- Committee for a Workers' International
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The Committee for a Workers' International (CWI) is an international association of Trotskyist parties. Members include the Socialist Party of England and Wales, the Socialist Party (Ireland), the Socialist Party (Australia) the Democratic Socialist Movement in South Africa and Nigeria and groups using the name Socialist Alternative in the United States, Canada and Germany, along with parties in Sweden and Sri Lanka. In all the CWI has affiliates or representatives in 40 countries worldwide.
Contents
History
Logo of CWI.
The CWI was founded in 1974 at a conference in London on 20/21 April[1] by supporters of what was then called the Militant tendency in Britain, Sweden, Ireland and several other countries (the conference was attended by 46 people from 12 countries[2]). At that time CWI sections generally pursued a policy of entryism into social democratic or labour parties.
This strategy ended in the early 1990s. The CWI developed an analysis that these parties had changed in nature and had become simply capitalist parties. This was strongly resisted by Ted Grant, one of Militant's founders. After a lengthy debate [1] and special conference in 1991 confirmed overwhelmingly the position of the CWI in the England and Wales section, Grant and his supporters sought official faction status within the organization, which was granted for some time, but later was revoked by the leadership when Grant's followers refused to pay dues to the CWI and after documents leaked indicating that Grant's faction planned to engineer a split. The revocation of faction status thus expelled Ted Grant and his supporters, who later went on to form the International Marxist Tendency, active in the British Labour Party as Socialist Appeal.
Grant dismissed the leadership of the CWI, especially Peter Taaffe, as sectarians because they had deserted, in his view, the mass parties of the working class. Grant cited the success of the Militant in Britain, which as entryists had secured Dave Nellist, Terry Fields and Pat Wall as MPs. However this was countered with the argument that the clear determination of the Labour leadership under Neil Kinnock to destroy Trotskyist influence in the party, as well as Labour's move away from socialist policies, had changed the situation in the party. However, out of nearly 8,000 members only 200 were successfully expelled from the Labour Party. It was no longer possible, the CWI argued, for Militant to carry out activity in the way it had been done up to the late 1980s. In the UK, Kinnock had Terry Fields removed as a Labour MP in 1991, and Dave Nellist was suspended from the party around the same time. (Pat Wall had died.) Since the abandonment of entryism the CWI's influence and membership has dwindled for a number of reasons though it remains significantly larger than Grant's group.[citation needed]
Activities
Since their Open Turn CWI sections have, in a number of countries, run candidates under their own name. In England they have one councillor in Coventry. The CWI also has elected members of regional legislatures or local councils in Sweden, Germany, Australia, the Netherlands (members of the Dutch Socialist Party), Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the Republic of Ireland (where they have a member of the European Parliament and 2 TDs in Dáil Éireann) [3] and in the former Soviet Union. In the 2005 Sri Lankan presidential elections the CWI affiliate, the United Socialist Party, came third (with 0.4%).[4]
Supporters of the CWI launched a youth organisation, International Socialist Resistance, in 2001.[5]
CWI members played a leading role in founding the Scottish Socialist Party. However the SSP broke with the CWI in 1999, with a minority of members loyal to the CWI establishing the International Socialists. When Tommy Sheridan resigned from the SSP in 2006 and established a new party in Scotland, Solidarity, the International Socialists joined in conjunction with the Socialist Workers Party.
CWI members stood as National Conscience Party candidates in the 2003 Nigerian legislative elections, winning 0.51% of the national vote. In Germany CWI members have been active in the new WASG since its foundation in 2004 and in December 2005 were elected part of the new leadership of its Berlin district that ran candidates on a clear anti-cuts programme in the 2006 Berlin regional election, gaining 3.1% and several borough council seats, but the Berlin WASG later merged into Die Linke. In Brazil CWI members helped found the P-SOL Socialism and Freedom Party after left wing parliamentarians were expelled from the PT.
In the 2011 Irish general election the CWI's Irish affiliate, the Socialist Party won 2 seats in the Dáil as a part of the wider left group, the United Left Alliance which won 5 seats in total in Dáil Éireann.[6]
List of CWI sections
The following are the sections claimed by the CWI.
- Argentina - La Chispa (The Spark)
- Australia - Socialist Party (website)
- Austria - Sozialistische LinksPartei (Socialist Left Party, website)
- Belgium - (Flemish) Linkse Socialistische Partij (Socialist Left Party) / (French) Parti Socialiste de Lutte (Socialist Party of Struggle) website
- Bolivia - Alternativa Socialista Revolucionaria (Revolutionary Socialist Alternative) (website)
- Brazil - Liberdade, Socialismo e Revolução (Freedom, Socialism and Revolution) (website)
- Canada - Socialist Alternative
- Chile - Socialismo Revolucionario (website)
- China - China Worker (News and Analysis of Workers Struggles in China) (website)
- Cyprus - CWI Cyprus
- Czech Republic - Socialistická alternativa Budoucnost (Socialist Alternative the Future) (website)
- England & Wales - Socialist Party of England and Wales (website)
- Finland - Sosialistinen Vaihtoehto (website)
- France - Gauche Révolutionnaire (Revolutionary Left) (website)
- Germany - Sozialistische Alternative (Socialist Alternative) (website)
- Greece - Xekinima - Socialist Internationalist Organisation (website)
- Hong Kong - Socialist Action
- Iceland - Sósíalískt Réttlaetisflokksins (website)
- Ireland - An Pháirtí Sóisialach / Socialist Party (website)
- India - Dudiyora Horaata (New Socialist Alternative website)
- Israel- Ma'avak Sotzialisti (Socialist Struggle) ([2])
- Italy - ControCorrente (website)
- Japan - Kokusai Rentai (International Solidarity website)
- Kashmir - CWI Kashmir
- Kazakhstan - Socialist Resistance of Kazakhstan (website)
- Lebanon - CWI Lebanon (website)
- Malaysia - CWI Malaysia (website)
- Mexico - Socialismo Revolucionario website (website)
- Netherlands - Socialistisch Alternatief (website)
- Nigeria - Democratic Socialist Movement (website)
- Pakistan - Socialist Movement Pakistan (website)
- Poland - Alternatywa Socjalistyczna (Socialist Alternative) (website)
- Portugal - Socialismo Revolucionario (Revolutionary Socialism) (website)
- Quebec - Alternative Socialiste (Socialist Alternative) (website)
- Russia - Rossijskaja sekcija Komiteta za Rabochij Internacional (Russian Section of the CWI) (website)
- Scotland - Socialist Party Scotland ([3]), CWI platform in Solidarity (Scotland) (website)
- Spain - Socialismo Revolucionario
- Sri Lanka - United Socialist Party (website)
- South Africa - Democratic Socialist Movement (website) (formerly the Marxist Workers Tendency of the ANC)
- Sweden - Rättvisepartiet Socialisterna (Socialist Justice Party) (website)
- Taiwan - Taiwan Socialist League
- United States - Socialist Alternative (website)
- Venezuela - Socialismo Revolucionario (Revolutionary Socialism) (website)
See also
References
- ^ Taaffe, P. (2004) A Socialist World is Possible London: CWI Publications and Socialist Books, pg.67
- ^ Taaffe, P. (2004) A Socialist World is Possible London: CWI Publications and Socialist Books, pg.52
- ^ 2009 European Election results - retrieved 11/24/09
- ^ United Socialist Party (cwi) comes third in presidential election - retrieved 17/08/07
- ^ 500+ at Brussels ISR conference - retrieved 17/03/08
- ^ http://electionsireland.org/results/general/31dail.cfm
External links
- SocialistWorld.net CWI News and analysis
- Marxist.net CWI Theoretical site
- Socialist Party publications and Socialist Alternative literature - Two sites containing links to many publications of the CWI.
Categories:- Committee for a Workers' International
- Trotskyist political internationals
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