13.03.1997

A wing and a prayer

Around the left

Tony Blair must be grinning from ear to ear after the Wirral South by-election. As we have known for a long time, it is now just a question of how large New Labour’s majority will be. Will it be a landslide victory (even a ‘Canada-isation’), a large majority or a narrow-ish but comfortable win for Blair?

The response of the left to this fact of political life - which sees New Labour marching more and more to the right, certain of its victory - is a curious mixture of jubilation and sorrow. Joy, on the grounds that we are about to ‘kick the Tories out’; sadness, as the Tories’ New Labour clones take over instead. This schizophrenic approach to Labour, and Labourism in general, is a characteristic hallmark of much of the revolutionary left.

The Socialist, paper of the Socialist Party (formerly Militant Labour), illustrates this confusion perfectly. The front page headline proclaims, ‘Time’s up for the Tories’ and goes on to state: “One thing is certain, the general election will be our chance to end the 18-year long nightmare that we have experienced under the Tories” (March 7). But surely the “long nightmare” will just continue uninterrupted under New Labour? Apparently not, as “getting rid of the Tories is just the first part of getting a society that will provide jobs, homes, free healthcare, decent education and a better future for all” (my emphasis).

Excuse me - New Labour is going to help contribute towards a “better future for all”? No, don’t be silly, says The Socialist: “Labour and Liberals won’t change things for the better.” In which case, how can a Labour government be the ‘first stage’ on the way towards a “better future” - or socialism? Very mysterious.

For real mystery and confusion comrade Alex Callinicos’s article in Socialist Worker takes some beating. For years the Socialist Workers Party has been insisting that we need a Labour government, as it would force workers to the left (thanks to some hitherto unknown law of history, only revealed to SWP ‘theoreticians’) and create the conditions for the building of a ‘real socialist party’ - ie, the SWP.

Not any more, it seems. Comrade Callinicos writes, quite correctly of course, that a

“Blair government will [not] automatically usher in a period of rapid mass radicalisation. On the contrary, the further disillusionment offered by the experience of New Labour in office could drive some people into the arms of the Tory right and even the fascists and their nationalist and racist solutions” (my emphasis, March 8).

At last the penny has dropped. The SWP is about to ditch its ‘Vote Labour, but ...’ line and throw its mighty weight behind the Socialist Labour Party, the Socialist Party, the Scottish Socialist Alliance, etc ...

No, of course not. A Blair government “does mean, however, that a real socialist party is likely to find a substantial and growing audience among the very large numbers of people who are looking for an alternative to the present system”.

In other words, Alex Callinicos and his comrades are going to close their eyes, put a cross next to Labour, and hope that something ‘good’ emerges out of the Blairite gloom. Talk about a wing and a prayer.

Don Preston