http://www.redpepper.org.uk/a-revolutionary-without-a-revolution/ Red Pepper Wed, 18 Sep 2013 17:39:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6.1 http://www.redpepper.org.uk/a-revolutionary-without-a-revolution/#comment-175003 Will Podmore Tue, 26 Mar 2013 15:24:54 +0000 http://www.redpepper.org.uk/?p=5238#comment-175003 No, Cliff was a terrible influence on the working class. He claimed that he wanted the SWP to have ‘worker leadership’, yet ensured that it was always led by full-time SWP staff, living off other members’ dues.
By falsely posing rank-and-file (good) against bureaucrats (bad), the SWP has always sought to split our unions. So, unsurprisingly, the more influence the SWP has in a union, the worse the outcome for the class. For example, during the steelworkers’ strike of 1980, Cliff travelled the country speaking to steelworkers, then blamed the steelworkers for the strike’s failure. The SWP feeds off the weaknesses of the class.
Cliff was never a worker, never a trade union mermber, yet presumed to tell the British working class what to do. Unsurprisingly, they rejected him.
Recently, the SWP grotesquely mishandled the rape allegation against ‘Comrade Delta’ (and everybody knows, including doubtless MI6, that it was Martin Smith – so much for this ‘revolutionary party”s ‘security’).
The SWP managed to behave worse than an ordinary court would have done. It showed not just a lack of judgement but also the true character of Trotskyist politics – bullying, undemocratic, anti-women, anti-young people, and servile to senior male authority figures, from Leon himself down to Martin Smith and the rest of the self-appointed bureaucrats.

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