From GLW: BRITAIN: Unity fires socialist election campaign

["Alan Bradley" <alanb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>From the current issue of Green Left Weekly:


BRITAIN: Unity fires socialist election campaign

LONDON -- On April 13, the second major election rally of the London
Socialist Alliance will be held. The LSA is a broad regroupment of
socialist groups, which is using the May 4 elections for the newly created
Greater London Assembly to campaign for socialist ideas -- and for
socialist solutions to the problems of workers in the world's most
expensive city.

Main speakers at the rally include well-known journalist Paul Foot, a
leader of the British Socialist Workers Party (SWP), Scottish Socialist MP
Tommy Sheridan and European Parliament deputy Alain Krivine, a leader of
France's Revolutionary Communist League (LCR). That these three socialists,
from previously mutually hostile political tendencies, are speaking
together is symbolic of the new sense of unity which the campaign has
promoted. Well-known socialists like journalist John Pilger, film-maker Ken
Loach and broadcaster Tariq Ali have also lent support.

The election for the assembly takes place at the same time as the election
for the new position of London mayor. The centrepiece of this campaign has
the been the ructions in the ruling British Labour Party, as Prime Minister
Tony Blair imposed a gerrymandered internal selection system to prevent MP
Ken Livingstone from gaining the Labour nomination.

Livingstone, former leader of the now-abolished Greater London Council, was
in the 1980s associated with the now defunct Labour left. Since then he has
moved progressively rightwards, but his left reputation from earlier years
meant he was persona non grata for the Labour leadership.

Despite winning huge majorities among party and trade union voters in the
internal Labour selection, Livingstone was declared defeated in the corrupt
?electoral college? system. He responded by declaring himself an
independent candidate, and in every opinion poll he has had majorities
ranging from 45-55% over all the other candidates, an unprecedented level
of public support. Part of that is accounted for by the memory of his
progressive policies while GLC leader, in particular his ?fair fares?
measures to reduce the cost of London's super-expensive transport system.

The LSA is calling for a vote for Livingstone in the
mayoral election, but is putting up an independent slate for the assembly.
Candidates include Paul Foot and television comedian Mark Steele (both of
the SWP), London tube worker Greg Tucker (Socialist Outlook), Southwark
councillor Ian Page (Socialist Party) and candidates from the Alliance for
Workers Liberty and Workers Power.

Support committees for the candidates have been established in every London
borough and a hectic round of public campaigning has ensued, with dozens of
public meetings and hundreds of street activities.

Unity

What explains this new outbreak of unity on the usually fractious British
far left?

Without doubt, it is the change of attitude towards united action of the
left by the SWP which created the basis for the LSA. The SWP, with at least
5000 members, is far and away the strongest group to the left of Labour.
SWP members are the backbone of the alliance, and have been instructed by
their leadership to suspend their own local meetings for the duration of
the campaign. In addition, the SWP has provided a large part of the
financial and organisational support for the electoral intervention

Why has the SWP done this?

There are two key factors. First, in the very hard political circumstances
in Britain created first by Thatcherism and now Blairism, the SWP has been
looking under every stone to find something vaguely left outside of its own
members.

It has consequently sent members into all kinds of united action campaigns.
As the overwhelmingly dominant left group, it has little to fear from
competitors in these activities. And it knows that if it wants to establish
itself as the universally recognised alternative to Labour, it has to
reposition itself away from mutual hostility with the rest of the left.

(In fact, the real challenge to the SWP for the allegiance of radicals,
especially young ones, does not come from other groups inspired by
Trotskyism. Rather, it is the semi-anarchist eco-warriors of Earth First
(and especially their London affiliate, Reclaim the Streets) who provide
the challenge to all the far left. The harsh political conditions in
Britain have spawned a whole network of young people organised on the basis
of direct action, often of a rather adventurist and ultra-left character.
The political differences between left organisations are tiny in comparison
with the bigger divide with the anarchists.)

Second, the SWP has undoubtedly been pressured by the electoral successes
of the far left in France and Scotland, both achieved by creating united
campaigns on the far left. In France, the election of five far-left
Euro-deputies was achieved by the alliance of the LCR with the other main
Trotskyist group, Lutte Ouvriere (Workers Struggle). In Scotland, the
Scottish Socialist Party, which has one representative in the Scottish
parliament (Tommy Sheridan), embodies a broad socialist unity around the
core created by Marxists linked (today very tentatively) with the political
trend in Britain previously known as Militant.

Without doubt, the SWP would like to repeat that kind of success and, with
proportional representation, the London election represents a first
possibility. Labour headquarters is reportedly worried that Foot might be
elected, but this seems unlikely.

High stakes

But one swallow doesn't make a spring. The SWP is quite capable of turning
its back on united action if the election campaign seems not to have been a
success, and if few votes are gained.

The stakes, however, are extremely high. A drive towards concerted unity in
action by the SWP would re-shape the left in England and Wales.

One important factor is that the campaign seems popular with the SWP rank
and file. At the 1000-strong late February rally which launched the
campaign, Ken Loach received a huge ovation for his declaration: ?Look how
strong we are when we're together!?. Since SWP members were the largest
single group in the audience, they undoubtedly joined in the applause. More
significantly, Paul Foot responded warmly to Loach, arguing, ?We must
declare war on the sectarianism which has dogged us for so long?.

The LSA launch rally revealed a lot about the far left in England and
Wales. In addition to the platform speakers, the organisers gave the floor
to 15 well-known rank and file socialist activists. More than half were
women and a quarter were black.

Most of them were trade union activists, mainly from the public sector
unions representing health, local government, transport and fire brigade
workers. Despite the sectarianism of some of their organisations, the
far-left groups, and in particular the SWP, have in the last 15 to 20 years
established themselves in the public sector unions, have significant local
leadership positions and have dozens of highly talented and articulate
cadres.

Party-poopers in the LSA have been the Socialist Party (formerly Militant).
In February, the SP suddenly declared that only candidates with a
significant local base should be supported, but not the London-wide slate.

This absurd position seems to have been devised by SP leader Peter Taaffe
to draw an artificial line of divide with the SWP, and was rejected by all
the other participants in the campaign (although an SWP move to expel the
SP was defeated). The SP's only London councillor, Ian Page, has publicly
rejected Taaffe's position.

There will be no sudden and magical transformation of the far left in
Britain; decades of sectarianism will not be jettisoned in a single
election campaign. But a significant wind of change is engulfing the
British far left, to the detriment of narrow-minded dogmatists.

This has gone furthest in Scotland, where the political situation is very
different to England and Wales, and where the Scottish Socialist Party has
achieved its dominant position by combining militant campaigning with an
open and unitarian approach. A window of opportunity is now opening in
England and Wales. If the SWP later choose to close that window, not only
the broader far left, but the SWP itself will pay a heavy price.

BY PHIL HEARSE