24.10.2001

Why we must have an SA paper

Besides radically upgrading and democratising our structures, the Socialist Alliance?s December 1 conference must - as a matter of urgency - agree something else. In our opinion the Socialist Alliance needs a common political paper.

When we first presented this proposal a year ago a sullen majority stood against us. At the December 2 2000 Liaison Committee meeting a sea of hands proceded to outvote us. Collectively a high price has been paid for this regrettable decision.

We fought the general election as if with one hand tied behind our backs. Swift tactical turns and national initiatives proved virtually impossible. The executive could neither speak directly to potential voters or to the membership. Nor could the membership speak horizontally to the membership. Therefore no flow of information, discussion and lessons from top to bottom and from bottom to top. While advanced ideas failed to be generalised, mistakes were. Constituency organisations were left to fend for themselves with routine national leaflets, amateur bulletins, personal agitation and a rather ham fisted SWP big brother.

In the circumstances, sterling work was done at every level. A promising national profile was established. The Guardian rated the Socialist Alliance as one of the major-minor parties. Gaining only 57,000 votes disappointed many; nevertheless this was a solid start considering where we began - in many places with nothing. A much wider constituency in the working class was also discovered with whom a meaningful engagement on one level or another began.

Following the general election, however, the Socialist Alliance appeared to close down as far as the overwhelming majority of these people will be concerned. Without a political paper that cannot but happen. There existed no means whereby the Socialist Alliance could maintain an ongoing dialogue with our voters and would-be voters. Much of what had been won through a tireless combined campaign therefore quickly ebbed away. What a waste. What a squandering of efforts. When the Socialist Alliance stands in the next round of local elections in 2002 or the next general election in 2004 or 2005 things will presumably have to start again virtually from scratch.

That denotes an altogether frivolous approach to the Socialist Alliance and our tasks. Indeed, we appear to have condemned ourselves to a labour of Sisyphus, an endless and pointless cycle of expending precious funds and untold energy. For every time we perform a minor miracle and gain a social hearing, we seem content to let everything roll back almost to our original starting point.

The same problem affects our membership and base organisations too. Following the general election they have been demobilised. Branches are in general ghostly. Our general election candidates are all but publicly invisible. Socialist Alliance activity on the ground is almost non-existent.

For the leading faction in particular, other priorities intervened. There is a war going on they indignantly tell us. Yes, comrades, we know. But instead of working through your Socialist Alliance so that we - the united revolutionary socialists and communists - are in the forefront of the campaign against the Bush-Blair ?war on terrorism? you, the SWP faction, preferred to use other channels.

Except in Scotland, where the SSP put its foot down, John Rees organised platforms and committees according to SWP whim or fancy. The Socialist Alliance has been left to endorse and tag on behind SWP initiatives nationally and locally. Little more. Here is the bitter fruit of treating the Socialist Alliance as a mere united front.

The Socialist Alliance is now on a back burner for the SWP, presumably to be dusted off and wheeled out again for the 2002 local elections. The SWP?s indifferent attitude is vividly testified to by its unwillingness to have our chair, Dave Nellist, address the Friends? Meeting House anti-war rally in London on September 21 2001. Obviously there must be a broad anti-war movement. Within it, though, the Socialist Alliance ought to be taking the lead both organisationally and politically.

As far as most rank and file members are concerned, what has been going on must be a complete mystery. They might read in Socialist Worker about the rain sodden Globalise Resistance, Green Party, Socialist Alliance sponsored demonstration outside the truncated Labour Party conference in Brighton. To get reliable information on the deliberations and decisions of the executive and liaison committees they will have to turn to the Weekly Worker. But there is no source of regular news and views - let alone initiatives - coming from the Socialist Alliance itself.

Without that, there can be no close identification with the project. The local branches of the Socialist Alliance operate in the dark or as on-off factional appendages. Without a transparent internal life, without knowledge of who stands for what and why, or, for that matter, whether or not we still exist as a viable political project, it is hardly surprising that the flow of finances coming into centre is little more than a trickle. Again and again, the principal supporting organisations have had to come forth with the necessary funds to keep things afloat. Obviously not a satisfactory state of affairs.

The political landscape that lies stretched out before us is daunting and dangerous and yet holds out huge opportunities. Social democracy is in decay. Gains are under attack. Capitalist decadence is leaving whole tracts of the so-called ?third world? to rot. The end of the cold war system brings neither peace nor prosperity. Blair has constituted Britain the junior policeman in the US attempt to forcibly impose the new world order. The crusade against terrorism means war against Afghanistan and who knows where next. There is an attendant threat to democratic rights and liberties. Besides that, the US-EU-Japan metropolis is sliding into deep economic depression.

In reply, anti-capitalist sentiments are growing amongst a layer of radicalised young people. Disillusionment with Labour is a material factor in British politics. And then there are the votes by the FBU, Unison and the CWU on democratising their political funds. All that and more demands that the Socialist Alliance be built into a social force, a nationwide political-organisational focus for the tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, who are yearning to do something against imperialist warmongering and capitalism itself. But, and it cannot be emphasised too strongly, success will come only on one condition. If we manage to change ourselves and become an active agent.

A Socialist Alliance paper would not only send out an inspiring message to our constituency amongst the politically advanced section of the working class. It sets in motion an organisational logic, which if consistently and energetically followed through, would enable us to steadily tighten, deepen and massively extend our activity and political scope. Indeed to the extent that we publish frequently, develop the sinews and muscle weight needed to raise the finances and quickly deliver to newsagents, bookshops and into the hands of activists in the workplaces, colleges and on the estates, and thereby build our day by day influence, then we can judge our real progress.

In Where to begin?, Lenin famously likened the role of the political paper to the scaffolding that is erected around a building under construction. The scaffolding marks out the contours of the future structure and facilitates communication between the workers as they engage in their various common efforts and particular tasks. From the scaffolding comes the building; from the paper comes the party.

A collective organiser, distributed in the tens of thousands throughout the country, and uniting our network of branches into a single whole would enable us to swiftly manoeuvre and take advantage of our enemies exposed flanks and momentary vulnerabilities. So a political paper more than complements and enhances our electoral interventions. It gives us the means, which at present we lack, to build and maintain our organisation - here is the most challenging immediate task facing the Socialist Alliance. Standing ninety-eight candidates in the Westminster general election was in comparison mere child?s play.

In terms of getting our message across to a mass audience the Socialist Alliance is at present almost totally reliant on occasional leaflet shots and our press team. Hence a paper brings with it another obvious advantage. Operating in tandem with and powering the SA website we would have in our collective armoury an uncensorable independent voice. The Socialist Alliance should not have to bank on the generosity, or gullibility, of The Guardian, the BBC or the Murdoch empire. Use them when we can. But let us primarily look to our own strength.

Our paper must combine the role of agitation with education. Without a collective educator there can be no consistency of principle on the ?big questions?. Nor can there be a speedy and generally agreed response to the countless new challenges brought forth by the maelstrom of socio-economic, parliamentary and international events.

For certain, the trade unions, the anti-capitalist movement, the battle around of student grants, the ecological crisis, the stubborn national questions in the United Kingdom, etc, all cry out for Socialist Alliance political answers. And what about the Bush-Blair war on terrorism?

Today we in the Socialist Alliance have before us the comparatively easy task of helping to build a broad anti-war movement. Tomorrow, we might have to fight on more difficult terrain, for example if terror comes to London or Edinburgh. Tomorrow, perhaps, we might also have to support British-Asian opposition to the war in Afghanistan as it takes to the streets of Bradford or Oldham, while at the same time skilfully countering the pernicious influence of the mullahs and fundamentalists.

Denied a political paper, the Socialist Alliance leadership as a Socialist Alliance leadership is completely hobbled. Our would-be thinkers are unable to flesh out common Socialist Alliance policies and principles. Controversy takes place, but usually in code in the self-contained factional press or in meeting room soundbites.

More is required. Eg, what does the Socialist Alliance have to say about the Taliban in Afghanistan or the situation in Pakistan? How exactly can we stop the war? Should the Socialist Alliance concentrate on highlighting welfare as opposed to warfare? Does CND pacifism arm or disarm the working class? Do we defend the Taliban against the USA because Afghanistan is an oppressed country? Is there a third camp which champions democracy, secularism and socialism against the twin evils of imperialism and Taliban medievalism? Where is the analysis? Where is the argument? Has the Socialist Alliance a viewpoint on islamic fundamentalism? Is it counterrevolution or a form of deflected permanent revolution? No agreed answers from the Socialist Alliance.

Without a common political paper the Socialist Alliance is doomed to tailism, eg, following after CND with pacifist ?No to war? placards. Entering the field of elections was a step forward. Now the Socialist Alliance must take the next step forward. Launching a political paper - perhaps beginning as a monthly but as soon as is technically and financially feasible, weekly, and in time, daily.

Jack Conrad