21.05.1998
Encouraging returns
Simon Harvey of the SLP
The May 7 local elections reveal some interesting patterns for those who want to challenge Blair's New Labour from the left. We can say that the left made no overall breakthrough. All sitting socialist councillors lost their seats. However, Dave Nellist of the Socialist Party/Socialist Alliances in Coventry, with long-standing local support as a former Labour MP, was elected as a councillor. This was an excellent result.
Nevertheless there was no dramatic increase in support for left candidates as a whole, and some votes for the SLP, the SP or the Socialist Alliances were distinctly discouraging. Yet other results hint at an untapped, albeit uneven, electoral discontent with New Labour.
Another point we can note is, apart from limited local factors and individual personalities, there was little difference between the Socialist Party and the Socialist Labour Party. Comrades standing on a principled revolutionary minimum programme, such as those from the CPGB, did not achieve noticeably worse results.
In London, some results for the SLP were encouraging. Harpal Brar, who retained his deposit in the general election, secured 606 votes (26%) in Northcoate. Other returns in Southall, where the SLP stood eight candidates, included 480 (13%) in Mount Pleasant and 11% in Glebe ward. Everywhere we stood in Southall, we came second to the Labour Party. No mean feat.
In the London borough of Newham the SLP fielded eight candidates. We campaigned vigorously in two wards and as a result Tawfique Choudhury received 758 votes and Ann Brook 553. Votes were lower in wards where only a leaflet was distributed.
Tony Link, sitting councillor for Hither Green, Lewisham, failed to retain his seat, gaining only 237 votes, which represented around 10% in a three-seat contest. In other areas, it was clear that the more comrades pitched into work, the higher the vote. In Southwark, the SLP stood in three wards. In two, where comrades were no more than paper candidates, results were 88 and 184 votes. In the more targeted Friary ward, our three candidates polled 265, 262 and 248 votes.
The SLP contested 16 of the 22 wards comprising Barnsley Metropolitan Council. Interestingly, in an arrangement resulting from local cooperation, the Socialist Party stood in two of the six remaining wards. As our Barnsley candidates included NEC member Anne Scargill, I can only hope that this represents a break from Arthur’s previous sectarian insistence that there should be no electoral pacts. Either way, it is a positive development.
The turnout was only 20% in Barnsley, yet the SLP managed to attract a total of 1,633 votes - 6.5% of the poll in those wards. Good results were obtained by Joy Yoxall in Brierley (176 or 12.8%) and Steve Logan, who came second in Ardsley (129 or 11.5%). In the Worsbrough ward, where Anne Scargill recently stood in a by-election, Terry Robinson received 244 votes, or 15%, also coming second to Labour. Comrade Scargill herself won 103 votes for the SLP in Hoyland West.
The Socialist Party contested Wombwell North, where Mike Forster polled 66 votes (7.1%) and Wombwell South, where Ruth Waller attracted 124 votes (7.3%). It is interesting to note that results in terms of percentage were just about the same for the SP and SLP.
It is certainly encouraging that socialists are receiving such reasonable results. Especially in a period where Blair’s popularity remains unprecedentedly high for a government a year into office. Once his fortunes begin to ebb, we are well placed to capitalise on these modest returns. What is vital now is for socialists, communists and revolutionaries to debate and determine in practice the programme needed to achieve working class advance. This cannot be done through lowest-common-denominator, populist manifestos, where we claim to be able to make a better job of running local councils than the bourgeois parties. We need to contest elections on a revolutionary platform, seeking to win workers themselves to fight for what we need.
Adams cries foul
Lew Adams, defeated general secretary of the train drivers union Aslef has cried ‘foul’ over the result of the recent ballot. Adams claims that Socialist Labour’s Dave Rix, who won by a 1,200 vote majority, has broken the union’s archaic rules - by openly campaigning for election!
Adams and his supporters on the Aslef EC have resorted to consulting ‘my learned friends’ in an attempt to overturn the result. The charges against Dave Rix are that he produced and circulated ‘unofficial’ circulars: namely, ‘don’t vote Adams’ stickers; that he took time off from work in order to campaign; and, the most heinous crime, that RMT members were also advocating a vote for Rix. This last allegation is an attempt to bring into play the SLP factor and the alleged conspiracy with Bob Crow, RMT national official and SLP member, to merge the two unions.
The Aslef EC was to have met on Thursday May 21 to decide its position on the election result and to make a choice between backing Adams or affirming the democratic decision of the membership. Any attempt at overturning the result must be vigorously opposed.