SWP's crisis deepens

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday March 24, 2003 12:39 by Kenneth Owende lionheart at africa dot com

The recent leaflet issued by the SWP at the March 22 demo shows that the Party's financial and political crisis is deepening

The SWP suggested that everyone that agreed to 3 very liberal demands would be at home in the SWP. The leaflet claimed that if you 1. believed in people before profit, 2. were against the war in Iraq, and 3. Were against racism, them your home is the Marxist-Leninist SWP!

This is a clear indication that the SWP are in a financial crisis. Previous reports on Indymedia have claimed this, their recent leaflet seems to confirm that the SWP are desperate for Members Subs. The SWP have already laid-off a Full-timer, believed to be Joe Carolan.

There is also talk of a political crisis in the SWP. The crisis centres around the divide between Kieran Allen and Richard Boyd-Barrett. This well-publicised division in the Party is now coming more and more to the fore as the Anti-War movement develops. Allen is a supporter of more anti-capitalist work for the Party, Boyd-Barrett believes in appealing to the more softer elements in the IAWM and then "developing them politically within the Party". It's believed that Boyd-Barret was responsible for their recent leaflet, this causing major frictions in the Party between the Boyd-Barrett and Allen camps.

The SWP have suffered a number of set-backs since the Anti-War campaing got underway. Not recruiting the numbers they wished, they're School Student group has no active members, losing a Full-timer, splits within the leadership, have all contributed to the falling morale among SWP rank-and-file.