22.01.1998

Uniting London’s left

Blair’s latest call for a ‘patriotic front’ of British interests in Europe is a clear bid to attract renegade pro-Europe Tories on board. It is another example - if one were needed - of exactly where his loyalties lie. He is anxious to unite with the likes of Michael Heseltine and Kenneth Clarke, along with the Liberal Democrats, to cement his own position and further his ambition of making New Labour a permanent government.

But while the most rightwing Labour government in history lines up with dissident Tories, moves are underway to further the unity of working class opposition. The launch meeting of a London Socialist Alliance on Thursday February 5 will bring together a broad spectrum of forces. The Alliance movement throughout England and Wales is beginning to attract interest from those looking for an alternative to Blair’s government. Hopefully Ken Coates, the expelled Euro-MEP, will have a message of support ready for the launch. Michael Hindley, another rebel MEP, has told us that he will travel from Strasbourg to speak.

Other speakers include representatives of the Liverpool dockers and Hillingdon hospital strikers. Some dockers’ leaders, totally disillusioned with Labour, have themselves made a call for a new party. The Hillingdon strikers have also seen the impossibility of making any gains under this government. Another speaker, Julia Leonard, Socialist Party councillor, was at the forefront of the setting up of the Hillingdon Socialist Alliance in 1996.

In taking this initiative Brent Socialist Alliance hopes to have the support of all revolutionary organisations and progressives. We need to organise our own working class coalition to Blair’s patriotic front. The success of the Scottish Socialist Alliance is an example of how the left can come together. An All-Britain Socialist Alliance movement would be a tremendous step forward in building a working class party capable of taking on this government.

Anne Murphy

(Brent Socialist Alliance)