page_title: Socialist Workers Party (UK)
section_title: Involvement with other groups
hierarchical_section_title: Socialist Workers Party (UK) / History / Involvement with other groups
caption_attribution_description: English: A stall run by the Socialist Worker's Party (UK) held in the southern part of Trafalgar Square, central London, during the 2011 anti-cuts protest in London.
context_page_description: The Socialist Workers Party is a far-left political party in the United Kingdom. Founded as the Socialist Review Group by supporters of Tony Cliff in 1950, it became the International Socialists in 1962 and the SWP in 1977. The party considers itself to be Trotskyist. Cliff and his followers criticised the Soviet Union and its satellites, calling them state capitalist rather than socialist countries.
  The SWP has founded several front organisations through which they have sought to coordinate and influence leftist action, such as the Anti-Nazi League in the late 1970s and the Stop the War Coalition in 2001. It also formed an alliance with George Galloway and Respect, the dissolution of which in 2007 caused an internal crisis in the SWP. A more serious internal crisis emerged at the beginning of 2013 over allegations of rape and sexual assault made against a leading member of the party. The SWP's handling of these accusations against the individual known as Comrade Delta led to a significant decline in the party's membership.
  On the international level, the SWP is part of the International Socialist Tendency.
context_section_description: The SWP was involved with the Socialist Alliance in England and the Welsh Socialist Alliance. Its Scottish members joined the Scottish Socialist Party as the Socialist Worker Platform in May 2001. The SWP was accused of financial impropriety by Liz Davies and by a former SA press officer of "running" the Alliance into the ground.
  In the aftermath of 9/11, the SWP approached other groups, such as the Muslim Association of Britain and the Communist Party of Britain. With them, they launched the Stop the War Coalition, although the SWP ("old hands" at controlling popular fronts, according to the comedian and activist Mark Thomas) was the dominant organisation, The Coalition's aims were to oppose to the invasion of Afghanistan and subsequently Iraq and to campaign against attacks on Muslims. Lindsey German was elected as Convenor and John Rees and Chris Nineham were appointed as national officers, all leading SWP members at the time. The Coalition organised a demonstration on 15 February 2003 when around 750,000 people (according to the Police) or up to 2 million (according to the organisers)  marched through London.
  The SWP described the Iraqi insurgency as a "resistance" movement against military occupation and endorsed George Galloway's support of Hezbollah, who they described as "the resistance". In addition, the Muslim Association of Britain was accused of being a conservative Islamist body sharing only anti-western sentiments with groups like the SWP and Respect. Former Socialist Alliance and Stop the War activist and press officer Anna Chen saw Lindsey German's comment "I'm in favour of defending gay rights, but I am not prepared to have it as a shibboleth, [created by] people who ... won't defend George Galloway", as the party's equivalent of Labour's revision of Clause IV. According to John Rentoul, the SWP and its allies were not against the war at all, but in favour of Saddam Hussein winning. John Rees has said: "Socialists should unconditionally stand with the oppressed against the oppressor, even if the people who run the oppressed country are undemocratic and persecute minorities, like Saddam Hussein."
  According to John Rees, discussions with George Galloway about establishing a new group had begun to coalesce in December 2002. In England and Wales around January 2004 the SWP began an involvement in Respect – The Unity Coalition, an electoral alliance with a single Member of Parliament, the ex-Labour MP George Galloway, and a small number of councillors. The coalition between the SWP and Galloway's group finally collapsed in Autumn 2007 with both sides blaming the other for the split.
  After the schism, a faction led by the SWP formed the Left List (now called Left Alternative). In Scotland, the SWP existed as a platform of the Scottish Socialist Party but in August 2006, it decided to split from the SSP in order to pursue a new political grouping with Tommy Sheridan's Solidarity, founded a few months after Sheridan's successful defamation case, but before his eventual conviction for perjury in 2010. In that year, the SWP joined the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition and stood five candidates in the general election.
  The jazz musician Gilad Atzmon performed at SWP events for several years from 2004, and was promoted by the party as delivering "fearless tirades against Zionism". Because Atzmon believed the text of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a hoax from the early 20th century, was a valid reflection of contemporary America, Oliver Kamm wrote in The Times in 2006 that the SWP were "allying with classic anti-Semitism". Atzmon and the SWP were similarly accused by other writers. The party eventually severed their association with Atzmon.
caption: A stall run by the SWP in Trafalgar Square at the 2011 anti-cuts protest in London
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