New mood of unity on British far left
-EANWHILE, the far-left has formed an unprecedented electoral alliance for the new Greater London Assembly - the London Socialist Alliance (LSA). The new left-wing Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) has won an MP in the new Scottish parliament. The Blairite leader of the Welsh Assembly was
BIG changes are taking place in British politics. New Labour has toppled in a revolt against control-freakery from London. Yet Tony Blair and new been in office for nearly three years. Its traditional support is col-
Labour, although badly shaken, retain a lapsing. Ken Livingstone - left Labour MP and former leader of the huge opinion poll lead for the next
Greater London Council which was abolished by Margate Thatcher
Westminster election. So what is going on?
- is standing against it for mayor of London. Livingstone has the
Union defeats support of a gigantic 68% of Londoners, and his candidacy poses the possibility (if he were to lead it) of the biggest split in the Labour
The overarching factor which makes the British political situation unique in
Europe is the ongoing effects of the defeats inflicted on the trade unions during the
1980s. The most important was the betrayal and defeat of the miners, in 1984/5, which led, in less than 10 years, to the smashing up of the core centres of militant trade unionism in Britain. This led to the introduction of the most draconian anti- trade union laws in Europe, which have seriously undermined the right to strike.
The political reflection of this disastrous situation was the rise of Blairism, which goes well beyond the general rightward shift of social democracy across
Europe. Blair's objective is to transform the LP into a straight bourgeois party occupying the centre ground of British politics.
He wants to heal the rift with liberalism which took place at the beginning of the
20th century, which he regards as an historical mistake. He has not achieved this yet but he is well on the way.
As a result politics at every level have been reshaping in Britain. The Tory party has been semi-destroyed and its political terrain systematically occupied by new
Labour. It has been pushed further towards the xenophobic right and is deeply divided on Europe. Only Britain's scandalous first- past-the-post voting system prevents it splitting. The Liberal Democrats (secondstring party of British capital) are now well to the left of new Labour but reduced to clinging to its coat tails in the hope of electoral reform for Westminster. The left, and the far-left, have had to confront these radically new political conditions and have begun to reorganise and reshape in response.
The high point of the Labour left was
(left Labour MP) Tony Benn's challenge for the deputy leadership of the Labour
Party (LP) in the post war period. ALAN THORNETT Party in the early 80s - the Bennite revolt. The high point of the trade union left was the militant period from the late 1960s until the miners strike in 84/5. That was followed by a series of further trade union defeats, the abolition of Ken Livingstone's radical Greater London Council, and a huge attack by the Tories on the independence of local government - which was the power base of the Labour left. The result was the semi-collapse of what had been a very powerful shop stewards movement, a huge shift of power relationship from the unions to the employers, and the victimisation of many militant and left activists.
### Collapse of strength
It was a collapse of trade union strength on a different scale to anything which has happened elsewhere in Western Europe. Even the loss of seven million trade union members (a drop of 50% from 14m to 7m) does not reflect the full scale of the defeat, since the loss of rank-and-file was even greater. A better measure was the collapse in the number of strikes, which, by the mid-1990s, were the lowest since records began over 100 years ago. And there has been no significant change today. After this most sections of the left went into decline, particularly the Labour and trade union left.
The Communist Party (CP) (historically weak in Britain) suffered as well. Its industrial base disappeared as huge parts of manufacturing and mining were closed down by the Tories. This was compounded massively by the fall of the Berlin wall at the end of the 1980s, after which it split several ways and went into sharp decline. Some of its fragments have moved to the right of Blairism.
### Decline and stagnation
The far-left fared better. But most groups declined or stagnated, including the International Socialist Group (ISG), the British section of the Fourth International. The most dramatic decline was that of the Militant Tendency, which had been deep inside the LP for decades and had controlled Liverpool City Council. At the end of the 80s it played a major role in the leadership of the campaign against the poll tax (a regressive individually-levied local tax imposed by Thatcher) which resulted in the only major victory for the working class since the miners strike.
The Militant Tendency recruited heavily out of the anti-poll tax campaign and drew the conclusion that it was time to leave the LP and became an open party with the name of Militant Labour. It split in the course of this and its membership collapsed from something like 8,000 to more like 2,000.
The principal exception was the SWP which maintained a membership of several thousand. It benefited from its insular character (which tended to protect it from outside events), a strong and dynamic central cadre, and the way it (incredibly) capitalised on the fall of the wall as a vindication of its theory of state capitalism. Although theoretically completely wrong the conclusions it drew over the collapse of International Viewpoint #320 April 2000 7
* Great Britain the eastern European states gave it a confidence which other sections of the left did not have. The anarchist, and semi-anarchist/semi-socialist left and environmental direct activists grew considerably (most visibly in the form of the Reclaim the Streets (RTS) movement). This was based partly on the weakness of trade union struggle and unity between these forces and the directly socialist left has not been easy. They did, however, form an important alliance with the Liverpool dockers and they have been involved with the socialist left in anti-globalisation actions against Maastricht and in Seattle.
### Scargill's SLP
Within months of becoming leader of the Labour Party (in June 1994) Blair proposed the abolition of clause 4 of the LP constitution, which committed it to public ownership and redistribution. There was a campaign to save the clause but Blair won the day at the October 1995 LP conference. It was a highly symbolic event for the LP and for the left. After that Blair launched a huge attack on the democracy of the LP which severely restricted the left within it. He fully embraced the market and the global neo-liberal project. Soon after that Arthur Scargill, leader of the miners' strike and President of the National Union of Mine workers, resigned from the Labour Party and proposed the formation of a new left party. It was to be launched on May Day 1996 as the Socialist Labour Party
Indeed the defeat of Clause 4, and the continuing rightward march of new Labour, was creating the objective conditions for a new party of the left. But this was still at an early stage. The real problems of the SLP, however, were political. It failed to attract any forces from the Labour left. And no one, other than the most sycophantic of Scargill's personal followers (including some from a revolutionary background who should have known better), were involved in discussions on how the SLP would be launched and its political character. The resulting constitution of the SLP, which created a bureaucratic top down organisation with an electoralist structure, was far less democratic than the constitution of the LP itself.
Scargill's first principle was that there would be "no federalism" as he put it. The initial public meetings of the SLP, therefore, were concerned with spelling out who 8 International Viewpoint #320 April 2000 could not join it. This included anyone who was in an existing left organisation. They would have to leave it first. Far-left organisations which tried to join were refused. Militant Labour, in particular, fought hard to join. But its application was rejected by Scargill, who would not compromise on the exclusive character of the SLP. The SLP initially recruited several thousand people. It became a small-mass left-social democratic party with a dominant central leader (with Stalinist politics) and a bureaucratic constitution. After four years of internal strife and expulsions it is
Today it has refused to be a part of the LSA of course. But more than that it has made a principle of not collaborating with any other section of the left under any circumstances, even to avoid election clashes. It is utterly sectarian to Ken Livingstone, who is not fit, in Scargill's words, "to be mayor of Toytown". In all the SLP has been an object lesson in how not to build a new party of the working class.
The Socialist Alliances
Militant Labour's response Scargill's rebuff was to seek to change itself into a broader party - to try to be what the SLP refused to be. It sought to do this by changing its name to the Socialist Party (SP). The rationale for the change was hard to fathom, particularly since it had a very good name which was also well known. But some of the politics behind it were certainly flawed. In particular the view now put forward that Blair had achieved his goal and the Labour Party was now a straight bourgeois party, rather than a bourgeois workers party - a bourgeois party with a working class base. It was moving in that direction, of course, but to say that it had arrived was a mistake with far-reaching consequences. It made the change of name leftist in character, and limited what it could achieve.
The tactic failed. The renamed SP did not become a broader party and turned back to building itself as a distinct current. But the turn outwards involved and the dialogue opened up with the rest of the left did have positive consequences. This was the idea of Socialist Alliances (SAs). The SP played a key role in establishing Alliances in various parts of England. Scotland and Wales. A steering committee was established based on the Coventry SA led by Dave Nellist, the former Militant
Tendency Labour MP
The alliances were an attempt by the left to test out the possibility of unity in the new conditions at that time. Some were just embryonic bodies but there were exceptions such as Coventry and Manchester which were stronger. The most important, however, was the Scottish Socialist Alliance (SSA). It had developed a real strength with Scottish Militant Labour (SML) - the SP's sister organisation in Scotland - at its core. The SWP were not involved in any of these developments.
### Sheridan elected
The strength of the SSAs was due to a more radical political climate in Scotland and also to the role played by its leading activists in the movement against the poll tax. This included SM's Tommy Sheridan who was elected to Glasgow City Council whilst in prison for defending victims of the poll tax. It involved a change of line for SML on Scottish independence. Militant Labour had always opposed it, but support for it was a crucial political component in building a left alternative in Scotland.
New Labour's decision to introduce devolved assemblies - the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly and the Greater London Assembly - stimulated the development of the Scottish Socialist Alliance since it involved the partial introduction of proportional representation (PR). This would transform the prospects for small parties which were heavily discriminated against under the existing first-past-the-post system. It would now be possible (even if difficult) to get elected. The SSA recognised the possibilities of this at
Several SAs stood candidates in the European elections last year and this was initially planned by the LSA in London. The SWP were involved. It was its first substantial involvement, but it was still less than a full commitment and the SP took the leading role. The LSAs plan to stand, however, was torpedoed by the decision of the SLP to stand a rival slate with Scargill at the top. As a result the LSA withdraw from the contest (after appealing to Scargill for unity) fearing a split vote. In hindsight this was an overestimation of the disruptive capacity of the SLP at that stage.
PR also triggered a general rethink on the far-left towards election interventions. Most of the far-left, including the SWP,
had not stood in elections for decades. Most have now changed line in favour of electoral interventions. This in itself has had an impact on the way the left campaigns and organises.
The experience of the European elections however were mixed. In England and Wales where the left stood they were divided and most results were poor, although some individual candidacies and single Issue campaigns who stood got better results and showed the potential. Yet most of those dissatisfied with Labour are socialists with a natural affinity to an alternative socialist project.
There is more than one reason for this failure of course, including the lack of a track record by the left in the electoral field. But the principal reason must be the Livingstone has won support from the leftwing firefighters' union chronic divisions within the left. People Wales. Whilst the political situation is results beyond their widest dreams. Plaid are looking for answers and what they have seen is splits and divisions. Unity, therefore, is key, since the sum of a united left is much greater than the sum of the constituent parts. The revolutionary left, including ourselves, will have a major role to play in this and will have to remain fully organised in order to do so.
The Scottish Socialist Party
The Scottish Socialist Party was launched last year in the run-up to the elections for the new Scottish Parliament, and after a wide consultation on the Scottish left. The SSA, the Scottish Socialist Movement, the Scottish Communist Party, and SML were its main components, and again the SML was at the core of it. Since SML proposed dissolving into the SSP as individual members this was highly controversial with the SP leadership in London. There were also discussions with the SWP but they declined to join.
It achieved a major breakthrough when it got Tommy Sheridan elected to the Scottish Parliament. It has just had its first annual conference and it is clear that it has made significant progress. It has emerged as a small mass centrist party. It has grown rapidly in a year from 400 members to 2,000 in 53 branches throughout Scotland -a significant left force in a population of just 6m. It gets a high media profile in Scotland and is currently registering 6% in the opinion polls, which would give three SMPs if there was an election now. But the significance of the SSP is not just in Scotland. It is seen as a model for possible similar developments in England and more advanced in Scotland it is the same general framework and is therefore a rational comparison.
The London Socialist Alliance
The LSA was relaunched last August to prepare for the elections for the new Greater London Assembly and the London mayor, due on May 4th 2000. The mayor will be directly elected with a single constituency of 5m voters. The Assembly elections are by the additional member system, with 14 constituency seats on the first-past-the-post basis and 11 all-London additional members elected by PR. The plan was to stand candidates both in the additional member list and the constituencies, as well as a candidate for mayor if Ken Livingstone did not stand.
The LSA was relaunched under radically different political conditions to those which existed prior to the Euro elections. Since then Labour had experienced disastrous results in the Euro elections themselves, the local elections, and in the elections for the Scottish Parliament and the Labour voters were deserting it. They were either voting for the nationalist parties (in Scotland and Wales), or the greens and even the Liberal Democrats - who all positioned themselves to the left of new Labour for that purpose.
Labour lost seats in Wales which had delivered it massive majorities since the Labour party had existed. Now the Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru achieved won control of Rhondda and Islwyn (coal field constituencies) which had been a bastion of Labour support. Huge numbers just stayed at home as a protest. Labour got its lowest vote in Wales for 60 years with Plaid only 5% behind them. Socialists were leaving the Labour Party in increasing numbers. It all meant that the political conditions for a new party of the left, which had started with the defeat of Clause 4, had now reached a radically new stage.
There are seven organisations involved in the LSA. The SWP, which is by far the biggest of course. The SP is the second biggest with between two and three hundred members in London. There are four much smaller far-left groups involved including the ISG. Then there is the Independent Labour Network, a loose leftsocial democratic network.
### Growing support
The SA is also supported by a growing number of individuals including Ken Loach, John Pilger, Tariq Ali and the leadership of the anti-racist National Civil Rights movement - which gives it an important connection with some of the black and anti-racist organisations. And it is attempting to link up with forces breaking from the labour left. The programme of the LSA is an action programme adopted after lengthy discussions between the constituent groups. Its demands include: Stop the privatisation of the tube and bring rail back into public ownership; fight for a fully funded NHS, end privatisation and cuts; Opposition to sell-off of council houses, end homelessness; fight for a International Viewpoint #320 April 2000
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* Great Britain decent minimum wage and trade union rights for all; Set up tough controls on water and air pollution; end police racism and corruption; end student tuition fees, provide high quality education for all.
The LSA has also established itself as a campaigning and not just an electoral alliance. It has been active in defending trade unionists in the health service and on rail. It was the main organising force behind a demonstration at Waterloo station backing a victimised activist of the RMT. It is organising pickets of job centres over employment and of local councils over housing privatisation and cuts in services and is taking initiatives against racism.
The LSA will not be the only left slate in the election for the Assembly. The SLP will be standing for the additional member list as will the (pro- US SWP) Communist League and the main remaining CP fragment, the CPB. But the LSA contains the bulk of the far-left and beyond and stand for the principle of socialist unity.
But the initial development of the LSA has been a huge success, far beyond the expectations of any of its component parts. It has signed up more than 2,000 active supporters who are not members of the constituent groups, it has candidates and fully organised campaign structures in all of the constituencies, it is building strong support at the base of the unions.
The role of the SWP
At first, after the LSA relaunch, the SWP maintained a low-key involvement and were conducting an internal discussion about their involvement. Then at the turn of the year they transformed their level of commitment, sent a stronger delegation to steering committee, and began to mobilise their members behind it.
For years the SWP's hallmark has been to take up political campaigns either in its own name or through organisations it controlled. Now it has begun to co-operate and collaborate with the rest of the left, not just in the relaunched LSA but in other campaigns such as that against the WTO and in opposition to Russia's war in Chechnya.
Paradoxically as the SWP increased its commitment, the Socialist Party, which had been the driving force of the first LSA, took a more back seat role. In February the SP announced that it intended to support a slate for the additional member list launched by a single issue campaign against the privatisation of London 10 International Viewpoint #320 April 2000
Underground. This was later modified but the SP maintains an ambiguous relationship with the LSA and only a partial com-
This does not negate the overall degree of unity achieved, however. Organisations with dreadful past records of sectarian practices have reinvented themselves and are working in a completely new and collaborative way in the LSA. It's a remarkable development. The LSA is clearly the most important political development on the left in London for decades and anyone who wrecks it will pay a heavy price.
Livingstone stands for mayor
Ken Livingstone finally decided to stand as an independent on March 5th - a momentous political development which has swung the political situation to the left. The support he enjoys is enormous. It is potentially a major opportunity to rebuild the left. If he were to organise his support on the left he would get a huge response. Tens of thousands would immediately join him. A real alternative to new Labour could have been built.
Unfortunately he ruled this out from the moment he announced his decision and took a populist stance as an "independent". He pledged that he would not form a new party as a first principle. Although his own membership of the LP was immediately suspended he called on his supporters to stay in the LP, saying that he would fight to get back into it in the future! And he is not conducting a socialist campaign. These decision represents a massive missed opportunity to reshape British politics and build a serious alternative to Blairism. Worse than that he has declared support for the new Labour slate for the Assembly -these are people who are to the right of
Fortunately the LSA has been able to step into the breach in a very impressive way. It is standing a full slate for all the constituencies as well as the additional member list. It is calling for a vote for Livingstone for Mayor and for the LSA for the Assembly. No one knows if it can get a seat in the Assembly, despite the strength of the campaign. It would need 5% to get a seat and that will be difficult. But interestingly, the Observer newspaper has claimed that new Labour fear that both the LSA and the Green Party will get a member in the Assembly.
What will happen to the LSA after the election is now a much discussed issue. Some of the constituent organisations see this as the start of a process towards a new party to the left of Labour. The SWP has not yet made up its mind. But, given Livingstone's refusal to call for such a party, it will not be a short term process. Also it is wrong to talk of a new party at this stage, what is needed is a new alliance on a stronger basis. But a party could be posed, in the medium term, particularly if there were significant expulsions or defections from the LP resulting from all this.
It would have to be broad character - a federation in which the existing left organisations could participate with their own politics and publications. The legacy of the SLP has to be overcome. It could not be just a coalition of the far-left, it would have to be broader than that and the old top down structures with a guru handing down the message will have to go.
### Project unravels
The Livingstone challenge is by far the biggest crisis new Labour has faced since it came to office. Its protracted honeymoon is over. And to a degree the new Labour project is beginning to unravel, not at the political level, however - in fact it is still moving to the right. But it is unravelling at the level of its core support. The loss of traditional support is huge.
But Blair has been shifting the electoral base of Labour anyway. That was always his objective. He is reaching for the Tory heart lands of 'middle England' and if he has to sacrifice some traditional support for that it is a price he is prepared to pay. The question is how much he can lose and still win the general election expected next
At the moment he remains high in the opinion polls for a general election and is very unlikely to lose. Many who will vote for Livingstone will vote for new Labour at a general election when the choice is a return of the Tories.
But it is not as simple as that. Blair remains totally committed to the politics on which he had when he was elected. He is still totally committed to the neo-liberal agenda and transforming the LP into a straight party of big business. The problem of the alienation of the LPs traditional support, therefore, will not go away. The question is whether the left can use the present positive developments towards unity to build a new effective alternative.*