24.04.1997

Put socialism on the map

As Labour and Tory battle it out for rightwing hegemony, communist and socialist candidates up and down the country are posing an alternative

It was no surprise that the long drawn out general election campaign has provided few thrills from the main bourgeois parties. Though the Irish Republican Army have attempted to make Ireland an election issue, both Labour and Tory have remained predictably united in their imperialism, though Labour attempted to steal a march on the Tories with Mo Mowlam promising inclusive talks with the resumption of a ceasefire. Nevertheless this election is one of the most significant for a number of years. After 18 years of Tory rule few are under any great illusion that the likely election of a Labour government will provide any great change.

Labor is promising more of the same and worse. But this in itself has been significant for revolutionaries and the left in general. The fast march right of the Labour Party has seen the reformist pretensions of that party all but wiped out. But this rightwing move has not gone unchallenged. The formation of the Socialist Labour Party, which is standing 64 candidates, was in direct response.

Breaking the stranglehold of Labourism is a key task for the revolutionary left. Unfortunately many left groups themselves are trammelled with Labourism. Many, such as Workers Liberty, Workers Power and the Socialist Workers Party, still call for a vote for Labour. The SLP’s manifesto is also infused with Labourism, as is the Socialist Party’s, which is standing 19 candidates. Nevertheless the fact that the left is standing its own candidates marks a direct challenge to the Labour Party and begins to open up the possibility of expunging Labourism itself from our movement.

In Scotland left groups have come together around the demand for self-determination to stand 16 candidates for the Scottish Socialist Alliance. Again Scottish Militant Labour, the biggest organisation in the SSA has vacillated on its attitude to both the Labour Party’s offer of a sop parliament and the nationalist demand for independence, as detailed in previous issues of this paper. But the debate and struggle for revolutionary politics rages inside the SSA. The CPGB’s Mary Ward, SSA candidate for Dundee West, is open in her support for the Communist Manifesto in this election and is championing the campaign in Scotland to boycott Blair’s rigged referendum on its proposal for a toothless parliament.

Even those left groups which cretinously still call for a vote for Labour have had to re-evaluate their attitude somewhat, albeit through dishonest contortions and unbridled opportunism, in light of Labour’s rightward moves and the formation of the Socialist Labour Party.

There is undoubted fluidity on the left which can be channelled in a positive revolutionary direction. Unfortunately the revival of revolutionary organisation and the struggle for socialism will not be the inevitable result of a Labour government, as the SP seems to believe. It involves struggle. It is not insignificant that the British National Party has managed to muster together 50 candidates to get an election broadcast.

The BNP is an unlikely vehicle for a mass right wing movement in Britain. Nevertheless we should not rule out the possibility of anger at austerity governments finding rightwing expression. We also see the anti-European Referendum Party standing in this election. Again, though it too lacks a rightwing programme beyond the question of Europe that can capture the imagination of the masses, both organisations serve as warnings of the potential for the birth of a serious, viciously anti-working class, rightwing force.

Europe has been almost the sole election issue, bar the constitutional question, where Blair displayed his anti-democratic colours in their full glory in Scotland early on in the campaign. The Tories’ divisions on Europe and the post-election leadership battle have dogged their campaign. Labour, though with an almost identical policy on Europe, has the advantage of being able to present a united face.

European integration will be the challenge which faces the incoming government. Jacques Santer’s frustration with the Euroscepticism which has dominated Britain’s election campaign - Tory and Labour - expresses the importance of European integration to the imperialist powers for their own survival, as well as the difficulties posed by integration. Chancellor Kohl in Germany is under fire already for its austerity budget and Jacques Chirac in France has called an early election as anger grows against its austerity packages.

Mass demonstrations have taken place throughout Europe and, as we saw in the demonstrations against Renault, many are beginning to draw the conclusion that workers need a united response to the attacks of the European bosses and governments. Workers in Britain are not alone in facing more vicious attacks to come.

Political organisation is needed to face off these attacks with the positive workers’ alternative of revolutionary socialism and communism. Organisation is certainly on the agenda but to arm that organisation with the programme capable of overturning the whole of capitalist society will require theoretical as well as practical struggle.

The CPGB supports candidates in the SLP and SSA who defend our Communist Manifesto. This Manifesto outlines the kind of programme that the working class must organise around. The debate around our strategy for achieving socialism must take centre place, not only in the election but also in the aftermath. The CPGB also urges critical support for all SLP, SP and SSA candidates. In this election we see the beginning of a break with the Labour Party and the capitalist system it serves. This is the raw material from which a socialist alternative can be forged. Use your vote to put socialism on the map in this election and join the struggle for socialism.

Helen Ellis