Militant: latter-day Gironde?
Socialist Organiser1982 1982-12-02Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 12 →
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THE decision of Militant to register with the Walworth Road bureaucrats has thrown a major question into sharp relief: what is the political nature of the Militant tendency? Is it a genuine revolutionary Marxist movement or is it something else?
The modern day vocabulary for evaluating political parties was conceived during the French Revolution. At the first convention of the Constituent Assembly in 1789 Lafayette told delegates:
"On the right of this historic convention sit the Constitutional Monarchists of the Abbe Hart, in the centre we have the Girondins represented by Monsieur Brissot, while on the left we have the Jacobins of M. Georges Danton. For the first time in the history of a free people we have a democratic representation of the Three Great Estates of Society."
We would classify Militant as a new Girondist current. They fear the concept of a workers' government and all the practical steps needed to create such a regime - as much as the original Girondins feared the Revolutionary Republic of Robbespierre.
But they are also petrified of a Labour Party Ie-modelled in the image of John Golding - a Labour Party much more akin to the US Democratic Party, which would spell of Militant form.
the annihilation in its present Ireland Take the issue of Ireland, which is surely a key test for any new organisation claiming Marxist credentials. Peter Taaffe and friends veer away from the correct position of giving unconditional support for the national liberation movement and a United Ireland. Taaffe, feeling the hot breath of the Labour bureaucrats down his neck, in no way distinguishes himself from a Bill Sirs or a David Basnett.
Militant are a hybrid mutation of some elements of Trotskyism, straight reformism and on some questions (women and gays) downright reactionary ideas - all rolled into one.
TOMMY MARTIN RAY ATTWELL • Rochdale Dear S.o, We invite readers to send us their letters, up to a usual maximum length of 400 words.
Send to Socialist Organiser. c/o 28, Middle Lane. London N8..
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