07.02.2002
One ward, one candidate
With its first full meeting in almost three months, Haringey Socialist Alliance has officially re-emerged from the dead. The gathering on February 3 was addressed by Greg Tucker, Louise Christian and Liz Davies and was billed both as the kick-start of our local election campaign, as well as a discussion on the state of the railways. About 50 people attended the meeting, most of them members of the Socialist Workers Party, Alliance for Workers' Liberty and CPGB, plus half a dozen independents. Unfortunately there were no new SA members and I recognised most faces in the crowd. That is not really a surprise though, seeing as the few organising meetings have been very badly advertised, if at all. Liz Davies snorted loudly when I suggested during the meeting that many Socialist Alliances had to all intents and purposes closed down after the elections. "What? What are you talking about? That is not my experience at all," she heckled. Maybe not yours, Liz, but the dozens of reports and letters in the Weekly Worker paint a more realistic picture of what is going on around the country. Most local Socialist Alliances are only now beginning to re-emerge after having been effectively switched off in favour of SWP-instigated local Stop the War Coalitions or other campaigns. Greg Tucker briefed comrades on the current RMT strike and described, for example, how South West Trains managers were 'trained' to become guards in only two hours - there were reports of trains leaving the stations with their doors open. He also raised the need to coordinate the various rail disputes that are going on throughout Britain: "We should make sure that strikes happen all over the country at the same time. This would produce a much bigger effect," he correctly suggested. In stark contrast, to his appearances at other, non-SA, meetings and on radio and television, where the comrade had almost seemed to make a point of not mentioning the Socialist Alliance, he now raised the need for the SA to get involved and potentially lead the struggle: "I'm very proud of the alliance, which has collected a lot of money for our strike. But we need more cooperation between strikers and the Socialist Alliance to move forward." Liz Davies introduced the discussion on the May local elections. She grandiosely talked about "the renaissance of the left" and the need to fight for democracy. Apparently the Labour Party is preparing new legislation that would mean all votes at council meetings would be taken secretly. "We need to fight for accountability and transparency," she quite rightly stressed. However, her solution for this lack of democracy is that, "We have to make clear to people that we would run services in an accountable way once we're elected." Comrade Davies was also very keen to emphasise how important it was "to receive a vote we don't have to be ashamed of". She argued strongly against standing paper candidates and said we should concentrate on only a few selected seats. Of course, once our candidates start getting elected, they should take up their seats. But surely socialists should not aim to run councils in a more transparent way than Labour does, but to use our positions to help people take control of services for themselves, I suggested from the floor. We want to facilitate the working class taking affairs into their own hands. If we are serious, we need to provide an all-round political alternative and not just an electoral one. Yes, we need to sink roots in local communities, but we also need to spread our influence and campaign as widely as possible. Standing many candidates can help to achieve this. We should view the question in this way: First and foremost we contest elections to make our voice heard, argue for socialist politics and establish that political alternative to Labour. Only inasmuch as we start to succeed will we achieve good votes in elections. It was interesting to note that all SWP members raised in their contributions the need to "always link the local fight with bigger politics", as Kate Jelly put it. "Our streets in Haringey are so dirty, because of privatisation. This is not exclusively a local question," she argued. Sean Wallis insisted that, "We have to regroup. It is not good enough to fight just single-issue campaigns against Labour. For example, we have to challenge Blair on the war." Unfortunately, the comrades from the SWP seem to think that the only people really equipped for such a task are "¦ themselves. A few non-SWP members had indicated before the meeting that they would be interested in contesting the elections, but the SWP only nominated each other. I am sure there will be more potential candidates forthcoming at our selection meeting in about four weeks time, but the SWP as the dominating group has a responsibility to actively encourage them. Only five comrades have so far been nominated, but there are 17 wards in Haringey. At a previous meeting there was talk of standing one candidate in every ward. With well over 100 members in Haringey that really should not be a problem. Tina Becker
Worker