06.02.1997

Election cash

SLP: news and comment

Readers might recall my report in the Weekly Worker of January 23 that before he quit as general secretary treasurer comrade Patrick Sikorski sent a £1,200 cheque to the Peckham branch in South London (no doubt there were other recipients).

As is well known, Peckham Constituency SLP is effectively the fiefdom of acting London election agent and Fisc ally, Tony Goss. Hence, despite the passivity and paucity of the Peckham membership, Goss’s chosen candidate, comrade Angela Ruddock, has not only enough money for the election deposit, but sufficient for some campaign expenses too.

I have been reliably informed that other favoured branches are now being urged to stand ‘paper’ candidates. That no one should worry about finance. There will, they have been told, be money-stuffed envelopes. Scargill, so the whisper goes, is determined to stand the 50 candidates required to get his 5 minute party political broadcast.

This, in itself, is, of course, nothing to complain about.

Our acting general secretary has got big ambitions and has obviously managed to find a rich set of backers for the SLP’s forthcoming general election campaign. Various luvvies and lawyers have been suggested.

However, finance from above, not least given the witch-hunting regime in the SLP, leads to manipulation from above. Only branches and candidates in favour with the NEC will be helped. So there is an added incentive to conform and toe the leadership line. There is another potential problem. A membership which cannot raise the finance necessary for political campaigning is unlikely to be much use when it comes to actual political campaigning.

Then there is the secrecy that inevitably shrouds such deals. Without transparency, corruption festers. This can take the pettiest forms. Presumably for reasons of vanity, and perhaps in an attempt to salvage his tarnished reputation, comrade Goss has been doing the rounds telling other London branches that because of a pay increase he, not centre, donated the £l,200 to the Peckham branch.

SL Kenning