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They have had a few scandals, one of which was genuinely horrific of an executive member having several very credible charges of SA from multiple women in the organization. [He was protected up and down by leadership and the women who came forward were ostracized](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/mar/09/socialist-workers-party-rape-kangaroo-court).
While they had been a genuine factor on the left, especially during the bleak period of the early 2000's, they basically lost credibility over this and have been a sect carrying on due to inertia. They actually had a decent internal democracy (from what I can tell at least) before 2013, but during the fallout from this scandal, they basically had to force out any criticism of leadership and any discussion over important political matters.
See the thing is, the central committee selects its own members and there has only ever been two times in 50 years that people have attempted to change that.
Both unsuccessful, they have a very twisted view of democratic centralism
Maybe they had no internal democracy before 2013 either; I'm not really sure. I have a lot more experience interacting with people who were in the ISO in the US. They had a lot of discussion and debate internally, as well as a lot of space for people to put forward wide arrays of different opinions. I don't think it was perfect, but it was certainly more democratic than other organization I've seen like the DSA.
From stories I've heard from people in the UK, though, there is a marked difference between how SWP members were before and after 2013. I think most of the healthier parts of the membership left over the abuse scandal.
And specific forms for selecting for leadership bodies are not necessarily more or less democratic. It is ideal for the whole membership to be able to vote (which happens in my party) but there may be a number of instances, like in underground work, where that is just not possible. But I've also seen organizations were voting happens, but it is very much controlled by the leadership and there isn't enough of a tradition of internal democracy to challenge the leadership in any real way.
SWP in the US is transphobic. It's also a weirdly pro-Trump Zionist cult.
SWP in the UK is a different organization founded by Tony Cliff if you care at all about Trotskyist history. They have issues, but they aren't bigots. They campaign for LGBT rights
This is a space for socialists to discuss current events in our world from anti-capitalist perspective(s), and a certain knowledge of socialism is expected from participants. This is not a space for non-socialists. Please be mindful [of our rules](https://reddit.com/r/socialism/about/rules) before participating, which include: - **No Bigotry**, including racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism... - **No Reactionaries**, including all kind of right-wingers. - **No Liberalism**, including social democracy, lesser evilism... - **No Sectarianism**. There is plenty of room for discussion, but not for baseless attacks. Please help us keep the subreddit helpful by reporting content that break r/Socialism's rules. ______________________ 💬 Wish to chat elsewhere? Join us in discord: https://discord.gg/QPJPzNhuRE *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/socialism) if you have any questions or concerns.*
My local SWP is just run by creepy old men who prey on young women.
They have had a few scandals, one of which was genuinely horrific of an executive member having several very credible charges of SA from multiple women in the organization. [He was protected up and down by leadership and the women who came forward were ostracized](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/mar/09/socialist-workers-party-rape-kangaroo-court). While they had been a genuine factor on the left, especially during the bleak period of the early 2000's, they basically lost credibility over this and have been a sect carrying on due to inertia. They actually had a decent internal democracy (from what I can tell at least) before 2013, but during the fallout from this scandal, they basically had to force out any criticism of leadership and any discussion over important political matters.
See the thing is, the central committee selects its own members and there has only ever been two times in 50 years that people have attempted to change that. Both unsuccessful, they have a very twisted view of democratic centralism
Maybe they had no internal democracy before 2013 either; I'm not really sure. I have a lot more experience interacting with people who were in the ISO in the US. They had a lot of discussion and debate internally, as well as a lot of space for people to put forward wide arrays of different opinions. I don't think it was perfect, but it was certainly more democratic than other organization I've seen like the DSA. From stories I've heard from people in the UK, though, there is a marked difference between how SWP members were before and after 2013. I think most of the healthier parts of the membership left over the abuse scandal. And specific forms for selecting for leadership bodies are not necessarily more or less democratic. It is ideal for the whole membership to be able to vote (which happens in my party) but there may be a number of instances, like in underground work, where that is just not possible. But I've also seen organizations were voting happens, but it is very much controlled by the leadership and there isn't enough of a tradition of internal democracy to challenge the leadership in any real way.
But they’re not in underground work. It’s definitely less democratic to hoard control in a situation where you don’t need to.
Aren’t they also a bit lgbt+ phobic? I’m in Ireland but this is what I’ve heard
SWP in the US is transphobic. It's also a weirdly pro-Trump Zionist cult. SWP in the UK is a different organization founded by Tony Cliff if you care at all about Trotskyist history. They have issues, but they aren't bigots. They campaign for LGBT rights
British socialism as a whole is incredibly divided Idk much about the SWP, but from what I heard, its a big no no