It is crucial that the
SSP survives as a
united organisation out of this crisis since its demise would be a
blow to the left and
the wider movement
on a European scale. initiative and work conWIDO it. Unfortunately three of our comrades took a different view and put their names to an Open Letter to the SSP United Left which was distributed at a meeting of the SSP NC meeting on June 25. This contained criticism of the SSP United Left statement which we find unacceptable.
Interventions are being made Into lnis situaton by the SWP and the CWI, most crudely the CWI. Peter Taaffe claims that he and Phil Stott, CWI leading member in the SSP, met with Tommy Sheridan in advance of the NC and that the Open
and its general approach was produced on his advice.
The position put forward in Socialist Worker is that the choice on offer is between Tommy Sheridan's model of a broad based party and Allan McCombes's model of a narrow inward looking
The idea that Allan McCombes wants a narrow party of that kind flies in the face of everything he has done and said for the last 10 years and his record of building the SSP.
There may be implications in this debate as to the character of the SSP, its structure and accountability, and how it should be built -but they do not take these lines.
It is crucial that the SSP survives as a united organiSaTION OuT Ot Toi Crisis Since his denise would be a Dow to the left and the wider movement on a European scale. The NC meeting on June 25 rightly took the decision to bring the conference of the SSP forward to the autumn of this year.
It is important that this conterence build strengths and traditions of the SSP and does not try to divert it into a difference course. It is also important Lial elects leadership which is representative of all strands of opinion within the SSP.
MADE TO KEEP PROMISES Sarah Parker Readers may have noticed the recent flurry of media debate around an "amnesty for illegal immigrants".
On June 19 the Guardian reported that: "Immigration Minister Liam Byrne became last week the first minister to refuse to rule out an amnesty. Mr Byrne told the all-party Commons Affairs select committee last week he has commissioned officials to prepare a report on the 'issues' around launching an amnesty and it was 'too early to tell' if one would be introduced."
There has of course long been some concern amongsi parts of the Labour bureaucracy about certain aspects of Blair's policies.
In March the Institute for Public Policy Research, a think-tank close to New Labour, published a report (available at www.ippr.org.uk) supporting the regularisation of irregular migrants in various categories, including "failed asylum seekers".
Their argument was mainly on crude economic grounds -WE ARE FOREIGN BUT WE ARE HUMAN that these people can benefit the British economy, and it is not cost-effective to deport Them au.
Now many Labour MPs and trade union bureaucrats are panicking about Labour's terrible results in the local elections, and judge that New Labour needs to move rapidly to give the impression that there will be some change from the policies associated with Tony Blair before the next election
Hence the debates at the recent Compass (Tormer Labour Co-ordinating Committee) conference.
Some fear that constant government and media provocation hostility towards asylum seekers and
from the Eastern or Eastern Europe, togetner with the constant revelations about the chaotic and arbitrary nature of the workings of the Home Office, and the high financial and political costs of continuing large numbers of deportations for the foreseeable future, will, if not quickly checked, lead to even more support for
SHOULD BE PROMISES the BNP and an even greater rise in racist attacks.
Some no doubt feel that it is morally wrong for large numbers of foreign workers to be exploited as cheap labour, and for political refugees who have been refused protection to be ill-treated here and then deported to dangerous countries such as Iraq, Democratic Republic of Congo or Afghanistan.
Sections of the church hierarchies are also supportive of some sort of amnesty.
TGWU officials have rightly concluded from the recent cleaners' dispute that the union cannot defend its present members conditions unless it can address the question of bosses who slash wages and conditions by using workers with insecure or no residence status, whether they be economic migrants or
They have decided that the TGWU has to be able to recruit these people, for which their status has to be regularised.
Hence Jack Dromey's call an amnesty for workers withHOME OFFICE In The
and HSMP Visas. oul DermIs
But it seems he doesn't oppose the deportation of people with criminal convicDONS. winereds Socialist Resistance believes that no one should be subject to double punishment, and cerlainly not on tne basis of tell immigration status.
Presently the TGWU does not have policy on this, so the argument can still be put within the union itself and elsewhere in the labour movement.
Refugee groups and the left need to campaign vocally over the next six months in support of the granting of residence status to irregular migrants, and we need to familiarise ourselves with the arguments so that we can campaign effectively.
Many asylum seekers are aware that the Home Office is considering an amnesty, and the refugee groups and the left need to help them make their voices heard with MPs and the Home Office and turn their desperate hopes of safety into reality.