Letter from Mark Langabeer, member of Hastings and Rye Labour Party.
I’ve been informed by reliable sources that the newspaper, Socialist Appeal (SA), has changed its name. It’s now called the ‘The Communist’. The International Marxist Tendency is now the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP).
It could be said that the new RCP is just another sect that exists on the fringes of the Labour Movement. However, Socialist Appeal was born out of a struggle within the Militant tendency to defend its support for Labour. I was a supporter until 2015. The first edition stated that we could be critical of Labour’s Leadership policies, but our support was unconditional. Unlike some, it said that we would encourage workers and youth to join Labour and oppose attempts to disaffiliate trade unions from Labour. We were the Marxist arm of the Labour movement, and proud of it.
SA was opposed to Scottish independence during the referendum campaign of 2014. Later, after the result, SA’s leadership did a complete U-turn and began backing independence. They urged their Scottish supporters to leave the Labour Party and join the Scottish Socialist Party. They had an entirely false perspective, because within six months, Labour was being transformed with the election of a left-winger, Jeremy Corbyn, as leader of Labour.
Solving political problems by organisational means
We had the perspective that when the working class begin to move, they would turn to their traditional organisations, the unions and it’s political arm, the Labour Party. This had been demonstrated throughout history. Like the Militant eventually did, sadly, the SA leadership are attempting to solve political problems by organisational means.
The founder of Socialist Appeal
Today the most likely perspective is a Labour victory at the polls. Even Tory-supporting commentators believe that it would be a miracle if the Conservatives win the general election. No doubt, Labour’s right-wing, who regained the leadership after the 2019 election , will portray this as a victory for their policies.
But if they continue with Tory austerity, it will provoke huge opposition within the ranks of the unions and the Labour Party. A powerful left-wing will emerge that will make the movement around Corbyn look puny by comparison.
Our task is to fertilise this movement with Marxist ideas. Only the transformation of society along socialist lines can solve the problems faced by workers and their families. Labour must adopt a programme that includes public ownership of the mayor banks and large companies under democratic control of society as a whole.
In 1992, the year that SA was formed, the then editor, Ted Grant, stated that we support Labour because it remains the party of the unions and the working class. This remains true today as it was then. It’s Left Horizons that stand by the original ideas of SA. Those that may have doubts about the current direction of the IMT/RCP should enter a dialogue with Left Horizons supporters. It’s time to come home.
