30.05.2001

Greater Manchester

Weakness revealed

The explosive nature of the race issue in British politics was confirmed by the three successive nights of rioting and anti-police fighting in Oldham by Asian youth last weekend. Because the issue has this character, it is of the utmost importance that the Socialist Alliance, if it is to develop into the natural party of the working class in Britain, confronts the issue and that it does so not from a liberal, moralistic standpoint, but from the standpoint of working class unity.

It represents a self-inflicted wound for the project then that the leadership of the Greater Manchester Socialist Alliance succeeded, against determined opposition, in ensuring that the Socialist Alliance is not a player in Oldham in this pre-election period. In the process, we saw a lurch back into the worst excesses of bureaucratic chicanery.

The d?nouement came at the GMSA steering committee meeting held on May 16. The committee comprises five officers and six other members who were all directly elected at the annual general meeting held on September 2 last year. Affiliated organisations have no automatic right of representation. The AGM also prescribed that, once the general election campaign was underway, all candidates and election agents were to be coopted onto the committee. A monthly members? meeting, to which the committee was to be accountable, was declared to be the sovereign body of the GMSA. The architect of this structure was John Baxter, the leader of the SWP?s Socialist Alliance work in Manchester. In commending it, he pronounced that the model for the alternative favoured by some of the affiliates, including the CPGB - ie, the inclusive sovereign committee of the London Socialist Alliance - had been ?a mistake?.

In the event, the SWP was unable to ensure a large enough attendance, month on month, at the general meetings. The dislike of contentious political debate of several of its time-served members was also made patently clear at these meetings, to the obvious embarrassment of comrade Baxter. At the February 13 general meeting, the GMSA convenor, John Nicholson, proposed the suspension of the monthly meetings for the period up to the election. His motion was ruled inadmissible, due to the lack of prior notice, by the chair, Norma Turner, after it had become clear that it would be vigorously opposed, not by the SWP, but by other affiliates and some independents. In the style that became synonymous with GMSA during its worst early years, comrade Nicholson ignored his failure to gain authority. No general meeting has been convened since February 13. It is inconceivable that this could happen other than with the approval of the SWP.

The cooption of the candidates and agents, extended by the committee itself to include campaign organisers, meant that the SWP became the numerically largest group on the committee. Until the meeting of May 16, it had at no time been suggested that the voting rights of the cooptees were subject to any restriction. However, in calling the agenda item relating to Oldham, comrade Turner informed all present that only those who had been directly elected by the AGM would be permitted to vote on the matter, although all present, with the exception of non-committee observers, would be allowed to speak. No objections to this ruling were forthcoming.

John Nicholson opened the discussion. Criteria for determining whether an SA candidacy in Oldham was feasible had been agreed at the previous committee meeting. Most of these had not been met at any of three meetings which had taken place in Oldham to launch the Socialist Alliance and to consider an election campaign. Attendance had dropped over the course of the three meetings. Less than 30 had been present at the latter, some of whom were from outside Oldham. Inadequate numbers within Oldham had signed up to GMSA membership. The prospectively selected candidate was not an SA member at the time of his nomination. Only the financial criterion - money for the deposit and materials - had been definitively met, he concluded.

Two other ?independents? - Declan O?Neill and Denise McDowell - added their endorsement.

Jason Travis, a leftwing independent, and two SWP members, Ameen Hadi and the candidate for Manchester Blackley, Karen Reissman, made strong speeches in favour of proceeding with a candidacy in Oldham. Quite rightly, in your reporter?s view, these comrades admitted that pre-set resource-based criteria had not been met, but all stressed that political factors must be imperative. Oldham is a key national seat in this election because of the race issue. The fascists have made clear that their intervention will be a concentrated one. Not to intervene by standing would be to abandon the most effective way of fighting for the perspective of a united black and white fight against the racists and fascists. The way to win people is to show initiative. There were prospects of winning significant support amongst the militants in the Asian community.

A youth leader had originally agreed to be the SA candidate, the comrades pointed out, although he had withdrawn later, citing health reasons. Comrade Reissman argued that it was not good enough to base our intervention in Oldham around the call, ?Don?t vote Nazi?. The people of Oldham were so fed up with New Labour that they had already ousted the Labour council, in favour of a Liberal Democrat administration. We need to explain that the alternative is socialism. This is best done through the positive intervention of the Socialist Alliance.

Mark Catterall of the Alliance for Workers? Liberty said that he was torn two ways on this issue. The criteria had clearly not been met. This was not just a technical consideration, but a political one. If we did not have adequate resources for an effective campaign, we risked getting less votes than the fascists - something which would be damaging to the alliance. Although he would love to be able to vote for a contest in Oldham, the decision had to be a hard-headed one and the basis for doing so was just not there. He would abstain.

With the latter speech as the exception, this had been a passionate debate. It was clear that the issue was being posed as a vote of confidence by comrade Nicholson and his supporters. (Later, the reason for this became clear, when the committee went on to discuss Bolton.) At last, comrade Baxter spoke. This was a crucially important decision, and his stomach was churning symptomatically, he told us. He was aware of the political importance of events in Oldham and of the need for an SA intervention, which would have to be made whether we stood a candidate or not. However, because this decision was so important it must be one for which there is a consensus on the committee, otherwise all the work we have done in forging unity might be prejudiced. There would clearly be no consensus for a decision to stand a candidate in Oldham and, regrettably therefore, he could not support such a course of action.

Comrade Travis pushed for a vote. Only himself and comrade Hadi voted for the candidacy. Comrades Baxter and Catterall abstained. Comrade Nicholson and two other independents voted against.

The proceedings concluded with a decision to endorse an SA candidacy in Bolton. The unease of comrades Nicholson and O?Neill, both members of the national executive, was patent. In Bolton, Socialist Alliance meetings had been called; a candidate - comrade Dave Toomer, a former president of the National Union of Journalists and a GMSA contact, although only post facto a paid up member - had been selected; and the candidacy had been publicly announced, all without any reference to the GMSA committee. Nevertheless, following an SWP intervention, the SA national executive had called for GMSA to endorse the Bolton contest. After much hand-wringing and embarrassment all round this was done.

The decision offset that on Oldham perfectly. Oldham and its working class, under attack from the forces of reaction and the state had been abandoned as a committee room quid pro quo for Bolton.

John Pearson