11.03.1999

Left unites

With the European elections looming, the left is mounting its own electoral challenge. Tuesday saw the launch of the Socialist Alliance in London, the electoral bloc formerly known as the United Socialists. Some 150 people attended the rally at Friends Meeting House, including the left in all its various hues and colours. That of course is to be welcomed.

Unlike the previous week’s meeting of the manifesto sub-committee, when the Independent Labour Network and the Socialist Workers Party attempted to oust the Communist Party of Great Britain from the Alliance, the atmosphere of the rally was friendly and fraternal.

It is to be regretted that there was no discussion or debate on Tuesday. We need every opportunity, especially with the European elections so close, to openly discuss our differences in a tolerant and fraternal manner. This is the only way to build a real and lasting unity on the left. ‘Star’ speakers are no substitute for a real exchange of views.

And the differences are legion. Just take a look at the organisations which turned up on Tuesday: the CPGB, Socialist Workers Party, Socialist Party, Alliance for Workers’ Liberty, International Socialist Group, Independent Labour Network, Socialist Appeal, Workers International, Workers Fight - not to mention the ‘non-aligned’ lefts. Even the auto-Labourites of Workers Power made an appearance, despite describing the Socialist Alliance/United Socialists in the latest issue of its paper as a “sham” (Workers Power March).

Comrade Julie Donovan of the Socialist Party chaired the meeting. She described the SA as a “united front” of the left. Under the impetus of proportional representation, said the comrade, this front has come together on a joint slate. According to comrade Donovan, the slate is “organisationally necessary and political desirable”.

Somewhat ironically, comrade Donovan stated that the “euphoria” which greeted Blair’s election victory has disappeared. The SP itself - like virtually all on the Trotskyist-economistic left of course - had got into a lather over New Labour’s electoral landslide, predicting that this was the harbinger of renewed militancy. Blair’s victory would “fructify” the class struggle, according to some. Those few organisations which said otherwise, most prominently the CPGB, were denounced for being ‘ultra-left’. It is the economistic left’s illusions in the Labour Party that have been shattered - the masses just hoped that New Labour would not be quite so bad as the Tories. We need to be sober too in terms of immediate expectations.

The workers do not trust any establishment politician or party, claimed comrade Donovan. This is why the SA is an alternative to Blair and New Labour - and we should give “credit to all those involved” in it. Ending in this very upbeat vein, the comrade explained how the SA had hammered out an “action programme”, the main purpose of which is to be a broad programme so that - in her own words - “we can unite on what we agree on”.

Jill Mountford of the AWL was even more enthusiastic about the SA. In the comrade’s opinion, it gives the left a big chance to “redefine itself”. This meant overcoming the sectarianism of the past and comrade Mountford was confident that the “best elements” in the SA could achieve this.  Indeed, comrade Mountford insisted that all the left “must be prepared to break with the activities of the past”, to create a “more tolerant and civilised left”. (We look forward to reading very soon in Workers’ Liberty a ruthless self-criticism of its support for the CPGB’s exclusion from what is now the husk of the Greater Manchester Socialist Alliance.)

The AWL is looking for new norms, continued the comrade - it wants to reach new layers of the working class in order to make a difference. She correctly stated that the aim of Marxists is to “raise the level of working class consciousness”. The CPGB could not agree more. For comrade Mountford, this meant that the left should make a greater effort to take politics to the shop floor and the workplace. Our job was to win over the people who are to going to build the movement of the future. This new layer, stated the comrade, will be “uncontaminated” by petty sectarianism and Stalinism.

Candy Udwin of the SWP and Unison told the audience how anger was erupting. She pointed to Gordon Brown’s budget, which was delivered on the same day. Brown had emphasised the importance of rewarding ‘risk-takers’ - and the New Labour government “goes on listening to big business”. The cuts continue inexorably. Instead, said comrade Udwin, the Labour Party should be taxing the rich.

The comrade referred to the recent Ken Livingstone rally at Westminster as a positive sign. It has to be said that she did not make clear exactly why this was the case. Indeed comrade Udwin seemed to be slightly infected by the spirit of ‘official’ optimism. She gave the impression that strikes were breaking out everywhere, and even boldly declared: “There has never been a better time to be a socialist.”

The comrade was rightly saddened by the sectarian stance of Arthur Scargill’s Socialist Labour Party - which has arrogantly rebuffed all attempts at negotiation and compromise with the rest of the left and has now announced that Scargill himself will head the SLP’s London list in the Euro-elections. “We need one slate, not two,” said comrade Udwin.

Anne Murphy, London Socialist Alliance convenor and CPGB member, welcomed the fact that such a diverse spectrum of the left had come together. The project of the SA is or should be to fight against Old and New Labourism, stressed comrade Murphy. We do not need or want a rearticulated social democracy. That would be a disaster.

The North Defoe by-election in Hackney was a positive indicator of future electoral work, in the view of comrade Murphy, who was the Socialist Alliance candidate. It was excellent that comrades from the local SWP and SLP helped in the fight as equals and fully participated in drafting the manifesto. For SLP members it meant defying their sectarian leadership.

Comrade Murphy said that we need to debate and discuss together. The SA must be a democratic coalition which is tolerant and genuinely inclusive. No bans or censorship.

The CPGB consistently champions democracy in our own movement, but also in society at large. As comrade Murphy made clear, in the view of the CPGB, Stalin and his wretched cohorts ruled over societies which had absolutely nothing to do with socialism. The bureaucratic regime in the Soviet Union - and all those modelled upon it - treated the working class as state slaves. The ‘Soviet experience’ demonstrates that democracy is no add-on extra, but is an essential feature of socialism.

We must fight for democracy in the here and now, emphasised comrade Murphy, not wait for some abstract socialist future. The working class must win the battle for democracy - starting, in Britain, with the constitutional monarchy system. The House of Lords, the monarchy, the national question, drugs, racism, etc - our class must champion democratic rights against the state on every issue. And an independent working class agenda requires a programme.

Then there is the central question of the European Union. Comrade Murphy criticised those on the left who objectively side with the pound sterling by urging a ‘no’ vote in the referendum on the euro. On Europe too the working class needs its own independent programme. Neither the pound nor the euro, but the interests of the people. We do not call for Britain to ‘get out’, but demand a constituent assembly of the European Union. That is working class politics.

Pete Brown, a member of the ILN and a close associate of Hugh Kerr MEP, stressed the need to get behind every campaign. He also thought it was time to “start turning the clock back” and to get away from the present state of disunity. Comrade Brown was keen to maintain the broad nature of the SA - some in it might be revolutionary, some less so - some might even be reformist. It does not matter, thought comrade Brown - “socialist values” unite us.

Greg Tucker, the left challenger to Jimmy Knapp in the RMT and a member of ISG, joked how the media has discovered he is a Trotskyite. On Newsnight he was repeatedly quizzed about whether he believed in revolution. Comrade Tucker ‘craftily’ replied that socialism was not the issue in the RMT elections - opposition to privatisation and New Labour’s anti-trade union laws was.

At the end of the meeting, there was a slight hiccup of healthy dissent. Comrades complained that comrade Donovan had not left time for debate - even though two of the speakers (Malkiat Bilku and a member of the Cameroon Defence League) had not made it to the meeting and that left a 10-minute gap in the proceedings. Comrade Donovan brusquely ruled that the majority did not want to hear contributions from the floor.

Even worse, comrade Donovan finished the meeting by apologising, PC style, for the “all-white platform”. She said it was something the SA had to correct.

In the long process of building left unity the Socialist Alliance launch rally was a start. But it goes without saying that a deeper, lasting unity can only be achieved through the open discussion of all views, not through the mouthing of lowest-common-denominator platitudes.

Danny Hammill