08.02.1996

Partisan campaign shows the way forward

The Socialist Labour Party’s first election campaign was an energetic, committed and buoyant one

Local ex-miners pounded the streets of Hemsworth day and night for the 10 days of the campaign. Alongside them were the candidate, Brenda Nixon, the election agent, Arthur Scargill, and Paul Hardman, president of the Lancashire National Union of Miners.

Support from new SLP members from the surrounding area was boosted at the weekends by people from as far afield as London.

The welcome the SLP received on the streets was magnificent. This led many to expect a lot more votes than the 1,193 actually gained. Seasoned campaigners know however that support does not necessarily turn immediately into votes, especially when enthusiasm to ‘vote Labour to kick the Tories out’ is gaining momentum. Labour increased its share of the vote, but there was a low turnout - indicating the general disillusionment and powerlessness people feel politically.

So for a new party, not even actually formed yet, as Arthur Scargill pointed out, this result was excellent.

One of the problems in the campaign was the fact that people did not yet have confidence in the SLP since its politics, programme and vision are still unclear, not only to the voters but to the campaigners and candidate themselves.

Some expressed concern about the SLP becoming a Scargill party, since he put across his own politics to the press and at the same time tried to run the campaign itself.

Scargill’s initiative in calling for an SLP has been a very brave and inspiring one which has drawn in the support of many leftwing activists and trade unionists. Many have left such organisations as Socialist Outlook to be part of something that can potentially transform politics in Britain.

It is inevitable that at this moment the SLP is seen as Scargill’s party, but nobody doubts that it must become much broader than that if it is to succeed.

Most members of the steering committee seem determined to exclude existing left organisations from the formation of the party our class so desperately needs, even though it is clear that the constitution, as Scargill emphasised, can only be passed and therefore implemented by the members. Neither the party nor the constitution is yet formed.

Grassroots feeling is very mixed. There is genuine enthusiasm at the possibility of uniting the left which the call for an SLP put firmly on the agenda. Socialist alliances up and down the country are taking this process forward and need to be part of the formation of an SLP.

Given the past sectarianism of sections of the left, suspicion is natural. Members of the steering committee were initially worried by the involvement of the left in Hemwsorth. But this suspicion began to break down during the collective work of the campaign.

Militant Labour worked extremely hard, with experienced canvassers acting in a disciplined way to win votes and support for the SLP, as did our own CPGB comrades. By not flinching from putting our politics and experience of election campaigns across, combined with a disciplined and hardworking involvement, at the centre of the campaign we began to break down this distrust of the left. As Paul Hardman said in last week’s Weekly Worker, “You worked alongside us in a proper socialist tradition of united work.” This is what can and must happen in a much broader way through joint action and open discussion.

Existing left organisations contain determined, committed and above all trained revolutionaries. It has to be said that many mistakes were made in the Hemsworth campaign, not least the lack of canvassing that was done. Revolutionary cadres exist who can take a lead in organising and building the revolutionary party, but at the moment these cadres are being excluded from that process.

The SLP cannot survive without the cadres capable of digging firm roots in the working class throughout Britain.

That is why the input of all revolutionaries in the development of the SLP is so important. Already it has drawn together hundreds of disillusioned militants. The organisation of these militants into the sort of party we need cannot be left to chance. It requires hard work and disciplined debate.

For revolutionaries, socialists or any partisans of the working class to be outside this formation would be a dereliction of our duties to the working class and its fight to build a world fit for all humanity to live in.

Congratulations to all those involved in the campaign. Their commitment and partisanship showed the future for socialists and for socialism.