[Marxism] European election: `An alarm is ringing' -- time `to build the broadest possible left unity' | Links

[glparramatta <glparramatta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The dog which hardly barked in Britain was the radical left, which paid
the price for years of division.

No2EU received 1%, which five years ago would have been a reasonable
result. Respect at that time polled 1.5% (without standing in Scotland).
This time, however, with new Labour falling apart, and all the major
parties hit by corruption resulting in the biggest transfer of votes
ever from the major parties to the small parties, there was a much
greater opportunity for the left. From this point of view the No2EU
result was not so good, and demonstrated that the radical left was
unable to adequately capitalise on the opportunity presented.

This potential was reflected rather more in the Socialist Labour Party’s
1.1%. The name itself, despite the moribund nature of the party, the
lack of a campaign, and the destructive way it operates, projected it as
a socialist alternative to new Labour.

The radical left have to see these elections as a massive wake-up call
for reorganisation and unity in advance of the general election. Its
clear enough what the agenda of a Tory government will be if it gets a
clear mandate... The task now, therefore, is to build the broadest
possible unity for the general election. This will not be easy after the
events of recent years but it is an imperative of the first order.

Full article at http://links.org.au/node/1101

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