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