A good way to get out of DIY on a Saturday morning is the “I’d love to but I need to write a couple of short editorial pieces for the issue of the magazine that’s out next week” excuse. It works for me.
Part one
Socialist Resistance was established by activists who agreed that Labour’s neo-liberal trajectory has led to an absence of effective working class political representation in Britain. The widespread corruption among MPs in a period of recession when many working class people are losing their jobs and homes, the refusal of the Labour Government to bail out industrial companies when billions were given to the banks, the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have destroyed its credibility among many trade unionists and working class voters. All this led to the collapse in its vote and the success of right wing nationalist and racist parties such as the BNP and UKIP.
The one thing that is absolutely beyond dispute in the middle of 2009 is that socialists, environmentalists, trade unionists and community activists need to get together urgently to work out how we can respond to the hard right’s political advance represented by the election of the BNP and UKIP MEPs. The election of these xenophobes and racists will see an increase in attacks on immigrants of every colour and the Tories will rush to the right to win their votes.
Next year’s general election is likely to be won by the Conservatives and they are making no secret of their plans to attack what remains of the public sector, the benefits system and workers’ rights. The bulk of the Labour Party has been complicit in supporting the party’s neo-liberalism and will be unwilling and too demoralised to lead any opposition to Cameron’s plans. If Labour wins it too will launch an austerity drive against the working class. It is already underway as the Welfare Reform Act and proposed part privatisation of the Royal Mail show.
Bob Crow speaking on behalf of No2EU:Yes to Democracy has called for urgent discussions involving socialist organisations, campaigns and trade unions to build a concerted response following the election of two fascists from the BNP to the European Parliament. This is a very welcome and positive development. The leader of the only union in the country to take action against pay cuts is calling for unity against the fascist BNP.
The Socialist Workers Party has also issued an open letter to the left making the case that it’s time to create a socialist alternative and proposing a conference of all those committed to presenting candidates representing working class interests at the next election. We support this initiative.
The socialist left has acquired a lot of experience in recent years of working together, sometimes well and sometimes badly, but it is clear that any project which aims to bring together the broadest possible forces willing to offer a political challenge to the hard right can only be built by actively seeking to include everyone who is willing to take part in such an alliance. In practice this means no a priori exclusions, no bureaucratic manipulation of votes or conferences and a real commitment to pluralism and democracy.
The days when any part of the left can judge success by selling a few dozen papers or recruiting a handful of people to a particular group are over. Our aim has to be the launching of a national organisation committed to defeating the fascists and nationalists and fighting for working people.
Part two: Left’s electoral absence benefits hard right
The European election results were a disaster for Labour. 1,337,000 fewer people voted for them in June 2009 as compared to the 2004 European elections. In many parts of the country the party came fourth or fifth. It now has the same number of MEPs as the hard right UKIP, the “BNP in blazers” and only won 15.7% of the vote compared to UKIP’s 16.5%
Across Europe the big winner in the European elections was abstentionism. Voters were as unconvinced by what the centre left had to say in France, Italy or Germany as they were by New Labour. The beneficiaries were Sarkozy, Merkel and Cameron. However the British Tories only increased their vote by 1%. UKIP only added 0.3% to its vote. The quirk there was that there was a serious underestimation of how strong a reservoir of support there was for its right wing nationalist populism. More attention was concentrated on the threat of the BNP which won two MEPs with only a 1.3% increase in its vote.
Although the Green Party outpolled the BNP and has two MEPs the left’s performance in these elections in Britain was very poor. Arthur Scargill’s Socialist Labour Party emerges only at election times but polled 1% of the vote because it has a name that some disaffected left wing voters find attractive. No2EU, which Socialist Resistance, supported also won 1% of the vote despite being a very recent creation with an ambiguous, unattractive name and uncertainty as to whether it is a temporary electoral coalition or one element in a future party.
The heavy irony is that this election was potentially very favourable to a left challenge. A long term trend in British politics is the fracturing of the Tory and Labour domination. In the 1951 general election they jointly received just under 97% of the votes. In June 2009 this had shrunk to 44%. What this means is that millions of people are willing to look for an alternative political expression. With Labour’s rightward trajectory, its puny measures to protect the working class against the recession, its reek of corruption, many working class people are either refusing to vote or are moving towards the hard right.
Yielding the electoral terrain to the right changes the balances of forces in society to the detriment of the working class. The recession has not been met with strikes, occupations and militancy. Examples such as Visteon grab the attention because they are so rare. For the most part job losses and pay cuts are accepted without a response. The absence of a combative working class party in Britain which can unite the organised left with those in the unions who are willing to fight for an anti-capitalist programme which offers a response to the capitalist recession and the growing ecological calamity is the challenge that the left has to address as its top priority in the next few months.
Liam redux 
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