By Frank Noakes
LONDON — Suddenly the lights went out, the crowd stirred. The music, from Jaws, drummed menacingly as smoke filled the platform. A thin beam of light shot out, then another stabbed the darkness. The tension built as the beams fused to form the words: Militant Labour. 1200 voices resounded around the Wembley conference centre; the laser light show heralded the June 5 public launching of Militant Labour at its 1993 national rally.
Militant, long ensconced inside the British Labour Party, has cut loose. With revised positions on women and the national question, the new party is keen to discuss politics. "We use lasers to enhance our message. They [the Labour Party] use them to hide theirs", says press spokesperson Mike Waddington. The banners are different too: Struggle, Solidarity, Socialism is Militant Labour's war cry.
The opening panel included Tommy Sheridan, a powerful speaker who was jailed for six months for anti-poll tax activities and was elected to the Glasgow council from his cell; David Nellist, a former MP, voted backbencher of the year just weeks before being expelled from the Labour Party for his Militant sympathies; and Julie Donovan, who spoke forcefully about the Militant-led Campaign Against Domestic Violence.
The atmosphere was of angry indignation at capitalism — a sentiment sadly lacking at many other left conferences — and a commitment to action.
Claims during the fundraising appeal, which amounted to insisting that the rally was the most important event in British history, were perhaps a little exaggerated!
Militant Labour now comes face to face with the numerically much stronger Socialist Workers Party. But although the SWP claims 8000 members (making it five times larger than Militant), its impact on British politics is negligible. Militant, with its base in
working-class communities, has earned a national prominence for its hands-on approach to politics.
From leading the anti-poll tax movement, to its outspoken local government councillors whose slogan, "Better to break the law than break the poor", has found a resonance in poor working-class areas, Militant has long been a nuisance to the Labour Party leadership and the establishment. The question is whether it can build on past successes now that it exists as a distinct political entity.
Unfortunately, the sectarianism endemic to the British left (including the small 's' armchair socialists in the Labour Party and trendy outfits like Democratic Left) touches the party. But Militant Labour, still in transition, spends less time rummaging through the dustbins of history and more time actively engaged in real politics.
Sheridan described it as "a force intent on taking politics out of the smoke-filled rooms and into the communities, into the workplaces and into the streets of Britain". Militant Labour has the potential to have a greater impact on British politics than any other left or green formation.
The Tories first introduced the hated poll tax in Scotland. So too, Militant Labour was first launched there. Alan McCombes, editor of Scottish Militant, spoke to Green Left Weekly in Dundee, describing some of the experiences of the Scottish Militant Labour experiment, which led to the launching of Militant Labour in England and Wales. Militant's strongest base of support is undoubtedly Scotland.
"Scottish Militant Labour was launched at the beginning of 1992 after a lot of discussion amongst Labour Party activists within Scotland. They came to the conclusion that trying to work within the Labour Party was becoming increasingly difficult, if not completely impossible, because of the extremely bureaucratic regime that had been instituted inside the Labour Party over the preceding period. Combined with that, there are an increasing number of traditional Labour supporters moving towards a position of great hostility towards Labour, because of
the role of the Labour councils have played, for instance, on poll tax.
"Labour councils were the most fanatical enforcers of the poll tax, to the extent of even stooping to warrant sales — a medieval procedure that involves invading people's homes and taking away their possessions. All of this led us to the conclusion that what was needed in Scotland was an open public organisation for socialism, which would campaign on all the day-to-day issues facing ordinary people."
McCombes believes that Militant has had "an electrifying impact on the political landscape in Scotland". The Glasgow Herald agrees. In February it wrote, "Undoubtedly the most dramatic feature of recent Scottish politics has been the rise of Militant Labour: the only party with reason to be greatly impressed by its own efforts".
A report produced for Scottish Television by Dr Michael Dyer of Aberdeen University detailed results in the five by-elections contested by SML since May 1992. They show SML with 40% of the vote, Labour trailing with 35%, the Scottish National Party on 24%, and the Tories mustering a whole 1%. While SML chose to stand in selected seats, the results are impressive.
McCombes says that SML has proved that the much deprecated ideas of struggle, solidarity and socialism are back as a major force in Scottish politics. "There are now large numbers of people turning towards these ideas, traditional ideas upon which the labour movement was built, which the present day Labour Party has abandoned."
Militant's main area of support has been from people on housing schemes where, for instance, the majority of Glasgow residents live. Its 1000 paid-up members are the unemployed, single parents, skilled workers and trade unionists, ranging from the young to aged pensioners, says McCombes.
"In the working-class areas of Glasgow, Dundee, Edinburgh and Aberdeen, we have the largest active political base, numbers of people on the ground, campaigning on a day-to-day basis and on the issues
affecting the communities."
Scottish Militant Labour, which has autonomy within Militant Labour over political and organisational issues pertaining to Scotland, is addressing the important issue of national self-determination. "We think the national question is not something that can be ignored or be thrust aside. It is very important for people in Scotland, who have suffered under the Tories for 14 years, despite the fact that 75% of them vote consistently against them. The Scottish people should have the right to decide their own future through a referendum.
"We believe that the result of such a referendum wouldn't be for complete separation, but there would be massive support for an autonomous Scottish parliament with major powers over the economy. That's what we would support and campaign for: powers to carry out socialist measures in Scotland, to tackle the epidemic of damp housing, unemployment and the crisis in the National Health Service and so on. A Scottish parliament would be left wing and represent the working class much more closely than the Westminster parliament is able to.
"We understand why sections of youth and working-
class people generally have drifted away from Labour, and some of them toward the Scottish National Party, in extreme frustration."
But SML believe that at the end of the day SNP, Labour and the Tories offer the same soap powder in different packages: free market policies, with Scotland still run from the boardrooms and stock exchanges.
"Who owns and controls society, that's where we would differ from the SNP" — which, McCombes concedes, has some good socialists as members. "We stand squarely for a socialist Scotland."
The fears of some that, cast adrift from the Labour Party, Militant would become the pariah of the labour movement have proved unfounded, McCombes notes. "We find it much easier to campaign and to build an organisation than we did inside the Labour Party. Asking people to come into the Labour Party and help transform it from within was increasingly failing to
cut any ice, whereas the idea of building a real mass alternative to Labour is something that's attracting people."