as i like to call them, for no good reason.
dunno...where are you? i'm sure you've said before, but me and my rememberry.......
round here its a fairly active group. our local meeting (Burngreave SA, based around one council ward) had 8 people there - only two of which were actually members of any group (both WP in this case). We're trying to make sure it isn't just an electoral front, so are doing leafletting for the Iraq demo, and a local meeting, and organising stuff with the Defend Council Housing campaign.
Throughout Sheffield, well there is only one active local branch, but a whole bunch of general activity. Lots of (really fucking thrilling) debates on the euro at the moment. I'm tryoing not to get too involved in that really (tho I'm a fairly firm 'no', well me gf is a very serious 'active abstention', ooh it makes for some right argies in the bed!!)
The SWP are a bit weird, they could easilly dominate it, as they have more members than the rest of us put together, but refuse to do so. So they don't even vote in favour of there own positins quite often. They (seemingly) want to make sure that it isn't just them running it, as that would be pointless, but it means they behave somewhat irritatingly at times. And then often they just don't bother turning up, especially at local meetings. its not clear whether they want to build there own branches or SA ones locally, or both, or neither. WP are basically alright, but a bit ultra-leftist sometimes. AWL are, well, the AWL, bit fucking irritating, but that's just their politics. There are bods from a few other groups along too, but all as individuals.
Overwhelmingly there is a decent feel of people trying to work together, and trying not to be sectarian (tho when all the groups apart from the SWP get together, it does become a bit of a bitchfest). Discussion is serious but not desperately tedious or absurdly abstract. Tho if you get on one of the e-mail lists you'll be bound to find at least on freak n fruitcake!
Are they worthwhile? Well......I can't see any real alternative at the moment. And the far left has been held back (has held itself back) for bloody years with its splits and sectarianism. The SA is, I think, a serious attempt to overcome that, so I think it's worth supporting. And fight to make it genuinely democratic
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