29.02.1996

SE London SA launch

Last week saw the launch of the Bexley and Greenwich Socialist Alliance.

The main speaker was Hillingdon Militant Labour councillor Julia Leonard, who gave examples of the new possibilities that were opening up for the left as a result of the birth of the SLP, citing the Socialist Alliances themselves. But a Communist Party speaker warned against the danger of “washing your hands” of Scargill’s party because of his attempt to impose a bureaucratic exclusive constitution on it. He called on all militants to join the new party to fight for the kind of revolutionary organisation that the working class needs.

Jared Wood, ML’s South London organiser, agreed that it would be wrong to write off the SLP: “It is a force on the left, but not all of it. We all want to work together, but we can’t be held back by Arthur Scargill.” He saw the SAs as a vehicle for “clawing back what we’ve lost over the last 16 years”.

A Labour Party member illustrated the possibility of many workers moving to the left:

“It is the Socialist Labour Party that has sparked everybody, not the Socialist Labour Party. I have heard more fresh ideas tonight than I have for years in Labour Party meetings.”

A Workers Revolutionary Party supporter said it was good that “We are all talking about the same things for a change,” but warned that Scargill wanted the old Labour Party as it was years ago. He urged those present to attend the WRP’s forthcoming ‘Crisis in the labour movement’ conference.

Another ML speaker asked: “If we can campaign together on single issues, why can’t we campaign for socialism?”

The meeting elected a steering committee of one CPGB and two ML supporters.

Peter Manson