08.04.1999

Fight this Blairite ban

Support is growing for the fight against the decision of the registrar of political parties to ban the Communist Party of Great Britain, the Socialist Party in England and Wales and others from standing under their own names in the forthcoming European elections. Originally, the Registration of Political Parties Act - the legislation on which the ban is based - was introduced to exclude overt ‘spoiling’ candidates, using such descriptions as ‘Literal Democrats’. This was a Tory-inspired stunt that cost the Liberal Democrats a seat in the 1997 general election by deliberately causing confusion through the name.

However, provisions of the act are now being used to debar serious political organisations like the CPGB and SP with long records of electoral contest. It is an outrageous restriction of the democratic right of the electorate to choose their political representatives and of organisations to pick names which embody their politics. A faceless bureaucrat in Companies House, Cardiff - after ‘advice’ from a parliamentary committee with a Blairite majority - has deemed that the electorate will be confused by more than one ‘Communist Party’. Thus, the pro-Labour Communist Party of Britain is being ‘franchised’, not the revolutionary CPGB.

We say that people should be treated as adults. Every organisation has a right to stand under its own name and to explain the difference between its politics and those of its rivals to the voters.

The Communist Party is campaigning against this outrageous ban. Along with the Socialist Party, we are collecting signatures and support. We have also incurred heavy legal costs in challenging Blair’s exclusion of communists. We urgently need donations for our legal fund. For copies of the petition against the ban, contact the CPGB at BCM Box 928, London WC1N 3XX.

Those supporting the lifting of the ban so far include (all officers of organisations have signed in a personal capacity): Tony Benn MP, Hugh Kerr MEP, Ken Coates MEP, Michael Hindley MEP, Dave Nellist (SP councillor, Coventry), Roger Bannister (Unison NEC), Jean Thorpe (Unison NEC), Jean Geldhart (Unison NEC), Kevin Brien (Unison NEC), James Erquart (Unison NEC), Doug Wright (Unison NEC), Helen Jenner (Unison NEC), Mike Tucker (Unison NEC), 15 NUT NEC members, Andrew Price (Natfhe), two MSF NEC members, five MSF National Craft Committee members, RMT London region transport committee, Jeff Martin (London region convenor, Unison), Denise Williams (London Region Unison deputy convenor), Glen Kelly (secretary, CFDU), Will Reese (president, Coventry NUT), Stewart Richardson, Carol Martin (Birmingham NUT), Tony Brown (secretary, Barking and Dagenham Unison) John Rogers (secretary, Lambeth Unison), Dan Gillman (St Mungo T&G convenor), Brian Woolgar (Nova Ouvertures T&G convenor), Richard Henley (father of GMPU chapel), S Dakin (chair of Hackney Tenants Association), D Martin (coordinator, Forest of Dean Unemployment Centre), Socialist Party, Socialist Workers Party, Communist Party of Great Britain, John Nicholson (Manchester Socialist Alliance), Pete McClaren (Liaison Group/Socialist Alliance), Dave Church (leader Democratic Labour Party), Scottish Socialist Party, Red Pepper magazine, John Rothery and Steph Peart (Democratic Labour Party), North West Socialist Alliance, Mike Davies, Malcolm Christie and Celia Foote (officers, Leeds Left Alliance), Tam Dean Burn (actor).

Thanks go to all comrades who have donated to the Party’s legal fund so far, especially AP (£600), RW (£50), AC (£50), IS (£10), GS (£10) and JB (£5).