05.06.2002

Republican jubilee

Bedfordshire SA Democratic and Republican Platform organised a 'Republican Jubilee' party in Luton's People's Park on June 4 to promote the Socialist Alliance. Organisers estimated that approaching a thousand people participated in the various events over the course of the day. There were political stalls, a sound system, games including football and rounders, a bouncy castle, a raffle and a mini-referendum on the monarchy. In case anybody thinks the politics was neglected, we had three relatively brief republican socialist speeches from Martin Thomas (Alliance for Workers' Liberty), Terry Liddle (Revolutionary Democratic Group) and Tony Purdue (Socialist Workers Party and SA candidate in the forthcoming council by-election). Leaflets were given out about a forthcoming public meeting on the monarchy on June 26. The activity of the BSA reminds us that there is only one answer to the monarchy and that is to fight against it. There is no better or more important time to do that than during the biggest monarchist demonstration the country has seen for 25 years. Nobody thinks that dancing in the park will abolish the monarchy. But putting up resistance, rather than capitulating to national royalist euphoria, is the starting point. Last week there was a possibility of the Republican Jubilee being cancelled. Originally it was given the go-ahead by the local authority, but when the press started asking questions some differences appeared within the council over whether it ought to be allowed. The BSA made it clear we would resist any attempt to ban the event. After considerable hesitation the council confirmed its permission. The consequence was that for the very first time the Socialist Alliance became front page news in the local paper. Indeed the BSA got national publicity when the story was picked up in The Guardian and we were interviewed on BBC local radio. The monarchy is a sensitive issue which goes to the heart of what the UK is, how we fit into the picture and how we are governed. When you challenge that, it creates controversy, polarises opinion, produces divisions at the top - not least within the Labour Party - and becomes very newsworthy. The left does not understand this and therefore seems incapable of exploiting it. The fact that the BSA got national publicity actually shows how weak the SA is. There should have been a national SA event or political rally involving the whole left. This was proposed in the RDG submission to last year's December 1 SA conference. It was taken up on the SA executive by the CPGB. The failure of the SA to mount a national challenge to the political and ideological offensive of the ruling class organised around their jubilee shows how weak the SA is. Challenging the Labour government and challenging the national obsession of monarchy-worship are not separate campaigns, but part of one struggle for democracy. The SA's failure to challenge monarchism is another expression of the fact that it does not have the politics to challenge Labour. The Democratic and Republican Platform made considerable political capital for the BSA out of the jubilee, despite the very limited resources and almost total indifference of SWP members in the local alliance. They made no financial, political or physical contribution to building the event. But they did turn up to sell papers on the day! The national divisions over the monarchy, which meant there was no serious national campaign, were clearly reflected within the local SA. The SWP nationally did next to nothing and that was replicated locally. What the jubilee did was prove the republican perspective of the RDG, CPGB and AWL nationally. It shows the correctness of setting up the Democratic and Republican Platform within the BSA. Quite simply there would have been no anti-jubilee event in Luton without the Democratic and Republican Platform. The platform is part of the BSA. But without the platform, the BSA independents would have followed the SWP line - ignore the monarchy and hope it will go away. With the platform, the indies have rallied around and the SWP have shown themselves to be more like the royalist rearguard than the republican vanguard. The BSA platform has not allowed the SWP to veto republicanism. We clearly need the platform to become national. How much more would have been achieved, had it taken place in the context of a serious national political campaign? Despite Marcus Ström's heroic attempts to stimulate a national campaign, the truth is that there wasn't one. One thing the jubilee has shown is that neither the Labour government nor the ruling class have anything to fear from either the SA or the SWP. If the royalists can mobilise a million, how many can republicans mobilise? A few thousand? The monarchists have done well. Now there is surely a challenge to the SA and the working class movement to do even better. We need a national republican demonstration and the mobilisation of the working class and the trade union movement behind democratic and republican slogans. But this will not take us very far unless we make democratic and republican campaigning relevant and central to local communities and local issues. BSA Democratic and Republican Platform * Golden opportunity missed * SSP counterblast