Socialist Workers Network
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Socialist Workers Network | |
|---|---|
European United Left-Nordic Green Left | |
| International affiliation | International Socialist Tendency |
| Colours | Red, black |
| Website | |
| socialistworkeronline | |
| Part of a series on |
| Trotskyism |
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The Socialist Workers Network (SWN) is an Irish Trotskyist[1] organisation.
It was founded in 1971 as the Socialist Workers Movement (SWM), before becoming the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) in 1995. The SWP was a founding member of
In 2018, the SWP changed its name to Socialist Workers Network.[2]
Foundation and growth
The SWP was founded in 1971 as the Socialist Workers Movement by supporters of the
Some of those who joined the SWM after its formation sympathised with a small tendency in Britain and later split away to form the Irish Workers Group,
In 1975, the SWM narrowly rejected a proposal to merge into the Irish Republican Socialist Party.[4] SWM members helped to organise and publicise public meetings which were addressed by IRSP founder Seamus Costello. In 1976 prior to the establishment of the Socialist Labour Party, and the SWN affiliation to it, they were in negotiations with the Independent Socialist Party (Ireland) a schism from the IRSP about a merger.[5]
When the Socialist Labour Party was founded in 1977, the SWM joined as a 'tendency' (or subgroup). The Socialist Workers Tendency was noted in the SLP for producing a bulletin more professional than that of the party. They left in 1980 to reform the Socialist Workers Movement.[3]
The SWM was long overshadowed on the Irish left by organisations such as the
Growing from a small agitation group of about fifty members, the SWM now began to build groups in major colleges such as
The SWM changed its name to the Socialist Workers Party at its conference in 1995, after delegates from Dublin Bus argued that it should now take itself seriously on the left, as it then had a growing and active membership.
From movement to party
The SWP grew from a mostly Dublin-based membership, where it had two branches, to today's organisation with a number of branches in Dublin as well as branches in some other Irish cities and towns, and also in some colleges and universities.[vague] At its 2004 conference it claimed to have five hundred members, although this membership figure was regarded as much exaggerated by many others on the Irish left who have estimated SWP membership at anything between seventy and two hundred. It has not made any public membership claim since 2004.
Since it began to participate in elections, both general (
In the 2004 local elections, it improved on its previous performances by polling relatively strongly in four Dublin wards. These were Artane, Dún Laoghaire, Clondalkin and Ballyfermot, where its candidates won 792 votes (5.65%), 1,439 votes (7.94%), 1,044 votes (7.36%) and 1,094 votes (11.75%) respectively. No seats were won however.
The 2002 general election was the last occasion on which SWP candidates stood under the SWP banner in a general election.
In the 2007 general election, their candidates ran under the banner of People Before Profit. People Before Profit stood five candidates, four of them SWP activists. Their candidate in the Dún Laoghaire constituency, Richard Boyd Barrett, was 2,000 votes short of winning a seat, scoring 8.9% of the first-preference vote.[6]
In the 2009 local elections ten of the thirteen People Before Profit candidates were also SWP members. In 2014 Bríd Smith of the SWP stood for the Dublin constituency in the European Parliament Elections, which was believed to have been a factor in Socialist Party (Ireland) MEP Paul Murphy losing his seat which had been won by Joe Higgins in 2009.[7][8]
Due to disagreements between the Dublin leadership and the Belfast branch of the SWP on the selection of election candidates, a majority of the Belfast branch broke away at the end of 2009. They formed a group known as the International Socialists which is confined to Belfast.
Personalities and elected representatives
In the 2011 general election, SWP member and
Kieran Allen is a sociologist in UCD, and is one of the party's main theorists, writing books such as The Politics of James Connolly, the Celtic Tiger and Max Weber - Sociologist of Empire. Bríd Smith, a Ballyfermot party representative, was jailed in Dublin's Mountjoy Prison after campaigning against rubbish-bin charges in Dublin. The late John de Courcy Ireland, long-time left-wing veteran and nautical historian, was also an active and dedicated member. Rory Hearne, who left the party in 2008, was President of the Trinity College Dublin Students' Union and Deputy President of the Union of Students in Ireland.
Publications
The best known SWN publication is the monthly newspaper
It has occasionally attempted to launch a magazine dealing with theoretical and political issues in greater detail. One such attempt was called Resistance and lasted for eight issues. A more recently attempt entitled New Left Journal, lasted for two issues.
In 2012, the Irish Marxist Review[9] was launched and since has had regular editions. After its recalibration in 2018, the SWN also launched a new socialist website called Rebel.[10]
Politics
The SWN argues that working class unity can only be built if Protestants turn their back on loyalist ideas, and Catholic workers reject the idea of a "pan-nationalist alliance" in Northern Ireland.[citation needed]
However, in earlier years they tended to take a more Republican line on
Following
The SWN is organised on both sides of the border. In Northern Ireland it initially operated as part of the
The SWN is part of the International Socialist Tendency grouping.
References
- ^ Irish Times – Harry McGee. “ For anybody who has not been intimately involved with the Socialist Workers Party or the Socialist Party, you would need to have a PhD in semantics and rhetoric to winkle out the actual ideological difference between them. They are both Trotskyist and advocate permanent revolution and political agitation through working class mass action in capitalist societies such as Ireland.”
- ^ "SOCIALIST WORKERS TAKE A NEW DIRECTION". Socialist Worker | Ireland. Archived from the original on 14 January 2019. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
- ^ a b Goodwillie, John (August/September 1983). "Glossary of the Left in Ireland". Gralton: an Irish Socialist Review 9: 17-20.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-84488-120-8.
- ^ The Independent Socialist Party
- ^ guthanphobail.net
- ^ "The gloves are off: Socialists slam Brid Smith for splitting Dublin vote". 26 May 2014.
- ^ "Ireland: Left surge in South's local and European elections | Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal".
- ^ Irish Marxist Review
- ^ Rebel