Celebrating Fifty Years of Peter Taaffe (on the suggestion of John Bulaitis)

That's me yawning at a Militant public meeting addressed by Peter Taaffe in February, 1984. The meeting took place in the Atlanta Hotel on Dominick Street here in Galway. I now teach poetry workshops at Galway Arts Centre which is situated almost immediately across the road from where the Atlanta Hotel used to be. Despite appearances to the contrary, I was a madly enthusiastic member of Comrade Taaffe's organisation at the time and remained so for another ten years.

Before my friend Darrell Kavanagh starts typing another email to tell me to stop going on about the Socialist Party/Militant Tendency because they are now irrelevant, I should say that this is not another carping negative post. It is an occasion of celebration. John Bulaitis has been in touch to say that he thinks we should do something to celebrate the fact that Peter Taaffe (pictured below making a very important point) this year celebrates fifty years as General Secretary of Militant/the Socialist Party.

It has been pointed out to me that Peter has now been General Secretary for eight years longer than Comrade Enver Hoxha was in situ as General Secretary of the Albanian Party of Labour. Here's a video of Hoxha at a May Day celebration in Tirana back in the good old days when Albania was a deformed workers' state.

Peter has also heroically outlasted Kim Il Sung, who was leader of the Workers' Party of Korea for a (compared to Peter) paltry forty five years (1949-94).

I agree with John Bulaitis entirely on this. Whatever political (and other) differences the tens of thousands of former members of what we used to call "the organisation" may these days have with Peter, we should be big enough to put all that aside and celebrate Peter's fifty years as leader of the vanguard of the international working class.

The Socialist Party congress took place earlier in the Summer in the suitably revolutionary venue of Clacton-on-Sea. The highlight was a long speach by Peter. He has also recently been busy denouncing dogmatists in Belgium, which is always good to hear. Peter is a man far too busy to celebrate the immensity of his own achievement.

That being the case, it has been proposed that we book either Alexandra Palace or Wembley Stadium for a proper celebration, which could also double as a reunion for those who've passed through the ranks since Peter took over in the dim and distant year of 1963, back when Christine Keeler was a very busy young lady indeed and I hadn't yet been born.

Myself and John Bulaitis will co-host the evening. I have yet to inform John about this, but I have no doubt he'll agree. Below is a picture of the co-hosts of this year's Eurovision contest.

I plan to wear a dress similar to the one the woman in the picture is wearing.

We are hoping that Derek Hatton will turn up and play a few tunes on his ukelele. Clare Doyle has agreed to play some One Direction hits on her harpsichord. There will be an interpretive dance (in fifty parts) by Paul Couchman to mark each of Peter's fifty years; I am particularly looking forward to his interpretation of 1994. There'll be a special performance by Tommy Sheridan, and, we hope, a guest appearance by Christine Keeler, who will present Peter with a replica of her famous chair.

It promises to be quite a night. To get you in the mood, here is a poem.

The day I was called an enemy of the revolution (and not for the first time)

The Socialist Workers Party in Britain is in a state of crisis so profound that it makes Eamon Gilmore’s troubles following the resignation of Róisín Shorthall and the expulsion from the parliamentary Labour Party of party Chairman, Colm Keaveney, look like a picnic by the river on the warmest Sunday in August. The crisis has been provoked by an allegation of rape and sexual harassment against Martin Smith, the party’s former National Secretary.

The now former Socialist Worker journalist, Tom Walker, explains here why he has resigned from the party. Tom Walker says, among other things that: "The disputes committee [of the Socialist Workers Party in the U.K.] should never have been allowed to investigate and rule on a rape accusation, under any circumstances, period. The case should have been investigated by authorities competent to do so."

“Authorities competent to do so” can only mean, in this case, the police and the courts. The problem here is that the SWP leadership in the U.K. (and it would be no different in Ireland) put themselves above the state, consider themselves to be superior to it. In power this would mean the one party state and everything that goes with that. If the SWP leadership had wanted to be rid of Martin Smith they would be equally capable of using such complaints (even if they were entirely false) as a means of getting rid of him. This of course leads to the uncomfortable conclusion that both the alleged victim and the alleged perpetrator are more likely to get more justice (if not by any means always total justice) from the police and the courts than they are from the internal disputes committees of parties such as the SWP and, indeed, the Socialist Party. Both parties are perfectly capable of covering up for a rapist if it was politically convenient for them to do so and both are conversely capable of using false allegations (of rape, embezzling money, you name it) to remove people they want removed. Or to justify their removal after the fact.

When I posted a comment to this effect on Facebook last evening it provoked the following comment from comrade Breege Burke of Galway Socialist Workers Party.

“That's a disgusting and defamatory allegation., Kevin Higgins. You've taken it upon yourself to vilify the SWP and you have a vendetta against some of the members - for reasons I can only begin to fathom. Why would a 'poet' - who loses no opportunity for self-promotion, set himself up as 'the' nemesis of the revolutionary left in Galway? And more importantly, for whose benefit? Who and what benefits when the revolutionary left i.e. the working class, is damaged? The enemies of the working class? Yup. Vultures, predators...capitalists - laughing all the way from the poetry reading. Perfect for an ambitious careerist.”

In a subsequent comment Ms. Burke went on to say: “I'm a revolutionary socialist first and foremost: whatever damages the prospect of a revolution damages the working class. I get 'worked up' when I see enemies of the revolution...jumping on the bandwagon to throw mud at the party that I consider to be as close as it is possible to get to true agents of a genuine, heartfelt, passionate revolutionary force...

I should point out at this stage that my relationship with Galway Socialist Workers Party has degenerated somewhat over the past decade. In June 2005 Dette McLoughlin of Galway SWP was present at mine and Susan’s wedding in Galway Arts Centre. In October of that year I did a poetry reading at an SWP branch meeting which also featured a talk on Shelley by author and SWP member, Paul O’Brien. By 2008, for reasons which I would be happy to discuss with anyone who’s interested, the relationship had entirely degenerated. Though, like most break ups, it was not without its comedy. Read about it here on Harry’s Place and then pause for a moment to think of happier days and listen to this.

Anyway, I responded to Ms Burke thus: “Breege, you always resort to personal attacks. I do think that the system of running their parties which the SWP and SP use is corrupt, yes. This is why this sort of thing happens. It's why the Tommy Sheridan fiasco happened and much more besides. I'd be happy to publicly debate any of these issues with you or any other member of the SWP. You do seem rather exercised by, well, me. In fact you seem to think about me rather more than even I do. And to use language such as "enemies of the revolution" is truly incredible, given all those who've used similar language. These are the same words that would have been used by Madame Mao. Woman up Breege and we'll have a public debate. I reckon we'd gather a crowd.”

I should point out that I have never actually spoken to Breege. Though we have recently been on Galway Pro-Choice demonstrations together, or at least we have been there at the same time. Sadly, based on Ms. Burke’s most recent response, it seems we’re unlikely to talk any time soon: “Anything for publicity, Kevin! I'll hone my debating skills with those who have a serious interest in politics, not with those who have a mere sneering acquaintance. You go and do what you do best, hon; oh, and maybe a bit of poetry while you’re at it”. :-D

Ah well. My invitation, though, to Ms. Burke and her comrades stands.

You can read more about the crisis in the SWP here.

 

My book Mentioning the War: Essays & Reviews (1999-2011) which, in part, deals with issues like this is available here. It is reviewed in the current issue of The Irish Anarchist Review and was launched in Dublin last June by then Socialist Party T.D. Clare Daly, whose launch speech is available here.

Ted Grant Remembered

Ted Grant (1913-2006)

Ted Grant was born Isaac Blank in South Africa in 1913. He spent most of his life in Britain and was a key leader of the British Trotskyist movement, a founder of the Militant Tendency which grew to be, by the mid-1980s, perhaps the most successful Trotskyist organisation in history.

Ted died six years ago this month. You can read his Guardian obituary here http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2006/jul/27/guardianobituaries.southafrica

Ted was always predicting another 1929 style economic slump. It's ironic then that in the same issue of The Guardian in which his obituary appeared, there was an article about the record profits which a certain British bank had just announced. That bank  was Northern Rock, which was one of the first to topple when the present crisis began the following year.

Members of Militant (in the UK) included such well known names as Derek Hatton & Tommy Sheridan. Members of the organisation's Irish section included the T.Ds Joe Higgins, Clare Daly and Joan Collins.

From 1982 to 1994 I was a member of the organisation myself, at first here in Galway where I was a Militant supporter within Galway West Labour Youth and later in north London, where I was chair of Enfield Against The Poll Tax. For my trouble, I was expelled from the British Labour Party in 1991.

When I heard about Ted's death, it inspired this poem http://www.nthposition.com/deathofa.php

The poem is also available in my 2008 poetry collection Time Gentlemen, Please which can be purchased directly from the Salmon Poetry site. http://www.salmonpoetry.com/details.php?ID=35&a=108