28.11.1996

Same old mistakes

On Saturday November 16 a march and rally were held for the Okolo family who are still threatened with deportation. Two hundred people gathered in wintry conditions outside Alexandra Park.

The demonstrators were in a boisterous mood. At Manchester town hall all the banners - many of them representing unions, but including Trafford SLP and several Socialist Workers Party branches - were placed around the walls of the council chamber.

The first speaker was from Unison, and also an SWP member. She claimed that Jack Straw had said: “There is only a cigarette paper between Labour and the Conservative Party on immigration policy.” She then called on the next speaker, Manchester Central Labour MP Bob Litherland, to convey to Blair and Straw their dissatisfaction with this position. Yet again calling on Labour to reform itself. In addition she called for a Labour government to end 17 years of Tory rule and attacks on the working class. Litherland replied that he could not do this, as he was stepping down at the next election. But then he went on to say that only by applying pressure on the relevant minister at the apex of government would any action be possible.

During earlier discussions on the march with SWP paper-sellers, the question of elections and support for Labour or the SLP came up. They claimed that for them standing in the elections would at the present time be a mistake, but whether to stand or not in elections was not a principle. They further claimed to be supporting SLP candidates where there was no Labour candidate. But it is clear that they still call for a vote for Labour. There was no mention of the SLP in Socialist Worker (November 16) where the SWP conference was reported and the decision to vote Labour confirmed.

Scargill and the SLP have clearly broken with the Labour Party, but not yet with Labourism. The SWP still claims that the SLP is an electoral party. While this is true to a degree, it does not preclude extra-parliamentary activity either. But the struggle to make the SLP a revolutionary party will take work, patience and time. The Labour Party has forfeited any right to the support of the organised working class

Dave Johnson