Socialist Review Group The SWP's origins lie in the formation of the Socialist Review Group (SRG), which held its founding conference in 1950. The group, initially of only eight members, was formed around
Tony Cliff's analysis of Russia as a bureaucratic state capitalist regime and were expelled from the
Revolutionary Communist Party. Three documents formed the group's theoretical basis:
The Nature of Stalinist Russia, ''The Class Nature of the People's Democracies
and Marxism and the Theory of Bureaucratic Collectivism''. The group's size meant that they adopted
entryism as a means of working in the
Labour Party in order to reach an audience and recruit. Cliff wrote in 1960 that
Leon Trotsky's insight in 1904 about
Vladimir Lenin's
substitutionism was a strong warning of the serious flaws "inherent in Lenin's conception of party organisation" sustained by events since 1917.
International Socialist period The paper
Industrial Worker was created in 1961 and was quickly renamed
Labour Worker before evolving into
Socialist Worker.
Socialist Review was reduced in size and then scrapped. The Socialist Review Group became the International Socialism Group (IS) at the end of 1962. In 1968, the group adopted Leninist
democratic centralism as an organisational practice, returning to Cliff's original position after leaving aside brief flirtations with
Luxemburgian critiques of party vanguardism. As a result, the IS grew from 400 to 1,000 members but also suffered many splits. According to group historian
Ian Birchall, "IS's position was always one of unconditional support for the IRA in the struggle against imperialism". However,
Socialist Worker argued against those who prematurely raised the slogan "Troops Out!" on the grounds that the presence of British troops would allow the nationalist population to recover: The breathing space provided by the presence of British troops is short but vital. Those who call for the immediate withdrawal of the troops before the men behind the barricades can defend themselves are inviting a pogrom which will hit first and hardest at socialists. With hindsight, Tony Cliff concluded that the years 1970–74 had been "the best years of my life". That period saw the creation of rank-and-file newspapers and a general turn to industry, including setting up factory branches. Between March 1972 and March 1974, the membership of IS increased from 2,351 to 3,310 and also recruited a large number of manual workers into membership. The Revolutionary Faction were expelled from the IS in 1973. The resulting
Revolutionary Communist Group soon found itself with an internal opposition that eventually became the
Revolutionary Communist Party led by
Frank Furedi.
Labour in power and the SWP formed In 1974, Labour returned to power and introduced the
Social Contract which implemented a voluntary incomes policy, with the backing of many left wing union leaders such as
Hugh Scanlon and
Jack Jones. This period also saw an increase in the number of full-time union convenors, and these factors along with an increase in unemployment have been blamed by Tony Cliff and the SWP for a drastic fall in union militancy. In 1974 the IS was ambitious and optimistic expecting to double the number of its factory branches over the next year. In practice, they declined swiftly from 38 in 1974 to only three or four by 1976. When the firefighters went on strike in 1977 against the Social Contract the IS could deliver no significant solidarity. The national rank-and-file movement fell apart. In 1976, the SWP decided to stand in parliamentary by-elections but the results were very poor and the original idea of standing in 60 seats at the next election was dropped. In January 1977 IS was renamed the Socialist Workers Party. This decision was a result of the move to stand in elections along with a perception that "IS's ability to initiate activity, rather than simply join in movements launched by others, had never been greater. Industrially, there were more members than ever able to lead disputes in their own workplaces".
Jim Higgins has said: "Its founding was for purely internal reasons, to give the members a sense of progress, the better to conceal the fact that there had actually been a retreat".
Anti-Nazi League and Rock against Racism A campaign in which the SWP had a significant role at this time was the
Anti-Nazi League (ANL), and viewed as a "front" for the organisation by commentators and historians.
Downturn From 1978 onward, Tony Cliff became convinced by some of his comrades that the period of rising militancy had come to an end and a downturn had begun. Cliff wrote: "The crisis in the organisation went on for about 3 years, 1976–79". By 1982, the SWP was refocused completely to a propagandist approach, with geographical branches as the main unit of the party, a focus on Marxist theory and an abandonment of perspective of building a rank and file movement. The rank and file organisations were wound down, as were the ANL, the women's organisation ''Women's Voice
and the paper for ethnic minorities Flame''. Many of those active in the ANL and especially its defence "squads" were denounced as "
squadist" and expelled, later forming
Anti-Fascist Action and
Red Action. The closure of ''Women's Voice'' in 1982, reputedly because it tried to inject feminist thinking into SWP theoretical practice rather than gaining women members for the party, was a bitterly disputed action made by the leadership, a sharp debate taking place between those who believed the result would be to ignore the specificities of women's oppression and those who believed feminist theories were in danger of losing contact with the united interests of men and women workers. During the
1984–1985 miners' strike, the SWP's propaganda concentrated on the need for solidarity and explaining why this was not happening. Cliff described the approach as one of concrete propaganda: "It had to answer the question 'What slogan fits the issue the workers are fighting over?'". This change in outlook and methods was viewed by many on the left as being a retreat into sectarianism by the SWP, but this change in methods is credited by the SWP as allowing it to survive a very hostile period with substantial numbers of party members.
1990s The early 1990s, for many of the far left, was a period of demoralisation and disorientation, due to the Soviet Union's collapse. But the SWP saw this as a vindication of their long-held analysis that the Soviet Union was a 'state capitalist' society. They argued that "the transition from state capitalism to multinational capitalism is neither a step forward nor a step backwards, but a step sidewards. The change only involves a shift from one form of exploitation to another form for the working class as a whole." It was in this period that the Revolutionary Democratic Group were expelled and became, in their words, "an external faction". The SWP was involved in the relaunch of the ANL in 1992 in response to the growth of the
British National Party and campaigned against the
Criminal Justice Bill. A demonstration for justice for murdered teenager
Stephen Lawrence near the BNP headquarters in
Welling in 1993 turned into a violent confrontation with the police, leading to criticism from
Ken Livingstone, then a Labour MP and a supporter of the rival
Anti-Racist Alliance (ARA) in which
Socialist Action played a major role. Livingstone argued that this kind of action was playing into the hands of the BNP. He said at the time: "No one's discussing [the BNP's] policies. Now the question is the violence of the SWP, arguments between the police and the SWP about who is to blame". Although Stephen's mother
Doreen Lawrence attended the Welling demo, she came to realise that the ANL was a "front for the Socialist Workers Party". She later wrote, "the various groups that had taken an interest in Stephen's death were tearing each other apart and were in danger of destroying our campaign which we wanted to keep focused and dignified", and Doreen and Neville Lawrence wrote to both the ANL and ARA to demand that they "stop using Stephen's name". In 1997, despite strongly opposing
Tony Blair's policies, they called for a vote for the Labour Party with the belief that there would rapidly be a crisis of expectations in Labour, which would lead
New Labour voters to question their allegiances, opening up opportunities, space for organisation and activity to the left of Labour traditionally occupied by the party when it is in opposition.
John Rees wrote in July 1997: "In the mid-term the 'sado-monetarist' strategy followed by the Labour government will clash increasingly sharply with a working class movement which has drawn hope and confidence from its electoral victory over the
Tories".
Metropolitan Police spying Between 1970 and 2007, 24 undercover
Metropolitan Police officers infiltrated the SWP. Some used the identities of dead children and four had sexual relationships with party members.
Involvement with other groups at the
2011 anti-cuts protest in London The SWP was involved with the Socialist Alliance in England and the
Welsh Socialist Alliance. Its Scottish members joined the
Scottish Socialist Party as the Socialist Worker Platform in May 2001. and by a former SA press officer of "running" the Alliance into the ground. In the aftermath of 9/11, the SWP joined numerous other groups to launch the
Stop the War Coalition. The coalition's aims were to oppose the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and to campaign against attacks on Muslims.
Lindsey German was elected as Convenor and
John Rees and
Chris Nineham were appointed as national officers, all leading SWP members at the time. The Coalition organised a demonstration on 15 February 2003 when around 750,000 people (according to the Police) or up to 2 million (according to the organisers) marched through London. The SWP called the
Iraqi insurgency a "resistance" movement against military occupation and endorsed
George Galloway's support of
Hezbollah, whom they called "the resistance". In addition, the
Muslim Association of Britain was accused of being a conservative
Islamist body sharing only anti-western sentiments with groups like the SWP and Respect. Former Socialist Alliance and Stop the War activist and press officer Anna Chen saw Lindsey German's comment "I'm in favour of defending gay rights, but I am not prepared to have it as a shibboleth, [created by] people who ... won't defend George Galloway", as the party's equivalent of Labour's revision of
Clause IV. According to
John Rentoul, the SWP and its allies were not against the war at all, but in favour of
Saddam Hussein winning. John Rees has said: "Socialists should unconditionally stand with the oppressed against the oppressor, even if the people who run the oppressed country are undemocratic and persecute minorities, like Saddam Hussein." According to Rees, discussions with George Galloway about establishing a new group had begun to coalesce in December 2002. In England and Wales around January 2004 the SWP began an involvement in
Respect – The Unity Coalition, an electoral alliance with a single Member of Parliament, the ex-Labour MP George Galloway, and a small number of councillors. The coalition between the SWP and Galloway's group finally collapsed in Autumn 2007 with both sides blaming the other for the split. After the schism, a faction led by the SWP formed the Left List (now called
Left Alternative). In Scotland, the SWP existed as a platform of the
Scottish Socialist Party, but in August 2006, it split from the SSP to pursue a new political grouping with
Tommy Sheridan's
Solidarity, founded a few months after Sheridan's successful
defamation case, but before
his eventual conviction for perjury in 2010. That year, the SWP joined the
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition and stood five candidates in the
general election. The jazz musician
Gilad Atzmon performed at SWP events for several years from 2004, and was promoted by the party as delivering "fearless tirades against Zionism". Because Atzmon believed the text of
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a hoax from the early 20th century, was a valid reflection of contemporary America,
Oliver Kamm wrote in
The Times in 2006 that the SWP were "allying with classic anti-Semitism". Atzmon and the SWP were similarly accused by other writers. The party eventually severed their association with Atzmon.
Incidents and Central Committee resignations In January 2009, Rees, German and Nineham resigned from the Central Committee at party conference before forming an oppositional Left Platform in the party in October 2009, with the support of 64 members. The faction agreed to disband after the party's January 2010 conference. Two members of the Left Platform were expelled over allegations of secret factionalising outside the three-month period before conference in which open factions are permitted. The expulsions were contested at the 2010 conference but a majority of the delegates voted in favour of the expulsions, which were ratified. In February 2010, sixty former members of the Left Platform, including Rees, German and Nineham resigned from the SWP. In response to the
2008 financial crisis, the SWP initiated the Right to Work campaign in June 2009. In October 2009, the SWP's then National Secretary
Martin Smith was charged with assaulting a police officer at the
Unite Against Fascism (UAF) demonstration against
BNP leader
Nick Griffin's appearance on the BBC's
Question Time programme. Smith was found guilty of the assault at South Western Magistrates' Court, London, on 7 September 2010. He was sentenced to a 12-month community order, with 80 hours' unpaid work, and was fined £450 pending an appeal. (Smith was arrested again in July 2012 at a UAF demonstration against the EDL in
Bristol.)Following a UAF demonstration against the
English Defence League (EDL) in
Bolton on 20 March 2010, SWP Central Committee member Weyman Bennett was charged with conspiracy to incite
violent disorder but the charge was dropped in November 2010. On 22 May 2010, around 100 SWP members disrupted negotiations between
Unite and
British Airways inside the
Acas building, much to both parties' disapproval. The talks had to be abandoned. Martin Smith claimed on
Channel 4 News that the actions of
Willie Walsh, then BA chief executive, were far worse. In the
2010 general election the SWP joined the
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition; this alliance received 0.04% of the vote. In April 2011, Chris Bambery, one of the last two Central Committee members to have worked alongside Cliff and the organiser of the Right To Work campaign, resigned from the party, arguing in his resignation letter that it was ridden with factionalism, that he had learned about the founding of RTW from Party Notes and that the party had no credible strategy to fight the government's cuts agenda. Bambery's resignation was followed by 38 members in Scotland with the intention of forming a new Marxist grouping north of the border. 50 ex-members of the SWP formed the
International Socialist Group shortly thereafter.
Internal crisis over allegations of rape A Disputes Committee document was discussed at the party conference in January 2013 about allegations of sexual assault and rape made by a 19-year-old female member against former SWP National Secretary
Martin Smith (internally called 'Comrade Delta'). Allegations about Smith's behaviour had been made for several years within the group, the first in 2010. The police have never charged Smith. One member of the disputes committee had asserted that the party had "no faith in the bourgeois court system to deliver justice". wrote that the allegations were investigated and dismissed by friends of the accused. Penny added that the alleged victim and her friends were harassed by other party members. Journalist John Palmer, a one-time International Socialists member, pointed to problems with the policy of democratic centralism as it had been adopted by Cliff, but
Alex Callinicos defended the party's version of Leninism and called the situation involving Smith "a difficult disciplinary case" in the February issue of the party's monthly
Socialist Review magazine. In an official statement via Charlie Kimber, the party's Central Committee said the issue was an internal matter, insisting that "we strongly condemn" the release of the conference transcript and that "this case is closed". On his Lenin's Tomb blog,
Richard Seymour criticised the party's leadership. According to Alex Callinicos: "the internal opposition are accountable to no one for these actions. They offer an unappetising lesson in what happens when power is exercised without responsibility". A report by Shiv Malik and
Nick Cohen published by
The Guardian in March said that further allegations of rape have been made internally against another party member. Seymour, who later accused "the leadership" of "rigged debates and gerrymandered votes", announced his resignation, while the newly established
International Socialist Network gained more than 100 former SWP members. Sherry replaced a member of the Central Committee who disapproved of the handling of the case, while Sherry's father was a member of the Disputes Committee who found the allegation of misconduct against Smith "not proven". After the publicity surrounding the SWP's response to this rape allegation, a number of critics on the left called those in leadership positions "rape apologists"—for instance, these allegations were publicly aired and were the basis of a walkout in protest against SWP candidates at the
National Union of Students (NUS) meeting in April 2013. The
Socialist Workers' Student Society has been active at many universities, but suffered a serious decline in membership as the 'Comrade Delta scandal' unfolded. Smith was reported to have resigned from the SWP in July 2013. The SWP published a review of its Disputes Committee in December 2013. The Committee noted that it had taken on board submissions from members and a number of disciplinary processes in place in trade unions and other organisations. In May 2024, the SWP issued a statement on the 2013 crisis in which it apologised for its handling of the cases brought by Comrade W and Comrade X.
RS21, set up by people who left the SWP in 2013, asked why the statement had been published 11 years after the event. The same point was made in the Weekly Worker. == Leadership ==