04.03.1999
Unprincipled manoeuvres
Left unity
In its February 4 issue, the Weekly Worker exposed the attempts by Mike Davies, the Leeds-based secretary of the Independent Labour Network, to force a “renegotiation” of what he called the “ultra left” and “non-viable” Socialist Alliance platform agreed in London by the initial participants in the slate for June’s European elections. Comrade Davies’s sectarian clumsiness now seems to have blown up in his face. A ‘national’ meeting he called, in Leeds on February 27, to which only the ‘usual suspects’ received invitations, turned into a fiasco.
Just 10 ‘delegates’ turned up, with four others who arrived without credentials being relegated to ‘observers’ benches. On the kosher side of the hall were ranged three representatives of Leeds ILN; two personal representatives of Ken Coates, the Nottinghamshire MEP and co-founder of the ILN; two Socialist Party members (from Leeds and Doncaster); a single Londoner, Toby Abse of the metropolitan ILN; and two members of the steering committee of Greater Manchester Socialist Alliance.
In the opening minutes of the meeting, it became apparent that comrade Davies had also been at work in the West Midlands as well as London. These are the two regions in which a Socialist Alliance has, so far, been declared. Davies expressed his disappointment at the absence of West Midlands delegates, a factor which, he suggested, would greatly limit what the meeting might be able to achieve. This brought an interjection by comrade Declan O’Neill of the GMSA steering committee.
He said he could shed some light on this matter. He proceeded to read an open letter from John Rothery, deputy leader of the Walsall Democratic Labour Party and an influential figure in the West Midlands Socialist Alliance. This refered to the deterioration in relations between the West Midlands SA and the ILN, which had followed comrade Davies’s actions in “calling meetings to which only a select few are invited”.
Comrade Rothery’s letter prompted a blistering attack upon Mike Davies by Toby Abse. He made plain the “total distrust” in which Davies was now held by London ILN members. The latter was obliged to offer some explanation. “Cock up, not conspiracy,” he asked those present to believe. In respect of the current meeting, for instance, he had agreed the date only a fortnight ago with John Nicholson, the joint convenor of the Network of Socialist Alliances and he was surprised that comrade Nicholson had not turned up. “Pressure of work” had delayed his posting of the notices, which had meant that they were received rather late, or at worst, not in time, by so many invitees.
The attempted Davies-Nicholson axis was revealed. But its early demise is most certainly not linked to any commitment to unity Nicholson may claim to have. Rather it is sentiments issuing from the powerful West Midlands component of the Network of Socialist Alliances that appear to have put paid to it.
Comrade Rothery’s remarks are echoed in the Liaison Group’s recently published paper (The All Red and Green No4, spring 1999). The other Network joint convenor, Pete McLaren, writes: “The way our socialist programme has been decided, and the way of electing our candidates, has varied from region to region. Such local autonomy is what the Network is all about.”
He goes on: “The names ‘Left Alliance’ and ‘Socialist Alliance’ were amongst those agreed [at the December 1998 national ILN meeting in Doncaster] to be registered. It was hoped regional socialist lists would stand under the same name to enhance publicity, but recent reported attempts by some in the ILN to impose a programme and possibly candidates in some areas suggest this sadly may not now be possible.” It has not taken arch-opportunist Nicholson long to realise that a link with Davies could cause more difficulties than it is worth.
Superficially undaunted, comrade Davies moved onto the issue of “the title” of the united slate in the various regions. Yorkshire and Humberside wanted to run under the banner ‘Left Alliance’, he reported, whilst it was now apparent that London and the West Midlands preferred ‘Socialist Alliance’. “Is it still possible to agree a common title?” he asked. At this stage, comrade Ken Fleet, for Ken Coates MEP, reported that the latter had registered the title ‘Alternative Labour List’. He stressed, however, that a decision had not yet been made on whether to put-up a slate in the East Midlands. Comrade Coates is still “consulting his constituents, although many people are encouraging him to run”. This matter might best be left until after the registrar of political parties had given his rulings, in mid-March, on which titles were to be accepted, the Coates delegation suggested.
A retreating Mike Davies proposed that the meeting be closed, to be reconvened on Sunday March 28, at a Birmingham venue, in order to facilitate the attendance of delegates who will have travelled to the previous day’s Network of Socialist Alliances conference in the same city. He went on to propose that delegation rights on that occasion be granted to the participating organisations in each of the regional slates. This at least was a clearly constructive and democratic formula, but it was killed by a rapid intervention by the Yorkshire Socialist Party delegates, supported by Chris Jones, of the GMSA steering committee and Socialist Outlook. “We are not just here for elections,” they concurred. Comrade Davies withdrew his motion and the meeting ended with a shabby status quo.
The right wing of the tentative alliances has clearly suffered a setback. But, as recent developments in London have shown (see Weekly Worker February 18), it will now increasingly be the case that the ‘drag anchor’ role will be taken up by ostensibly ‘revolutionary’ organisations like Socialist Outlook, and by the conservative elements of the deeply fractured Socialist Party. Whilst SO argues in the London meetings for a “broad” platform and “broad” slates, preferably headed by minor celebrities, the February edition of its monthly paper contains not one mention of the European election socialist unity project.
A major challenge thus remains for communists working within the alliances, who desire to see concrete steps taken in making a politically independent working class and in securing a clean and permanent break, not only with Blair’s New Labour, but with Labourism.
John Pearson