The Alliance for Workers Liberty (AWL) is quite a unique movement on the revolutionary left, by the mere fact that it recognises that Israel has the right to exist. This was not always the case. The organisation used to be known as Socialist Organiser (under the same leadership of Sean Matgamna who wrote the above article). In the mid 1980s it underwent a change of policy from the more common line taken by revolutionary leftist organisations in favour of a secular democratic state of Palestine and supporting the effective destruction of Israel to the stance it now takes which is that of “Two Nations, Two States”.

This policy however put the organisation at odds with much of the far left. If one considers earlier splits on the left on policy for example defining Russia as a degenerated workers state or state capitalist then the “line on Palestine” has become a crucial test on the left.

Socialist Organiser seemed to have their “power base” in the student movement and as such had set up a student organisation called SSiN. This was an acronym for Socialist Students in NOLS. NOLS itself being an acronym for the National Organisation of Labour Students. Like Militant but unlike the SWP, Socialist Organiser was an entryist organisation in the Labour Party. It was therefore not surprising that he student wing of Socialist Organiser would be entryist in the student wing of the Labour Party.

The policy change by SO therefore was most notable at the December 1987 National Union of Students (NUS) conference. At that conference the NUS executive put forward a policy that looked remarkably similar to a model motion from the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS). This particular policy did not in any of the points mention the right of Israel to exist. The first amendment to the motion was a SSiN supported position of two states and the second amendment was the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) position. The UJS stance was then a relatively wishy washy one of “mutual recognition” between Palestinians and Israelis. Away from the highly charged atmosphere at the conference, the following events that took place were quite striking. The first one being a joint fringe meeting between SSiN and UJS, the second one was SSiN allowing a prominent member of UJS to speak for its motion and the third one being that when the SSiN amendment was defeated the line from SSiN was to support the UJS backed amendment. It was at that stage that I realised that “the left” as a whole was not rotten to the core.

Subsequent to that and under the name change to AWL, the organisation has been arguing their 2 states position consistently in the left. However more than that, AWL have clearly noted the difference between legitimate criticism of the policies of the Government of Israel and anti-Semitism and have produced a number of articles on the matter and often well researched. The following article that AWL translated and copied to their web site should be read carefully by many on the left:

http://www.workersliberty.org/node/view/600

All this good work unfortunately has led to AWL getting the ultimate insult from other leftists – they are called Zionists. As Matgamna notes, AWLs own suggestion of a slogan for Socialist Alliance of “Israel out of the Occupied Territories” was voted down in favour “Free Palestine” and “Victory to the Intifada”. This highlights the position of many on the left – Israel itself has no right to exist.

Whilst I am not a revolutionary socialist and perceive the possibility of an international workers revolution in the foreseeable future to be miniscule to say the least, if it does occur then I would say the Jewish population will feel much safer if AWL are leading the revolution than the SWP.