Socialist Resistance

"Socialist Resistance" is an ecosocialist network in Britain which publishes a Marxist periodical of the same name.

Origins

It was launched on 8 September 2002 by two organisations (the Socialist Solidarity Network and International Socialist Group) and 33 individuals.

The rationale for the new publication was "to express and build support for a distinct political position which, despite differences among us on secondary issues, we share. We want to deepen the fight for a broad socialist party in England on the model of, for example, the SSP in Scotland and the Party of Communist Refoundation in Italy." [http://www.isg-fi.org.uk/resistance/sr0/sr0001.htm]

The founders of Socialist Resistance included Frances Curran and Catriona Grant, leading members of the Scottish Socialist Party, former SSP international officer Murray Smith, and Andrew Burgin from of the Stop the War Coalition. Leading members of the Socialist Alliance included James White, secretary of Barnsley Alliance and Mathew Caygill secretary of Leeds Socialist Alliance plus Lesley Mahmood (Liverpool) and Margaret Manning (Manchester) from the Socialist Alliance Executive.

Organisation

The network has developed the norms of an organisation, included elected bodies, local groups and formal membership. By 2007 135 activists had subscribed to its internal listserver [http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/resistancesupportersgroup/] , of whom around at least 65 can be assumed to be members of the ISG [http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/Socialist_Outlook/] ; and at least 20 of whom are supporters of the SSN [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Socialist-solidarity/] . Its members also include the supporters in Britain of the Democratic Socialist Perspective.

The organisation controlled by an annual general meeting, held each September, which elects a steering committee and an editorial board.

Activities

It organises monthly public meetings in London, Oxford and Birmingham, as well as three national open forums each year. For example, it organised a June 2006 dayschool on the Bolivarian revolution addressed by Michael Lowy and Celia Hart, a September 2006 AGM, December 2006 and May 2007 forums on "ecosocialism" and a March 2007 forum on the Middle East. These events often provide themes for books published by Resistance: it produced the first book of Celia Hart's writings in English, Ron Ridenour's 2006 book on Cuba, the first book on ecosocialism and a large collection on the Middle East, edited by Roland Rance and Terry Conway.

Resistance also publishes irregular broadsheets and pamphlets. Three leading activists in Resistance are on the editorial board of International Viewpoint. Socialist Resistance also co-operates with Green Left and the Red-Green Study Group in the Ecosocialist International Network.

Periodical

Between September 2002 and November 2007 it produced 49 issues of a 28-page tabloid, which was produced monthly, with summer and winter issues spanning two months each. In November 2007, the resources used for the newspaper were dedicated to the Respect Renewal movement, allowing it to plan the launch of a newspaper in December 2007. According to a statement by the group's Steering Committee, the change was unanimously agreed at a meeting of the group's members. In January 2008, the group's aggregate agreed a [http://liammacuaid.wordpress.com/2007/11/27/socialist-resistance-what-next/ proposal] to relaunch "Socialist Resistance" as a full-colour quarterly magazine, in April 2007.

External links

* [http://socialistresistance.org Socialist Resistance]
* [http://www.isg-fi.org.uk/ International Socialist Group]
* [http://resistancebooks.blogspot.com Resistance books blog]