10.06.2009

On the margins of the margins

Jim Moody assesses No2EU's failure to make any kind of impact at the Euro elections

While Labour had its worst results for nearly 100 years, the left barely registered in the European parliament elections. The two national contenders for the left vote, ‘No to the EU, Yes to Democracy’ and Arthur Scargill’s Socialist Labour Party, raced each other to the bottom of the poll, having been beaten in the various regions by the likes of the Christian Party, English Democrats and Cornwall’s nationalists, Mebyon Kernow.

In both the North East and the North West regions, No2EU managed 1.4% of the vote. But in both regions the SLP beat it, achieving 1.7% and 1.6% respectively. The SLP’s best vote was in Scotland, where it got 2%. No2EU’s worst result was the South West, as it was for the SLP, where both barely managed 0.6% of the vote. Nationally 173,155 people (1.1%) voted for the SLP and 153,236 (1.0%) for No2EU.

What must be particularly galling for No2EU is that, whilst it did have a presence on the ground in some areas thanks largely to the foot soldiers of the Socialist Party in England and Wales, it was beaten in seven regions and nationally by the SLP. An organisation that is more or less defunct between elections and depends for support solely on its official name on the ballot paper incorporating the words ‘leader Arthur Scargill’ (in the 2004 EU elections Scargill was so distracted by an internal battle with his last remaining oppositional group that the SLP did not stand at all).

But this is hardly surprising. In an election where there was little information on the minor parties readily available, most voters would have been unaware that No2EU was a leftwing formation and many, with only the name to go on, may well have assumed its anti-EUism was of a rightwing variety and voted for it on that basis. This seems to have been borne out by the fact that in every region (apart from London) with a high concentration of working class voters, the SLP did better, while No2EU outpolled the SLP in two of the three regions where the Tories and Liberal Democrats dominate mainstream politics.

Following No2EU’s failure to make any kind of impact at these elections, the statement issued by Communist Party of Britain general secretary Robert Griffiths afterwards strenuously avoided commenting on No2EU at all. Quite a feat, considering that his party was the main ideological inspiration behind its election platform.

Griffiths’s main complaint was that trade union leaders needed to take urgent action in pressuring the Labour Party: “Britain [is] on course for a rightwing Tory victory unless the unions help force this government to defend workers and their families instead of bailing out the bankers and speculators.” Similarly, the message from Joanne Stevenson, general secretary of the CPB’s youth body, the Young Communist League, was also what Labour had to do in order “to avoid waking up next May with David Cameron at Number 10”: abandon the “nonsensical and unpopular policies of the last decade” in favour of “improved public services, decent homes and more jobs”. Surely New Labour will listen. Glossing over the ignominious failure of No2EU, the Morning Star did not bother to analyse its results or even reproduce Griffiths’s statement.

The first reaction by RMT general secretary and No2EU convenor Bob Crow sounded more like an appeal for a rally rather than the pre-party conference SPEW is hoping for. According to the Star, Crow “called for urgent talks involving socialist organisations, campaigners and trade unions to build a concerted response to the BNP” (June 9).

SPEW came into No2EU when pretty well everything had already been decided between comrade Crow and the CPB. But Crow has come to trust these ‘Trots’ not to rock the boat. A tinkering here and a tinkering there with the election platform, inserting ‘internationalist’ and ‘working class’, and bingo! - SPEW and its foot soldiers were on board. The fact that No2EU stood and stands - the clue is in the name - for Britain withdrawing from the EU à la CPB programme, Britain’s Road to Socialism, means that SPEW has been drawn very much to the right.

According to an editorial in the pre-election issue of The Socialist, “… no matter how many votes the coalition receives, the decision of the RMT union to initiate No2EU and to stand candidates was completely correct. It marks the start of a challenge in workers’ interests that is long overdue and extremely urgent ... After the June 4 election, this must be built on further” (The Socialist June 5).

Two days after the results were announced, SPEW general secretary Peter Taaffe issued a statement. Taking a swipe at those who “opted for supporting New Labour or the Greens in some areas”, comrade Taaffe reckons that he has found someone to blame for the BNP’s success - whereas No2EU was part of “a campaign ‘to oppose the BNP’”, those who called for a Labour vote had “urged a vote for the very people who have created the conditions which have allowed these creatures to grow and prosper!” Funnily enough, comrade Taaffe could not bring himself to name any of those groups that supported New Labour or the Greens.

Clearly stung by the CPGB’s persistent criticisms, comrade Taaffe asserts: “The charge that the Socialist Party lent itself to nationalist propaganda in this campaign is entirely false. Firstly, the programme is a basic class opposition to the EU and an appeal for ‘international workers’ solidarity’.” Such hollow phrases are there to hide the Little Britain programme of No2EU. But admitting that the No2EU bloc was “limited” hardly absolves SPEW from the charge that it provided a left cover for red-brown national chauvinist politics.

Comrade Taaffe concludes with an appeal for a “fighting leadership in the unions and a new mass political party, with a bold leadership” (www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/7411).

Absolutely correct. But what sort of “new mass political party”? Seemingly unable to learn any lessons from the history of the 20th century, SPEW, like the rest of the left, wants to set up a Labour Party mark two. Only in this case it will inevitably stained by No2EU’s CPB-inspired nationalism and crippled by Bob Crow’s bureaucratic need to maintain control.