Barry Sheppard’s memoir

An interested, critical review of The Party

Bob Gould

The Party. The Socialist Workers Party, 1960-1988. Volume 1: The Sixties, A Political Memoir, Resistance Books, Sydney, 2005

This is a book of considerable interest on the history of the revolutionary socialist movement, and it’s of particular interest to me because Barry Sheppard and I crossed paths at an important time. As well, the US SWP, of which he was a leading figure, had some influence on my political development and a lot of influence on the evolution of the revolutionary socialist movement in Australia.

Letter from British SWP to French LCR

Central Committee of the Socialist Workers Party

To Daniel Bensaid, Leon Cremieux, Francois Duval, and Francois Sabado

Dear Comrades,

Much has happened since you wrote your letter to us in December 2002. Faced with the most gigantic international protest movement in world history, the United States and Britain — in defiance, not just of the anti-war movement, but of the opposition of most of the world’s ruling classes, headed by France, Germany, and Russia — have succeeded in conquering Iraq and are now subjecting the country to what amounts to a colonial occupation and threatening to attack neighbouring states such as Iran and Syria.