30.05.2001

Opening up the Star

Still sporting its slogan, ?Daily paper of the left?, the ?official? communist cum Labourite Morning Star unfortunately continues its sectarian rejection of real left unity being built by what its editor calls the ?ultra-left? Socialist Alliance (May 19).

But where it used to be down to the personal ?Eyes left? column of Andrew Murray - a former Straight Leftist - to slag off the SA as ?Trotskyite nutters?, the Fire Brigades Union conference decision to open up its political fund to back non-Labour candidates (in future elections) marks a turning point. It  had  to  be  taken seriously. The ?union link?, the rationale for the Star?s auto-Labourism, had been challenged in practice.

Furthermore, the Socialist Alliance?s rapid growth during the election period has forced its way into the Star?s letters column: ?Many people are now considering voting for parties which are, or claim to be, to the left of the Labour Party,? bemoans the Star editorial. ?Letters to our paper show that this is a growing trend and reflect the unhappiness with the Blair leadership.? Crude, dogmatic auto-Labourite letters now compete with coherent arguments for left unity in the Socialist Alliance from such comrades as Mike Marqusee and Liz Davies (May 26) as well as many long-standing Star readers who have had enough of Blairism.

But the Communist Party of Britain?s programme ties its loyalists willy-nilly to a Labour government which will one day open up The British road to socialism.

The credibility of this foolish utopia should have been utterly destroyed by the ignominious collapse of bureaucratic socialism - after all a peaceful and parliamentary road to socialism was allegedly made possible only by the existence of an ever stronger Soviet bloc. Loyalty to Labour is nowadays all that binds the faithful few - there are only some 520 paid up members of the CPB - to the Rob Griffiths-John Haylett duumvirate (the former being a part-time general secretary, the latter editing the Morning Star).

Arguments mustered by the CPB?s two Labourites are pitifully weak and getting weaker by the day. The May 19 editorial is reduced to begging the New Labour leadership to rescue the socialist project. Those who pigheadedly continue to support Labour ?need more and better ammunition from the leadership?. Some hopes.

Since the CPB?s British road programme seriously envisages a Labour government introducing socialism with the help of a ginger group of CPB MPs, the Griffiths/Haylett leadership continues to field a handful of token candidates in general elections. In May 1997 it stood just three. This time it has nominated six. Fear is always the watchword. In his May 10 article ?Dangerous fantasises?, general secretary Robert Griffiths made an embarrassing attempt to fend off the Socialist Alliance project of unity against Labour by claiming there exists a real prospect that such challenges could let in the Tories by splitting the vote. As Kevin Flynn, chair of Tyneside SA, explained in response, ?Robert is one of a very few people who think the Tories may return to government and has concluded that any leftwing parties or alliances should therefore stand no more than six candidates against New Labour - to do so could allow the return of the Tories to government? (May 19).

Such self-deception, however, will not keep the CPB boat afloat for long, especially if the Socialist Alliance proves its viability in the general election. The CPB sectarian die-hards are fighting a losing battle: already, in addition to the letters page, the fluidity on the left has begun to open up the Morning Star?s features columns. Ken Livingstone now has a ?London line? page every Saturday - no doubt a bitter pill for editor John Haylett to swallow: Livingstone fought against the 1998 Star journalist?s strike which won Haylett?s reinstatement as editor; and Livingstone is pro-Europe, an anathema to Haylett?s little Britain chauvinist CPB. The Scottish Socialist Party?s Tommy Sheridan has a regular column too - despite standing candidates against Labour in every Scottish parliamentary seat. And there is talk among Star supporters - quite logically - of a Dave Nellist column, which would finally legitimise the Socialist Alliance project for Star readers.

No doubt some Weekly Worker supporters will find this scenario unlikely. A long-standing policy decision of the Peoples? Press Printing Society, the cooperative which owns the Morning Star, commits the paper?s editorial policy to The British road. But the slow decline of the CPB?s ageing membership continues.

The Morning Star can only survive by attempting to make its slogan ?Daily paper of the left? a reality - by opening its columns to the rest of the left, especially the Socialist Alliance. It will be interesting to see how this problem is handled by shareholders at the forthcoming PPPS annual general meeting (one member, one vote), to be held in four venues from June 8 to 11.

Stan Keable