01.03.2001

Socialist Alliance roundup

Greenwich and Lewisham A tale of two campaigns

Greenwich and Lewisham Socialist Alliance has chosen Kirstie Paton of Workers Power as the candidate for the Greenwich and Woolwich constituency. She will be standing against New Labour's housing minister, Nick Raynsford, a champion of that monument to New Labour's vacuousness, the Dome, which is situated in the constituency.

Comrade Paton is a teacher in Greenwich and has been active in the local campaign to stop education cuts and in support of the restoration of student grants. She will make an excellent fighter for the Socialist Alliance in the general election, standing alongside Ian Page of the Socialist Party, who is already selected as the SA candidate for Lewisham Deptford.

In her address to the February 26 selection meeting, comrade Paton, who was unopposed, said: "All New Labour has given Greenwich is a huge tent by the river; the Dome should be knocked down and the same amount spent on building council homes on the site. We will be asked how we would pay for this - we say, 'Tax the rich'." As she emphasised in a laudable, though economistic, approach to imperialist war, "They can always find money for bombing someone else's children. We should stop bombing Iraq and spend the money on education and welfare."

The meeting was well attended, with more than 35 comrades present, and it was decided to split Greenwich and Lewisham SA into its two component boroughs. The first election planning meeting of the relaunched Greenwich SA was called for March 1, just three days after comrade Paton's selection. But the meeting showed the differences in the trajectories of the two campaigns.

The Socialist Party announced that, while comrade Page would in formal terms be a Socialist Alliance candidate, in reality he would be fighting purely for the SP. Already an election broadsheet has been produced with no input from the local alliance. The election communication prominently displays a Socialist Party, not an SA, logo. The SA gets a small mention on the inside. Martin Powell-Davies of the SP announced himself as the agent, without any democratic vote.

The SP has the right to do this under the agreement between the SWP and the SP, ratified by the SA Liaison Committee. However, given that comrade Page stood as the LSA candidate in Greenwich and Lewisham for the elections to the Greater London Assembly and was selected by the local alliance before the deal, it is unfortunate that the SP has chosen to put up two fingers to all those who have supported him as our candidate and fought to build a united campaign. In effect, all non-SP activists in Lewisham will be reduced to distributors of Socialist Party propaganda. Not the best basis for united action.

In response, Paul Mason, a Workers Power comrade of Kirstie Paton's and the newly elected press officer for Greenwich and Woolwich, announced that any Lewisham comrades who felt disenfranchised as a result of the SP's sectarian stand were welcome to join our democratic and united Socialist Alliance campaign in Greenwich. After the meeting there was talk among non-SP comrades in Lewisham of another alternative: the standing of a genuine SA candidate in Lewisham East. No doubt the SP would be pleased to see the back of such comrades, particularly the SWP.

Continuing his strange behaviour, Nick Long, former convenor of the local SA and one of its most well known figures, confirmed he still intends to stand as an independent in the Lewisham West constituency. He has rejected any notion of standing as Socialist Alliance. Yet he also claimed he would be doing his utmost to support comrade Page's campaign. I imagine he will be a tad busy.

Following the decisions on the general election, the meeting went on to discuss the SA's policy document, to be debated at the Birmingham conference on March 10. The only amendment was that proposed by the CPGB. Despite comrade Long's attempt to stifle debate by suggesting that business concerning a conference to be held in under two weeks time be "left on the table", the CPGB proposal was heard and passed with a small addition without opposition.

The amendment seeks to add a new bullet point under the policy section entitled 'How democratic is Britain?' The final version, after the addition of the words "of socialism", reads: "For the maximum working class unity against the UK state. We fight for all socialists in Britain to stand under the same banner of socialism against Blair and the New Labour government." This is intended to appear after the bullet point calling for self-determination for Scotland and Wales.

Initially, the amendment was opposed by Lois Austin, who was at the meeting to crack the sectarian whip on behalf of Socialist Party HQ. But when it was pointed out that the SP's behaviour was not a little hypocritical, given that it was refusing to stand under the democratically agreed policies to be decided on March 10, comrade Austin clearly had second thoughts.

The determined optimism of comrades in undertaking to fight the Greenwich and Woolwich seat, and possibly Lewisham East too, was encouraging. Despite relatively small forces, we are focused and, above all, united in our struggle to build the SA in south east London.

Marcus Larsen

Cambs
Contempt for politics

Cambridgeshire Socialist Alliance met on February 27 to decide who would be its candidate for the upcoming general election.

There were two comrades in the run-off for the nomination: Derek Goodliffe from the CPGB and Howard SentEr from the SWP. Both made brief speeches attacking Labour's record in government and both pledged to fight on working class issues. Comrade Goodliffe pointed to the recent scandals that have been highlighted in the media and argued that they were inherent in the current system of government which was profoundly undemocratic. Issues of democracy should be the focus for the alliance campaign, he said. Comrade SentEr stated that the alliance was "definitely here to stay", though he did not specify the direction he thought it might take. However, this underscored the fact that the SWP's commitment to the SA looks set to continue beyond the election and may indeed occupy a central place in its thinking.

When the votes were counted they stacked up heavily in favour of comrade SentEr, who won 25 against eight for comrade Goodliffe. This was unsurprising, given that the meeting saw an unusually large SWP presence. Along with comrades who appeared to be in their periphery, they accounted for two thirds of the 30 who were present. It was pleasing to note that for the first time a comrade from the Socialist Party was in attendance. Whether this marks a turn towards the alliance, at least on a local level, is yet to be seen.

During the interval it was moved that there be a discussion on the proposed policy document and an amendment from the CPGB. Recognising the March 3 deadline and the fact that comrades had quite literally just seen the document, it was proposed by the SWP that this be discussed at next Tuesday's meeting - after the official March 3 deadline for receipt of amendments. Despite the CPGB's suggestion of an additional meeting on March 1, the SWP proposal won the day. This means that the acceptance of our and any other amendment will be subject to the decision of the SA officers.

Obviously the extremely tight time schedule, resulting from lack of planning and forethought on the part of the SA Liaison Committee, left us with no satisfactory solution. But the local SWP leaders were not in the slightest concerned that Cambridgeshire might be denied the opportunity to put amendments to the policy document. This is in keeping with the SWP's localist contempt for politics, which means that detailed discussions about the Saturday stall are regarded as much more important.

The root of the problem is the economism of the SWP leadership, which leads it to inculcate its members with a mindless activism. This was well illustrated by one SWP comrade after the meeting, who suggested that "giving out leaflets" would be a better use of our time than discussing the building of a national working class alternative through our general election campaign.

Robert Grace

Tyneside
Birth of a movement

The conference room of the Royal Station Hotel, Newcastle, packed with comrades from all over the North East and further afield, was alive with fraternity and optimism at the meeting of Tyneside Socialist Alliance on February 15.

The first speaker, Terry Rodgers, started what was to be the main theme of the evening: polemic against New Labour. His belief in the folly of voting Labour merely to keep the Conservatives out was well received. The consensus was basically: rather one positive vote for the SA than one negative, defensive vote for Labour. Terry spoke of the "birth of a movement" and the privileged position historically SA comrades are in at this point in its development.

Pete Bennett spoke of the need to mobilise the SA in pursuit of votes and the vital role that individual comrades play in gaining support for our candidates. Canvassing and door-knocking thus advocated, Pete went on to develop Terry's polemic against New Labour and their pandering to the free market at the expense of the working class. He especially criticised the "shareholder culture" of Labour and spoke of the division within the party between old and new Labourites.

The Scottish Socialist Party's Tommy Sheridan then launched a vituperative attack on capitalism in general. In a passionately delivered address he lambasted Labour as "the New Tories" and Tony Blair as "the son of Thatcher". He criticised the lack of a progressive tax system to pay for reforms such as a £7 an hour minimum wage, etc. He cited top-level business tax on profits as an example. Labour has reduced them to a level below that set by the Conservatives under Thatcher. Comrade Sheridan reiterated Pete Bennett's point in his belief in the potential of the SA as an organisation.

Many questions and contributions rounded off what had been an encouraging evening for the SA in the north east.

Rees Bowman and Tom Pearson

Teesside
Socialist Alliance to stand in Stockton South

Comrades in Teesside Socialist Alliance living in Stockton have decided to put forward Lawrie Coombs as Socialist Alliance candidate in the Stockton South constituency, following the decision of the local SP not to put forward a candidate.

Lawrie, a recent recruit to the CPGB and an ex-SP comrade himself, is a Unison member and former TGWU convenor. He has been involved in the Socialist Alliance since its inception and was grateful for the opportunity to stand as part of a bold move to increase the number of SA candidates in order to qualify for a TV broadcast.

An organising meeting will take place next week and anyone interested or wishing to make a financial donation should email redlorry30s@hotmail.com or telephone 07940 037843.

Guy Toms