A successful year
The last year has seen a quickening of activity, as we anticipated at the last Congress. Consequently our party doubled its number of recruits in 2001
Of these new recruits, a higher percentage are staying active and tend to be younger and with a greater thirst for political ideas than many we recruited in the 1990s.
One-third of these recruits are youth under the age of 26. Whilst this is a good achievement we should aspire to making over 50% of new recruits youth under-26.
Our organisation generally responded very well both theoretically and practically to the defining challenges posed by the events of 11 September and afterwards.
Such events, despite their complexity, demanded a rapid response, where branches had to shake off any routinism or inertia. Our speedy, energetic intervention into the anti-war movement, nationally and locally, showed how effectively and positively we could turn towards this urgent new priority.
A new confidence
This increased recruitment, a doubling of the growth of the previous year, is a significant achievement and reflects a growing confidence and optimism amongst most comrades about the potential to build our party.
This in turn reflects the fact that we are coming across more potential members, paper sales are increasing and that the people we meet on stalls are more openly approaching us because of our socialist ideas; rather than because of the single-issue campaigns we have been running.
We had three out of the top five best results of all the Left at the general election, whilst achieving good recruitment, holding large public meetings and sinking deeper roots into working-class areas. In contrast, other Left groups in the Socialist Alliance concentrated on solely leafleting and propagandising in areas without sinking deep roots.
Our excellent interventions on the big national anti-war demos have been commented on by many comrades as proving a real morale booster and giving an indication of the cohesiveness of our national organisation.
As always, confidence and optimism have to be linked to the practical work of building our party and making real gains as opposed to potential gains.
Over the last year the party has been drawn more towards more co-ordinated national campaigning on issues rather than the localised campaigning that was apparent in previous years. This includes the general election, the campaign in the colleges against fees, the anti-capitalist movement and building ISR and the anti-war movement and demonstrations among others.
In the year ahead we will certainly be involved in much local work. But it’s more likely that national campaigns will again form the focus of the work for the branches in the next year.
For us the clear national priorities will be the local council elections in many parts of England and Wales the anti-privatisation work in the trade union field and above all the work that will be undertaken by International Socialist Resistance (ISR) to stop privatisation of education and to defend the right to a free state education. We will also have to be prepared to continue our work in the anti-war movement – especially if it grows further if the US expands its war aims to take in Iraq and elsewhere.
Youth and anti-capitalist work
We noted that the 11 September attacks could cut across the developing anti-capitalist movement, particularly in some countries in the initial aftermath as an ideological offensive was conducted against anti-capitalism by the ruling classes. However, this appears to be fading now.
Certainly, the Brussels demonstrations in December show that the movement is not on a downward curve and that there is still big potential to recruit protesters to our socialist cause. Also, many of the big anti-war demos – such as those in Italy – went beyond the limited demand of Stop the War and encompassed anti-capitalism and anti-government protests which were also against the war.
The excellent intervention of the CWI into the Brussels demonstrations and the marvellous ISR conference that followed, signify a tremendous step forward in the anti-capitalist and youth work. The freshers fayres in the colleges also brought more potential and actual members to our party.
Although the numbers joining Socialist Students are about the same as last year, we have now built a more solid base in more universities. Other Left groups, appear to have had difficulty in maintaining their student structures.
The work of Youth Against Racism IN Europe, has shown how important it is to continue anti-racist work. We are the only Left organisation that has effectively undercut the political alienation which leads to some white working-class youth being drawn to the ideas, if not the activity, of the racist groups. The YRE has done some very useful work in mobilising against the BNP and organised events on the ground in Oldham and Burnley.
Trade union interventions
We have also intervened successfully in the trade unions. The fact that we are the Left group with the greatest number of members on trade union national executives has stood us in good stead during the Socialist Alliance debates.
Our influence has assisted us in making successful interventions and building up authority among many groups of workers – particularly those moving into struggle.
The magnificent struggle of the Hackney council workers has been due in no small part to the leading role played by our comrades, both inside and outside the council.
Our intervention there has shown how to develop the strategy and tactics of militant struggle involving, the branch regional and national organisation. At every stage of the struggle the branch has discussed each new turn and took appropriate action, which also involved other sections of the community and has involved conducting a political struggle as well.
At the same time the branch always consciously tried to build and recruit to our party.
On a smaller scale, similar interventions have been conducted by a number of branches around England and Wales. These confirm the point we have made a number of times; that is, our organisation, given our substantial experience, knows how to take workers’ struggles forward – often despite massive obstacles – to achieve victories for sections of the working class.
At the end of last year we had a good intervention into the civil servants dispute, making some recruits, and intervening in the very good anti-privatisation conference called by the trade union Broad Lefts in December of last year.
Building a base for our party among industrial and public-sector workers is an immediate and vital task that all branches have to carry out. Branches should regularly discuss our intervention into the workplaces and most importantly ensure we recruit workers from these interventions.
Recruitment
The last year has thrown up many opportunities to build. During the general election we recruited hundreds of new members in the four weeks of the campaign. This was not just in the election seats; a number of branches had reached their recruitment targets by June of 2001.
We must always stress in the branches the need to encourage potential members who do not join first time. We must also show patience and persistence with all members, encouraging them to attend regularly and take part in our activities
To encourage all members to participate in some way we should supplement our weekly branch meetings with monthly district, regional or public meetings and produce regular newsletters to communicate with all party members.
We must also stress in the branches that we want to raise all new members’ sights to give as much for the party as they possibly can, given their individual circumstances.
We believe we can dramatically exceed our growth of last year; achieving hundreds extra new recruits and driving our membership upwards.
Education and consolidation
All the opportunities to build have to be linked to turning these recruits into a new layer of active members who will build our party.
Our annual education events, the Summer Camp and Socialism, were again successful last year, with both showing a good increase in numbers on the previous year. However, the increased numbers don’t fully reflect the qualitative improvement that the turnout represented at both events. In particular, George Galloway MP, who spoke at Socialism, commented on the youthfulness of the audience.
Socialism also showed the thirst for ideas among the new layer we are recruiting, particularly new youth. We will again this year use the Summer Camp and Socialism to consolidate new members. Following on the success of last year there has to be real drive to making Socialism 2002 on 26-27 October as the main event of the year for all party members.
Branches must see that political education and integration into our ranks should be a constant factor in our work. Proper thought and meticulous attention to detail must be shown in developing the new members.
All the important publications of the Party should be used in raising the level of understanding of the comrades and propagating the ideas among the working class generally.
In addition we need to remind ourselves that all our work is based on the past historic struggles and experiences of the working class, and these are mainly to be learned from the books and publications we try to provide through our Book service.
In order to maintain and develop this service every party member should feel it an essential part of their work to use this service and put forward ideas for its development and recommend titles to be stocked and perhaps to be published.
This Congress reasserts its commitment to having at least a small display of books and pamphlets available at every meeting, including weekly branches, discussion groups and stalls, as well as a larger display at regional meetings and national caucuses.
Political integration has to be linked with practical integration of new members. Every new member should be asked to play a role in the branch and participate in our activities from the start of their membership.
Consistent public activity is essential for the healthy development of our branches. All of them should undertake a regular Saturday stall and a number of other activities. All activities must be well planned with everyone feeling responsible for making it look good and being effective. Additionally, every member should feel they have a specific responsibility and that their efforts count towards the building of the party.
The production and use of our paper, journal and other publications are significant parts of our party work. Imagine how difficult it would have been to deal with the events of the last year among our own members even without a paper or journal. There was a heightened interest after 11 September in what we had to say. Also the coverage of the developments in the Socialist Alliance has been absolutely essential for our own members and to help us try and influence those around our party.
We must continue to ensure the regular production of our publications and ensure they are used effectively. This is one of the best ways to strengthen our party, to recruit new members and build influence for our ideas.
We believe branches should ensure regular discussions about the role of our party publications, linking it to campaigns to improve and increase sales.
Work amongst women
We would refer comrades to the separate resolution on women passed at last year’s congress. All the points covered in this substantial resolution are applicable today. We would however reiterate the following points.
Because of the double oppression experienced by working-class women, there are specific issues of concern to them. If we are to recruit working-class women and integrate them into the party then we have to ensure that we address these issues in our campaigning work, in political discussions and in written material.
We should continue to participate in the Campaign Against Domestic Violence (CADV), which has been in existence now for over ten years, at local and national level. Branches should be ready to intervene quickly and take initiatives on issues of concern to women. We should also be aware that there is a ‘gender angle’ to most issues. For example, a majority of women were opposed to the bombing in Afghanistan whereas a majority of men were in favour.
Branches should campaign to ensure the maximum turnout of women to national women’s meetings. These play an important educational role within the party as well as organising our campaigning work. Several areas have held successful regional and local women’s meetings and we should continue to organise these as a supplement to the national meetings.
Because of caring responsibilities some women may find it difficult to be fully involved in the party. Branches should ensure that practical measures such as organising childcare, transport etc are taken to enable women to attend meetings and be involved in party activities.
Sales of the party’s Women’s pack have gone very well but we have nowhere reached the potential sales. The pack gives our Marxist explanation of women’s oppression and is still very relevant. We should push the pack in all the work we are involved in but especially amongst young women in the colleges who are likely to come across other ideological explanations regarding women’s oppression.
Our party has to reach and involve in membership and in the life of its work the most oppressed layers of the working class if it is to be successful in the fight for a socialist society. Workers from these layers have the most to gain and will be the most combative fighters for socialism if won to Marxist ideas. However it is also the case that the struggle to win workers to our ideas may not be straightforward because of the oppression faced by this layer of workers in every day life.
Black and Asian work
Black and Asian workers still face considerable racism, primarily a legacy from imperialism, in Britain today.
Whilst general social attitudes have changed considerably – 82% would not be bothered if a member of their family married someone from another ethnic background (Observer Race in Britain November 2001) – towards blacks, Asians and other immigrant workers, all studies show that racism has combined with all the other ills of capitalist society to segregate and isolate the majority of blacks and Asians in the most impoverished section of British society. 56% of minority ethnic Britons live in the 44 most deprived boroughs (Observer Race in Britain November 2001). The riots in Oldham, Bradford, Burnley and other cities in Northern England have exposed the enormous amount of anger of Asian youth, in particular, against the oppressive conditions under which they live.
Race discrimination is now one of the most explosive social issues in Britain, for which New Labour has no solution. In fact their policies have led to a further increase in segregation and isolation of blacks and Asians. In mostly black or Asian areas youth unemployment can be as high as 40%. Racist attacks, which have increased dramatically since 11 September, have also further increased the levels of segregation.
However, the leadership of many of the Black and Asian communities are completely out of touch with the youth and the problems they face and are often despised in some areas. Amongst Muslim youth and much smaller sections of other disaffected youth there will be a section moving towards right wing Islamic political organisations.
Amongst other black and Asian youth the move towards other ‘black nationalist’ or religious ‘fundamentalist’ ideas is still at a very early stage but has potential to develop. We need to remember that these ideas cannot provide any solution to the problems of the world never mind those faced by the Muslim ‘world’.
There will also be in these more volatile times, for blacks and Asians in particular, a searching amongst a section of youth and workers for socialist ideas. Our party has always striven to have Black and Asian workers over-represented in our ranks. This should be even more the case now. Our general programme and activities, if put boldly, will recruit Blacks and Asians. But we must also address the questions posed by racism through discussions in our branches to raise the level of understanding of the whole party.
Black and Asian youth and workers will remain in our party if they lead that discussion in our party. Our material in both The Socialist and Socialism Today must explain the issues that arise and provide a programme for the party to fight on this issue.
The party’s Black and Asian members produced material for the general election and were instrumental in organising a conference with North-West Black Members’ Committee of UNISON.
The year ahead
Many on the Left attempted to prophesy our impending demise many times in recent years but have been proved false by our activity and growth in the last year.
Events will partly decide which areas of work we focus on. But at the same time there are clear priorities we have to pursue – particularly the developments in the youth field and the anti-privatisation work among workers in the unions.
In these areas of work and all other, we always need urgency, discipline in prioritising work and enabling all members to be confident in recruiting and building our party.
Confidence stems from our ideas, strategy and tactics being confirmed in our members’ eyes by our intervention into the living struggles of the working class leading to the successful growth of our party.
