternative). In Scotland, the SWP existed as a platform of the Scottish Socialist Party but in August 2006, it decided to split from the SSP in order to pursue a new political grouping with Tommy Sheridan, Solidarity.[42] In 2010, the SWP joined the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition and stood five candidates in the general election.[43]

In January 2009, John Rees, Lindsey German and Chris Nineham resigned from the Central Committee at party conference[44] before forming an oppositional Left Platform in the party[45] in October 2009 with the support of 64 members.[46] The faction agreed to disband after the party's January 2010 conference.[47] Two members of the Left Platform were expelled over allegations of secret factionalising outside of the three-month period prior to conference (in which open factions are permitted).[48][49] The expulsions were contested at the conference of 2010 but a majority of the more than 500 delegates voted in favour of the expulsions which were then ratified.[50] In February 2010, sixty former members of the Left Platform including John Rees, Lindsey German and Chris Nineham resigned from the SWP.[51] In response to the financial crisis of 2007–2010, the SWP initiated the Right to Work campaign in June 2009.[52]

In October 2009, the SWP's National Secretary Martin Smith was charged with assaulting a police officer at the Unite Against Fascism (UAF) demonstration against British National Party (BNP) leader Nick Griffin's appearance on the BBC's Question Time. Smith was found guilty of the assault at South Western Magistrates' Court, London, on 7 September 2010. He was sentenced to a 12-month community order, with 80 hours' unpaid work, and was fined £450 pending an appeal.[53] Following a UAF demonstration against the English Defence League (EDL) in Bolton on 20 March 2010, SWP Central Committee member Weyman Bennett was charged with conspiracy to incite violent disorder but the charge was dropped in November 2010.[54][55]

On 22 May 2010, around 100 SWP members disrupted negotiations between Unite and British Airways inside the Acas building, much to the diapproval of both parties.[56] The talks had to be abandoned.[57] Martin Smith claimed on Channel 4 News that the actions of Willie Walsh, then BA chief executive, were far worse.[58] In 2010 elections SWP joined the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition; this alliance received 0.04% of votes.[59]

In April 2011, Chris Bambery, one of the last two Central Committee members to have worked alongside Tony Cliff, and the organiser of the Right To Work campaign, resigned from the party arguing, in his resignation letter, that it was ridden with factionalism, that he had learned about the founding of RTW from 'Party Notes' and that the party has no credible strategy to fight the government's cuts agenda.[60] Bambery's resignation was followed by 38 members in Scotland with the intention of forming a new Marxist grouping north of the border. 50 ex-members of the SWP formed the International Socialist Group (Scotland) shortly thereafter.[61]

[edit] Theory

Duncan Hallas, a founding member of the IS, predecessor of the SWP.

Duncan Hallas, a founding member of the IS, predecessor of the SWP, wrote: "The founders of the group saw themselves as mainstream Trotskyists, differing on important questions from the dominant group in the International, but belonging to the same basic tendency."[62] Here "the group" refers to the Socialist Review Group, forerunner of the SWP and "the International" to the Fourth International - the main Trotskyist grouping.

The SWP describes itself as a 'revolutionary socialist party' and considers itself to stand in the 'tradition' of Leon Trotsky. It also shares many of the political positions of other Trotskyist groups, a tradition rooted in Marxism and Leninism (see for example Tony Cliff, Marxism at the Millennium.[63]) In common with other Trotskyists the SWP defends the body of ideas codified by the first four Congresses of the Communist International and the founding Congress of the Fourth International of Leon Trotsky in 1938.

Its supporters often refer to their beliefs as 'socialism from below', a term which has been attributed to Hal Draper. This concept can also be traced back to the rules of the First International which stated: "the emancipation of the working classes must be conquered by the working classes themselves."[64] They see this as distinguishing themselves from other socialist groups, particularly both from reformist parties such as the Labour Party (described as a 'capitalist workers' party'[65]) and from various forms of what they disparagingly term 'Stalinism'—forms of socialism usually associated with the former Soviet Bloc and the old Communist Parties. These are seen as advocating socialism from above. In contrast Cliff argued: "The heart of Marxism is that the emancipation of the working class is the act of the working class. The Communist Manifesto states: 'All previous historical movements were movements of minorities, or in the interest of minorities. The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense majority.'"[66] For more on this see Marxism at the Millennium (2000)[67]

The SWP also seeks to differentiate itself from other Trotskyist tendencies. Three key theories are at the centre of its difference from other Trotskyists: State Capitalism, Deflected Permanent Revolution and The Permanent Arms Economy (see below).

Unlike most Troskyist organisations, the SWP does not have a formal programme (like the Fourth International's founding document, the Transitional Program), but an outline of the SWP's ideas called "Where We Stand"[68] is published in Socialist Worker every week.

[edit] 'State Capitalism'

The SWP maintains an opposition to what it terms "substitutionist strategies". This is the idea that social forces other than the proletariat, which is for Marxists the potentially social revolutionary class due to its 'radical chains', may substitute for the proletariat in the struggle for a socialist society (see above). This idea led the founder of the SWP, Tony Cliff, to reject the idea that the USSR was a 'degenerated workers' state', the position held by other Trotskyists and derived from Leon Trotsky's analysis in the 1930s. Cliff argued that in fact the USSR and Eastern Europe used a form of capitalism which he referred to as 'bureaucratic state capitalist', and that later so did other countries ruled by what he termed Stalinist parties, such as China, Vietnam and Cuba. Cliff's approach to this idea was published in the 1948 article The Nature of Stalinist Russia[69] as it was further advanced on in his 2000 publication Trotskyism after Trotsky where he discussed the decline of the USSR.

Chris Harman, one of the leading theoreticians of the SWP.

Other IS/SWP theoreticians such as Nigel Harris and Chris Harman would later extend and develop a distinct body of state capitalist analysis based on Cliff's initial work. This theory was summed up in the slogan "Neither Washington nor Moscow, but International Socialism". The slogan is said to have originally come from Max Shachtman's group, the Workers Party, in their paper 'Labor Action' and was only borrowed by the IS/SWP at a later date. This is seen as ironic because one of Cliff's concerns when first developing his idea of state capitalism was to differentiate his ideas from the idea of bureaucratic collectivism associated with Shachtman (see for example The theory of bureaucratic collectivism: A critique (1948).[70]) However, the formula also echoes the Fourth International's 1948 manifesto, Neither Wall Street nor the Kremlin. Cliff's version of the theory of state capitalism can be differentiated from those associated with other dissident Trotskyists and Marxists, such as CLR James and Raya Dunayevskaya.

[edit] 'Deflected Permanent Revolution'

As a Trotskyist tendency, the SRG/IS was faced with developing an explanation as to why and how a number of countries in the former colonial world had succeeded in overthrowing the rule of various imperial powers and forming states characterised by the SRG/IS as being bureaucratic state capitalist. In part, such an explanation was needed to understand why these colonial revolutions had not developed into uninterrupted or Permanent Revolutions, as predicted by Leon Trotsky in his theory of the same name. Taking Trotsky's theory as his starting point, Tony Cliff developed his own theory of 'deflected permanent revolution'. He argued that where a revolutionary working class did not exist, the intelligentsia could, in certain limited circumstances, take the leadership of the nation and lead a successful revolution in the direction of a state capitalist solution. The outcome of such a revolution would be deflected from the goal of a social revolution as envisaged in Trotsky's original work.

Cliff's essay "Permanent Revolution" was first published in International Socialism Journal, No. 12 Spring 1963,[71] in response to the Cuban Revolution and largely took it and the earlier Chinese Revolution as its subject. However, the general concept of a deflected permanent revolution would be much exercised as a key analytical tool by IS theoreticians in the coming years. Most notable in this respect is the work of Nigel Harris in relation to India and later of Mike Gonzalez on Cuba[72] and Nicaragua. Most recently[when?] the theory has been given a central place in Cem Uzun's work Making the Turkish Revolution.

[edit] The 'permanent arms economy'

State capitalism and deflected permanent revolution came to be seen as central to a distinct IS politics by the mid-1960s along with the theory of the 'permanent arms economy' (PAE) which sought to explain the long boom in the global economy after the Second World War. This boom was in contrast to the period after the First World war where there was a period of stagnation.

The three theories taken together are often seen as being the hallmarks of the IS tradition, although this is contested by some former leaders of the IS, including Nigel Harris and Michael Kidron both of whom worked on the PAE and now repudiate it, and by some other Trotskyists outside the IS Tradition. The PAE, the most contested of the three theories, is also the only one that did not originate with Tony Cliff.

The PAE originated with a member of Max Shachtman's Workers' Party/Independent Socialist League named Ed Sard in 1944. Sard, writing as Walter J. Oakes, argued in Politics that the PAE was to be understood as allowing capitalism to achieve a level of stability by preventing the rate of profit from falling as spending on arms was unproductive and would not lead to the increase of the organic composition of capital. Later in 1951 in New International, this time writing as T. N. Vance, Sard argued that the PAE operated through its ability to apply Keynes' multiplier effect.[73] Although briefly mentioned by Duncan Hallas in a Socialist Review of 1952 the theory was only introduced to the IS by Cliff in 1957.[74]

In his May 1957 article "Perspectives of the Permanent War Economy",[75] Cliff offered the PAE to readers in a version derived from Sard's earlier essays but without reference to Keynes and using a Marxist theoretical framework. This was the only attempt to develop the idea, which it is suggested explains the long post war boom, until the publication of Mike Kidron's Western Capitalism Since the War[76] in 1968. Kidron would further develop the theory in his Capitalism and Theory. Additional work was also contributed by Nigel Harris and later by Chris Harman. However it should also be noted that Mike Kidron was to repudiate the theory as early as the mid-1970s in his essay "Two Insights Don't Make a Theory"[77] in International Socialism No. 100. This was followed by a rejoinder from Chris Harman ("Better a valid insight than a wrong theory").[78]

[edit] Notable members

[edit] Current

[edit] Former (including former members of the IS)

[edit] Deceased (including deceased former members)

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Post Worker website.
  2. ^ "Leadership". Socialist Worker. 10 January 2012. http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=27200. Retrieved 2012-01-11. 
  3. ^ Post conference bulletin, Socialist Workers Party, January 2006
  4. ^ "Copenhagen: The New Global Movement - by Jonathan Neale | swp online". Swp.org.uk. http://www.swp.org.uk/23/12/2009/copenhagen-new-movement-jonathan-neale. Retrieved 2011-12-16. 
  5. ^ "Vote blocks attacks on democracy in NUS|12Apr08". Socialist Worker. http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=14608. Retrieved 2011-12-16. 
  6. ^ "Bob Crow, 'chavs' and new media snobbery|22Sep07". Socialist Worker. http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=13044. Retrieved 2011-12-16. 
  7. ^ "International Socialism". Isj.org.uk. http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?s=about. Retrieved 2011-12-16. 
  8. ^ Lipsett, Anthea (2008-03-27). "Union committee to reconsider Israeli academics boycott". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/mar/27/highereducation.uk2. 
  9. ^ a b c d History of the International Socialists – "Part 1: From Theory to Practice", Ian H. Birchall, (originally published in) International Socialism 76 (1st series), March 1975
  10. ^ a b c Tony Cliff, A World to Win, Chapter 3, Bookmarks, 2000.
  11. ^ The Nature of Stalinist Russia, RCP Internal Bulletin, 1948.
  12. ^ Tony Cliff, "The Class Nature of the People's Democracies"
  13. ^ ""Marxism and the Theory of Bureaucratic Collectivism"". Marxists.org. 2005-10-14. http://www.marxists.org/archive/cliff/works/1948/xx/burcoll.htm. Retrieved 2011-12-16. 
  14. ^ Jim Higgins, More Years for the Locusts, Chapter 3, IS Group, 1997.
  15. ^ Jim Higgins, More Years for the Locusts, Chapter 7, IS Group, 1997.
  16. ^ Tony Cliff & Colin Barker, Incomes policy, legislation and shop stewards, London 1966.
  17. ^ [1]
  18. ^ Tony Cliff, A World to Win, Chapter 4, Bookmarks, 2000.
  19. ^ a b Ian Birchall History of the International Socialists – "Part 2: Towards a revolutionary party" (originally published in) International Socialism 77 (1st series), April 1975
  20. ^ Socialist Worker, No. 137, 11 September 1969
  21. ^ a b Jim Higgins, More Years for the Locusts, Chapter 11, IS Group, 1997.
  22. ^ Tony Cliff, A World to Win, Bookmarks, London 2000, p. 124.
  23. ^ Tony Cliff, A World to Win, Chapter 6, Bookmarks, 2000.
  24. ^ Tony Cliff A World to Win, Bookmarks 2000, p. 132.
  25. ^ Tony Cliff, A World to Win, Bookmarks 2000o, p. 142.
  26. ^ Ian Birchall: The Smallest Mass Party - "Part 3: Facing the crisis", SWP 1981.
  27. ^ Martin Shaw: "From the International Socialists to the SWP", Socialist Register 1978.
  28. ^ Jim Higgins, More Years for the Locusts, Chapter 14, IS Group, 1997.
  29. ^ Vulliamy, Ed (2007-03-04). "Blood and glory". The Observer (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/mar/04/race.otherparties. Retrieved 2009-05-22. 
  30. ^ Dave Renton, "The Anti-Nazi League, 1977-81", on the website dkrenton.co.uk.
  31. ^ Cliff, Chapter 7
  32. ^ a b c "The broad party, the revolutionary party and the united front". Pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk. http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/isj97/rees.htm. Retrieved 2011-12-16. 
  33. ^ For further details, see Lindsey German Sex, Class and Socialism, Chapter 10.
  34. ^ Cliff, chapter 6
  35. ^ see for example, "Where is the SWP going?"[2] by Murray Smith of the Scottish Socialist Party
  36. ^ a b c "Where is the SWP going?". Pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk. http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/isj97/smith.htm. Retrieved 2011-12-16. 
  37. ^ Harman The Storm Breaks, ISJ 2:46
  38. ^ "The Class Struggle Under New Labour". Pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk. http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/isj75/rees.htm. Retrieved 2011-12-16. 
  39. ^ Alex Callinicos, "Victory to the resistance?", Socialist Worker, 21 August 2004
  40. ^ "Hizbollah is right to fight Zionist terror", George Galloway, Socialist Worker; "Facts point to an unequal conflict in the Middle East", Socialist Worker, 29 July 2006
  41. ^ http://www.workersliberty.org/files/globalisation_2003.pdf
  42. ^ Mike Gonzalez, "Great opportunity to move forward in Scotland", Socialist Worker, 26 August 2006
  43. ^ "TUSC left coalition to stand in general election|6Feb10". Socialist Worker. http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=20159. Retrieved 2011-12-16. 
  44. ^ "Changes in the party’s leadership". Socialist Worker. 17 January 2009. http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=16846. Retrieved 2009-03-13. 
  45. ^ "Internal Bulletin 1, October 2009" (PDF). http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/794/PreconfBulletintwo2009.pdf. Retrieved 2011-12-16. 
  46. ^ Peter Manson "Formation of Rees faction means SWP is on the verge of a split", Weekly Worker, #790, 22 October 2009
  47. ^ "More conference decisions". Socialist Worker. 12 January 2010. http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=19964. Retrieved 2010-01-13. 
  48. ^ "Solomon's Mindfield: A Party to Win? Clare Solomon's expulsion from SWP". Solomonsmindfield.blogspot.com. 2009-11-23. http://solomonsmindfield.blogspot.com/2009/11/party-to-win-clare-solomon-expulsion_23.html. Retrieved 2011-12-16. 
  49. ^ Peter Manson "Left Platform trounced", Weekly Worker, #800, 14 January 2010
  50. ^ "Solomon's Mindfield: My expulsion from the SWP has been ratified by conference". Solomonsmindfield.blogspot.com. 2010-01-10. http://solomonsmindfield.blogspot.com/2010/01/my-expulsion-from-swp-has-been-ratified.html. Retrieved 2011-12-16. 
  51. ^ Why we are resigning from SWP: an open letter, Solomon's Mindfield, Tuesday, 16 February 2010 http://solomonsmindfield.blogspot.com/2010/02/why-we-are-resigning-from-swp-open.html
  52. ^ "Right to Work conference: ‘We can fight, we can win’|6Feb10". Socialist Worker. http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=20180. Retrieved 2011-12-16. 
  53. ^ "Martin Smith - 'I will appeal and clear my name'|11Sep10". Socialist Worker. http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=22373. Retrieved 2011-12-16. 
  54. ^ "Stopping racists is not crime—drop charges against Weyman Bennett|3Apr10". Socialist Worker. http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=20776. Retrieved 2011-12-16. 
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