Independent Socialist SG
14th July 2011, 14:31
I figure 'Learning' is as good a place as any to post this:
The Independent Socialist Study Group (ISSG) is a collective of individual socialists who believe that the majority of existing 'left-wing' organisations, both in Ireland and internationally, are incapable of achieving their purported aims. In our view these organisations are also unable to provide a space for meaningful debate and have a tendency to stifle independent thought and action. We think the recent national forum of the United Left Alliance (ULA) should raise big questions in the minds of socialists about the Socialist Party (SP) and the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) that dominate the ULA. For example:
· Socialists should stand for an uncompromising struggle against imperialism and oppression, so how can it be right that the SP refuses to side with the nationally oppressed in the case of the North of Ireland?
· The world economy is on the brink of another Great Depression. Though reforms can be won, nothing has proven more impractical than working class people freeing themselves from poverty under capitalism. So how can the SWP be right to oppose the ULA standing openly for socialism on account of the idea not being practical?
These are the sorts of questions that have led us to see the need to launch an independent forum for study and debate.
The founding members of the ISSG believe the opportunism and cynicism that characterises so much of the 'left' today is rooted in the historic defeats suffered by the working class and oppressed masses of the world throughout much of the twentieth century.
However, the founding members of the ISSG do not accept that the apparent 'failure' of the workers' movement to achieve the socialist transformation of human society is due to inaccurate theories or the supposed inability of the oppressed to fight for their freedom. The reasons are similar to those that led to the degeneration of the 'left': a combination of factors arising from within the capitalist system itself and the absence of an authentic revolutionary leadership.
Therefore the founding members of the ISSG do not believe there is a need to 're-invent the wheel'. What is required, in our view, is a re-orientation towards the best traditions of the workers' movement and most importantly an understanding that the working class is the only consistently revolutionary agency in the world today for which there can be no substitute.
The founding members of the ISSG consider political honesty and transparency to be of paramount importance. To that end we unashamedly proclaim ourselves to be Trotskyists; that is we consider ourselves to stand in the proud tradition of the Bolshevik party that led what we consider to be the only successful socialist revolution to date in Russia in 1917.
The intention of the founding members of the ISSG, however, is not to simply propagate our own political perspective but to encourage debate and independent thought amongst all who wish to fight for a socialist future. The ISSG is not a 'front group' nor do its founding members necessarily consider it to be a stepping stone to the formation of a new organisation in Ireland, despite our belief that a revolutionary vanguard party is of vital importance to the success of the socialist revolution. We also feel it needs to be made clear that socialists who are already affiliated to particular tendencies are welcome to participate as are comrades who may hold very different and even antagonistic views to our own such as anarchists, left communists and so forth.
In creating the ISSG its founding members hope it can serve as a space for debate; an 'arena of ideas'. Depending upon the level of interest and available resources we hope to better educate ourselves and others about the nature of human society by exploring political and economic theory, philosophy, history, art and any other areas that may be of interest to participants and relevant to the goal of human liberation.
The ISSG is intended to be a pole of attraction for socialists interested in being active within the workers' movement not academic circles. The founding members of the ISSG hope that the group can prove to be an inclusive organisation where people of varying degrees of experience and theoretical knowledge can come together and learn from one another.
Blog: issg-ireland.blogspot.com.
The Independent Socialist Study Group (ISSG) is a collective of individual socialists who believe that the majority of existing 'left-wing' organisations, both in Ireland and internationally, are incapable of achieving their purported aims. In our view these organisations are also unable to provide a space for meaningful debate and have a tendency to stifle independent thought and action. We think the recent national forum of the United Left Alliance (ULA) should raise big questions in the minds of socialists about the Socialist Party (SP) and the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) that dominate the ULA. For example:
· Socialists should stand for an uncompromising struggle against imperialism and oppression, so how can it be right that the SP refuses to side with the nationally oppressed in the case of the North of Ireland?
· The world economy is on the brink of another Great Depression. Though reforms can be won, nothing has proven more impractical than working class people freeing themselves from poverty under capitalism. So how can the SWP be right to oppose the ULA standing openly for socialism on account of the idea not being practical?
These are the sorts of questions that have led us to see the need to launch an independent forum for study and debate.
The founding members of the ISSG believe the opportunism and cynicism that characterises so much of the 'left' today is rooted in the historic defeats suffered by the working class and oppressed masses of the world throughout much of the twentieth century.
However, the founding members of the ISSG do not accept that the apparent 'failure' of the workers' movement to achieve the socialist transformation of human society is due to inaccurate theories or the supposed inability of the oppressed to fight for their freedom. The reasons are similar to those that led to the degeneration of the 'left': a combination of factors arising from within the capitalist system itself and the absence of an authentic revolutionary leadership.
Therefore the founding members of the ISSG do not believe there is a need to 're-invent the wheel'. What is required, in our view, is a re-orientation towards the best traditions of the workers' movement and most importantly an understanding that the working class is the only consistently revolutionary agency in the world today for which there can be no substitute.
The founding members of the ISSG consider political honesty and transparency to be of paramount importance. To that end we unashamedly proclaim ourselves to be Trotskyists; that is we consider ourselves to stand in the proud tradition of the Bolshevik party that led what we consider to be the only successful socialist revolution to date in Russia in 1917.
The intention of the founding members of the ISSG, however, is not to simply propagate our own political perspective but to encourage debate and independent thought amongst all who wish to fight for a socialist future. The ISSG is not a 'front group' nor do its founding members necessarily consider it to be a stepping stone to the formation of a new organisation in Ireland, despite our belief that a revolutionary vanguard party is of vital importance to the success of the socialist revolution. We also feel it needs to be made clear that socialists who are already affiliated to particular tendencies are welcome to participate as are comrades who may hold very different and even antagonistic views to our own such as anarchists, left communists and so forth.
In creating the ISSG its founding members hope it can serve as a space for debate; an 'arena of ideas'. Depending upon the level of interest and available resources we hope to better educate ourselves and others about the nature of human society by exploring political and economic theory, philosophy, history, art and any other areas that may be of interest to participants and relevant to the goal of human liberation.
The ISSG is intended to be a pole of attraction for socialists interested in being active within the workers' movement not academic circles. The founding members of the ISSG hope that the group can prove to be an inclusive organisation where people of varying degrees of experience and theoretical knowledge can come together and learn from one another.
Blog: issg-ireland.blogspot.com.