19.04.2000

LSA rally April 13

All-Britain unity

The second London-wide rally of the London Socialist Alliance in Friends House on April 13, three weeks before GLA polling day, enables us to make a progress check.

The numbers in attendance were significantly greater than the first, Camden Centre, rally in February - about 1,100 as against 800 then - while those present were, as before, mainly individual members and supporters mobilised by the various left groups participating in the LSA, SWPers being the most numerous. No distinct new 'broader' forces were on display, despite the reported sympathetic response to LSA campaigning, but some growth was evident. Some 180 new names signed up during the rally, and all of the campaigning materials brought to the hall for distribution were carried off for local use by keen activists. Comrade Pat Stack took a collection of £2,300, bringing the total monies raised so far to about £32,000. After paying deposits totalling £19,000, this only leaves £11,000 for campaigning, and at least another £20,000 is needed to pay for materials already produced.

The struggle in and around the LSA for unity in action combined with the free expression of differences is having a healthy effect on participating organisations, challenging sect culture, and especially opening up the SWP rank and file to discussion with non-'state-cap' revolutionaries. Standing against the left unity of the LSA, on the other hand, is confirming the marginal status of Scargill's SLP, Sikorski's CATP and the Morning Star's CPB. Peter Taaffe's Socialist Party, with a foot in both LSA and CATP camps, is being publicly dismembered in the course of the struggle.

This was reflected by the presence and full backing for the LSA of two star speakers from Peter Taaffe's Committee for a Workers International camp - the Scottish Socialist Party's Tommy Sheridan MSP, and Coventry Councillor Dave Nellist, national chairperson of the Socialist Alliance network. Comrade Sheridan declared the "fullest solidarity of the SSP for the LSA", and comrade Nellist, "as national chair of the Socialist Alliance and as Socialist Party representative within that structure", gave "our full support to the LSA on March 4".

Hitherto the SP had been unable to say whether it would support the CATP or the LSA list. With Sheridan, Nellist and Page rebelliously flourishing their pro-LSA colours, the SP executive saw a shift against the sectarian Taaffe-Mullins line. The SP prepared a deceitful leaflet specially for the rally to camouflage its previous anti-LSA stance: "The Socialist Party is calling for a vote for the LSA in these elections," it declared, while throwing dust in our eyes about both CATP and LSA bearing responsibility for the failure to achieve a single, united left list. Showing what they actually mean by "calling for a vote for the LSA", the leaflet continues, "we understand that many workers will want to vote CATP".

In line with this type of 'support', the SP did not mobilise its rank and file to the rally. Instead, it sent a small bunch of Taaffeite full-timers and loyalists, who seemed to be either seriously stressed, or under instructions to be as offensive as possible to Weekly Worker sellers. Despite all this, I favour keeping the strife-torn Socialist Party inside the Socialist Alliance as the best way to influence the comrades in the direction of openness and united action.

Tommy Sheridan, saying we have "many socialist parties, but not enough socialists", hoped that the LSA will follow the road taken in Scotland - from socialist alliance, through working together and building trust, to forming a party, a "viable, credible alternative to New Labour". The Scottish Socialist Party, he declared, "allows the organisation of trends of opinion, allows platforms, allows dissent, but with a united programme".

If the Scottish Socialist Alliance, formed in 1995 and transformed into the SSP in September 1998, had not offered an electoral alternative to Blair, he said, "we would have lost an entire generation to nationalism" - overlooking the fact that the SSP programme is explicitly nationalist, aiming first for Scottish independence and then Scottish socialism: a programme, which means in practice dividing the historically united working class in Britain.

Dave Nellist said Livingstone's decision to run for mayor independent of Labour was a "turning point" which would "loosen the ties of the working class to what they thought Labour represented." On the Rover crisis, he pointed to the danger of the Grand Old Duke of York syndrome: "Where do we go from the top of the hill?" The unions should prevent the asset-stripping of Longbridge by non-cooperation with the transfer of goods to Cowley and, if necessary, occupation, he said.

Janine Booth, Alliance for Workers' Liberty and "leading campaigner against tube privatisation", thought that Ken Livingstone will go along with tube privatisation, if the government imposes it. "The LSA says no!" she declared. "Rip up the plans, organise to make privatisation unworkable. Vote against privatisation on May 4. Unite to prevent privatisation on May 5."

Mike Marqusee, a Labour Party activist for 20 years, was pleased to find that "there is political life beyond the sterile consensus of New Labour", and declared, "Diversity is a strength, and does not diminish unity in action." Proving himself a great asset to the LSA campaign on the asylum and immigration question, he argued the case against all immigration controls (not just 'racist' ones) very effectively as a right - not whether the cost is too high or whether numbers arriving exceed those leaving a country: "Why can BMW come and go as it pleases," he asked, "while asylum-seekers cannot?"

In the same vein, the CPGB's Anne Murphy - "a council worker" - complained that "a Chinese bucket has more rights than a human being". Saying it was "a real pleasure to hear Tommy speak", she reaffirmed LSA support for the right of Scotland to self-determination - "We are with you against Blair" - and spoke of the need for left unity across Britain, "part of the answer not just for the left, but for the working class. By working together, as we are, we can help overcome sectarian divisions, while not backing away from the necessity of open and honest debate."

"One of the joys of meetings like this," declared the SWP's Paul Foot, obviously from the heart, "is to speak on the same side as people you have argued with for so long, and find you agree with them." An experience happily shared by SWP founder-leader, the late Tony Cliff, in his last days, who had sat smiling in the front row at the February rally. Now comrade John Rees spoke about Cliff's life of international socialist struggle, and it was appropriate that the rally ended singing 'The Ballad of Joe Hill' - a tribute to the International Workers of the World organiser framed for murder and executed by the copper bosses in Salt Lake City, Utah in November 1915 - and The Internationale.

Accountability

Unanimously the London Socialist Alliance meeting of April 18 passed a resolution proposed by the Communist Party's Marcus Larsen on the accountability of any elected representatives of the bloc. This is an important step in formalising the nature of the LSA after the May elections.

"Accountability of elected representatives

"Any candidate of the London Socialist Alliance elected to a representative body is fully accountable to the LSA. A representative body includes borough councils, the Greater London Assembly or parliament.

"Any such representative is subject to immediate recall by the steering committee of the London Socialist Alliance. Such a representative would have the right to appeal against the decision to an LSA conference.

"Any elected representative is also subject to periodical review - at least annual - by an assembled conference of the LSA. An LSA representative is recallable by such a conference.

"An elected representative of the LSA will only accept a wage equal to the average wage of a skilled worker. This will be calculated by the LSA steering committee. The remainder of any income from their activities as an LSA rep shall be given over to the London Socialist Alliance or any working class cause, as decided by the LSA."