27.06.1996

Socialist United

After Militant Labour’s successful by-election campaign in Hillingdon, Lee-Anne Bates spoke to ML’s Gary Harbord about how the left together can raise the banner of the revolutionary alternative to Labour

ML recently stood in Barnhill ward, Hayes in the council by-election. How was the campaign?

Our candidate, Sarah King, got 120 votes, which was five percent. We focused on the Hillingdon hospital cleaners’ dispute. Some of the strikers came out and leafleted with us during the campaign. Though the Labour Party might verbally support the strike, they have seen who the real fighters are and so had no problem in endorsing our candidate.

The Labour councillor, despite voting for strike action, has consistently crossed the picket line in the last 10 months. It has been a Labour council for three years now and by actually dipping into the reserves they have been able to stave off any swingeing cuts, though there have been voluntary redundancies.

The reason for standing in the election was to give ourselves a foundation from which to build a fightback against cuts to come.

We already have two councillors in the Hillingdon area, Wally Kennedy and Julia Leonard. We stood last October in another area of Hayes and got eight percent of the vote. Given the core of the work was done by a few comrades and comparing our resources with the Labour Party, we thought that was a very good result.

What is this success based upon?

There is a layer of the class that has seen through the Labour Party and the direction they are going. The advanced layer are already looking for some sort of alternative and that will grow under a Labour government.

We have seen that with the formation of the SLP. What is your relationship with the local SLP?

Councillor Terry Donlevy of the SLP backed our candidate and put his name to the leaflet we put out, urging all socialists to support ML in this election. So, despite the fact that Arthur Scargill has said there should be no deals, on the ground this just does not work and we have quite a fraternal relationship with Terry specifically over here.

Given your success in electoral work and the need for an alternative to Labour, how do you think the left can join forces?

Despite what Scargill has said, I hope that discussions will go on with the SLP so that we don’t stand against each other. This would seem petty and the class wouldn’t understand it if two socialist candidates stood against each other. I am confident that locally these problems can be overcome. I don’t know what is happening in other areas.

What about this analogy that the SLP leadership is using that you can’t play for two football teams; the left can’t have alliances?

As we said in our paper it is not a case of playing for Manchester United or Newcastle at the same time, but for Socialist United against capitalism. We need to unite our forces, not battle against each other.

An opportunity for revolutionary regroupment seems to have been lost with the formation of the SLP. How do you think that process can be put back on course?

Discussions need to be taken forward now. I think it will be a longer process in the SLP to turn round the present stance of the leadership. The Alliances, particularly in Scotland, are playing that role. I would urge socialists to get involved in the Socialist Alliances, where you are able to put your own literature out. Although ML is strong in itself in Hillingdon, we are looking to develop the Socialist Alliance to broaden the appeal.

Do we need to go beyond alliances to a centralised Leninist Party?

In Scotland ML is a revolutionary trend within the Alliances with this aim in mind. At the moment the Scottish Socialist Alliance is looking to win seats in the next general election but it goes far wider than that. It’s about winning workers to action together.

Can the left agree a minimum platform for the next election?

Discussions in the alliances and the SLP need to take place for that to happen. I think that is possible. The West London SLP has asked us to write to them to find common ground for campaigning work and elections. If you can agree a minimum platform then everyone is free to argue their own programme within that. With the formation of the SSA the Socialist Workers Party is under pressure as well from the rank and file. The SWP leadership is stuck in a groove: they can’t see further than their own party. Building a revolutionary party is of course important, but not if it is done in a divisive way when regroupment is on the agenda.

Workers want to see some unity on the left and cannot understand the divisions. Now obviously there are historical and political reasons for those, but the time has come when discussions have to be opened up. No harm can be done by having discussions.

SLP branches have been told that ML was not interested in discussing candidates, but presented the SLP with a list, take it or leave it, of where you are standing.

Many ML branches have tried for a long time now to have discussions with SLP branches, but they were permanently put off by the SLP. So we were backed into a corner. We have had to make plans for the general election obviously, but we are still trying to have discussions with the SLP both locally and nationally.

You seem to have taken a step back from the SLP since the conference. What do you think revolutionaries like yourselves and us can do now to influence the direction of the SLP?

Because of the way the SLP leadership has imposed the constitution and is running things we have been excluded. However, we still need to influence the direction they are taking. We can best do that in a friendly way, not through the hostile approach the SWP are adopting. It all depends on the balance of forces. I know we have supporters in the SLP, so we still have contacts there. In order for the SLP to become a viable mass party it has to attract wider layers, but its tactics at the moment are ruling that out. The alliances at the moment seem to be more dynamic, certainly in Scotland, and more likely to attract a semi-mass base. Unless the SLP opens up, it cannot do that.