Socialist Resistance

Origins

It was launched on 8 September 2002 by two organisations, the Socialist Solidarity Network (SSN) and International Socialist Group (ISG), and 33 individuals.

The founders of Socialist Resistance included Frances Curran and Catriona Grant, leading members of the Scottish Socialist Party, Murray Smith, former SSP international officer and Andrew Burgin from the Stop the War Coalition, leading members of the Socialist Alliance included James White, secretary of Barnsley Alliance, Mathew Caygill secretary of Leeds Socialist Alliance plus Lesley Mahmood (Liverpool) and Margaret Manning (Manchester) from the Socialist Alliance Executive.

Organisation

Founded as a network it developed the norms of an organisation, included elected bodies, local groups and formal membership. By 2007 135 activists had subscribed to its internal listserver [1], of whom around at least 65 could be assumed to have been members of the ISG [2]; and at least 20 of whom were supporters of the SSN [3]. Its members also include former supporters in Britain of the Democratic Socialist Perspective.

In July 2009 Socialist Resistance adopted a constitution and a more extensive political basis. The organisation is controlled by an annual conference to which one delegate is elected for every three members. It elects a National Committee and an Appeals Committee (a control commission). The National Committee appoints sub-committees, including an executive and an editorial board.

Activities

It organises monthly public meetings in London, Oxford and Birmingham, as well as national open forums each year. For example, it organised a June 2006 dayschool on the Bolivarian revolution addressed by Michael Lowy and Celia Hart, a September 2006 annual general meeting, December 2006 and May 2007 forums on "ecosocialism" and a March 2007 forum on the Middle East.

In September 2009, Socialist Resistance, together with Green Left, organised a seminar on Climate and Capitalism, with Ian Angus as the main speaker.

Resistance also publishes irregular broadsheets and pamphlets. Three leading activists in Resistance are on the editorial board of International Viewpoint. Socialist Resistance also co-operates with Green Left and the Red-Green Study Group in the Ecosocialist International Network.

After resigning from Respect, Socialist Resistance became part of the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition from which it withdrew in mid-2014.

The organisation welcomed the launch of Left Unity.

In January 2014, Socialist Resistance unsuccessfully entered unity talks with Workers' Power and the International Socialist Network with a view to "dissolve itself into a new organisation and its only condition would be that its members could remain in the Fourth International."

Publications

Resistance Books is the publishing arm of Socialist Resistance. Resistance Books also publishes books jointly with Merlin Press (London) and the International Institute for Research and Education (Amsterdam).

Periodical

Also known as Socialist Resistance, the rationale for the new publication was "(...) to express and build support for a distinct political position which, despite differences among us on secondary issues, we share. We want to deepen the fight for a broad socialist party in England on the model of, for example, the SSP in Scotland and the Party of Communist Refoundation in Italy."

Between September 2002 and November 2007 it produced 49 issues of a 28-page tabloid which was produced monthly, with summer and winter issues spanning two months each. In November 2007, the resources used for the newspaper were dedicated to the Respect Renewal movement, allowing it to plan the launch of a newspaper in December 2007. According to a statement by the group's Steering Committee, the change was unanimously agreed at a meeting of the group's members. In January 2008, the group's aggregate agreed to relaunch Socialist Resistance as a colour quarterly magazine in April 2008.