22.02.2001

SA roundup

Greater Manchester SA to contest Salford

A third Greater Manchester seat is to be fought by the Socialist Alliance at the forthcoming general election. A challenge in Salford was overwhelmingly supported at a public meeting on February 15. Selection of a candidate will take place on March 1.

Of the 35 in attendance, a large number were local residents who have been drawn to the project of building a socialist alternative to the Blairite Labour Party. This has been achieved by patient work done, under the banner of the SA, by Socialist Workers Party members in the area, and the comrades are to be congratulated.

The supposed route of building the SA from the bottom up - actually the whole thing has been built top-down - was glorified in the speeches made by the GMSA convenor and SA network joint convenor, John Nicholson, and by the SWP's Socialist Alliance leader in Manchester, John Baxter. Neither of these two made any reference to the true nature of the SA - as the long awaited coming together of Britain's principal revolutionary socialist and communist organisations, which holds out the prospect of party formation. For the moment localism rules.

Three platform speakers addressed the meeting. SWP member Karen Reissmann, the prospective SA candidate for Manchester Blackley, attacked Blair's latest 'radical turn', in particular his proposals to privatise 28 hospitals and to reintroduce selection in secondary education. The stark nature of capital's plunder has recently been highlighted with the £40 billion aggregate profits of the oil companies in Britain last year. But Karen sensed a growing mood for a fightback, with trade union struggles picking up. This upturn should be connected with a strident SA assertion that "there is an alternative to the market", she concluded.

A Salford Unison shop steward described the fight against the threatened closure of Unwin Court, an elderly persons' home. The threat arose as a consequence of the reluctance of the private company, to which Salford council is handing over all of the homes, to take on a unit with less than 60 beds. The diseconomies of small scale were seen by the privateers as contrary to the interests of profit-making. The interests of elderly residents, widely acknowledged by social workers to be better served in smaller homes, were of no consequence to the Labour council and its capitalist friends.

Peter Grant of the CPGB spoke in his capacity as chair of Manchester Piccadilly branch of the train drivers' union Aslef. In 25 years as a driver, Peter had never seen the rail system in such a shambolic state, nor had he been so worried about the safety of passengers and railworkers. It is a scandal of monstrous proportions that the Southall and Ladbroke Grove disasters were allowed to have occurred.

Neither could have done so if the primary recommendation of the Clapham disaster inquiry - i.e., the introduction of Automatic Train Protection - had been implemented. ATP was blocked by the successive Tory and Labour governments, which were quite simply unwilling to erect an obstacle to the profit-making potential of the private franchisees which now run the rail system.

Exactly the same reason had led to the deaths at Hatfield last year. The rail, which shattered into 300 pieces underneath a train moving at 115 miles per hour, had been known to be defective for at least a year. Its replacement and the prior imposition of a speed limit had been deliberately put off because of Railtrack's imperative of avoiding financial penalty.

But comrade Grant stressed that a return to the days of the investment-starved, nationalised British Rail would provide no solution to the problems which had the service close to collapse. Only a subordination of the interests of capital to those of society as a whole could achieve a resolution of these contradictions. That objective would require democratic control of the railways by railworkers and passengers. He expressed his great pleasure at being able to display an article, entitled, 'You have nothing to lose but your trains', which appeared in a recent edition of the management magazine, Rail Staff News. This piece denounced the SA precisely for calling for such a programme.

Peter concluded with a second example of the increasing relevance of the SA in the contemporary class struggle. The effectiveness of the tubeworkers' anti-privatisation strike on February 5 had been severely threatened by their employer's obtaining of a court injunction restraining one of the unions, the RMT, from joining the strike.

In a superb demonstration of rank and file defiance of the anti-union laws, a majority of RMT members had hit back by refusing to cross the picket lines of Aslef. This action had been largely attributable to the efforts of London Socialist Alliance activists.

This was the sort of news needed to lift the mood of the meeting and a lively discussion ensued. The Salford branch of the Socialist Alliance has been born, on a wave of enthusiasm and determination.

John Pearson

Cambridgeshire
Centrality of ideas

Cambridgeshire Socialist Alliance's weekly open steering committee meeting was beset with uncertainty.

The need for many organisational and technical questions to be dealt with by a separate body is once again highlighted. It is equally clear that this issue must be resolved in order to enable any kind of political discussion to take place.

The meeting began with reports of various activities and a report-back from the Liaison Committee meeting. We were also expecting a presentation of some sort of 'bullet point' leaflet to outline what Cambs SA stood for. In its place comrades were presented with an 'Action document', drawn up primarily by comrade George, who is non-aligned, and comrade Chris of the Socialist Workers Party.

The 'Action document' establishes some commendable goals for increasing membership. It also provides a framework for discussion. The linchpin proposal was for an executive to run and coordinate the election campaign and develop the alliance locally. While SWP comrades favoured a system of direct election to the proposed executive from the floor of the selection meeting, CPGB comrades posed the need for all political trends to be automatically represented.

The best way to build a working team is to ensure that all shades of opinion are aired. Given the numerical weakness of the CPGB and the Alliance for Workers' Liberty, there was no guarantee that they would be elected, especially in a situation where not all comrades will know who and what they were voting for. It was therefore agreed that a nominated representative from each organisation would take a seat on the executive if nobody from that organisation was elected.

Next week's selection meeting for the Cambridge parliamentary seat must provide a springboard for Cambs SA to take massive strides forward and focus on our election campaign. Derek Goodliffe, a CPGB member, will be standing for nomination.

Robert Grace

London Socialist Alliance
PCS backing

The London regional committee of the PCS civil servants' union has voted to support the aims and policies of the London Socialist Alliance. Barred by union rules to affiliate directly, this is the next best thing and marks yet another step forward for the alliance.

This, of course, follows the election of Socialist Alliance supporter Mark Serwotka as PCS general secretary.

This announcement at last Monday's LSA steering committee was warmly welcomed by all present. It was a sparsely attended meeting, with comrades acknowledging that in this period most SA work was being undertaken at the borough or constituency level, or at the all-England level for the general election.

"We are victims of our own success," said the Socialist Workers Party's Rob Hoveman. Having successfully established borough alliances through our positive experience in the elections to the Greater London Authority, the LSA's role has become one of monitoring developments, disseminating information and initiating all-London activities. In recognition of this, the steering committee decided not to meet again until the election is called (although this decision can be reversed, if necessary, by the officers or by one quarter of committee members).

The meeting heard a report-back from the extended SA Liaison Committee meeting held in Birmingham on February 17. Those who attended found the meeting useful.

I reported to the committee the fact that I was not allowed to present greetings from the LSA at the February 10-11 conference of the Scottish Socialist Party.

In response to a question regarding the status of the Welsh Socialist Alliance, Rob Hoveman reported that there is still time for the WSA to register or for the SA (England) to adjust its registration to allow for candidates in Wales to stand under our banner.

It seems as if the government's electoral commission is applying a benchmark of 16% of constituencies for parties to qualify for a TV election broadcast. This amounts to seven seats in Wales and 88 in England. However, it seems that the benchmark is the minimum requirement solely for BBC1/2 and ITV.

Only by uniting our forces under a common banner in Wales, England and Scotland could our combined seats reach the threshold for a general national broadcast on all channels.

Marcus Larsen
LSA chair (personal capacity)

East London
Encouraging debate

Things are looking up. At the February 19 officers' meeting of the East London Socialist Alliance, in contrast to the usual agenda characterised by numerous technical reports on local campaigns and fundraising events, a more focused discussion took place on tactics and strategies in the run-up towards the general election.

At the heart of the discussion was the question of involving the membership prior to election day. The 'electoralism' of the SWP was evident (there was an emphasis on getting new members urgently and activating the existing ones as much as possible). Nevertheless there was also some debate on the political role the committee should have for its members.

A number of comrades do now appear to be appreciating the need for a greater emphasis on political education within the ranks of the SA. A decision was made, for example, not to have an organising discussion at the public meeting called on the green question, as this would impinge on discussion time which was already at a premium. There was also a suggestion and agreement to set up a local e-mail group. This will enable comrades in east London to debate a wide number of political issues.

Bob Paul