Socialist Workers' Student Society
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The Socialist Workers' Student Society, commonly known as SWSS (pronounced swizz), is the student section of the British socialist group the SWP. It organises mainly in Universities and higher education colleges, and is an active faction in the National Union of Students.
On campus SWSS groups tend to organise what they describe as regular 'activist meetings' as well as more abstract discussions of Marxist ideas, claiming that ideas and activity 'go hand in hand'[1]. They also encourage their members to become involved in other left wing campaigns, and to work with other groups and individuals to build wider movements on campus (as part of the tactic of united fronts). SWSS members have been central to setting up and building Stop the War Coalition groups in British universities, schools and colleges.
SWSS is currently led by Rob Owen, a member of the National Union of Students national executive.
[edit] History
The SWP and its forerunners have long had student members and in the 1950s and 60s they were active in the National Association of Labour Student Organisations (NALSO) in line with the group's policy of membership in the Labour Party. By the early 1960s a leading member of the International Socialists, as the SWP was known prior to 1962, became editor of Clarion the NALSO publication. Having departed the Labour Party, IS students were active in college based Socialist Societies and then in the Revolutionary Socialist Student Federation. When that body collapsed, they operated as the National Organisation of International Socialists Students (NOISS) and from 1977 onwards as the Socialist Worker Student Organisation (SWSO). The last name was changed to SWSS in the early 1980s.[citation needed]
It recently has expanded and changed its policy of standing its own candidates on a 'revolutionary propagandist' ticket to founding Student Respect groups where it works with wider groups of people who share the same anti-war, anti-capitalist policies and are willing to work together. It is also heavily involved in Stop the War groups on campus, and these form 'three concentric circles', Stop the War being the largest circle, with Respect as a central component, with the SWSS as a central component of that.
