What George Galloway’s victory in Bradford west can tell us for the left

An astounding victory last night in Bradford west by election where George Galloway saw off a labour party struggling to make any impact with their some cuts are nessesary line. It was a huge rejection of them and the other establishment parties that George won so convincingly. With a majority of 10 thousand this cannot just be wrote off as an anomaly.

So what can this mean for us on the left who are trying to build a force to the left of labour and campaigning for a new workers party like we are in the socialist party?

Well firstly I think this shows a deep rooted anger and despair with ordinary people with the 3 main political parties that George Galloway who isn’t a socialist by any stretch of the imagination stood on left sounding policies against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and offering himself as an alternative clearly shows that labour can be beaten in their heartland and a force to the left of labour can win in these areas.

As TUSC we are not supporters of George Galloway and have reservations on his politics and cosying up to various dictators in the past but no doubt this is more than that this victory showed that people wont always put up with the main 3 capitalist parties forever and ever and if a alternative is posed they can get a echo.

I also think we shouldn’t over state this this is clearly a tremor of the political earthquake happening right now but with the may 3rd local elections and the London GLA elections where genuine trade unionists and socialists will be standing under the banner of TUSC I think we can do well. I wont put my neck out and say we’ll get victories like George did in Bradford but the tide is turning on these establishment parties and people are fed up with the same old language same old lies and tired excuses from washed up politicians who only call at their door every 5 years or so.

I’m optimistic for the coming period without wishing to over state it I think we do have a opportunity to make some big in roads into the political plain and take those first steps to becoming that credible alternative that I am convinced people are looking for out there. A real socialist alternative that can serve the 99% not the 1%.

This also has shown a deep lying feelin felt by many that the establishment parties have for years and years taken ordinary working class people and their votes for granted. Especailly labour in the north who still feel and will not learn the lessons I feel that you can put anyone up in a area that has a working class base and it’ll always get elected. Wrong this is changing and for the better labour cannot takeits voters for granted as they will resist in the end. People will not put up with a party tied to capitalism and the markets and the banks forever. Labour has lost its way and workers are turning their backs on it now and I’m only too pleased to see this. It bodes well for the future for the building of a new workers party which in my view is needed more than ever in this coming period to provide a pole of attraction.