Weekly Worker 487 Thursday July 3 2003
Socialism 2003
What sort of alternative?
The subject of the closing rally was whether we can build a mass alternative to New Labour. George Galloway, the first speaker, was in fine form. He laid into the government for its hypocrisy and deceit over the war. Currently suspended from the Labour Party, he said that reliable sources had told him that expulsion was the most likely outcome. There is another hearing on July 7, but the final decision may not be known until September.
He said that he believed there was now no Labour Party in Britain. The Blair clique had transformed it into an openly pro-imperialist party. Blair had sent troops into six wars in six years. Blair even called the formation of the Labour Party a historic mistake and has pursued a ruthless project of liquidating it.
Galloway’s view was that all countries needed a Labour Party. However, he was slightly critical of Jeremy Corbyn’s project to reclaim the current version. Although this was “a noble ambition”, he doubted whether there were “enough people left in there”. For Galloway, “the question might be solved in the next few weeks”. He assured the audience that he is determined to stay in politics and thought it was possible that if he is expelled others may decide to go with him.
The form of the alternative that might be launched was a question he did not want to elaborate upon. For the moment it was all up in the air. What we should do, however, was “try to find as much unity and clarification as possible”.
We must “try and avoid tearing lumps out of each other - something we see in the Weekly Worker”, he said, waving his copy as proof. You should not under any circumstances criticise people you want unity with, it seems. Interestingly he remarked that he would feel able to unite with Alan McCombes and Dave Nellist, who were both alongside him on the platform. Was this an oblique reference to the need for an all-Britain party? We shall have to wait and see.
Comrade Nellist also said that the Labour Party was over. It was a prison and those inside “should stage a break-out”. Those like Jeremy Corbyn were bound to fail - they should give it a year and no more. Once again nor could he say where a new party would come from. But he believed that the Stop the War Coalition could have helped by making the call for such a party during the height of the mass protests.
This was a theme that was repeated throughout the weekend. It was stated again and again that if the trade union ‘awkward squad’ had been serious about challenging New Labour they would have issued thousands of leaflets on February 15 calling for the formation of a new workers’ party.
Alan McCombes spoke about the situation in Scotland and how it has been changed with the election of six Scottish Socialist Party MSPs to the Holyrood parliament. Indeed the SSP has become a real force in Scottish politics. Certainly the fact that so many candidates stood right across Scotland shows ambition that the rest of the British left could learn from. Unfortunately this is marred by the SSP’s nationalist politics.
Comrade McCombes dislikes his project being termed nationalist. But what else can you call separatism and a focus on building ‘socialism’ in Scotland alone? He said that it was wrong to look for all-British unity. There was “an incredible divergence of politics in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. We should not try and put the union jack back together.” He went further, encouraging the SP to consider discussing separation for Wales.
Finally he spoke of the steps forward the SSP are making in policy development. They now have 65 academics working alongside them to research and help develop policies. We “need to move away from vague slogans and consider what we will actually do when we get into power”.
Hannah Sell made the concluding remarks from the platform. She used it as an opportunity to make some mild criticisms of the SSP leadership. In particular she called Tommy Sheridan to task for sowing illusions in countries like Norway and Denmark. But the problem is that the CWI itself does not stand against Scottish separatism in principle. So comrade Sell was not in a position to take a stand against nationalism and for the unity of the British working class - the only way to challenge the politics of McCombes and Sheridan. Also the only way to counter the pernicious myth that the historic unity of the working class is somehow based on waving the union jack. Our flag is deepest red.
Anne Mc Shane
