3 ms·
Actually though, the SWP isn't a tiny ineffectual fringe group. They (or their satellite organizations) been key organizers of pretty much every big lefty demo
by Joeboy 8y ago
Actually though, the SWP isn't a tiny ineffectual fringe group. They (or their satellite organizations) been key organizers of pretty much every big lefty demo for the last 2-3 decades. Back when I was more involved with this sort of thing, we used to find the SWP's enthusiasm for appropriating other people's issues quite annoying. This is why I find the extent of police involvement in the SWP rather startling.
- vidarh 8y agoThey were good at making noise and hijacking attention and demonstrations. But they were still tiny, and they're tinier by far now (as for 2014, some ex-members estimated there was a core of 200 or so left, after the Comrade Delta mess caused multiple splits). And they achieved very little: As you point out they were enthusiastically appropriating other peoples issues. They rarely did much of any consequence on their own.
- Joeboy 8y agoThey have / had tentacles in lots of lefty causes, which I would speculate is what made them interesting to the police. I think they largely managed this by being fairly well resourced and organized, notably they organized transport to demos for huge numbers of people. I haven't really kept up with the gossip recently though. I imagine things like the recent Stop Trump demo had a lot of input from SWP or former-SWP people, but I don't really know who organizes what these days.