23.07.2015

Teesside established

Steve Devey reports on the launch of a new branch in the north-east

Left Unity held its first event in Teesside on Thursday July 16. Although a couple of LU members have been active in the local People’s Assembly group and various other campaigns, getting together as LU members was long overdue.

Twenty-one people, including the guest speaker, attended the Teesside launch meeting in St Mary’s Centre, Middlesbrough, which was promoted via social media, leaflets, raising it at other political meetings and, as an unexpected bonus, a report in the Northern Echo. Around a third of those present were LU members, and they were joined by a couple of Green Party members, a comrade from the Socialist Party in England and Wales and others not affiliated to any party. Many had been involved in Teesside People’s Assembly, but there were also some faces less familiar to local activists.

LU’s national executive member and nominating officer, Terry Conway, was the guest speaker, who addressed the question, ‘Why do we need Left Unity?’ She set the scene by discussing the Conservative government’s welfare cuts and anti-strike legislation; what was happening in the Labour Party, with left candidate Jeremy Corbyn doing unexpectedly well in the leadership election; and the situation in Greece and how it impacted on resistance to austerity in the UK.

Although the June 20 People’s Assembly demonstration had been impressive, comrade Conway observed that many people do not know what the term ‘austerity’ means, so “we need to talk to people in the language they understand”. She argued we could achieve that through being involved in organising on the ground to show practical solidarity with those most affected by benefit cuts, at threat of losing their homes, etc, “so we’re not just talking to ourselves”. It is important to have “something to say to people on the sharpest end of it”.

Terry felt it was essential for us to “get stuck in” supporting workers resisting the Trade Union Bill, though we live in a period when many young people have never actually seen a trade union do anything effective. Jeremy Corbyn had talked about the need for an anti-austerity alliance and it was important that happened at the local level, not just in parliament. In some places People’s Assembly groups could play that role, but there also needs be a forum where people can have more developed political discussions.

Regarding the situation in Greece, comrade Conway admitted that Left Unity’s recent slogan about needing a “British Syriza” was a more complicated thing to say following the Hellenic parliament’s decision to support an even tougher austerity programme than the one rejected in a referendum just a few days earlier. She declared her solidarity with the 38 Syriza MPs and the majority of the party’s central committee who had voted against the deal. However, what happened in Greece did not mean that people had been wrong to join Syriza. Although some had predicted that Syriza would sell out, that could be said about anyone. The Greek Communist Party had come out worst by arguing that people should abstain in the referendum, but “how can you abstain on the question of austerity?” she asked. Left Unity had been at the centre of the Greece Solidarity Campaign from the beginning, working alongside members of the Green Party and Labour lefts.

Moving to the main question of why we need Left Unity, the comrade said that LU was different from any other party she had been involved in. It is “trying to do politics differently”. Unlike the Labour Party, which she had been in for many years, and unlike the Green Party and the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, “every member has a say in what we’re doing”. The party’s 2015 general election manifesto had been put together on the basis of two conferences in 2013 and 2014. Groups of members from across the country came together to work on different topics - education, housing, economy, and so on. “We are extremely pluralist. We do take positions as an organisation, but we don’t try to stop people who don’t agree with something from arguing their point of view” - she pointed to the party website’s inclusion of different opinions on many topics as evidence of LU’s democratic approach.

On the other hand, the Green Party had not been able to bring its own councillors in Brighton and elsewhere to heel when they implemented cuts, because the Greens still gave local parties autonomy to do whatever they like. Although some Greens had much in common with LU, too many “are in it to be professional politicians”, whereas “that’s not what Left Unity is about”. When LU stands in elections, “we do it as a way of getting across the politics we get from the streets and the communities. It’s the politics of ordinary people that have to come first.”

Comrade Conway urged those present to have a look at the literature she brought along, including LU’s manifesto, and consider joining the party.

Wide-ranging

There followed a wide-ranging but useful discussion. Maggie, an LU member from Redcar, expressed concern at the potential effects of the Tories abolishing working tax credits and the way in which working class people were being priced out of living in London. John, a member of the SPEW and a Unison activist, felt that his union’s entire strategy had relied on Labour being elected. He reported concerns among union members that the election of a Conservative government appeared to have emboldened Labour councillors to make even more cuts. He agreed there was a need for a political alternative, but was not convinced that LU offered anything different from the left groups already out there in “a crowded market place”.

LU member Jamie stated his disappointment at Syriza’s failure to defeat austerity and wondered what lessons LU could learn from it, while Tom, a non-aligned revolutionary communist, pointed out that we already had laws that restricted unions, introduced by Barbara Castle in a Labour government. He felt that the practical organising advocated by Terry was palliative rather than presenting a politics looking to the future. LU was a coalition much like the Greens, with people whose fundamental politics are anti-growth. “We can’t have a classless society unless we produce enough to get rid of class division. If I were to join LU, I’d have to work with people whose fundamental politics I disagree with. I’m not convinced.”

LU member Alan said we cannot reclaim the Labour Party because “it was never ours in the first place”. No matter how glorious we think it might have been in 1945, it was not. Labour was “never a working class party in terms of its politics”. However, claims of its death were very much exaggerated - he had “heard that one for several decades”. Locally, he and others involved in the PA had “pushed at the boundaries of how far we can go without being more politically overt”. Perhaps Left Unity could fulfil that role - “having people arguing and debating politics and getting some positive ideas that we can push forward”.

Margaret had witnessed the impact of privatisation policies on the probation service and felt that LU needed to pay more attention to crime and justice issues, and comrade Conway conceded that it was “probably the weakest section of our manifesto”. LU needed to discuss what sort of justice system it would want if “starting from square one”. She hoped that Margaret would get involved and help inform the development of policy within LU.

Stephen, an LU member from Durham, said that one of the things that had impressed him about Left Unity was the emphasis on feminism: “One of the problems of the left is it is male-dominated and at the same time cuts are having a particularly devastating effect on women.” He observed that the launch meeting was also male-dominated, with only three women present.

PA activist David expressed frustration that leftwing people seemed to want to fight each other more than the Tories, who by contrast seemed able to put their differences aside. For their part, Paul and Martin raised the relationship with trade unions, the latter arguing that unions would be key to any fightback. However, they had long been in decline and had a crisis of leadership, which had demoralised the working class. There were sections of the class “up for a fight”, but the unions’ bureaucratic leadership, which had been willing to sell out the membership on many occasions, would make it difficult for the working class to develop the type of generalised fightback needed to defeat the current attacks on the class.

In comrade Conway’s concluding remarks, she argued in response to a point I had raised that labels such as ‘revolutionary’ and ‘reformist’ would not persuade someone threatened with eviction to think Left Unity was an organisation for them. LU needed to show it was useful to people in struggle, most of whom started from “practical politics rather than books” - the ideas would start to make sense later.

People should be working together even if they don’t agree with anything she had said, because there was no choice in the face of the Tories’ current onslaught. However, those who ruled us were not as united as they seemed. They had divisions too. But they had the advantage of money, time and access to the media in a way that the left did not.

Regarding the unions, Terry felt the crisis of leadership was not confined to the top: “It’s much more profound than that.” She favoured the “democratisation of political funds” in unions, which would open up debate within the unions. We needed to get away from the idea that trade unions are for what you do at work and then there’s the Labour Party for politics, as if these spheres of life were separate. That division between the industrial and the political did not exist in other European countries.

Positive

LU members in Teesside will hold an inaugural meeting later this month, at which the Teesside branch will be formally established. That meeting is scheduled for Tuesday July 28 at 7.15pm in St Mary’s Centre, 82-90 Corporation Road, Middlesbrough TS1 2RW. Members and supporters are welcome, though only members will be able to vote, should any formal decisions be required.

For further information on Teesside Left Unity, visit http://teessidelu.tumblr.com and its Facebook page, or write to TeessideLU@gmail.com to receive updates and invitations to future events.

A recording of Terry Conway’s presentation to the launch meeting is available as a podcast at http://bit.ly/teessidelulaunch.