In 1988 the \u201cnew mood\u201d joined \u201cthe downturn\u201d as one of the stock phrases in every Socialist Workers Party member\u2019s vocabulary. The new mood was the silver lining to the dark cloud of the downturn.<\/p>\n
Pauline Smith explains why the change in perspective has not led to any fundamental change in the SWP\u2019s practice.<\/p>\n
The SWP\u2019s political method consists of tailing the existing level of consciousness and struggle at all times. It is one of the features of what Lenin called \u201ceconomism\u201d. In the period of recession and defeat, when workers\u2019 spontaneous militancy had been seriously undermined by unemployment and the anti-union laws, the SWP developed the \u201cdownturn perspective\u201d was the result.<\/p>\n
It saw the SWP, whose hallmark had been the rank and \ufb01le movement tactic, become consistent opponents of rank and \ufb01le organisation. SWP members resigned their stewardships and sang the same funeral hymn over every defeated strike:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can only \ufb01ght for the little things, tea breaks and toilet rolls. At the same time we can make propaganda for socialism\u201d.<\/p>\n
In the last few months, though, the tune has changed.<\/p>\n
As a new mood of militancy really has gripped sections of workers\u2014in Vickers, Jaguar, the post, the NHS and some sections of local government\u2014the SWP\u2019s line became more and more at odds with workers\u2019 willingness to \ufb01ght. SWP members in Lambeth NALGO for example argued strike action was impossible, argued against it, only to \ufb01nd it taking place within days.<\/p>\n
The fact that the \u201cnew mood\u201d was discovered in 1988, with 1\u00b786 million strike days in the \ufb01rst seven months compared to 3\u00b718 million in the same period last year, reveals the \u201cturn\u201d for what it is. It is more of a tonic for the troops and a correction of overzealous pessimism than a serious analysis of the situation and the tactics needed.<\/p>\n
Further evidence of what the \u201cnew mood\u201d means can be gleaned from reports of the SWP\u2019s recent conference:<\/p>\n
\u201cOur job is to take the struggle as far forward as possible. That means starting from what the rank and \ufb01le can do because that has an impact on the trade union leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n
The health dispute is a clear example of what this means. In February and March, when thousands struck on days of action and ancillaries and nurses were in dispute together the \u201cnew mood\u201d was not even a twinkle in Tony Cliff\u2019s eye. So the SWP opposed the call for an all out strike.<\/p>\n
The resurgence of action in the NHS, coinciding with the \u201cnew mood\u201d schema at \ufb01rst prompted the SWP to issue a national lea\ufb02et calling for an all out strike. With four hospitals on inde\ufb01nite strike it looked like an all out strike was something \u201cthe rank and \ufb01le can do\u201d. By the time the \ufb01rst national rank and \ufb01le meeting took place the SWP had not only dropped the call for an all out strike but voted against it in their union branches.<\/p>\n
As always they had begun from trying to guess the level of workers\u2019 consciousness, not by \ufb01ghting for what was necessary. In the nurses\u2019 dispute the suspension of the appeals procedure, the problem this creates for the work to grade and the intransigence of the Tories mean that only an all out strike will win.<\/p>\n
But to get an all out strike nurses will have to build it from above and below. As well as trying to spread and consolidate the action on the ground they will have to mobilise to force the leaders to call an all out strike. For this they need rank and \ufb01le organisation on a national scale. But even a national strike committee proved \u201ctoo far ahead of workers\u201d for the SWP.<\/p>\n
The SWP\u2019s attitude to the new mood of militancy is only a \ufb01ne tuning of the do-nothing position of the last three years. It also embodies their sterile and one-sided view of relations with the union bureaucracy.<\/p>\n
Against some of their members, who argued against placing any demands on the of\ufb01cials, the SWP have argued that workers must place demands on the bureaucracy at the same time as spreading the action from below. But from Frickley to the post and the NHS they have refused to spell out how these demands are to be focused against the leadership.<\/p>\n
Why? Because only an organisation of rank and \ufb01le militants, the minority whose ideas on the issues of the day are ahead of the mass of workers, can effectively \ufb01ght against the bureaucrats, to take control of the action and replace leaders who betray with those who will \ufb01ght.<\/p>\n
The bankruptcy of the SWP in the \ufb01ght against new realism in general could not be better illustrated than by its recipe to \u201crebuild the strength of union organisation from the bottom up\u201d. It calls for shop stewards, regular meetings, solidarity etc. All well and good, but it says nothing about how to wrest control of the unions from the present pack of traitors.<\/p>\n
There may be a small but important change in workers\u2019 ability and desire to \ufb01ght. But the SWP\u2019s \u201cnew mood\u201d perspective holds no answers to the vital question it poses: how to turn the anger into action.n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In 1988 the \u201cnew mood\u201d joined \u201cthe downturn\u201d as one of the stock phrases in every Socialist Workers Party member\u2019s vocabulary. The new mood was the silver lining to the dark cloud of the downturn. Pauline Smith explains why the change in perspective has not led to any fundamental change in the SWP\u2019s practice. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7724,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[104],"class_list":["post-2564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-archive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fifthinternational.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fifthinternational.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fifthinternational.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fifthinternational.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7724"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fifthinternational.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fifthinternational.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2564\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fifthinternational.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fifthinternational.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fifthinternational.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}