SWP: Mother of all splits looms

international | crime and justice | other press Monday December 08, 2008 14:35 by John Cornford

Lindsey German and John Rees have declared all out war on the SWP central committee majority. There can be only one winner in this fight. If Lindsey and John lose the battle then a split is likely. Peter Manson reports on this fight to the finish. Full story at link.

The SWP leadership has continued the process of disempowering its former number one, John Rees, by recommending that he be removed from the central committee at the SWP annual conference, due to take place in London over the weekend of January 9-11 2009. Meeting on Wednesday November 26, the CC decided to exclude Rees from its take-it-or-leave-it slate, with only his long-time allies, Chris Bambery and Chris Nineham, voting against ditching him.

The latest Party Notes, sent out by SWP apparatchik Colin Wilson, reports the decision in this way:

“I want to inform comrades that the central committee voted by a majority of 10 votes to two (John and Lindsey did not attend but expressed their opposition by text messages) to propose the following slate for the incoming CC:

“Alex Callinicos, Charlie Kimber, Chris Bambery, Chris Harman, Chris Nineham, Colin Smith, Hannah Dee, Judith Orr, Lindsey German, Martin Smith, Michael Bradley, Viv Smith, Weyman Bennett.

“There will be a full debate at conference which will be followed by the election of the CC” (December 1).

And that is all that the SWP membership is told. Note that the real significance of the decision - the removal of comrade Rees - is not considered worthy of a specific mention. The members are only informed that “John and Lindsey” opposed the move.

The second thing to note about the announcement is that the CC is proposing to have itself re-elected in its entirety minus one comrade, with the leading committee being reduced in size from 14 to 13. In this way, the entire blame for the whole Respect/Left List/Left Alternative debacle is being placed on the shoulders of one man.