Archive : ISG Pamphlets : Building the alternative to Blair

A socialist alternative

John Lister

Trading on weakness

The next election seems certain to be at the predicted time of spring 2001. Blair will run on a platform of support for New Labour’s record so far, especially on the economy, and on a package of minimal additional reforms.

For socialists, and anyone who hungers for radical changes, there will be little on offer from the mainstream parties. The Liberal Democrats, safe in the knowledge that they are in the fight seeking only enough seats to swing a coalition deal, will as usual make a few apparently bold proposals and criticise Labour from the ’left’. But all the evidence in local government, in Wales and Scotland shows that they are generally happy to support Labour’s policies as long as a few Lib-Dems are offered jobs.

The Greens, though widely seen as a "left" alternative to Labour, lack any real understanding of the class divisions in society, and instead cling to a variant of Blair’s notion of "social partnership". That is why they wound up naively endorsing and even calling for an increase in fuel taxes, apparently oblivious to the regressive nature of this tax in working class and rural areas, and believing the Tory/Labour claims that these are "green taxes" aimed at reducing the use of cars.

In fact none of the cash raised by Norman Lamont’s cynical decision to impose a "fuel price escalator" in 1993 has been used to improve or extend public transport. Some of it has been handed straight to the oil companies in tax cuts on North Sea oil production, and the rest has been used as a "stealth tax" to subsidise the Exchequer while holding down tax on the rich and big business. That’s why Gordon Brown’s first answer to the fuel protestors was that a cut in petrol prices would mean cuts in schools, hospitals - and now even pensions!

Labour Left

Despite the fact that the Blair government has followed so loyally in the Thatcherite footsteps, the response from the left inside the Labour Party has been muted to say the least.

The core of Campaign Group MPs regularly vote against key aspects of government policies and some are involved in initiatives with broader forces on these issues - but none have the capacity to play the sort of role that Benn did in the 1980’s. While the Socialist Campaign Group Network continues to take correct positions on paper, they lack any public profile

At the centre of this invisibility is the fact that most people on the left in the Party refuse to face up to what is new about Blairism. They think - or hope - that what we are facing is just one more right-wing Labour government and that the left’s time will inevitably come again. They rightly stress the betrayals of previous Labour leaders but are often blinkered against seeing that the world is changing in more dramatic ways.

Others cling to the fact that sections of the far left have ignored important developments inside the Labour Party in the past - and the long legacy of sectarianism on the far left - in order to justify the fact that they continue to burrow away ignoring the realities of global capitalism and Blair’s enthusiasm for its more excessive practices.

Of course there are still many individuals inside the party - as well as outside - who are vehemently opposed to all or part of what the government is doing in their name. Locally this is increasingly reflected in the participation of some of these people in broad campaigns with other socialists especially around cuts and privatisation. This highly positive development needs to be encouraged by ensuring that socialists outside the party understand the need to ensure these campaigns are inclusive.

Socialist Alliances

The absence of any mainstream party offering a socialist alternative to Blair is the key reason for the formation in most large towns and cities of Socialist Alliances - broad, open organisations uniting different groups and individuals, and committed to pressing for a coherent policy to defend the working class and the oppressed.

Local Alliances have been active and often central components in a plethora of mushrooming local campaigns around issues ranging from the defence of asylum seekers, opposition to the sell off of council houses and in solidarity with workers taking strike action on London Underground or at Vauxhalls.

The Alliance is now preparing to stand a slate of candidates in the General Election which will probably top 90 in England as well around 6 in Wales. The appeal of this project is shown already in the calibre of candidates it is able to attract in such a short time: ranging from the Dudley hospital strikers to prominent human rights lawyer Louise Christian.

The formation of broad, democratic and inclusive alliances to fight for a socialist platform in England and Wales can open up a new chapter for the British left, which for so many decades has been notorious for its vicious in-fighting and sectarianism. It should also bring a new level of political debate between currents which previously ignored or denounced each other, and this in turn can widen the horizons of all involved.

In these debates no single current can demand every other group simply accepts its political programme as a fait accompli: but it is quite appropriate to put forward a series of proposals to advance the debate.

In Scotland the process has developed much further. The Scottish Socialist Party has rapidly established itself as a viable party of the left, notching up the best-ever series of electoral results for the British far left and seeing the election of its most prominent member, Tommy Sheridan, elected as a member of the Scottish Parliament. The SSP, which has established itself as the fourth party in Scotland and one which must be taken note of in any political debate will stand in this election in each of the 72 seats in Scotland

Together these challenges across Britain will represent the biggest electoral challenge mounted by the left for many decades, certainly since the Second World War. More important that the results we can hope to achieve at the polls is the fact that already the project is bringing back into political activity many who had become disillusioned and disempowered by the battering we have all suffered through the neo-liberal onslaught.

And with the rise of resistance to globalisation bringing a whole generation of new activists onto the stage the Alliance can be a way of demonstrating that politics doesn’t have to be the preserve of middle aged men in suits. Politics is about the way we want to live our lives, the sort of society we want to live in. The Alliances have ideas about how to organise together with others to ensure we have a world to fight for…

Renewing the left across Europe

These developments in Britain are part of a Europe-wide phenomenon in which the left has been reshaping and rebuilding itself. This process started after the fall of the Berlin wall, and was given new momentum with the election of right wing Social Democratic governments committed to radical deregulation and wholesale privatisation. This has opened up space to the left of Social Democracy in most European countries in a similar way to events here.

Of course no two of the new formations which have developed in response have been identical - each one reflects the particular history of the left in their countries. But from Denmark to Greece, from Portugal to Norway something new is beginning to reshape the left in Europe.

In some countries new parties have already developed as the spearhead of this process such as Rifondazione Communista in Italy. On the other hand in other situations such as in France so far what has developed is loose electoral alliances - between the two biggest far left groups the LCR and LO for the European Elections.

And they have varying degrees of success. Clearly the LCR/LO achievement in establishing a group of Trotskyist MEPs in the European parliament is a major breakthrough.

The Fourth International sees this process of recomposition as a crucial political development for the future of the left. Our sections are active in all the formations that exist and our comrades hold a number of important positions within them. Fourth International comrades have been elected as MPs for the Red/Green Alliance in Denmark and the Left Block in Portugal. And of course the LCR has two MEPs, including Alain Krivine, from the LCR/LO slate.

As well as being part of these processes in our individual countries, the Fourth International has tried to create a forum in which these lessons can be shared at both a continental level and beyond.

That is why we have been at the centre of creating a series of conferences of the European left, to take place at the same time as the European summits. Two successful gatherings have taken place, first in Lisbon and then in December 2000 in Paris. The SSP participated in both these meetings and the Socialist Alliance in the second.

Nor have we restricted our horizons to Europe. Comrades of the Fourth International were crucial to the calling of the alternative summit which took place in Porto Alegre in Brazil in January 2001 at the same time as the meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Our comrades are part of the left in the Workers’ Party in Brazil as well as a number of similar formations in other parts of the world.

Central to the idea behind the Porto Alegre forum is that the new resistance developing world wide against globalisation needs a political expression. Politics cannot be left to men in grey suits.

Where next for the Socialist Alliance?

The development of the Socialist Alliance is an important step forward in breaking down the old sectarian divisions on the left and creating the conditions for a more effective, united opposition to Blairism. But the Alliance only represents a first stage in the process of developing a leadership and organisation capable of defeating New Labour and the politics of neo-liberalism.

In the view of the ISG, and of increasing numbers of people involved in the Alliance, the next step that needs to be taken is to build a new party to the left of Labour. At this stage a new mass party is not possible, but what we should aim for is a party on the same scale and on similar lines to the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP). Such a development could begin to fill the vacuum that exists to the left of the Labour Party and draw towards it an increasing number of disaffected Labour voters.

Building political alliances - let alone new parties - on a stable and long term basis, is a politically complex task. Our ability to develop the project of Socialist Alliances in England and Wales can only be strengthened by learning lessons from comrades in other parts of Europe and the world.

While the SSP itself was only formed two years ago, the processes which have led to its success today can be traced back much further - at least to the fight against the hated Poll Tax, which was imposed by Thatcher earlier in Scotland than in England and Wales.

During those battles sections of the left began to work together in a new way, and in doing so built a huge movement which was to lead to Thatcher’s downfall. At the same time the left in Scotland was beginning to consider how to relate to debates about a future Scottish Parliament, which was introduced with a form of proportional representation which gave small parties far greater opportunities than under the ’first past the post’ system. This process gave socialists in Scotland a political focus that we lacked in the rest of Britain and led to the formation of the Scottish Socialist Alliance.

After working together as the Alliance for some time, people from different traditions and backgrounds grew to trust each other more. The project was successful in drawing in new people, from outside the initial groups and circles. Eventually they decided to form the SSP as a party - a party which since the election of Tommy Sheridan to the Scottish Parliament has scored an average of 7% in the elections in which it has stood.

We think that this is the sort of road we should try to follow in England, and that is entirely possible despite the continuation of the undemocratic first past the post system. The process won’t be exactly the same of course, but we want in the medium term to end up in the same sort of place - and we think that is possible.

To go beyond this towards something approaching a new mass party, even a left reformist one, would require substantial splits from the Labour Party and its reflection in the trade unions.

Probably the last opportunity for such a development was when Livingstone left the Labour Party after he was refused the nomination for London Mayor. If as well as declaring he would stand anyway, Livingstone had called on those who supported him to join with him in forming a new party, then something far more substantial and politically broad than today’s Socialist Alliance would have been possible.

But instead Livingstone absolutely insisted that those who supported him remain inside the Labour Party at all costs. He argued that people should not campaign for him publicly - refusing for example to produce any leaflets at all until just before the vote. A huge opportunity was lost.

Nor does it seem as if there is any other figure on the Labour left who is likely to make a break and call for their supporters to do likewise - either within the Parliamentary Labour Party or amongst prominent trade unionists. So the task of socialists will be a more lengthy one than if there were such people prepared to organise with us.

A left party on the scale of the SSP, however, would be a valuable gain at the present time. The Alliances could well be a stepping stone to such a development - but the time-scale and conditions for that are complicated.

The type of party we need must be democratic, federal and pluralistic, with the full right of dissent so that different currents within it can fight for their own ideas.

John Lister is a leading health activist.

back to top