Fuss about nothing?
'It is absolutely definite that the Socialist Alliance will have not one jot of influence in either the election's outcome or the national debate on the issues. No London Labour MP will be worried about its challenge...the Alliance is an irritation to genuine democratic campaigners... The Alliance's slogans and rants have nothing to say about the real issues which affect the lives of ordinary people.' So said David Wilkinson, regional director of the Greater London Labour Party, in a letter to Tribune recently. This was followed up by Tribune columnist Paul Anderson, who claims, 'I'm not remotely tempted to vote Socialist Alliance, and wouldn't be even if it had a chance of winning seats... If the Trots get more than 2 percent of the vote, I promise I'll shave every hair off my head.'
Indeed, so unworried are those on the left that there appears to have been a concerted campaign in some of the left press attacking the Socialist Alliance as well as those such as Liz Davies who have come out in its support.
Her resignation has tapped a nerve. The letters page of the daily Morning Star has debated the merits of supporting the Socialist Alliance during the forthcoming election. And former NEC ally of Liz Davies Mark Seddon has asked, 'Why leave when the worst may be over?' Those on the right of the party have felt the need to go on the offensive. Proof of how deep the discontent goes?
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| Socialist Alliance candidate Karen Reissmann campaigning against poverty wages |
Read this list: Nelson, Colne, Accrington, Burnley, Blackburn, Wigan, Makerfield, Bolton. A roll call of mill towns that may become as satanic to New Labour as they once were to William Blake. For here in the 'archetypal' working class heartlands of the north west of England, the vision of a New Jerusalem really is being rekindled.
Each of the above Lancashire towns now boasts a Socialist Alliance. Embryonic groups now exist in Blackpool and Lancaster. Skelmersdale Socialist Alliance is having a launch meeting as we go to press.
It is an impressive register not only because it takes the Socialist Alliance project out of the inner cities, but because of the speed with which it is spreading. Central to the success of the Socialist Alliance was the Preston by-election of five months ago when Terry Cartwright, former mayor of the town and member of the Preston Radical Alliance, was persuaded to stand as a beacon of socialist opposition to the Blairites. Four weeks later not only did he save his deposit, but he took 12 percent of the Labour vote.
'If you're trying to understand why the Socialist Alliance is growing up here, you can't get away from the importance of what happened in Preston,' explains Michael Lavalette, an SWP member who was central to persuading a group of four independent (formerly Labour) councillors to take up the Socialist Alliance mantle. 'People came in to help build the campaign from Bolton, Burnley and Wigan, as well as from Manchester and Liverpool. And I think a lot of them thought afterwards, "Well if they can do it in Preston, then, to be honest, you could do it anywhere".'
Split from Labour
Bolton, Makerfield, Wigan and Blackburn are all seats being contested by the Socialist Alliance, with NUJ president Dave Toomer prepared to stand in Bolton, and a frisson of excitement in the Blackburn media following the announcement that out of town civil rights lawyer Jim Nichol is to run against Jack Straw.
Tony Reid, former deputy leader of Preston council, resigned from the Labour Party in 1997. Twelve months earlier he had helped found the Preston Radical Alliance--a campaigning alliance of Labour members and Greens around local issues. For him, the approach of the general election coupled with the SWP's decision to join the Socialist Alliance are the most significant factors in the increase in the number and effectiveness of Socialist Alliances in the north west:
'The approach of the general election is galvanising people. Fighting elections appeals to people in a way that coming out and fighting over a local campaign normally wouldn't. When the SWP decided to come on board it gave a big boost to the whole venture though. After all, it does have the biggest membership of any group on the left. Since then, and since the Preston by-election, things up here have just mushroomed, really, and there are alliances coming out of the ground all over the place.'
The fledgling Skelmersdale Alliance exists entirely because of the Preston ripple effect. Charlie Denton, an 80 year old former member of the Communist Party and New Communist Party, was at the launch rally of the Preston Socialist Alliance back in October. Buoyed by the uptake of Socialist Alliances he has single handedly called the meeting in Skem, where the jaded image of Labour at a national level has been compounded locally by a councillor corruption scandal.
'I'm not the least bit concerned about the Labour Party, but I'm concerned about a lot of the people in it,' says Charlie. 'There are some very good people in it and they need a new home to come to. If we operate the Socialist Alliance properly we can be that place.'
By ringing round his contacts from the trades council and his pensioners association, Charlie hopes to have drummed up enough support for an inaugural meeting whose platform includes a former deputy leader of West Lancashire District Council Frank Riley, now a Socialist Alliance member in Skelmersdale.
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Unprecedented unrest
Normally we donate thousands of pounds to the Labour Party, but last year our union branch only donated £250 for the whole election campaign. It is unheard of for us to give them so little, but it shows how deep the anger is against the Labour government.
I've tried to raise financial support for the Socialist Alliance a number of times but it is always ruled out of order. This is because our rule book specifies that any money for political parties must go to the Labour Party. The mood is changing and people are beginning to question where the money goes. There is now a massive argument nationally within the CWU about the political fund, which will come up at this year's annual conference.
As a union member who gets time off for union activity, I donate the money I get to the Socialist Alliance. I send this from my union branch with a letter from the union saying, 'This is for the Socialist Alliance fund.' The result of raising the alliance in the union is that a number of people have left the Labour Party and joined the alliance.
'We are having our annual conference at the same time as when the election will be, in June. It's a massive two fingers up to the Labour Party--in the past it would have been cancelled so that members could go out canvassing. But the anger over pay and privatisation is so deep. We've not had a single leaflet or booklet saying support Labour--all of this is unprecedented.
The resignation of Liz Davies is also having a big impact. There are many people within the union, not just the traditional left but beyond that, who are now looking to see what will happen. I think they will be watching the Socialist Alliance vote with interest to see how big it is.'
Jane Loftus, CWU, Merseyside
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| Fighting council house sell off in Salford Manchester |
Nick Halett is just leaving the Labour Party. The Socialist Alliance will indeed be his new home. But the switch is not an easy one and not one he is making lightly, least of all because his own wife, along with many of his friends and Labour Party comrades, disagree with him. Nick joined the Labour Party nine years ago. Resigning means he leaves the chair of the Bolton West ward of Hulton Park vacant:
'It's taking me a long time to formulate my resignation letter because leaving is such a complex issue. 'The overriding reason is that the drift of the party to the right means that the political agenda, as presented to the public, is far too narrow. Things of vital importance are not being put before the public--such as the activities of the World Trade Organisation, which is putting pressure on to privatise public services by tendering out contracts.
'I read George Monbiot's book Captive State, and if any single influence finally persuaded me to leave the party, it would have been because he lays bare the government's aquiescence to capital. His descriptions of the Private Finance Initiative, meaning hospitals are being built in places not suitable for hospitals but suitable for the needs of capital, really did it for me.'
Like many other Labour Party members considering breaking, Nick has been discussing it with his family, friends and comrades--most arguing with him not to abandon them for an organisation being built by many from the old left. Their grounds for him to stay are either that joining the Socialist Alliance will let the Tories in, or that he should stay and fight for socialism within. 'Ironically enough, nobody says you should stay because they are doing a good job, though,' he quips, admitting that if the Socialist Alliance didn't exist he probably wouldn't be leaving. 'I'll be very sad to leave. I'll be very sad to leave people behind. I hope to be the first of a trickle from my ward, though...and on balance I am grateful that I have somewhere to go. Michael Moore, the American comedian, when he was supporting the Ralph Nader campaign, made the point that if Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King had accepted that they should stay where they were, nothing would have changed.'
In Runcorn a group of councillors became so disaffected with what they regarded as New Labour's wholesale betrayal of working class voters at national and local level that they formed their own political party. Called the Runcorn Labour Councillors Group, it became a party in its own right 12 months ago, with 26 members including four councillors, three former Ford Halewood stewards and two CWU stewards.
'We agonised over leaving the Labour Party,' says secretary Michael Gelling . 'I was in the party for 24 years, and when you've given that much of your life to something, it's not an easy decision to make. What I never expected to feel after I left was the sheer relief of not having to campaign for parliamentary candidates I didn't believe in because they were so Blairite and policies that left ordinary people out of the equation.' The group is currently debating affiliating to the Socialist Alliance, and the basis of a good long term relationship between the two organisations is in place.
Malcolm Jones in Makerfield, where the SA will stand against public services minister Ian McCartney, believes the only secret to building a Socialist Alliance is to get stuck in. 'There's a couple of grassroots campaigns that have been going on here. They weren't something we started. We went down with placards to the local demonstrations and couldn't believe how we were welcomed. They were practically saying to us, 'Please organise us and tell us what to do. We had a launch rally of 60 people, and we now have meetings of between 25 and 40 on a regular basis.'
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