28.11.2002
Perspectives for advance
Communist Party members met to discuss the firefighters' strike, Europe, The Socialist Alliance and Party organisation. Mary Godwin reports on the deliberations
November's aggregate of CPGB members began with a discussion introduced by Peter Manson, editor of the Weekly Worker, of the current firefighters' industrial action. The start of the aggregate was delayed by an hour to give comrades more time to visit firefighters' picket lines in the area. Contributors to the discussion described how both in London and at pickets in the regions where they live, firefighters are angry with the duplicity of the Labour government and are questioning why money from the Fire Brigades Union political fund is given to Blair's party. As comrade Manson said, the dispute underlines the need for the Socialist Alliance to raise the question of democratisation of union political funds. This is a vital issue in the present situation. It is a strategic dispute. Blair and Gordon Brown are determined not to concede the firefighters' claim, and to avoid allowing an example to be set which could end the years of low wage rises and working class passivity. But it is impossible yet to tell whether this will be Blair's equivalent of the miners' Great Strike, as some predict. There is a real danger of climbdown and concession by the FBU leadership, particularly on the question of so-called 'modernisation' - a euphemism for job losses and attacks on working conditions. At present the firefighters' working practices include a degree of self-organisation and control from below, and in our view this must be defended. We are in favour of the kind of 'flexibility' that extends the control of workers over their lives. Public support for the firefighters remains high. They are correct, comrade Manson said, to leave picket lines to attend fires when lives are at risk. We argue for the rank and file to continue to decide when to offer emergency cover, but the union should insist that its members are given access to control rooms and are able to decide for themselves whether a particular incident merits the intervention of strikers. Statements by military chiefs such as admiral Sir Michael Boyce that they do not want troops to be diverted from preparations for an invasion of Iraq demonstrate that there are divisions within the establishment and the ruling class. But comrade Manson warned these divisions could be very easily overcome. If the war on Iraq starts or if some terrorist outrage occurs while the firefighters are in dispute, the pressure on them will increase enormously. The left must argue for the strike to be politicised and linked to a class-based anti-war campaign. Comrades reported on support groups for the firefighters which are being established across the country, often set up by the Socialist Workers Party, which is attempting to dominate and keep others out. There were calls for the addresses of these groups to be collated and published in the Weekly Worker. John Pearson urged CPGB members and sympathisers to get involved in these groups, and to argue against the sellouts being proposed by some left Labourites and trade union leaders. Next on the agenda was a discussion of the party's perspectives for the coming year, introduced by John Bridge. He said the Leninist dictum that there are no organisational blueprints is particularly applicable to the current situation: it is impossible to forecast how the future will develop in the short term - therefore we need a flexible approach. The crisis-ridden Tory Party cannot operate as a serious parliamentary opposition at the moment and as a direct consequences it is hardly surprising that the biggest demonstration against Blair's government in its second term has come from the right, in the form of the Countryside Alliance protest on September 22. The vast majority of those who took to the streets described themselves as Tory members or voters. In other words the Tory Party has opted for extra-parliamentary methods of struggle. A US-led war against Iraq seems inevitable, but we cannot predict whether there will be heavy casualties and a political crisis for Bush and Blair, or whether western troops will be welcomed as liberators, as they were in Afghanistan. The SWP seems to be thinking along the lines of a Vietnam-type scenario, with a build-up of opposition from the already high base of the 300,000 people who attended the September 28 demonstration. Comrade Bridge warned that the war against terrorism, a war without end, may develop according to another pattern. The present anti-war movement is very broad and politically very weak. Before 1914 the Labour Party and trade union leaders threatened a general strike if war broke out. In the event they acted as recruiting sergeants for the armed forces. If the attack on Iraq succeeds quickly, it will encourage the US to move on to the next 'terrorist' target - defined as anything the US government does not like. It is the assertion of US dominance in the new, post-cold war world, but it means the anti-war movement will be no passing phenomenon and we should attempt to build it and steer it in a revolutionary direction. Comrade Bridge referred to the current debate about our attitude to cooperation with the Muslim Association of Britain, which co-sponsored the September 28 demo along with the Stop the War Coalition. We want the broadest possible mobilisation of forces, but that must go hand in hand with a political struggle and raising a clear working class and socialist perspective. Again comrade Bridge referred to the lesson of history: in the Vietnam era the 'official communists' had the anodyne slogan of 'Peace in Vietnam' - their attempt to involve as many people as possible without raising clear working class politics and principles. Breaking The firefighters' strike and the debates within the FBU about the political fund demonstrate the possibility that sections of the class may break from New Labour in an organised way. The scope for the Socialist Alliance to lead such forces in a healthy direction is obvious, but at present, regrettably, the SA is dominated by an SWP misleadership which has becalmed the whole project. By staying still it is effectively moving backwards. But the worst thing we could do is lose patience with the SA, comrade Bridge insisted. We were the first in and should be the last out. It has the potential to provide what is necessary for the class in the present circumstances. The SWP acts as a barrier to progress, but the way to overcome that barrier is not by negatively 'smashing the SWP', as some dream of doing, but by positively resolving the problem with correct politics. An unofficial Socialist Alliance newspaper is needed, but prospects for it are not good, given the breakdown in relations with the Alliance for Workers' Liberty. Therefore the importance of the Weekly Worker cannot be overstated. Comrade Bridge said our biggest challenge in the year ahead is to get more people writing better articles for the paper, which is our biggest success and our greatest weapon. We should also aim to publish more books. The comrade proposed the Soviet Union, the national question and peaceful revolution as three subjects on which we could usefully disseminate our ideas in a more systematic and crystallised form. On the subject of party organisation, comrade Bridge proposed an intensification of our political self-education and a revitalisation of the life of party cells. This call was endorsed during the discussion. Anne Mc Shane observed that, as some CPGB members have become involved in wider political work, their party work has become less disciplined. Marcus Ström described a polarisation within the party between what are at present two tendencies: semi-liquidationist and semi-sectarian. However, the tension between these poles can be healthy and a source of creative energy if it is used to pull both back to the correct, principled position. Europe will become an increasingly important factor in the lives of everyone in Britain. A united left party of Europe is needed, and it could revive the SA. Our overall strategic thrust is to build the Socialist Alliance or something like it in both Europe and Britain, comrade Bridge concluded. Other groups on the British left often take part in such projects only for the purpose of building their own sectish organisations. If the left cannot overcome this narrow attitude it will never be any use to the working class, but will continue to be part of the problem. A degree of pessimism among many comrades about the prospects for the Socialist Alliance was revealed in the debate following the opening by comrade Bridge. Others argued that patience is not enough: we should be more forceful in challenging the SWP. But it was widely agreed that if the Socialist Alliance did not exist we would have to strive to invent it, and also that without the SWP it would be little more than a fringe affair. Some comrades urged CPGB members to be the hardest workers inside the Socialist Alliance, but others said that the quality of the Weekly Worker will decide whether we are taken seriously, not how many voters are canvassed. Replying, comrade Bridge argued that if the masses were on the streets fighting for radical change, working to unite the existing left groups would not be our top priority - the movement itself would provide the raw material for the formation the working class needs. But in the current situation we have no choice but to deal with the rest of the left. The vital question is the need for a Communist Party. The Socialist Alliance has that logic: other organisations and campaigns, such as the Stop the War Coalition, do not and cannot. In the afternoon session comrade Tina Becker gave a brief report-back from the European Social Forum in Florence, attended by a group of CPGB comrades. Useful contracts were made and interest in the Weekly Worker was high, but the event itself was chaotic with no proper leadership. Workshops were the only meetings at which political parties were allowed to speak as themselves, rather than posing as organisations of a broad movement, like the SWP's Globalise Resistance. Greens and anarchists attended the event, but it was overwhelmingly a coming together of the European left - the ESF has much more of a working class orientation than the World Social Forum. The SWP made itself very unpopular by attempting to push Globalise Resistance to the front of the mass demonstration, but certainly would have made recruits for itself and its International Socialist Tendency. In Florence the SWP posed as ultra-revolutionary, in contrast to its stance in the SA, where its comrades wear staid old Labour hats. The Italian organisation, Rifondazione Comunista, is undoubtedly the driving force behind the ESF, and is now talking about forming a united left party of Europe - a very welcome development. Many comrades emphasised that Rifondazione are the leading players in the European left at present, but this does not mean refraining from criticising them for continuing to bow before the spontaneous movement. Comrade Mc Shane criticised Rifondazione comrades for pretending, like the SWP, to be representatives of something other than their party. It was right and proper that the organised left took the lead in building the movement, but groups like the PRC must not hide themselves. Comrade Ström suggested that the behaviour of Rifondazione Comunista reflects the thinking of the 'official' Italian Communist Party of the 1970s, when it used the language of Gramsci to detrimentally dominate various real movements. He said farmers' groups and other petty bourgeois organisations should be welcomed at the ESF so long as the left sets the agenda. Next year the second ESF will take place in Paris - organising meetings for this start in December. Comrade Becker said she expects an elected leadership to emerge from this organising process, and we should aim to ensure a Socialist Alliance member is on the 100-strong steering committee. Labour The final discussion at the aggregate was on the nature of the Labour Party, introduced by national organiser Mark Fischer. Labourism remains the key question for the British revolution. There are signs of the revival of the left wing of the Labour Party, such as the 'After New Labour' conference held in London earlier this year and the November 30 follow-up in Manchester. If the Socialist Party in England and Wales and others who think the Labour Party is now a purely bourgeois party were correct, we would have no reason to engage with its left wing. Comrade Fischer described the symbiotic relationship between the left and right wings of the Labour Party, and said the eclipse of the left wing in recent years reflects the period of reaction and the political defeat of the working class. He referred to the confusion on the Trotskyoid left on the question of Labourism in the decades when they thought the only way they could survive was by automatically giving unconditional support in elections. With Blair's first term that rotten perspective went into crisis. Now, however, the same forces write off the Labour Party and flip from auto-Labourism to auto-anti-Labourism. Their lack of theory or principle means they may well flip back at any time. Sarah MacDonald remarked that the Scottish Socialist Party has never formulated a consistent attitude to the Labour Party, and as a result has in practice adopted an attitude of 'equidistance' between Labour and the Scottish Nationalist Party. Anne Mc Shane said in Hackney the SWP failed, whether deliberately or not, to understand the principled tactic of challenging left Labourites to declare their support for the Socialist Alliance programme. Comrade Fischer presented the first draft of his theses on the Labour Party, which will be the subject of discussion at a future aggregate.
Worker