My thoughts behind the unite labour party face off

I think this whole supposed face off in Falkirk west over standing political candidates is a huge shame and I will explain why. I firstly do not believe the labour party can be reclaimed. This would assume it was ever ours the working classes in the first place it never was and people like Owen Jones should get this in to their thick skulls. It was at best as Lenin explained a capitalist workers party with a trade union link and yes the union link still exists today Owen but lets not get excited now. What is happening in Falkirk may be important in the long run but in itself of itself is a simple falling out of personalities and I’d include the general secretary of unite Len McCluskey who I’m loosing patience with by the week at this very moment. I never voted for the guy as I thought he would sell out as he has done already and will do again. In an article published by the socialist party and written by Unite member Kevin Paslow he sets out 3 possible conclusions to the Falkirk situation. Unite now has three possible ways forward. The first would be to capitulate to New Labour. This would be disastrous, not just for its political strategy but for its industrial one too. There would be growing anger and indignation in the rank and file, and doubts would be raised over the union's commitment to fight for its policy. This would cause serious problems for Len and the left leadership of the union and jeopardise their position. The second would be to continue with the current strategy. This would mean the likelihood of further collisions with the Labour bureaucracy, in which Len has already admitted he 'can place no trust'. This would not prevent Unite having to make a decision later on the continued scandal of providing funds to New Labour, to the tune of £9 million since Miliband was elected Labour leader in 2010, with the support of the unions! Immediately, Unite would also face the decision of supporting anti-cuts councillors. The third path is to take the bold step of the union disaffiliating from New Labour. The Socialist Party believes this is the correct road to take. The working class has waited too long for its own party since New Labour accepted the free market and dropped its famous Clause 4, Part IV, which envisaged nationalisation and socialism. This is all very well and I think the most likely line is the second with Len and Ed secretly agreeing behind closed doors to not rock the boat anymore this side of the election at least. Both Len and Ed are big labour supporters which goes without saying and as the general election nears the idea of unity and a win for a labour party will become paramount so I think this is just Len firing off his mouth and ultimately he does support Militant and will line up behind him come 2015 if that is when the next election is to be held. I think this is a lot of posturing from both sides Ed trying to make his mark as a leader and to sure up his commitment to making the cuts and carrying on where the Tories are right now. Ed wants to appear a safe pair of hands for capitalism and if elected no doubt he will be carrying out cuts and carrying on austerity as the market demands. I see no option here for unite who cannot envisage as the socialist party would love to disaffiliate from the labour party the only way they will is by being kicked out. The political fund is hugely labour based and the ruling part of the union is pro labour so no such change is likely anytime soon. For our party we are best focusing on the upcoming conferences in Unite trying to gain influence and raising our ideas. It’s no use shouting off what needs to happen let’s get in there and start punching our weight in the union. Falkirk could be the start of something with unite but it could also be a huge slap down it will be interesting how the union reacts now in the face of the leadership still wanting a labour gov they will be careful not to rock the boat too much so I ultimately see a truce being declared if on the quiet before this coming election who knows after though if weave labour in that will play out interestingly if Tories again I can only see unite moving further to the left as much as the leadership may not want this. Things are happening labour is no longer a party the unite union can back and time will show this. I am no supporter of Len in Unite as I think he is pretty much all hot air he talks of civil disobidence but very little has happened in practica terms he is one of those union leaders who speaks a good game but when it comes to action he is badly lacking for me. What unite needs to do: plan of action: • An emergency executive council should be called to discuss the crisis. • The EC should pass a resolution for a recall rules conference which would have the end of removing the references to Labour Party affiliation from the rulebook, thereby facilitating disaffiliation. This conference should also discuss political representation for the working class. • Should this be carried, Unite should call meetings and conferences of trade unionists, from affiliated and non-affiliated unions, including those linked to TUSC, with the aim of forming a new workers' party which would have the programme of fighting the cuts, scrapping the anti-trade union laws and opposing privatisation of public services. Such a party would truly reflect the needs of the working class and fight in workplaces, communities and in elections for socialist ideas.

Learning the lessons from the socialist alliance

Just last week we had a excellent discussion at eastern region regional committee on the socialist alliance and the lessons we need to reinforce today in light of what developed at the last TUSC conference. I was not about during the days of the SA but those who were have clearly not learnt from the lessons of history still. The Socialist alliance was set up in the mid 90’s as a reaction to a growing feeling that the left needed to unite. We at the time were swept along by this and the old phrase aimed at socialists all the time is why you don’t all just get together. It’s not as simple as that and I’ll try to explain why here. In the socialist alliance which at first was made up of socialist party members and a few other independents on the left looked to contest elections on a federal structure initially. Until 1998 this was fine but when the SWP got involved seriously for the first time things changed. While I respect many in the SWP their general manner and approach to working with others on the left is a lot different to ours unfortunately. The SWP felt that a situation that we need demands a party and put forward calls for the SA to move to a more party based structure featuring a one member one vote set up. This was forced through eventually and this enabled the SWP along with a few other groups on the left involved at that stage including socialist resistance to pack the meetings and get their agenda through in affect putting them in control of the organisation. While one member one vote sounds democratic it really isn’t and we should not be afraid to stand up and say this. This move was the start of the end for the SA as it enabled factions in the SA with larger numbers to dominate. With TUSC we are still at an early stage with a federal structure with an elected steering committee with all having a vote and a veto. We do not feel at this stage moving towards a membership system will solve all our problems. For a start is it really fair giving a small left group with about 80 member’s equal weight in terms of voting as a trade union like the RMT who represent 80 thousand odd members and were democratically elected by their NEC to represent their members at the TUSC conference? At this stage we need to be taking the argument into the trade unions and setting up TUSC supporters groups inside the unions to get the name out there this coupled with standing TUSC candidates as widely as we possibly can next may in the county council elections will start to draw more workers in our direction. I don’t accept the argument that getting poor results at this stage is a sign we have failed. We will get some better results and some not so good. As we know as Marxists things do not progress in a straight line and there will be set backs but also times we can make big steps forward. The significance of the RMT fully supporting TUSC now financially and politically is key. But we must look to get more trade union support individual members and official structures involved. TUSC is not the final product it’s a working progress. But one we must be careful with and look to build where we can. If we look back in history the early labour party was a set up of federal partners from the co op to the trade unions Fabians society etc they didn’t go to a full membership system for a long time not until 1918 Individuals had to join via one of the affiliated organisations - yet are people really saying it wasn't a 'party'? On electoral activity, in fact, the early Labour Party had the approach that the affiliated organisations were to be "left free to select their own candidates without hindrance, the one condition being that, when returned to parliament, the candidate should agree to form one of the Labour Group there". We want to participate in an alliance of equals, with the right to conduct our own activity with our own ideas and methods, while working in common where we can. We believe that the new forces that will emerge to fill the vacuum created by the crisis of working class political representation - community campaigners, trade unionists fighting austerity and privatisation etc - will also wish to preserve their autonomy, while working with others. But that means we need an Alliance, with a federal constitution, and not a structure that allows the domination of any one organisation. While the SA was a step forward in one sense it also tech’s us some important lessons that simply uniting the left will not do it may make some of the smaller left groups feel warmer being in a bigger organisation but does it really help us advance the need for political representation for working people towards a new mass workers party anymore? I don’t think it does. While the trade unions are not perfect their members are rank-and-file working class people who we need to be attracting in this coming period not worrying about membership cards or whether we have a vote or not.