The SWP and the idea of the revolutionary party (Audio)

Submitted by LM on 19 July, 2013 - 1:59

Sean Matgamna spoke at a fringe meeting at Marxism 2013 about what a revolutionary organisation is and is not, and what the history of the workers' movement can tell us about the role for socialists in changing society. Click here to listen to the recording.

What is a socialist organisation for?

The socialist movement today is plagued by a number of words which are commonly-used but much-abused - "democratic centralism", "Leninism", "the revolutionary party". In much of the left today, these words are used to describe and defend undemocratic, irrational regimes and cliques. Others on the left respond by rejecting these ideas altogether. The recent crisis in the SWP has posed this problem very sharply.

Workers' Liberty activists aim to transform the existing labour movement - not set up a parallel one at its fringes. We believe that in order to achieve that, socialists need to "face reality squarely, call things by their right names and speak the truth, no matter how bitter it may be" - rather than making week-to-week agitation based on what we think will allow us to pick up recruits to a separate organisation on a short-term basis. We think that a socialist organisation needs a regime based on truth-telling - not on an all-wise Central Committee "bending the stick" -and our idea of how to organise follows from this.

Speech from Sean Matgamna, author of the Fate of the Russian Revolution and former International Socialists National Committee member.

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