TheOldGreyWhistle wrote:I

Look, the best people to decide what to do in a strike are the workers involved in it.  The last thing they want are ‘outsiders’, like the SWP for example, muscling in on their dispute.  Why would the “SPGB appear to be the enemy of the working class”?; we are workers ourselves but as a political party we are concerned principally with the political struggle.  However, we need to ‘tell it as we see it’; opinions often hurt, even offend occasionally, but they rarely inflict any permanent damage.Here are links to a pamphlet written by the party at the close of the Miners’ Strike and an article written twenty years later which you may find helpful.http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/pamphlets/strike-weapon-lessons-miners%E2%80%99-strikehttp://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2000s/2004/no-1195-march-2004/miners-strike

My memory is that the Party never expressed support for Solidarity as a political party. Solidarity began as a trade union that also demanded democratic rights. It was entirely right that the Party should express enthusiasm about that.  As the situation developed Solidarity became a reformist political party and when this happened we opposed it.