16.06.2004

Respect: site for struggle

Peter Manson analyses the 'Super Thursday' election results.

Respect "establishes itself as a serious national party", reads the coalition's statement after the final results from the 'super Thursday' elections.

There are indeed grounds for optimism that the national European Union poll and the ballot for the Greater London Assembly were sufficiently encouraging to ensure that Respect will continue and develop, with a view to building a bigger and better challenge for the next general election. That will mean it will indeed have to adopt the form of a "serious national party".

The unity coalition may not have come near the one-million-vote target set by George Galloway, but the total of 252,216 EU votes across England and Wales is no mean achievement nevertheless. Ironically a quarter of a million votes is the figure the Weekly Worker said was perfectly within the grasp of the left in its current state before the 2001 general election (we were ticked off by leading Socialist Alliance figures for 'unreasonably' raising expectations).
In fact, when totalling up all the left votes in the EU elections, to the 1.7% total won by Respect must be added the 61,356 votes of the Scottish Socialist Party, plus the 13,776 (0.88%) of the Alliance for Green Socialism in Yorkshire and Humber and, more questionably perhaps, the 17,280 for Forward Wales (1.88%). That comes to 344,628 left votes across Britain.

Although, for the most part, Respect's results are pretty much on the same level as those that the left has picked up over the last two or three decades - 1.7% over the whole country just about matches what the left has come to expect - there is a great deal of unevenness hidden by that bald figure. While in large parts of rural England the coalition got truly derisory returns, in some inner city areas - not least London itself - they were verging on the kind of support needed for a breakthrough.

In the East End boroughs of Tower Hamlets and Newham, Respect polled more than 20%. In Tower Hamlets, thanks to the splintering of Labour's support, Respect's 20.36% (10,611 votes) gave it the largest share of all the parties. In Newham its 11,784 votes represented 21.41%, but here we finished second behind the Labour Party. Clearly this area could prove fruitful when it comes to council by-elections.

Meanwhile, in Preston, Respect contested five council wards and came either second or third in all of them. The results were remarkably consistent - between 24% and 34% for a total of 2,423 votes. Here Respect was able to build on the work and reputation of its sole councillor, Michael Lavalette, who was elected as Socialist Alliance last year with strong support from the local mosque. But in other towns and cities, there was also a high concentration of votes in the EU poll in working class wards with a large number of immigrants, particularly muslims. In Birmingham, for instance, Respect came first in both Bordsley Green and Sparkhill wards.

Such returns should once and for all nail the lie that England and Wales is lagging far behind Scotland when it comes to the willingness of workers to look to radical solutions. In truth working class consciousness and militancy remains at a very low level both sides of the border.
The SSP's vote, while of course still much higher overall than Respect's at 5.21%, was actually rather disappointing. Although the party did much better than the equivalent poll in 1999, its share was down compared to the 7.68% it gained in last year's Scottish parliamentary elections. Hopes of picking up at least one MEP were dashed.

Nevertheless, the SSP is now a permanent part of the political scene in Scotland. Its fortunes were transformed thanks to the election of Tommy Sheridan to the Holyrood parliament in 1999. The June 10 results in England certainly points to the possibility of a similar landmark victory for Respect in one or two key inner city constituencies. Of course, a general election will be very much different from the EU mid-term poll, with workers likely to flock back to Labour if a Tory victory looks on the cards. Nevertheless, the sniff of a breakthrough that the June 10 results portend is certain to end any speculation about Respect closing up shop in the short term.

This poses specific tasks for communists. With the next general election less than two years away (if not much sooner), will John Rees and the Socialist Workers Party let the moment pass and leave the national and branch structure to drift and stagnate, just as they did with the SA after the 2001 general election?

We have no illusions as to the SWP's plans. As with the alliance, it has no intention of working within Respect in order to transform it into a working class party. As with the alliance, it sees the coalition as yet another 'united front' to attract social democratic workers and those radicalised by the anti-war upsurge of 2003. Such bodies are meant to act as conduits, leading towards the already existing 'revolutionary party', the SWP itself.

Therefore it will do all in its power to keep Respect 'broad' - and that, according to the SWP mindset, must mean reformist. It will fight tooth and nail against any notion that Respect needs to develop consistent democratic and revolutionary politics. In its search for votes it will continue to resist calls to adopt clear and principled positions on a whole range of issues.

The question of abortion springs to mind. In March George Galloway stated in a newspaper interview his personal opposition to a woman's right to choose. This was immediately followed by a statement from the Muslim Association of Britain, which used his words to demonstrate that not only Galloway, but Respect itself, was worthy of support. The implication was that the coalition as a whole was 'pro-life'. When the CPGB and others objected to the fact that Galloway's words were allowed to go unchallenged, we were told that only a policy-making conference could adopt a position on this or any other question. In the meantime Galloway was merely expressing a personal opinion (not that any other Respect candidate was being encouraged to express a contrary opinion).

However, when such a conference is held in the autumn, do not expect the SWP to come out in support of a principled position - on either abortion or a number of other questions. Untenable as this may be for a 'party' which, by contesting the general election, is putting itself forward as an alternative government, the SWP will try to stay quiet on such issues and carry on its practice of voting down principles to which it formally adheres.

With the Socialist Alliance, the theory was that Labourites had to be won over as Labourites. Therefore there could be no question of the SA taking up a stance that was too radical. When you look at the constituencies Respect is likely to target - those with a large muslim population - you can see why the SWP will not want the coalition to say anything too specific on women's rights. Votes come first, after all.

This, however, would be to make exactly the same mistake as it did in the SA. When old Labour refugees from Blairism were looking for a new political home, that was precisely the time for revolutionaries to try to win them to a completely different politics, not insist they must remain as they are. Similarly with muslims. Why can they not be won to secularism and real equality?
Drawing large numbers of muslims towards the socialist left and working class movement is, in itself, a positive development, even if, in Respect, that has been done on an opportunist basis. Nevertheless many islamic believers have been won to support Respect's platform of pro-working class reforms, however economistic. We do not label, for example, MAB supporters as irredeemably reactionary. This is a section of society, and an organisation, that is in movement.
We must, then, continue within Respect the fight that we undertook within the SA - the fight for a working class party, based on a principled, revolutionary programme. Of course, that fight suffered a setback with the demise of the SA, but the SWP's shift to the right did not represent a qualitative break from the situation in the alliance.

While the SA was more free with the words 'socialism' and 'workers', in practice the platform upon which Respect contested last week's elections was very similar to the SA's priority pledges. The SA had a fairly substantial (left reformist) programme in the shape of People before profit, but much of its contents was kept under wraps.

Nevertheless it was understandable that much of the non-SWP membership of the SA did not follow it into Respect. Understandable, but wrong. Some of these elements contested a handful of wards in the June 10 local elections, under the name of Democratic Socialist Alliance - People Before Profit. Alison Brown in Sheffield and John Pearson in Stockport both polled around 10% in their wards - a creditable performance. But the SA Democracy Platform provides no more than a loose network for a couple of dozen activists or SA nostalgics. They cannot hope to build any kind of national organisation with a partyist logic.

Super Thursday has shown more clearly than ever that Respect is the key site where revolutionary socialists and communists must engage in the struggle for party.