11.03.2004

Lesser evilism or class politics

Lambeth and Southwark Respect

On March 3, around 150 people attended a local Respect ‘Convention of the Left’ for Lambeth and Southwark. Those on the platform at Lambeth town hall included George Galloway, a speaker from the local Muslim Forum, John Mulrenan (well-known local Unison official and former Socialist Alliance parliamentary candidate) and Chris Bambery from the SWP and Respect national executive.

The meeting was quite lively and had a certain air of expectation, reminiscent again of the early days of the SA and indeed the Socialist Labour Party. In the discussion period there were critical contributions from the floor from a local Green Party activist, hoping there would be no electoral clashes between Respect and the Greens, and something of a comradely but critical exchange between myself and George Galloway over his support for the US Democrat candidate, John Kerry, against Bush in the upcoming elections.

In response to my points about the imperialist nature of the US Democrats, their initiating the Vietnam war, Clinton’s own role in bombing Iraq and also Serbia during his Democrat administration, comrade Galloway made a point in agreeing with me about these past events. However, he slightly qualified his support for Kerry, claiming that Howard Dean’s campaign in the primaries had pushed the Democrats, and therefore Kerry, into taking a ‘stronger’ anti-war stance - and it was imperative to “defeat Bush at all costs” in November.

Unfortunately, this qualification makes no real difference to the nature of the US Democrats, or to the classic ‘lesser evil’ politics that underlie this unfortunately quite widespread view among left reformists. While such illusions should not be an obstacle to joint work in building a left, pro-working class alternative to existing bourgeois parties in this country, we will continue to struggle against these political weaknesses, which can only blunt class politics.