Socialist Alliance

Hackney SA takes lead

Militant action against the council's swingeing cuts continued this week with three days of strikes - January 29 to 31 - by Hackney council workers.

A number of rallies have taken place, including a demo outside the council meeting on January 31. This was followed by a rally at the Hackney Empire with Tony Benn, Diane Abbott (putting on her 'left' face) and Mark Serwotka among the speakers.

Feelings are running high throughout the borough at the cutbacks being imposed by the Labour-Tory coalition. Some local churches have even been holding prayers outside the town hall to deliver Hackney from ruin. Every edition of the Hackney Gazette features heated debate on whether the council should resign. Chief executive Max Caller has been forced into print to defend himself and his cross-party coalition from the Socialist Alliance's attacks.

The SA has continued to draw wounded responses from Labour councillors. Jamie Carswell (North Defoe ward) warned last week that SA policies on the drugs war and law and order were extremist and would result in almost certain anarchy. In the Gazette's letters page the debate continues, with SA members prominent among the contributors.

With four Liberal Democrat and Conservative councillors on trial in Wood Green Crown Court on vote-rigging charges, by-elections are almost certain. Bearing in mind that preparations are already well underway for our general election challenge to Brian Sedgemore in Hackney South, the SA stands to gain in stature and influence over the coming months.

Hackney SA members therefore met last week with an acute awareness that we have a lot of work to do in the coming months. The agenda had two main items - the organisation of the general election campaign and a panel of local election candidates. Selection for the panel was based on a proposal that all SA candidates in Hackney commit themselves to standing on a platform to defend the working class. Furthermore they would "pledge to be accountable to and recallable to regular meetings of the Hackney Socialist Alliance". As well as creating an immediate pool of candidates in the event of by-elections, it is a way of widening the involvement of political activists and trade unionists in building the alliance.

Ward organisers were appointed and the steering committee enlarged to include them for the duration of the election campaign. The meeting then went on to discuss the statement/panel for the local election candidates.

Disappointment was expressed by the meeting at this point when it was announced that Mick Cotter, Socialist Party member and vice-chair of Hackney SA, had sent in his resignation. No replacement was put forward by the SP to fill the post and there were no SP members present. Even worse, Mick Cotter's letter stated that the SP could not agree to the "method of accountability" for candidates.

He went on to say: "I am sure you are aware of our negotiations on the national elections and the position our organisation has taken concerning the selection and accountability of SP candidates to our own party. That position will also apply to local elections. Of course we will seek to negotiate where and how many candidates we will be standing".

So a compromise (in my view a rotten one) that existed just for the general election has been extended unilaterally by the SP. It has been made clear that SP candidates will not be accountable to the alliance, although the organisation may possibly on its own terms stand under the SA banner. They will be accountable only to the SP leadership. This shows how tremendously undemocratic the comrades have become.

Responses were mixed. Some comrades felt comrade Cotter's statement represented a clear split from the SA. Others thought we should continue to try to involve the SP and urge its members to come to the next meeting and argue their case. In general it was felt we needed to get on with organising the general election campaign with or without the SP. We have done our best to keep them on board and will continue to do so, but ultimately it is a matter for them. Confidence was expressed that the unity project will win in the end. It was agreed that Will McMahon, Hackney SA secretary, will write to Mick Cotter asking for SP involvement in the SA to continue.

The meeting went on to hear a short report on a meeting between the Green Party and representatives of the SA. The Green Party in Hackney is very concerned about the success of the SA in local elections and does not want us to stand against it. It had thought that we would be willing to agree to a carve-up. Will McMahon suggested that we draw up a common statement with the Greens on areas where we agree. Some comrades thought this was a good idea. Many others believed we should make no electoral agreements with them.

The fact that Chit Chong, Green Party councillor, has refused to support the strike, and the recent Green Party newsletter called for management and workers in Hackney to work together to overcome the crisis (essentially management's position) were pointed to as more evidence of the rather obvious fact that the Green Party does not have a working class perspective.

It was agreed that all decisions would be taken by membership meetings. There will be no deals behind closed doors. Comrades welcomed the fact that Greens have said they will join Hackney Fightback. It was agreed that discussions would continue.

Finally, a silly incident last Saturday indicates the depth of the problem for the SP in Hackney. It set up its own stall outside Dalston Kingsland station and did not take part in the SA national day of action for rail renationalisation. When SA comrades turned up to take part in the agreed action against rail privatisation, certain SP members became quite irate.

They demanded that the SA should not use our megaphone, as the SP stall against council cuts was "more important". When we refused and pointed out that the SP and the rest of the SA should all be on the same action, one particular SP member got very upset. He started shouting that we were sectarians and splitters, etc.

The extreme mental pain that many Socialist Party comrades are being put through in implementing the sectarian policies of Peter Taaffe is obvious.

Manchester Blackley
Candidate selection

Socialist Workers Party member Karen Reissman was selected as the prospective parliamentary candidate for Manchester Blackley at a hustings meeting of the Greater Manchester Socialist Alliance last week.

Karen won an overwhelming majority - 30 votes to two - over her opponent, John Pearson of the CPGB. However, the contest produced a clear counterposition of two perspectives for the Socialist Alliance project.

Presenting his address first, comrade Pearson praised SA achievements to date. Not only had electoral work produced impressive results, but progress was being made in uniting a significant number of organisations.

Comrade Pearson detailed the CPGB's recommendation that the SA should develop into a democratic centralist party of the working class, united around a revolutionary programme.

This Socialist Alliance party would be one in which freedom of criticism was a principle. There would be no bureaucratic gagging - including in public arenas. There would be a permanent right of co-thinkers to form factions; to publish their views and to have them published in the SA's press. This right is not advocated because the CPGB likes factionalism, but because the only way to reach a common view is by exposing differences and thrashing them out.

As to the programme the SA should adopt, the comrade suggested that this should do two things. Firstly, it should pose the broadest range of demands for what the working class needs in the here and now. What capitalism can afford should be of no consequence to us.

Secondly, the programme should tackle issues of how we are ruled, with demands for the extension and deepening of democracy within all state institutions, workplaces, and in our daily lives. Comrade Pearson stated that, for him, democracy was not some abstract concept to be elevated above the class struggle. By enforcing majority rule, the shell of the capitalist state can be broken. It is this very process which constitutes the socialist revolution.

Comrade Reissman, by contrast, outlined an approach based upon following the existing consciousness of the working class. She felt it was crucial to focus upon local issues, such as the recent revelation that North Manchester General Hospital has the fifth worst service provision in the country. The fight against cuts in education, health, social services and local council services should form the substance of the election campaign.

The pivotal demand of the SA's manifesto, in Karen's schema - she did not mention the SWP at all - would be 'Tax the rich'. Thus was painted a perspective of fighting for the amelioration of the condition of the working class, to be paid for by the capitalists. All very well, but completely absent was any vision of workers ending their status as a slave class.

The SWP is certainly hegemonic, at least for the time being, in Manchester. Only the CPGB comrades voted for John Pearson. Workers Power pointedly declined to reciprocate the CPGB's support for their unsuccessful candidate in Manchester Withington, whilst the International Socialist League were compelled to support the perspective of mounting a general election campaign upon the pre-existing local struggles and consciousness of the working class, this after all being that organisation's own perspective.

The comrades of the Alliance for Workers' Liberty did not attend the meeting, without offering explanation, whilst the Socialist Party continued its boycott of all GMSA activities, which has lasted since October 2000. A fresh marker has, however, been put down for communist politics within the SA project in Manchester.

Blackley election campaign will be launched at a demonstration outside North Manchester General Hospital, Charminster Road, Crumpsall, on Saturday February 3 at 12.30pm

Uplifting launch in Exeter

I am so used to political activity in Exeter being a disappointing and frustrating affair that it is a little bit of a shock to be involved in something that has actually been really successful and, frankly, damned uplifting.

Over 50 people attended our public meeting to launch the Exeter Socialist Alliance. Given that we only came together in November - it was agreed just before Christmas that a public launch was needed - and the organising only started less than three weeks ago, well, I must confess I am amazed by the support. It was the best attended left meeting in Exeter since the days of the anti-poll tax movement.

The Exeter Socialist Alliance came about from agreement between the two main left groups - the Exeter Left Group (a sort of 'non-aligned' alliance) and the Socialist Workers Party. The first meeting in November also pulled in a lot of 'independents' and an interesting discussion ensued.

The consensus was that we should consider standing a candidate at the general election - but that we should be realistic and only do this if we had the forces on the ground. We concluded that we should go for a public launch meeting and decide whether to stand in the election, depending on the support. The approximate formula was: less than 30 people - then we should quietly forget it and set our sights lower; more than 50 people - then we should definitely be considering it.

Well, we got more than 50 and with a straw poll at the meeting they gave overwhelming support for standing a candidate in Exeter - about 40 in favour and two against with two abstentions (of those who expressed a vote).

The next meeting will decide whether or not to actually go ahead, but it does look promising. Whether or not we stand is too early to say, but I think we all feel that in a short space of time we have come an incredibly long way. The feel of the meeting in terms of contributions from the floor was really positive: all these people - many unknown to us activists - condemning capitalism and insisting on the need for people to fight back.

It looks to me that the mood 'out there' is to get together. And, for a change, that is exactly what the left is in the process of doing.

Next meeting of Exeter SA: Thursday February 8, Exeter Community Centre, St David's Hill. For more details: Exeter SA, PO Box 185, Exeter; exetersa@btinternet.com