FRFI 13 Oct / Nov 1981
Dear FRFI,
I enclose a copy of a letter sent to Dundee Hunger Strike Action Committee from Dundee SWP together with our reply. The Dundee Committee have asked to forward the letters for publication in the next FRFI.
Dear comrade,
At a meeting of the SWP Branch tonight we discussed your proposals for a demonstration on Saturday and request for printing of leaflets by our party.
As a result of discussion we came to a decision not to support the demonstration or print your leaflets.
The reasons as follows:
a) Firstly the Hunger Strike Committee in Dundee cannot claim to represent anyone else apart from the RCG.
b) And following from this we feel that the RCG has acted in the recent past in a very sectarian way towards other revolutionary groups. We feel your organisation has isolated themselves from the working class and some of the slogans you suggest for Saturday’s demo eg ‘Tony Benn – murderer, Michael Foot – murderer, Labour Party – murderers’ can only help to alienate further working class support for the Hunger Strikers.
c) As a result of these arguments we cannot print your leaflets and feel that joint action at this point in time is inappropriate. Should circumstances change and your organisation operate on a less sectarian basis then we would reconsider future joint action.
It is now our intention to re-establish links with National TOM and organise for the selling of TOM magazines etc in Dundee.
Yours fraternally
Jim Barlow
Chairman SWP Dundee
Comrade,
I have been asked by the Dundee H-Block Hunger Strike Action Committee to reply to the SWP letter.
The fact that the SWP refused to support a march in solidarity with the hunger strikers clearly shows the SWP allied to the imperialist state and supporting the British murder policy in H-Block. But the SWP are not an anti-imperialist or revolutionary organisation: they use anti-imperialist rhetoric and terminology to draw militant forces towards them and then drag them up the cul de sac of Tories Out! Ban the Bomb! etc. In fact the best advice they could give to the militant youth in Brixton, Liverpool who stood up to the cops was the best way to fight unemployment and racism is to take it into the work place. When you’ve no work place to go into that creates a problem. The road that led to the SWP scabbing on the hunger strikers started some time ago. When our group broke from the TOM and the middle class radical groups supporting it, the more optimistic and determined of us felt that we should invite sympathetic groups to take part in joint activity despite their past record and we numbered the local SWP as one such group. Since the public meeting to launch our hunger strike committee we have held pickets every Saturday. A couple of SWP members have attended as individuals but they have made no attempt to attend in any force. One such picket was attacked by an orange mob in full view of 3 SWP paper sellers. On another picket we were approached by 2 cops who ordered a Victory to the Hunger Strikers! banner to be taken down. Subsequently myself and the other comrade holding the banner were charged and the banner confiscated. A few feet from us was a member of the SWP who did nothing. I approached Jim Barlow of the SWP and informed him our committee was planning a POW status demo and they would be allowed to take part on 2 conditions: 1 they get their members off their arses and out on the street campaigning 2 there are to be no attacks on any sections of the Irish Republican Movement. On their past record we didn’t feel these conditions were unreasonable. Barlow said they couldn’t support a demonstration on such conditions. He also claimed later that the SWP hadn’t been invited! I read that anyone caught in quicksand the harder they struggle the faster they sink. This characterises the SWP attitude. I must now refer to the SWP letter in detail, the tone of which is patronising and arrogant in the extreme.
First lie – the DHSC cannot claim to represent anyone apart from the RCG. Of the 10 people that attend our committee meetings 2-3 at the most are FRFI supporters – the rest are more oriented towards the Republican movement. What this slander meant was I was a member of the RCG. The only time I ever recall my alleged membership of the RCG being raised was when I was selling FRFI. Barlow approached me and said ‘So you’ve joined the head bangers now have you?’ I replied I wasn’t a member of the RCG but since they were the only organisation that hadn’t forfeited their right to the claim of a revolutionary group or disgraced the name of communism it wasn’t a bad idea.
Second slander – the RCG (which means anyone who criticises theLabour party and endangers the SWP’s manoeuvrings) has acted in a sectarian way and alienated the working class. As proof of this sectarianism and isolation the slogans and text of the leaflet are highlighted. Do the SWP deny Labour sent the troops in, approved the use of internment, the SAS murder gangs, withdrew political status, bribed the loyalists with more seats to keep the minority Labour government in power? If by sectarianism we are accused of highlighting the Labour party’s pro-Orange bias, to this charge we definitely plead guilty.
Finally they say we (the SWP) feel that joint action at this stage is inappropriate. 10 hunger strikers have died – if now isn’t the appropriate time for joint action when is? In conclusion the SWP are quite welcome to prop up the bar in the Dundee Trades Council club trying to ingratiate themselves with the labour aristocracy and local bureaucrats. We will place our faith in the true revolutionaries, the people of no property, the unemployed youth of Dundee who have no perks, trade union privileges to defend and who have no stake in maintaining the present economic and social structure. These forces made up the majority of our march and the absence of the SWP went absolutely unnoticed. Readers will see from the SWP letter they intend resurrecting the middle class corpse that was the TOM. As far as we’re concerned they deserve each other.
JM
