Socialist Alliance

Hackney
Practical unity

The campaign against the cuts imposed by Hackney's bankrupt council is gathering momentum after the borough-wide strike on December 20. There is clearly tremendous discontent with the corrupt and anti-working class Labour-Tory coalition.

The potential to build a working class alternative in the area is also reflected in the fact that the London Socialist Alliance got 20% of the vote in some wards in the Greater London Assembly elections in May. The current atmosphere augurs well for a very successful general election campaign in Hackney South. While it is a great shame that we could not convince the majority of Hackney LSA to challenge Diane Abbott in any way in the north of the borough, we can still make a big, borough-wide impact by standing in Hackney South.

Brian Sedgemore, Labour MP for the constituency, and Diane Abbott must both be put on the spot in terms of their record of claiming to represent the working class. Given that Abbott is currently calling for the government's commissioners to come in and run Hackney instead of the present council, it is clear what little use she has for the idea of accountability.

The December 13 Hackney LSA members' meeting chose Socialist Workers Party member Cecilia Prosper to oppose Sedgemore. A well attended meeting voted by 43 votes to the 11 to back her in preference to Janine Booth of the Alliance for Workers' Liberty.

It was a largely uncontroversial event, despite the fact that the Socialist Party had turned up with an open letter condemning the SWP for behaving undemocratically at the previous weekend's Hackney community conference and allegedly intimidating SP members on a recent paper sale. I spoke to SP comrades before the meeting and invited them to agenda these problems for a proper discussion at our January meeting. They did not appear over-anxious to take up my offer and said that for the moment they simply wanted to ask the candidates questions.

In the meeting they challenged Cecilia Prosper to "condemn the antics of the SWP in standing against the SP nationally" (which she did not reply to) and did not mention any of the matters complained of in their open letter. They did not ask Janine Booth any questions, although she possibly would have supported them on the issue of the community conference. But they were obviously not looking for support from the other organisations within the alliance.

Although it is undoubtedly true that the SWP has an appalling record on democracy, the SP is hardly an inspirational force itself. It was not beyond joining in moves to exclude the CPGB, for example, in the early days of the LSA when it was (or could have been) a major force before the SWP came on board - those halcyon days the SP refer to every time it tries to justify its antipathy towards the present stage of the project. My experience of being the convenor of the LSA in 1997 was that a handful of SP comrades turned up to at least two conferences, where they did their best to avoid serious debate or commitment. On one occasion leading member Julie Donovan complained that it was a wrong to have long discussions on a Sunday, "when workers wanted to be at home having their dinner".

So it is hypocritical and untrue for the SP to state in its open letter that, "Where there is disagreement, we believe that it is necessary to debate and discuss differences openly and honestly." The SP does not have a history of open debate and discussion - in fact the opposite, as we have shown over the years in the pages of the Weekly Worker.

Neither will the organisation agree to abide by majority decisions. It lost the vote on standing 'community candidates' in the November members' meeting and then went off and did its own thing. It has been refusing to distribute LSA literature. It campaigned for these non-existent 'community candidates' as an alternative to the LSA at the community conference. SP comrades turn up and vote, but if the vote goes against them they just walk away. Although it is good that the Hackney LSA vice-chair is a member of the SP and some comrades on the ground are committed to the project, the organisation as a whole cannot be relied upon to carry out any decisions.

But now, after last week's vote to adopt a candidate, they have an opportunity to put that straight. Although they like myself voted for Janine Booth, we must all now get behind the candidate chosen by the majority - our candidate, Cecilia Prosper. SP members should take a lead from the actions of other minorities within the Hackney LSA like the CPGB. We argue openly and push for democracy for the alliance as a whole, but when the decisions are taken we abide by them.

Next members' meeting: January 10, 7pm, venue to be confirmed. Phone Anne Murphy on 020 7254 7062 or e-mail <amcontact@aol.com> for details.

Nottinghamshire
Ashamed of their views

Just nine comrades attended the latest meeting of the Notts Socialist Alliance (NSA) on December 18 - not too disappointing, considering it was just a week before Christmas. Five comrades met beforehand to discuss funding of the alliance and it was generally agreed that members should be encouraged to take out a standing order and to seek trade union support.

To my surprise, it was decided that a steering committee should be formed, open to representatives from each political organisation and 'independents'. The CPGB, in our resolution several meetings ago, suggested just such an idea, yet it was dismissed supposedly out of fear of 'bureaucratically controlling the alliance'.

Pete Radcliff of the Alliance for Workers' Liberty, presented a statement which the NSA should adopt as its message to people interested in joining. The general tone of this was economistic with a reformist gloss attached to it, and could quite easily have been the statement of a left-Labourite. An amendment by the CPGB to add more revolutionary elements to distinguish ourselves from such a failed project was defeated, the main argument being that this was a question of programme and unsuitable for a brief statement - see the 'What we stand for columns in Socialist Worker, Action for Solidarity, etc. We shall see if these same comrades support, for example, the abolition of the monarchy, when we do draw up a programme.

The delegate to the Liaison Committee was also briefly discussed. It was generally agreed that this should be Joanne Slattey, an independent comrade. However, the decision by Paul Shawcroft (ex-Socialist Party) that himself and former Socialist Labour Party member Clive Norris should also attend meetings as observers is something I feel that should not be set in stone.

After the meeting, there was a generally unpleasant attitude expressed towards the CPGB and our allies, from certain quarters. My reports in the Weekly Worker are not liked by some. It was claimed that people will be afraid to talk openly and that I am always 'lurking around the corner with my pen and paper'. Contradictory comments were made by comrade Shawcroft concerning the mentioning of comrades' names in such reports. He questioned the need to do this when I could refer to them by the name of their organisation, or lack of it in the case of independents. Yet just 10 minutes later he said I should not mention their organisation either, in case such individuals were breaking their official party line. Obviously these comrades would prefer their statements to remain unreported. Perhaps they are ashamed of them.

I refuse to accept such nonsense. I have invited comrades to publicly reply in the Weekly Worker if they do not agree with what is said, or if they feel they have been misrepresented.

Southwark
Radical alternative

Around 70 people attended a public meeting of the Southwark Socialist Alliance on December 14, featuring a number of guest speakers, to launch our bid to create an active, well rooted organisation ready to challenge New Labour's despicable Harriet Harman in the Peckham and Camberwell constituency.

Comrade Theresa Bennett of the Socialist Workers Party spoke at some length about her experiences as a candidate in the Greater London Assembly elections, as well as the successful campaign in the Tottenham by-election. Kate Ford (Workers Power) gave a detailed and informative account of the struggles sparked in Hackney by the bankruptcy of the council, and the role of LSA comrades in those struggles.

The SWP's resident comic, comrade Mark Steel, entertained comrades with an amusing diatribe against New Labour, mercilessly lampooning such reactionary luminaries as Jack Straw for managing the amazing feat of being an even more reactionary home secretary than his predecessor, Michael Howard. Indeed, one very serious point arising from this, and an important theme of the meeting, was the recent furore around the killing of the young Nigerian schoolboy, Damilola Taylor, on a run-down estate in Peckham. A key activity of Southwark SA in the last few weeks has been seeking to make and reinforce links with working class/immigrant tenants to express solidarity against the scapegoating of the working class in this area by, amongst others, Labour cabinet members, making capital out of the killing of Damilola for their own reactionary agenda.

The main speaker, John Mulrenan, our prospective candidate for the upcoming general election, gave much emphasis to this grave matter in his speech. He condemned the grotesque hypocrisy of the appearance of Harriet Harman and other New Labour figures in showing up at the protests and commemorations and shedding crocodile tears about the fate of Damilola, while it was many years of rampant neglect and anti-working class privatising 'regeneration' schemes that created the intolerable social conditions that made such horrendous events a virtual certainty. He elaborated on Harman's evolution from civil libertarian and Bennite leftist 20 years ago, and noted her despicable role in cutting benefits for lone parents during her stint in Blair's cabinet: "Then she was considered a danger to 'national security'. Now she is a danger to social security!"

Comrade Mulrenan also elaborated at length the grotesque plans well underway in Southwark to privatise the education service, placing matters in the hands of a road-building company! A campaigning body has already been set up on a local basis against this New Labour atrocity, on the model of the successful campaign that recently forced the local Blairite bigwigs to abandon plans to transfer the council housing stock to private landlords.

Comrade Mulrenan made clear that he was interested in fighting to win, to wrest the seat away from Harman, and that he for one was not interested in rebuilding 'old Labour', but rather in seeking a political alternative with really radical policies, that could bring "real change". Comrade Mulrenan did not elaborate or clarify exactly what he meant by that, but, given his left reformist background, this only underlined the programmatic timidity of those, such as the SWP, who seek to limit the politics of the alliances to a tepid reformism, in the mistaken belief that elements with comrade Mulrenan's kind of background will be repelled by anything more radical. In reality, once a viable project that has the potential to become a real working class party gets underway and develops a life of its own, there is no predetermined limit to the potential political development of such leftist-inclined social democratic militants.

There were a number of notable contributions from the floor, including from a supporter of Ted Grant's Socialist Appeal, still deeply buried in the Labour Party, who attacked the organisers of the meeting for living in a "dream world" for trying to build an alternative to the Labour Party. There was also similar but less dogmatic criticism from Mike Rahman, a local tenant leader and Labour activist. A number of comrades responded by pointing out the unrealistic nature of any attempt to 'reclaim' the Labour Party, particularly given the changes that are taking place in the relationship between Labour and the working class, to the detriment of the latter.

Comrade Rahman also gave a fairly comprehensive and hard-hitting account of the responsibility of New Labour for the killing of Damilola Taylor and the degradation of social conditions in Peckham. He also pointed out how Damilola's family was being cynically used by New Labour in a 'law and order' crusade, while the real responsibility for what happened was being cynically swept under the carpet.

Comrade Steve Freeman of the Revolutionary Democratic Group spoke about the need for the Socialist Alliance to take up democratic questions, of the way we are ruled, and in particular to stand for the abolition of the monarchy, instead of leaving such matters to The Guardian. This was a timely intervention, given the recent passage of a motion to that effect by the LSA steering committee.

At the end of the meeting, £175 was raised in a financial appeal, the size of which only underlined the determination of Southwark SA to make progress in the coming period. We are consolidating and gaining in confidence.

Wales
SPEW heads for split

Is the Socialist Party in Wales set to follow the lead of its former comrades in Scotland and take the nationalist road? Will Peter Taaffe's organisation stop sounding like an affliction and in the process lose one more component? In short, is SPEW about to sire SPW and become SPE?

The SP Wales has proposed the following motion for next month's conference of the Welsh Socialist Alliance: "The WSA should move, within the forseeable future, towards becoming a fully-fledged Socialist Party in Wales, along the lines of the Scottish Socialist Party." This might damage Taaffe but, more to the point, the danger is that it might look towards an organisation based not upon working class unity throughout Britain, but upon the separate organisation of workers, according to whether they live in Wales, Scotland or England. There is no call in any of the motions before the WSA conference for joint work in the forthcoming general election with the Socialist Alliance in England or the SSP.

This trajectory is of course in direct opposition to the line pursued by the SP in England, where Taaffe, far from backing moves to transform the SA into a united party "within the forseeable future", actually seeks to stymie all but the most limited cooperation.

The stance taken by the SP at the December meeting of the national council of the WSA was nothing short of bizarre. At the previous meeting of the NC the SP announced that it intended to stand in four constituencies and expected other members of the WSA to bring concrete proposals to the December meeting. But now the SP announced that it had not yet determined its approach. This about-turn clearly shows that Welsh SPers are divided among themselves.

One wing of the organisation, based around the Taaffeite loyalist, Alec Thraves, in Swansea, is lukewarm about the alliance project, viewing it only as a clearing house for the different affiliates to agree a non-aggression pact at election time. On the other hand, the less sectarian, but unfortunately nationalist-inclined majority, centred in the Cardiff branch, recognises the potential of the WSA and is seeking a more consensual approach to agreeing where WSA candidates will stand. Hopefully this wing of the SP will not be dictated to by the sectarian approach of comrade Thraves.

As a result of the SP split, only Gwent, where the SP has no presence, has concrete plans for the general election. On December 13 the Gwent branch of the WSA selected a candidate. Steve Bell, until recently a prominent member of the Socialist Labour Party in Wales, was elected unanimously to stand in the Torfaen constituency, but this was not before some comradely debate occurred about our election tactics. Whilst there was complete unanimity about comrade Bell being the candidate, there was confusion among the nine members present about which seat to prioritise and about whether to stand in more than one constituency.

This confusion was largely caused by differences within the Socialist Workers Party. At times, its four members present at the meeting split in three different directions. One member wanted to defer a decision about where to stand until we had written to the Communist Party of Britain and the SLP to discover their intentions about fielding candidates in Torfaen, where Robert Griffiths of the CPB is likely to stand, and Newport East, where Arthur Scargill stood for the SLP in 1997. This suggestion was roundly defeated, with the CPGB, other SWPers and Steve Bell all arguing that, whilst a letter to these organisations should be sent proposing negotiations, it was naive in the extreme to believe that there was any likelihood that they would respond. Any delay in selecting candidates would have had a negative impact on our election planning.

At the other extreme, one very optimistic member of the SWP stated that we should stand in three seats. Whilst this would be most desirable, it was recognised by all other comrades that such an aim was unrealistic at present. Instead it was correctly decided that we would definitely stand in one seat and consider, at a later date, whether to stand in a second one.

It was then put to a vote whether Torfaen or Newport East should be our number one target. The CPGB and a majority of the SWPers argued that the latter would be our best target, given that the threatened Llanwern steel plant lies in the constituency, ex-Tory Alan Howarth is the MP and that the SLP received nearly 2,000 votes in 1997 (interestingly Liz Screen, of the SLP executive, having heard rumours of the WSA standing in the seat and no doubt under orders from Scargill, just happened to mentioned to one of our members at his workplace on the day of the meeting that her party had changed its position and she will stand in Newport East).

Unfortunately, standing in Newport East was defeated in a close vote, with other SWPers, Steve Bell and independents arguing that Torfaen offered the most potential. Their argument was premised on the fact that comrade Bell lives in the constituency and a high proportion of the membership live in Torfaen. Whilst these are important factors and Torfaen has much potential for the alliance, the CPGB will continue to argue that Newport East, with talk of Llanwern closing becoming ever more widespread, provides the alliance with a climate very favourable to raising our political alternative to capitalism.

Finally, National Union of Teachers members of the WSA will have the opportunity to extend our new-found unity to the trade union arena, when a meeting to discuss how the left can organise effectively within the union takes place in Abergavenny on January 9 (in recent years no attempt has been made by organisations like the SWP to build left unity in Wales). Speakers include Mary Compton, former NEC member for Wales, and John Illingworth, senior vice-president of the union. Ring 0776 973 6282 for details.