Rethinking "Rifondazione" Participation is always low in European Parliament elections, but Britain's 23% participation rate is a record low. Abysmally low participation in the recent local elections suggests a long term decline in British electoral participation.
According to Welsh Labour leader Rhodri Morgan, only 10% of voters in traditional labour districts participated in these elections, compared to 30% of voters in richer and more conservative districts.
These were the first British elections using proportional representation. This probably helped the opposition Conservatives gain seats in Scotland and Wales. But in England (90% of the British population) Labour would have done even worse under the previous single member (*First Past the Post" svstem.
The Conservatives won 37.5%. The ruling Labour Party attracted 28%.
Voting patterns reinforced the "EuroSceptic" current within the Conservatives, as well as the fanatical anti-EU "United Kingdom Independence Party". Pro-EU Conservatives did badly, and are likely to keep a low profile in the coming months.
Labour spokeswoman Margaret 6 International Viewpoint #314 September 1999
Italy
The Refounded Communist Party won a disappointing 4.3% of the voteless than half of those who supported the party in the 1996 parliamentary elections. Livio Maitan
At least 30% of the lost votes went to the pro-government PdCI, which split from 'Rifondazione' earlier this year. But most of the collapse in the PRC vote was the result of abstentionism. Although Rifondazione is still seen as the most radical party, and certainly less corrupt than the rest, many voters were not convinced that it was sufficiently different to justify participation in the election.
Although voters did not punish the party for ending its support for the centre-left government, they clearly perceive the party as less powerful now that it is in total opposition. The war in Kosovo also reinforced voter passivity. The PRC played a leading role in organising Europe's largest peace demonstrations outside Greece. But these only involved tens of thousands of people.
But the main cause of passivity is the seemingly inexorable advance of the Maastricht-guided European capitalist integration project. The new socioeconomic and institutional framework is increasingly unfavourable for the working class and other popular strata. So far, the result has been a tendency towards passivity.
Party leader Fausto Bertinotti is now calling for a profound reformation of the party-redefining socialism, and elaborating an alternative model for society that is relevant for the new generations. A discussion that some of us have been pushing for for a long time...*
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A Marxist and feminist analysis of the
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Scottish control over North Sea oil could be used to finance the improved health, education, infrastructure and social policies that most Scots want.
Ken Coates won only 2.41% of East
Midlands votes. The Socialist Alliances and Socialist Labour Party failed to attract significant electoral support.
The lesson for the English far left is clear. The only way to win electoral credibility-with abstentionists, and