02.05.1996

No fool’s Gold

Billionaire Sir James Goldsmith founded his Referendum Party in November 1994. Today it claims 20 full-time staff and 20,000 supporters. It declares as its sole aim the holding of a referendum on whether Britain should pull out of the European Union.

There have been many rightwing ‘anti-European’ fringe groups and individuals - most surfacing to contest by-elections and disappearing from the scene after polling - but Goldsmith’s organisation is different.

The most important difference is of course the incredible wealth of its founder - he is Britain’s eighth richest person, worth around £1.2 billion. This fact alone means that his target of contesting 500 seats at the general election should be taken seriously.

Douglas Hurd’s jibe about “millionaires who play with British politics as a hobby” was actually aimed at concealing the Tories’ real fear that the Referendum Party could pick up enough support from the disaffected right to allow further gains for Labour and the Liberals in several marginal seats.

Other millionaires who have succeeded in making an impact out of nowhere in recent times have been Ross Perot in the USA and, most auspiciously, Silvio Berlusconi in Italy.

A recent NOP opinion poll in David Mellor’s Putney constituency - where Goldsmith himself intends to stand - showed that 50% would “consider” voting for him, although only seven percent were “very likely” to do so.

These figures show the potential for a new rightwing force to make a major impact on British politics. A single-issue anti-Europe party such as Goldsmith’s is unlikely to inspire the voters at the moment, but it could become significant if it broadens its agenda.

Given the ever more intimate embrace of the Conservative/Labour consensus, it is surprising that it has taken so long for the rightwing alternative to emerge. After all, national chauvinism (unlike racism) is considered ‘respectable’ and goes virtually unchallenged in mainstream bourgeois politics. This means that the possibility of a rabidly anti-European (particularly anti-German) force making its imprint in the relatively short term is very real.

A very significant move to the left has of course already emerged in the shape of the Socialist Labour Party. It has been largely ignored by the mass media - bourgeois commentators actually do believe their own propaganda that it has no future: the working class is ‘finished’ as a political force, they declare. But they are not so blind as to ignore the Referendum Party, especially as such notable figures as John Redwood and Lord McAlpine have made moves towards it.

Goldsmith himself is very much an opportunist. Although any new party he heads will dearly be rightwing and nationalist, he himself could be considered a bourgeois ‘internationalist’. He spends much of his time in Mexico and, more importantly, in France, where he has many business interests. In 1994 he set up L’Autre Europe (The Other Europe), a party which gained 14% of the French vote in the 1994 European elections and saw him elected as an MEP.

However, such contradictions do not usually concern the capitalists. They place the interests of their class (and themselves as individuals) above everything. They will make use of every populist sentiment, including national chauvinism, in the service of international capital.

We cannot combat the Goldsmiths of this world by making the pathetic ‘lesser evil’ call to vote Labour.

We must work to fill the political vacuum ourselves - from the left by building the revolutionary alternative that opens up the road to a Europe of the working class.

Jim Blackstock