A while back, I was able to discover official documentation on Socialist Appeal via the UK government website. Irony of ironies, this revolutionary organisation is registered, not as a political organisation, but as a company (under the name of ‘Contrasts Ltd’), as is its publishing house, Wellred Books. None other than Rob Sewell is registered as company director, with Adam Booth (the organisation’s ‘Labour officer’) registered as secretary. Now why is this the case? Would it be that if the organisation splits, the Woods-Sewell clique would be able to get away with taking all the assets for themselves? That is certainly one advantage of registering the organisation as a company. The same motivation led to Nigel Farage registering the Brexit Party as a company – all the better to keep the apparatus in elite hands. How in keeping with the ethos of revolutionary democracy!
There is also the added benefit that registering as a company allows the organisation to receive the tax exemptions that are given to small businesses. If one looks at the accounts that can be found on the government website, it is clear that the leadership of the organisation put a lot of effort into massaging the figures to make them look as bad as possible, so as to benefit from these exemptions and keep their tax bill as low as humanly possible. After all, the wealthy capitalists are doing it, so why shouldn’t they?
If you want to have some fun, go and look at the accounts for yourself. Also note the rotation of personnel, no doubt in keeping with government legislation. No doubt the other ‘sections’ of the International Marxist Tendency are also registered as private companies, with their leaders as ‘company directors’. Among other things, the fudging of the accounts allows them to conceal the pitiful wages they pay their ‘full-timers’ – less than the minimum wage! If the truth were apparent, they would have had legal action taken against them by now. The poor sods do not realise they are victims of labour trafficking, and suing the organisation in court would not be an easy matter. I hope they find their way out one of these days.