Despite the crisis of the thirty-year neo-liberal project, the three main parties are promising more of the same. All they have on offer is war, environmental destruction, unemployment, public service cuts, wage cuts, privatisation, racism, repression and surveillance and a lack of affordable housing for working people. Labour are putting in (inadequate) fiscal stimuli, whereas the Tories would let the market rip. But all three are united in making the working class pay for the crisis.
The much-vaunted green shoots of recovery are a cruel deception. The reality is that the crisis will continue and unemployment will continue to rise up to and beyond the general election. All this makes it the most important general election for a generation. It will take place amidst a toxic mix of rising unemployment and a profound discrediting of the political system brought about by the MPs’ expenses scandal. Millions of votes, which would normally go to the main parties, particularly Labour, will be up for grabs.
This puts a huge responsibility on the left — and on this conference today — to get its act together and provide a left alternative to which ex-Labour voters can relate. To say that there has never been a more urgent case for a united left alternative is to understate the situation.
The looming danger in this election is not just the Tories but the fascist BNP and the right-wing racist UKIP. They stand to be the big winners from the election, particularly if there is no united left alternative.
As part of the process of building a broad inclusive working-class party, it is therefore crucial that there is a viable left challenge at the General Election. It is now very late but today’s conference — along with the unions represented at it — is best placed to start the process towards this.
A new party is for the future, but a common framework for the election — maybe based on the People’s Charter —which allowed existing parties to stand in their own name would be an important step forward.
On November 14th, there will be the Respect conference in Birmingham. It has the biggest electoral footprint on the left, and has the possibility of doing very well, or even winning, in three Westminster seats, especially now that the Greens have made the welcome decision not to stand against Salma Yaqoob. There are other areas where the left could do well: for example, Dave Nellist in Coventry or Caroline Lucas for the Greens in Brighton.
Only a strong united left intervention can offer the possibility of a real alternative to falling working-class living standards, job and service cuts, increased racism, discrimination, climate catastrophe and war policies espoused by the traditional parties and the fascist BNP.
This is the final text of the leaflet to be distributed by Socialist Resistance’s London branch at the RMT conference this Saturday on working class political representation. It can be downloaded as a PDF document from http://bit.ly/12Ef4T. An earlier version is in Spanish here.
3 Comments
Totally agree…all hands on deck
Do we have a report on this important conference?
I managed to get along to the RMT conference on Sat. I would suggest well over 200+ attended perhaps 250/300. Clearly the SP mobilised a considerable presence -I think they had their national gathering later in the day and a significant number of RMT activists. The majority of speakers seemed very much in support of a new party of the Left apart from the the LRC Labour left fan club! However clearly both the RMT and FBU have strong groups of MP’s supporting their cause in the House. Clearly they are in a two minds on how to proceed. No new party of the left seems likely to come into being before the election but an attempt by the SP to co-ordinate candidates of the left seems to be developing. Joe Higgins really captured the mood of the meeting.
John Foster was terrible -I thought I had been transported into a UKIP meeting! Hopefully the current he represents will be a small element of any new party. If a son of No2EU is put together along the lines of the CPB/John Foster/ Bob Crow leadership it is going to be a 1% non-starter.
I think I am coming to the view that a community centred localist rank & file initiative conference is needed to help mobilise and counter-balance the very conservative limited steps of the left trade unions. Walsall Democtatic Party, Wigan Peoples Alliance, Lewisham People Before Profit, Kidderminster Health Concern, Pensioners Convention, Barrow Socialist Peoples Party, Tyne & Wear anti privatisation etc.
If we have formed a loose coalition and mobilsed these forces after the wreckage of the general election we can hopefully build a broad left party rather party rather than a Labour Party mark 2!