Socialist Worker - Solidarity or Misinformation?

dublin | bin tax / household tax / water tax | opinion/analysis Thursday September 25, 2003 19:33 by Bin Tax Hater

The latest issue of "Socialist Worker" contains a number of articles about the bin tax and about the imprisonment of Joe Higgins and Clare Daly. There's something strange about the coverage though.

The names "Joe Higgins" or "Clare Daly" appear nearly 40 times in the latest issue of the SWP paper. At times the coverage almost turns Joe into some kind of secular saint.

One thing is strangely missing though. Despite all those mentions of their names, never once is the party affiliation of either Joe or Clare mentioned.

We are told how wonderful they are and we are told that they are socialists. We are also presented with many cut out forms imploring us to "join the socialists", by which the paper means joining the SWP.

Now forgetting to mention the fact that Joe and Clare are in the Socialist Party might be understandable once or twice. Nearly 40 times in one issue of a paper and it can safely be said that a conscious decision has been made.

Anyone who has picked up an SWP leaflet since the jailing of the two Socialist Party elected representatives will see that the pattern continues there. "Free the Socialists!" demand the leaflets and they finish with more offers to "join the socialists", again meaning the SWP.

It is clear that the SWP are engaging in a rather cynical attempt to associate themselves with Joe and Clare.

What makes this all the more unpleasant is that Joe and Clare have fought long and hard to get the right wing media to stop referring to them as independents or just as "socialists" without mentioning their party affiliation. To have a left wing organisation come along and do its best to distort that issue again while they are in prison is shameful. Particularly when that left wing organisation hopes to gain from the distortion.

Joe and Clare need every bit of solidarity they can get. That doesn't include attempts to distort who they are, what organisation they represent or what they stand for.

If the SWP is going to produce leaflets or a newspaper talking about Joe or Clare, the least they can do is pay them the respect of making their real political affiliation clear.