Date: Wed, 3 Jul 96 10:12:53 GMT
From: Adam Rose <adam-AT-pmel.com>
Subject: Re: History of SWP (US)



We have had students "industrialise" themselves and sell "Militant" , the
SWP US's paper. The more intelligent ones got out after a few years, only
the stupid ones are left now.

The problem is not the tactic in itself , but the timing.

In 1968, our organisation went from 400 to 1000, nearly all students, although
we had a few industrial militants from the early / mid 60's. We grew out
of the general revolutionary euphoria, but the students we did recruit also
did stuff like leaflet the dockers after Enoch Powell's infamous "Rivers
of blood" speech.

>From 1969 onwards, what later became known as the British upturn started - 
wave after wave of largely victorious, rank + file led, strikes. The IS,
as it was then called, "turned to the class". Long haired hippy students 
went to sell papers and write workplace bulletins ( but, when they got jobs,
they became social workers, teachers, journalists, council workers etc not
railworkers or Engineers ). THEY WERE SUCCESSFUL. We recrutied hand over
fist - in effect, we opened the flood gates of the party, and if the
old timers didn't like it, too bad. Everyone ran around like blue arsed
flies, AND IT WORKED.

By 1974, we had 4,000 members, 2,500 of whom were blue collar workers.
We published and sold rank and file newspapers "the docker" , "the
Engineer" etc, which had real influence. When the Pentonville dockers 
were released, 3 out of 4 spoke on our platform alongside Tony Cliff.

The tactic fitted the state of the class struggle.

[ Looking back, we bent the stick a little to far. The students completely
ignored the colleges, and this let the IMG ( Tariq Ali etc : the 4th
International which wasn't the WRP - couldn't tell you which secretariat
they supported - I think Hugh's lot ? ) recruit a whole generation of
students, which were subsequently led up the garden path into the Labour 
Party. ]

Come the downturn in the class struggle,[  which actually started in 1977,
but which we only woke up to by about 1979 - 80 ] , at precisely the time
the SWP - US turned toward the class, in effect, we turned away from it.
Long meetings on the German revolution were the order of the day. Series
of meetings on Lenin, another series of meetings on Trotsky. Educationals
where we discussed one particular pamphlet for 3 hours. WE STOPPED RUNNING
ABOUT like BLUE ARSED FLIES. We were successful - we SURVIVED.


The point is to understand the state of the class struggle and adapt
accordingly. The SWP-US clearly failed to do this. From what Louis and
others have said, partly this was due to mistaking the "movements" for
the class itself. So, they looked at the movements, decided the class 
was on the move, and acted accordingly.

We turned towards the class when it was on the move, and away from it
when it wasn't. Both shifts happened slightly too late, both times 
we lost members, sometimes longstanding members, and both times we bent
the stick a little too far. But, because we looked at the real state of
the class struggle and adapted our tactics accordingly, we got it more
or less right, while others got it more or less wrong. 

I hope we will continue to get it more or less right - but we shall see.

But what makes it more likely is that we now have members who went through
these various turns, and are capable of recognising similar turning points
and changing their orientation as required. This process is really what I mean
by "translating from the Russian". Such a cadre was lacking in Bulgaria, Italy
and Germany, with disastrous consequences.


Adam.


Adam Rose
SWP
Manchester
UK


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