RIP SWP?

The  resignation statement of 71 SWPers with many others expected to follow. One now ex-SWP prominent member wrote .

"One is simply astounded by how inadequate, corrupt, stupid, narrow-mindedly bureaucratic and delusional the leadership of the SWP has proven to be."  Members of the Socialist Party could have told them that years ago. He goes on to say "It is not just that having covered up serious sexual allegations, and so disastrously failed at least two female comrades, they can admit no fault. It is not just the absurd, scholastic, apolitical explanations they give for doing so, or the tragic retreat into bunkered dogma that has accompanied this. It is not just that they lie with impunity. It is not just that they ducked a real debate, with their absurd rules limiting faction speakers at aggregates, and their gerrymandering of conference. It is not just that even now many of them are desperate to get the accused back into the leadership as soon as can conveniently be arranged. It is not just that their response to the most recent allegations by a female ex-member was to effectively dismiss her as a liar, without investigating further. It is that, having done a Jonestown, they think they’ve just triumphed."

Rather than learn the real lessons of undemocratic centralism it seems another party is in the offing - the International Socialist Network. There is already an International Socialist Group  and in Scotland there is the International Socialism Group  not to be confused with this International Socialism Group created in the mid-90s from a previous split from the SWP. And of course there still exists Counterfire, yet another breakaway from the SWP when its leadership fell out with one another.

Should the Socialist Party take pleasure, a feeling of schadenfreude from our political enemies difficulties? Perhaps not, since they masquerade to be proponents of socialism and purport to be socialists therefore it offers a disservice to socialists in a socialist party where genuine internal democracy is valued and does not have a leaders to betray its principles. Also some sincere but misinformed, misguided members of the SWP are just as likely to reject the whole idea of socialism prevailing as a new system of society.  It  makes the problem of persuading workers of the need for socialism a little bit harder.

Inside the Bolshevik Cul-de-sac

Another article from the Socialist Standard archives which once again ( but in a slightly more theoretical depth ) demonstrates the bankruptcy of the Socialist Workers Party ( then the International Socialists ) and their kindred Trotskyists. Although dated from 1970 and discusses a Russia that has now changed , not too much has actually changed .

Inside the Bolshevik Cul-de-sac

Those who still cling to the basic Bolshevik premise - that the Russian insurrection of October 1917 amounted to a Socialist Revolution - are caught inside a trap of their own making . Whichever way they turn , they are landed with an uneasy antagonism between their theory and reality …

IS Group

However most of the people who have recently come round to the view that Russia is capitalist have not adjusted all of their political views accordingly , but have merely corrected this one point, failing to notice the inconsistencies which then emerge in the remainder of their ideas. For example the group known as International Socialism ( IS) is basically a trotskyist group except that it holds Russia to be state capitalist .

The growth of working -class understanding is a contradictory process. With their emphasis on violence and minority action IS are peddling dangerous deceptions. Yet these are more advanced deceptions than those marketed by the “Communist” Party 20 years ago - more advanced in the sense that they recognise the impracticability these days of equating nationalisation and the Russia with Socialism . True , the incorporation of the correct view that modern Russia is capitalist into the fundamentally mistaken and anti-working-class doctrine of Bolshevism , allows this doctrine to gain greatly in immediate appeal. But only at the expense of yet more glaring inconsistencies within the doctrine itself. For instance , the IS claim that capitalism sprang into being in Russia in 1928 after 10 years of transition towards Socialism is breathtaking in its lack of connection with any kind of reality [ In case the point is missed , this is not only an exercise in labelling the past . So long as IS maintain that the 1917 revolution was Socialist they will be unable to seriously criticise all the garbage that comes in its train, Lenin’s ignorant theory of Imperialism ; the concept of the vanguard party and “transitional demands” etc. So long as they fail to do this , they are an obstacle to the establishment of Socialism .] Even the Bolshevik leaders ( with the exceptions interestingly enough , of Trotsky and Stalin ) conceded that state capitalism existed in Russia following 1917.

Kidron and Mandel

There has recently been a controversy between Michael Kidron (IS) and Ernest Mandel (orthodox trotskyist) [ Kidron in International Socialism 36; Mandel’s pamphlet The Inconsistencies of State Capitalism ; Debate between Kidron and Mandel at Hull University , 4/11/69; Harman in International Socialism 41 ] which is interesting to Socialists since it shows Kidron failing to draw reasonable conclusions from his view that Russia is capitalist 9 in fact failing to fully comprehend what this means 0 , and Mandel taking advantage of Kidron’s confusion to discredit the whole theory of state capitalism .

Mandel points out that if they were consistent , IS would adopt a position of hostility towards the “Communist” movement . If North Vietnam is state capitalist , how can IS support the Vietcong? If the “Communist” parties are capitalist parties , the potential nuclei of future ruling classes , and if these ruling classes would not be historically progressive , why do IS co-operate politically with them ? Mandel might well ask.

Of course , he regard such a position of hostility as unthinkable . But this is precisely the standpoint of the Socialist Party of Great Britain .We have at no time combined with the “Communist” Party or ceased to expose it, and we have always adopted a policy of opposition to both sides in every capitalist war. Unlike IS , we unite theory and practice .
In order to combat Mandel’s argument that Russia is a “transitional society,” Kidron says that there can be no transitional society between capitalism and Socialism . Quite correctly , he states : “The only possible transition is a sudden , revolutionary one.” This promising statement ( astonishing coming from IS ) is somewhat undermined by the fact that Kidron hasn’t the foggiest clue what Socialism is;

“ Socialism is a total system. It cannot grow piecemeal within the interstices of a capitalist society . How does workers’ control of production coexist with the control by the ruling classes when the means of production in dispute are one and the same? How does self-determination and consumer sovereignty ( ‘production for use’ ) coexist with the external compulsion and blind accumulation that results from capitalist dispersal”

This is one of several instances where Mandel ( who has read Marx) has a field day demolishing Kidron ( a mere Keynsian-eclectic mouthing misunderstood Marxist phrases). Socialism , of course , has nothing to do with “workers’ control of production” . Socialism means a classless world society , without commodities , without the state , without frontiers . It is therefore interesting to note that Mandel realises what Socialism is , but relegates it to the distant beyond , whereas Kidron wants “Socialism” as quickly as possible , but his “Socialism” isn’t Socialism at all ! Mandel’s “transitional society ” is basically similar to Kidron’s “Socialism” and both are actually models of capitalism, since both envisage the retention of the wages system.
Marx argued that wage-labour and capital were quite inseparable . And in a reply to Mandel , C. Harman of IS comments:

“Nowhere…is there a single mention of the working class or a single reference to the wage labour/capital relationship. Now this is curious . For it was not Michael Kidron but Karl Marx who wrote ‘The relation between wage labour and capital determines the entire character of the mode of production’ And this is not an accidental aside….”

But later we find Harman flatly contradicting this , as he must because wage-labour is to remain a feature of the “worker’ state” which is the avowed aim of IS . Harman argues that Russian industry from 1917 to 1928 was not capitalist , though presumably he would not deny that it featured wage-labour.

Neither Mandel nor Kidron seem unduly aware of modern Russia’s realities . Both seem to believe the Russian economy is “planned” full stop.
What then is the situation of the Russian worker ? He is free to move from factory to factory , from town to town , or occupation to occupation , in pursuit of higher wages , or under pressure of unemployment. And he is forced to do so , since he owns no means of production (except a substantial but dwindling number who have small plots of land , and indeed , need them to keep starvation at bay ). He is therefore “doubly free” in Marx’s phrase . He sells his labour- power to a state enterprise for a wage which is less than the price of his product . The surplus is mostly reinvested for his further exploitation, with a small proportion going to keep his rulers in the manner to which they are accustomed . In any circumstances ( except general forced labour) it would be quite impracticable for the state to plan wages with any accuracy , but this is impossible in Russia where most workers are on piece rates ( described by Marx as ‘the form of wages most in harmony with the capitalist mode of production’ ) It has been a pretty constant feature of Russian state capitalism that the actual total wages bill has exceeded (sometimes vastly) the amount foreseen in the plan. In Russia , labour power is clearly a commodity .
A popular view of the Russian economy is that a plan is devised at the top , orders are issued , and enterprises promptly fulfil the plan. The goals of the plan are , first , making an overall profit , second , catching up with the West . Yet to possess any effectiveness at all , the plan must be based on reports from the enterprises which as well as being concerned to fulfil plans , also have their own profit or loss account, with plenty of incentive to get their profits up .
In fact , the long-term ( five-year and seven-year) plans are always drastically modified in practice . They are merely guidelines for the annual ( and quarterly and monthly) plans . Even so , several of the long-term plans could not be decreed until long after they were supposed to have started , and one ( the 6th five-year plan ) had to be abandoned altogether .

In the process of adapting the long term plan year by year , all sorts of unforeseen factors have to be take, many of which are even by Mandel’s account , unambiguously the product of market forces . Much of the Russian state’s “planning” is thus a matter of anticipating , or even subsequently conforming to , these market forces . It is , however , true that they can exercise considerably “arbitrary” influences . Any capitalist state can do this to some extent ( development grants , SET , etc ) The Russian state has much more power , mainly because , with the state monopoly of foreign trade functioning as a protective tariff , and with prevailing internal scarcity , the Russian capitalists have a seller’s market . In relation to the peasants they have a buyer’s market . It is exactly in such monopolistic situations that commodities can sell consistently above or below their values [ If Mandel reasoning was correct and Russia lacked some of the essential features of capitalism , this would show not that it was transitional between capitalism and Socialism , but “transitional” between Asiatic feudalism (tsarism) and capitalism . The peculiarities of Russian capitalism are the outcome of an unprecedented combination of backward peasant production and advanced industry ]

But what happens as the disappearing peasant reserve strengthens the workers bargaining power ? As consumer good production is increased to raise the worker’ productivity ? As consumers ( workers and capitalists) get greater choice in their purchases , so that enterprises must become more responsive to the market , hence freer of central direction? What happens as the era of telescope development passes , so that Russian industry must imitate less and innovate more ? The Russian capitalists are compelled to abandon by degrees the system of planning with material targets , which served them well as a method of rapid industrialisation , but has now outlived its usefulness .

There are many defenders of western capitalism who assert that “Socialism” has failed in Russia which is therefore “returning” to capitalism . Mandel plays into the hands of these people by describing the current decentralisation of profit -seeking initiative as “degeneration” when it is clearly necessitated by advancement . He also thereby gives ammunition to those who argue that “Socialism” is suitable only for backward countries.

What has failed in Russia is not “planning” , much less Socialism , but the attempt to plan a capitalist economy . It is not impossible to operate a technologically advanced society according to a common plan , but it is quite impossible to do this if there are competing economic interests , and if all those working for the plan have to be provided with a monetary incentive for everything they do . In a Socialist economy , with all work entirely voluntary and the price system abolished , it will be entirely feasible to plan all production according to democratically decided criteria .

Between capitalism and Socialism there cannot exist a stable , lengthy transitional period . This point seemed to have dimly penetrated the brain of Trotsky , who recognised the silliness of a transitional society which stably maintained itself for generation after generation . He therefore described Stalin’s regime as a pyramid balanced on its head , and predicted it would be toppled in a major war. When the war came , it demonstrated the Russian system to be rather a pyramid stood firmly on its base .[ It is revealing that Mandel doesn’t dare use Trotsky’s long-since shattered argument that a state bureaucracy cannot constitute a ruling class . Trotsky was prepared to concede that state capitalism could in theory exist provided there was individual ownership of shares in the state ]

Far from Russia being on the road to Socialism , workers there still have to win elementary political and trade union rights already gained by western workers . Capitalism continues to exist throughout theory because workers put up with it , and can be abolished as soon as the majority of workers desire Socialism , though this is most strikingly evident in countries , unlike Russia , have effective workers’ suffrage . It is quite wrong to believe , as Mandel does , that we should support Russia or China against America . It is not worth a single workers’ life of limbs to advance the interests of the Russian rulers against their rivals. Neither does it matter whether Russian enterprises remain formally , legally state-owned or not . This has no bearing on workers’ interests and is beside the point anyway - a nationalised industry can be as free from de facto central control as some “privately-owned” firms.

Mandel’s view would have slightly more plausibility if all his “transitional societies” were politically united under one state . But they compete economically and militarily , and if the whole world owned by them alone , the danger of our species being exterminated in a war would be no less than it is today - “transitional” indeed !

Russia must of course be seen in its international context . It is here that the IS arguments against Mandel are strongest . As Harman rightly says , there is no such thing as the “inner logic” of a plan . The goals of Russian national planning have been fixed by international competition .

But the force of the IS attack here only throws into more startling relief their position on the national question ( especially now that they have taken to supporting , not only the Vietcong, but also the Chinese state which they admit to be capitalist) . It is no get-out to proclaim , as Harman does , that they also supported the Kenyan anti-colonial movement , or the “ the Cypriot struggle led by the cleric Makarios and the fascist Grivas” That is nothing to be proud of . Neither is this justified by calling it “ the Marxist position” What conceivable excuse can there be for people supporting the slaughter of workers which is a side-effect of the rival capitalist powers’ perennial jostling for a place in the sun?

By S in the Socialist Standard April 1970

Further reading :
SPGB Education Document (1995) WHERE THE SWP IS COMING FROM

From the Archives - Debate with the I.S.

This is a report of a debate between the SPGB and the International Socialists ( now the Socialist Workers Party ) that took place in Edinburgh in 1970 to an audience of 70 . Whereas , the principles of the Socialist Party has remained steadfast , we can see that the opportunism of the SWP has also remained consistent . Whereas , we still await the rise of socialist consciousness within the working class , the SWP are still waiting for that mythical revolutionary situation to arise . They seek it here , they seek it there , they seek it everywhere .
In contrast , the Socialist Party of Great Britain , as a party of socialists , as a party for socialism , will continue with the distinct unrelenting task of education , agitation and organisation for socialism and nothing but socialism .

Speakers for the SPGB were Jim Fleming and Vic Vanni from Glasgow branch . For the IS the speakers were S. Jeffries and B. Lavery . There was no objections raised by the IS to the report .

Comrade Fleming opened for the SPGB by pointing out that the SPGB was an international organisation that was democratically controlled by all its members; that it was opposed to leadership and the idea of an elite or vanguard leading the working class to Socialism . The muddled policies of the IS and other romantic left-wing groups only confused the working class.
S. Jeffries opened for the IS by saying that he agreed with the SPGB’s Marxist theory but that there was a failure to link up theory with practice. He went on to quote Engels on the need to build the revolutionary movement within the trade unions . It was stupid to rely on the vote . He preferred the overthrow of the system by non-parliamentary means , and said that Marxists should always be prepared for the revolutionary situation when this overthrow would be possible .

Comrade Vanni replied that revolutionary phrase-mongering did not make a socialist and invited the floor to look at the dismal history of the IS . Using back numbers of the Labour Weekly ( now Socialist Worker ) he drew attention to their lack of socialist understanding giving instances such as IS having urged workers to vote for the Labour Party in the 1964 and 1966 elections instead of fighting the real enemy - capitalism . It was not a Leninist elite that would bring about the revolution but capitalism itself by the contradictions inherent in it . IS far from being a vanguard , were in reality politically backward .They considered the workers too dull to learn from history but instead that they have to be taken through the struggles and learn from strikes. He went into some detail on the bankruptcy of their political theory , such as the permanent arms economy and their belief in the collapse of capitalism .IS did not understand what Socialism was , as they saw a need for money banks and the like , saying that instead of being sacked by a boss you would be made redundant by a “Workers Council”. In reality , it all boiled down to a sophisticated state capitalism .
B. Lavery (IS) said the SPGB had made a few mistakes , but this was only because they had always stood to one side of the real struggles . The SPGB’s ideas were grossly oversimple and he could not see that how , when Labour MPs inevitably became corrupted by parliament , socialist representatives would not also become corrupted . There were not only two classes in society today but many , one of them being the peasant class . Whole areas of the world , Africa , Asia and South America were predominantly peasant . The peasants outnumbered workers on a world wide basis and the SPGB was wrong in not taking this into account . He realised the IS support of the Labour Party was a mistake but at least it had raised the consciousness of some workers .

The first question from the floor was to the IS asking how soon after Socialism was established , money could be done away with .

The reply from IS was : only when we had eventually gone through the transitional stages and reached Communism .

The next question to the platform was asking for a definition of Socialism .

Comrade Fleming answered and first pointed out what the “revolutionary” demands of the IS were ( again quoting the Socialist Worker ) i.e. bringing the British forces back from overseas bases and five days work or five days pay in the car industry .This had nothing to do with Socialism . In contrast , the SPGB did not concern itself with petty reforms . The SPGB wanted the whole world , everything in it and on it , to be the common property of all mankind regardless of colour or sex; all people would take according to their needs and give according to their ability .
The IS then said that a utopian vision was pointless; what was needed to get the workers on your side was a realistic demand.

The next question was about the class structure of society , especially as regards the small shopkeeper.

Comrade Vanni pointed out that in modern society there were two basic economic classes , the capitalist class and the working class . Most small shopkeepers were of the working class as they had to work for a living . The small fringe of people who could not be definitely placed as workers or capitalists was diminishing all the time due to mergers and was relatively unimportant .
B. Lavery (IS) pointed out again that the SPGB was forgetting the peasant class , who were in a majority in Africa and Asia . Although small shopkeepers may be workers they usually supported capitalism . You cannot afford to ignore the people who come between capitalist and workers .

The next question regarded the role of parliament in the revolution .

Comrade Vanni started by quoting Engels on Parliament and the vote, about universal suffrage being one of the sharpest weapons of the working class had. ( Introduction to Class Struggles in France ) . If universal suffrage allowed nothing else at least you knew how many workers were politically conscious . This would prevent the likelihood of the revolution coming about when socialists were in a minority .

The next question referred to Lenin’s role in the Russian Revolution .

The IS began by saying that the revolution depended on smashing the state machine . It was crucial that workers should set up soviets and workers councils The real power was in the factories and once the workers got control of them they would easily smash the state machine . A lot depended on the conditions prevailing e.g. whether sections of the army would desert to fight on the workers side .
Comrade Fleming said it was a grave mistake to think that the working class was capable of smashing the state machine . It was ludicrous to assume that because the workers had occupied factories they would be capable of resisting tanks and bombs . It was essential to make sure the state machine was in the hands of the working class and not leave it in the control of the capitalist class . He concluded by stressing that parliament had tremendous power.

The next question was about the danger of fascism and what were the to parties doing about it .

Jeffries for the IS said the SPGB were not interested in the real problems facing the working class . Socialists should concern themselves with things such as incomes policy and productivity deals.
Comrade Fleming replied by saying that capitalism had played its historic role in solving the problem of production . Now that an abundance of wealth was capable of being produced the only meaningful struggle was for the overthrow of capitalism, which would result in the major problems being solved .

The summing up then followed with Jeffries (IS) saying that only the middle class and small businessmen were interested in parliament. The power of the big capitalists was concentrated in the factories, boardrooms and monopolies; they did not bother with parliament . Working within the Labour Party had produced some results such as the political strike against the government’s white paper on Trade Unions . The IS had left the Labour Party along with the politically conscious workers . The revolutionary party must always be where the workers were and must try to generalize their struggles . It was essential to fight for reforms while pointing out that capitalism was the real enemy . He concluded by saying that it was essential to fight within the labour movement because that was where the action was .

Comrade Vanni wound up for the SPGB saying that it was essential to take parliament into account as there was no doubt as to the power it had over the state machine . Their [IS] meaningless activities centred round demonstrations outside embassies and other buildings usually only succeeded in frightening the caretaker out of his wits . The history of the IS showed their lack of revolutionary understanding ; they always tackled the effects and never got to the root of the problems . The IS might call the SPGB’s vision of the future society a dream but it was much more preferable to the nightmare of the IS with wages and banks and all the paraphernalia of state capitalism . It was the job of revolutionaries not to reform capitalism but to leave that to the people who run capitalism like the so-called Communist Party , Labour Party and Conservatives. The real task to organise and agitate amongst fellow workers for the overthrow of capitalism by the majority of the world’s population using democratic processes if available . “Peacefully if possible , violently if necessary “ was the SPGB’s viewpoint. Instead of fighting for such reforms as “five days work or five days pay” , one should remember Marx when he said “away with the conservative motto , a fair days work for a fair days wage and inscribe on your banner the revolutionary watchword ABOLITION OF THE WAGES SYSTEM”

Socialist Standard July 1970