17.06.1999

Challenge delayed - once again

Socialist Alliance (London)

As agreed at its last meeting, the Socialist Alliance (London) electoral bloc reconvened on June 15 to discuss the European elections and prospects for a united socialist challenge for the Greater London Authority elections next spring.

In a sign that does not bode well for such a challenge, only half of the organisations – the CPGB, Socialist Outlook and the Independent Labour Network – turned up. The Alliance for Workers’ Liberty had indicated it would attend, but was absent. The SWP, for reasons not given, failed to turn up and the Socialist Party in England and Wales also did not show. The failure of SPEW to attend is particularly strange, as the meeting was originally suggested by its representative, Julie Donovan, the chair of the election bloc.

The meeting took place in the shadow of the ignominious collapse of the Socialist Alliance’s challenge at the European elections in London. After the SWP was thrown into crisis by Scargill’s announcement that he was to head the Socialist Labour Party’s London list, one by one the organisations withdrew, leaving the CPGB alone to stand. The low vote of the ‘Weekly Worker’ list, despite the necessity of our intervention, reflected the weak position of the whole left following the buckling of the SA bloc.

Chairing the meeting, comrade Marcus Larsen of the CPGB suggested an agenda of discussing the European elections, the status of the bloc and the impending GLA elections. Immediately, a comrade from the ILN suggested we end the meeting as the SWP and the SP, the “main players”, as he described them, were not present.

Comrade Larsen considered this indicative of the same method that led to the collapse of the Alliance in the lead-up to the European election. While it was true that the SWP was a major factor, its ongoing programmatic crisis was rendering it an unreliable ally with regard to elections. The ‘anti-electoral’ faction on the political committee might have been strengthened by the relatively poor showing of the left outside Scotland. It is also entirely possible for the SWP to decide to go it alone, he added.

Critical of both the SWP and of his own organisation, Socialist Outlook’s Alan Thornett said that it had been wrong to stand down in deference to Scargill. Quite rightly, he argued that if we had stood united, we would have beaten the SLP. For comrade Thornett, as for most others in the meeting, what was important was not ‘star’ candidates, but a credible alternative. Comrade Thornett pointed to the very real space that exists for a socialist electoral challenge to New Labour that genuinely unites the left. The electoral success of the Scottish Socialist Party reflected this, as does the crisis in Labour’s vote in their ‘old Labour’ heartlands.

Discussion briefly centred on the content of what was ‘credible’. For social democratic elements in the alliance (the ILN), credibility lay in developing a minimal platform attractive to “environmental activists” and adequate for the “immediate needs of the working class”. In other words, a sub-reformist programme.

Speaking for the CPGB, comrade John Bridge stressed that what was important and credible was what was real. And in London what is real is the coming together of the six organisations that have so far expressed a real interest in united electoral work on a socialist platform. There was no use in watering down our programme for phantom rightwing or green elements that have yet to show themselves. This is particularly the case now that the Greens have won an MEP. They will have no pressing interest in joint electoral work.

To underline the concrete basis upon which we must approach Labour and Green elements, comrade Bridge argued that the behaviour of the Socialist Alliance in the West Midlands was precisely what not to do. With Christine Oddy breaking from the Labour Party’s European slate and approaching the SA, all manner of compromises could legitimately have been made to incorporate a concrete break from Labour (with the right of each organisation to present its own “distinctive and separate” propaganda). Instead, the Socialist Alliance split, and some comrades campaigned for Oddy, who stood as independent Labour, vastly outpolling the list headed by comrade Dave Nellist.

Comrade Thornett expressed a common understanding that there was a real mood for unity and that is what we need, as no group could be successful alone. A comrade from the ILN said that a credible alternative was urgent, for there is the very real danger that the socialist left and the working class as any sort organised force could be thrown back to levels existing in the United States.

It was agreed that the meeting should not decide anything premature. Comrades from all three organisations present are open to any development that will successfully unite the socialist left in London, and will cooperate with any non-sectarian proposals to that end.

Marcus Larsen