TUSC conference report - Socialist Resistance

TUSC conference report - Socialist Resistance.

Last Saturday’s (September 22nd) conference of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) was attended by about a hundred people, about seventy of whom were members of the Socialist Party (SP), six or seven were with a delegation from the RMT, five or six were SWP members and there were four Socialist Resistance (SR) supporters.

What made the conference important, as far as SR was concerned, was that two of its three sessions were devoted to the development of TUSC. The first session was on working class political representation and the third on the future structures of TUSC. Organisations supporting TUSC, but not necessarily affiliated to it, were invited to make submissions.

TUSC for the first two and a half years of its existence has had a federal structure with representatives of the affiliated organisations, the Socialist Party, the SWP, the Independent Socialist Network (ISN) and the RMT forming a steering committee with some individual appointees. There has been no provision for individual membership or for the election (or reelection) of the Steering Committee itself. If an individual wants to join he or she is required to join the ISN, an organisation which had been created internally for that purpose.

SR made a submission on developing the structures of TUSC based on individual membership, one-person-one-vote and an elected leadership body with provision for trade union representation (see below). These are issues which are important in the struggle for broad pluralist party of the left in England.

The other thing which made the conference important for us is that it would give us the opportunity to raise the issue of SR’s affiliation to TUSC, which had been refused on two occasions over the past two years by the Steering Committee: first in December 2010 and again in December 2011. We tabled a resolution to the conference on this which is also reproduced below.

RMT bombshell

The conference was heavily dominated by the SP. Dave Nellist chaired and gave a political introduction; Hanna Sell spoke on behalf of the organisation and Roy McInally spoke in his capacity as a PCS official.

Alex Gordon, speaking on behalf of the RMT, in the first session dropped a bit of bombshell. He had said that objective conditions for building mass left-wing parties are difficult. There is a deep instinct to vote Labour as lesser evil among working class voters. He said that the RMT is determined that TUSC would continue to have a federal structure, a view that was repeated throughout the day by RMT speakers.

He said that the current situation, in which the RMT was the only union officially affiliated to TUSC, was a very unsatisfactory situation. TUSC supporters who were present and were members of unions had to redouble their efforts to get their unions to affiliate. He explained that this means affiliation of the entire union, not just the support of individual EC members.

His insistence that TUSC needs to win more support in the unions was followed by very clearly expressed warning that the RMT will not stick around as the only affiliated union in TUSC. He demanded that socialists deliver broader support in their unions if his union is to remain in it. Just so there was no room for doubt he said twice that the RMT would walk away if this did not happen. This bombshell was dealt with by being ignored for the rest of the day.

Charlie Kimber of the SWP gave an assessment of the period we could agree with. He went on to add that the key method of fight back is in workplaces, streets, and colleges. He spoke of the need for a new political party adding that some of us have recognised need to unite to put forward electoral alternative, though he didn’t go into detail about what if might look like. He was one of the few speakers who referred to SYRIZA and Bradford. He was very critical of Galloway pointing out that the weakness of a reliance on individuals has been shown by meltdown following his remarks on rape.

No speaker from SR was taken in the first two sessions, which was not a good start, but the final session on structures was was worse. It was also the shortest of the day’s three sessions. There were opening contributions from the SWP, the SP, and the ISN. The chair then made clear that no speakers would be taken from the floor and that not all of those who had tabled submissions would get to speak either.

The Steering Committee had met before the conference and had decided to call on us to remit our resolution on affiliation to a future meeting of itself to which we could make the application. In other words it would be remitted to the same Committee which has rejected us on two previous occasions. Our situation currently is that we can give TUSC money, do the leg work at elections, and even stand as candidates but we given no role in any national decision making process.

When Alan Thornett for SR intervened to say that we were not prepared to remit our resolution on affiliation and ask when it would be taken we were told that the resolution would not be taken at all because the conference was not empowered to deal with it. It was a non-voting and non-decision-making conference. When we asked for an indicative vote that was refused as well. The reason given was that no votes would be taken was because there was an overwhelming majority of SP members present, so they’d be certain to win any vote. Why it should be necessary for every member an organisation to vote in an identical manner on every issue was not explained.

Federalism is a barrier to growth

SR was then given three minutes to introduce both our resolution on affiliation and our submission on structures. Alan Thornett spoke explaining the context of our application for affiliation and the need for TUSC to adopt a democratic and open structure. He said that in his view the federal structure has been there for two and a half years was now an obstacle and there was now an urgent need for one-person-one-vote system and an elected leadership body established. The chance of getting individual political activists to join an organisation in which they will then have no say or vote on anything as a part of the structure is pretty remote. The federal system is now a barrier to the development of TUSC.

Nick Wrack and Pete McLaren of the Independent Socialist Network argued forcefully for our affiliation and a place on TUSC’s leadership. Mark Thomas of the SWP made the same point rather more delicately. Nick Wrack, who had submitted a paper on structures with many similar points to SR supported a lot of what Alan Thornett had said, though he said not the tone. Dave Hill was also called to speak on the Brighton resolution calling for our affiliation. Clive Heemskeerk, on behalf of the SP acknowledged that the request had been received but offered no explanation for the lack of formal responses over the last two years.

Dave Nellist said that our third request for affiliation will be discussed at a future meeting of TUSC’s steering committee (which will not be the October one, however) and we’ll be invited to explain it there. We may also be allowed to put our submission to the body reviewing TUSC structures.

A speaker from Walsall forcefully echoed our critique about the absence of any mechanism for individual members to have a say in decision-making. He went on to complain that despite paying money every month to the Campaign for a New Workers’ Party, and at the last meeting it held the aim was to develop it into a broad left party, no one had bothered to let him know it had been put in the deep freeze. His was the reaction that most people you’d want to recruit to a left party would have.

On the broader political level the conference felt like an ecology free zone. There was not a single mention of it from start to finish (this is only part of the full article). More (full article).

Link: Indepnedent Socialist Network

Link: TUSC

Link: Socialist Resistance