WeeklyWorker

09.02.1995

Militant hushes up election stand split

SO MUCH of the left sees it as its duty to go chasing around wards and constituencies where the BNP is contesting elections in order to ‘combat fascism’. The most inane example is the Socialist Workers Party and its Anti-Nazi League surrogate with their call, “Don’t vote Nazi”. When workers press them as to how they should vote, they are inevitably directed back towards the rotten politics of the Labour Party.

It is therefore a small, but positive step that Militant Labour has taken in deciding to stand in the forthcoming Weavers ward by-election in East London’s Tower Hamlets. The article in the February 3 issue of Militant announcing the decision highlights the Labour council’s proposals to raise rents by £7 per week and push through yet more cuts in essential services. Rightly the article concludes on the need “to build a viable socialist alternative in the area”, rather than to “simply denounce the BNP”, which is also standing.

ML’s decision was taken after long internal debate which, according to some members of the organisation, saw it “split right down the middle”. The argument was not so much about splitting the Labour vote to let in either the Liberal Democrats or the BNP. That, despite all Labour’s proven rottenness, would still be seen by Militant as a disaster. No, Labour seems certain to win the Weavers seat, and the argument was about the possible ‘derisory’ size of ML’s own vote.

Although the national leadership finally backed the local organisation’s desire to contest, the arguments continued - but not in the pages of Militant. The January 27 issue carried an article by the candidate, Hugo Pierre, which made no mention at all of the by-election!

The whole election question is an essential one, not only for ML’s own supporters, but for the entire left, and should be the subject of the fullest possible public debate.

Militant Labour itself does not provide the solutions the working class need. It is still oriented towards the Labour Party, while its own reformist programme, Militant: What we stand for, proclaims that socialism can be brought about “through an Enabling Bill in parliament” to nationalise the “top 200 monopolies”.

Workers should not give their vote to any candidate who cannot support basic working class rights. That is why we put forward a minimum platform to test out such support. We challenge Militant to stand on this platform.

Alan Fox