A load of Trot bollocks

Trotskyist faction fighting is destroying another attempt at Left unity. Should we be surprised?

I usually enjoy reading the Socialist Unity blog, as it provides a wide range of commentary from a Left wing perspective. But the last few weeks have been dire.

This is because of the blog’s decision to chronicle, in minute detail, the implosion of the Left wing political party, Respect. They’ve taken this decision, apparently, because of the response from readers, and the unusually high stats they’ve had. I find this even more sad, that there are thousands of people out there who think that this kind of “he said, she said” bullshit has any relevance to the future of the Left.

Respect is an English party unfairly summarised by most mainstream commentators as an “uncomfortable alliance between radical Muslims and the far Left”. It isn’t. It’s essentially a single issue party, formed out of opposition to the war in Iraq. As such, it attracts support from a range of individuals, but as a strategy to draw disaffected Muslim communities into finding political representation rather than retreating into tribalism, I think the intent is sound.

The party is lead by firebrand MP George Galloway, who famously wrestled the Labour safe seat of Bethnal Green and Bow from Oona King, and who called Christopher Hitchens a “drink-soaked former Trotskyist popinjay” in riveting speech to a US congressional hearing – watch it here.

When I first arrived in the UK and heard about Respect, I was interested, as it appeared to be attempt to create a pluralistic political party to the Left of Labour. After a little research I discovered that the Socialist Workers’ Party (SWP – in South Africa this faction is called Keep Left) were involved, and knew then that it would all end in tears, as it now has.

Trotskyism is political poison. Everything they touch turns to shit.

I won’t go into the reason for the implosion – as I said, Socialist Unity cover it in some, ahem, depth – but it involves a power struggle between Galloway and the Socialist Wankers’ Party.

(A similar attempt to create a united Left in Scotland with the SSP was impressively successful for a few years, until the usual manipulative Trot bullshit – once again orchestrated by the SWP – resulted in the embarrassing scenario of two rival far Left sects both contesting the Scottish elections on the same platform, and both losing badly).

Good riddance to bad fucking rubbish.

Now, what has this got to do with Trotskyism?

Since this blog is largely aimed at an audience that is not thoroughly steeped in the irrelevant minutiae of Left wing history, a bit of background is in order. You can skip this bit if you’re a Left wing trainspotter.

There are a number of currents within the Left, including social democracy, anarchism, autonomism, council communism and more. A prominent current is what you might call mainstream Communism, characterised by an identification with the Russian revolution and the politics of Lenin’s Bolshevik party.

This is split into two mutually hostile groups: the official Communist Parties (sometimes referred to as the Third International, or Comintern), and the oppositional Trotskyists (Fourth Internationalists), after the dissident Leon Trotsky who was murdered by Stalin.

Supporters of the official Communist Parties (including the SACP) are colloquially referred to as tankies, and generally support the idea of imposing socialism by force, from above. With the collapse of their spiritual home, the USSR, many of these people have now joined the Labour Party (and the ANC in South Africa), and have managed to combine the worst aspects of both Stalinism and freemarket capitalism in one attractive political package.

The Trots believe in socialism from below – or at least they claim to.

I agree with much of the basic analysis of the Trots. Their view on how capital divides and conquers is largely correct, as is their assertion that you can’t impose socialism from above. If it’s to mean anything, it has to be democratic, and be a genuine reflection of the desires of the majority.

The problem is they are fucking elitists. They think they know what the majority – the working class – wants better than they do. Every Trot sect thinks it is the sole possessor of political truth, and that everyone else out there is infected with ‘false consciousness’. It’s People’s Front of Judea stuff, and it’s essentially religious.

I believe in no God but the Objective March of History, and Trotsky is his prophet.

Trots famously split over everything, such as whether the Soviet Union was state capitalist, or a deformed workers’ state, and it’s all very dense, theoretical, and of no practical relevance to the burning political issues of the day.

I’m sorry if I’m boring you. It goes with the territory. But if you like this sort of thing, here’s a nice stroll down British Trotskyism’s memory lane from science fiction writer Ken MacLeod.

I was in a Trot group once. I left after being told that our organisation of three active members was ‘the nucleus of the future revolutionary mass workers’ party’.

Long odds I can deal with. Fantasy I’ve got no time for.

I know many individual Trots who are excellent people, committed to fighting for social justice. Put them together in a Party or faction, though, and they’re a fucking menace.

This is because they don’t actually believe in the value of the campaigns they take part in. If they get involved in an anti-racist campaign, for example, it’s usually to educate people about how capital uses race to divide workers, and to recruit them to the revolutionary vanguard party fighting to rid the world of capitalism.

So they enter – or start – a community campaign, with the express aim of taking control of it and moving it in a more ‘revolutionary’ direction.

Most people get involved in politics because of something that affects them directly. Instead of moaning “some one should do something”, they decide to get stuck in start a campaign. Then the Trots arrive, offering their ‘support’, well-developed analysis and campaigning experience. It seems great, and things get off to a flying start.

But then there’s a leadership struggle, and the campaign or initiative implodes. Most people become disillusioned, which is partly why their are so many disillusioned people out there who feel that they are powerless to do anything about changing the world.

What this means in practice is that the best activists leave the campaigns that drew them to politics in favour of selling Trot bollocks on street corners and outside tube stations on Saturday mornings. They quickly get burned out and leave politics: most Trot groups have a very high turn over of membership, and anyone who has been around a while is usually deeply cynical.

Trot politics is fundamentally manipulative. It uses people. The basic Trot tactic is to manipulate cadre into positions of influence and then use them to control organisations. Tactically, sometimes they hide their intent – the entryists – and other times they are more explicit.

Their attitude to the unions, for instance, is to get Trots elected as shop stewards (and they often are really good at these roles), and then get them elected onto regional councils, NECs and so on, until they have enough dominant positions in the union to turn them into revolutionary organisations.

In my union work I meet tankies and Trots who are excellent shop stewards, because they have the political analysis to understand the wider significance of what they are doing. But the role of a shop steward is to represent a group of workers, not create a revolution. Good shop stewards represent everyone, and don’t push political agendas.

The world has moved on, and the commies have been Left Behind. Official communism has failed. Trotksyism is failing, once again, as we speak. And social democracy – in the form of the world’s Labour parties – is failing as well, as these parties abandon their commitment to social justice and become the servants of capital.

We need to move to a way of organising that is non-ideological. There are good activists from all Left wing traditions, and many people from other backgrounds – including religious ones – who are committed to justice but don’t see themselves as part of the Left.

If we are to develop real Left unity, it must be around principles and campaigns, and it must respect pluralism, and the idea that no one has a monopoly on the outcome.

There is no blue print for the future. It is a work in progress.

For more on this, Kevin Williamson has an excellent analysis on the demise of traditional political parties here.