SWP posters and leaflets at an election rally at George Square, Glasgow

Oppression and democratic centralism

A short response to Alex Callinicos’s Socialist Review article from Shanice McBean‘s blog. 

Callinicos’ recent Review piece in response to Ian Birchall is very interesting; the tone of it is markedly different to January.

I think, though, we need to defend against attacks on the previous opposition regarding being undisciplined, dangerous and impatient; something Callinicos implicitly does when he writes about the dismissal of Chris Harman as editor of SW and the oppositional minority’s caution in moving.

It may well be true when the dispute is about who is the editor of a newspaper that the minority ought to back down following a vote. But absolutely not when it comes to rape and women’s oppression. Rather than being undisciplined, members of the previous opposition stood by their politics on women’s liberation and stood with women who had the courage to challenge their oppression. It’s a testament to those who stood with the women – and the women themselves – that in the face of bullying, manoeuvring, scapegoating, ad hominem, lying, colluding and slandering they stood up and fought.

If the version of democratic centralism that the CC wants to “campaign” for allows for the legitimisation of a situation where votes mean we’re expected to post-pone or abandon our politics on rape and women’s oppression then that’s not an organisation fit for the purpose of being the tribune of the oppressed. It means the SWP is not suitable for being the vanguard of the working class that levels socialist arguments in order to challenge oppression with the ultimate aim being to unite the working class – women with men – against capitalism.

You can put me in a room with a million other people; I won’t back down on my politics on oppression even if 999,999 vote to abandon theirs and democratic centralism should not require me to.

Note: This piece was published before rs21 was established as an independent organisation in January 2014. rs21 was founded by a group of people who had been in the opposition within the SWP and who left in response to its persistent mishandling of rape and sexual harassment allegations against a leading member.