Do They Mean Us? #4

VP at Shiraz Socialist has apparently mislaid his copy of 'How to Win Friends and Influence People', as he has taken it upon himself to ask the question that no one else is asking: Why can't the AWL and the Political Artists Formerly Known as the Millies not be in the same political organisation? That guffaw of laughter you can hear emanating from East London is the sound of Peter Taaffe and Sean Nom de Plume pissing themselves laughing at the very notion. They both agree that the chap is relying too much on the shiraz to inform his socialism. Apparently it is the first time the two have agreed on a political question, since that fateful July afternoon in 1966 when they both agreed that Sean and his mates had no place in the Revolutionary Socialist League.

I shouldn't scoff too much - and VP knows I'm only teasing him, anyway - as I'm sure he could be the first to shoot back with the riposte of: 'What about the farce of the two SPGBs? You're in no position to sneer at any talk of socialist unity . . .' Well, as I've patiently explained a 1001 times down the years, there aren't two SPGBs. There is one SPGB, and one group of expelled members passing themselves off as the SPGB, and who have dismissed the rest of as a mish mash of anarchists, reformists, feminists, careerists - yes, you read me right - CAREERISTS and, if they could pin it on us, the bastards who shot cock robin.

The following quote from the latest issue of their journal, the Socialist Studies, confirms my hunch that they won't be proposing unity talks any time soon in the future:

"The Clapham-based Socialist Party has a three-tiered structure. At the top are the godfathers who run the party, make the decisions and plot the strategy. The second tier are the students who usually last until they graduate or find a safe academic job. Then there is the lower tier - those who have buried their heads in the sand for the best part of 20 years, thinking that the political struggle in the old SPGB and the split into two separate organisations was just a bad dream."

What a delightful poison-penned paragraph. Though they (and us) usually argue that there are only two classes in capitalism, apparently there are three classes in Clapham. I also love the image of the SPGB as a hotbed of student radicalism. Don't quote me on this, as I may be woefully wrong, but I understand that the last time the SPGB had more than a handful of students in its ranks, Sir Keith Joseph was Education Secretary and Ben Elton was still considered funny.