Everybody (by which I mean Richard “Lenin” Seymour) has gone a bit quiet since the triumph of the Central Committee at the weekend’s SWP National Committee meeting. The last post on his International Socialism blog dates from the 3rd February.
So – what is going on?
Well, as you’ve probably heard (if you care about such things), Mark Bergfeld has left the Central Committee. Who is Mark Bergfeld, I hear you ask? Well, if you’re quick, you can read his Wikipedia entry, which is to be deleted because he is a “non-notable student activist, no actual achievements listed”.
That is not entirely fair. Mark Bergfeld briefly made the papers when he declared that “force is legitimate to bring [the Government] down” and suggested that now might be the time for a “French-style resistance”.
As for the remainder of the SWP rebels – well, my mole in the SWP tells me that some sort of arrangement is being made between part of the anti-Martin Smith faction and the SWP leadership. It isn’t clear what the “rebels” will get from this deal apart from not being expelled.
However some of the “rebels” will not be pacified, and so we’re imminently awaiting their declaration of some sort of possibly US-ISO aligned faction: after which they’ll be expelled.
Then they’ll spend the next 20 years fighting each other, before fading into obscurity.
They won’t be missed.
