TUSC andLeft Unity, where is the unity ?

Is a very good question I’d suggest. Firstly I don’t wish to criticise any group of people in particular but the recent rise of the left unity project has concerned me on several levels. I did post my initial thoughts on left unit a few weeks back not to everyons liking apparently but the early signs ar not great. The call for unity on the left and for a new party of the left was made by Ken Loach the radical left wing film director who’s recent film “the spirit of 45” has inspired 8 thousand people so far to sign a petition which is a founding idea for a new party. This weekend we hear of the left unity project holding their first national conference. TUSC the Trade Union and Socialist Coalitin of which I’m apart of and stood for recently tried to attend todays left unity meeting in a comradely open manner but apparently were turned away at the door. So much for left unity comrades ? There is much sectarian behaviour on the left right now why did left unity feel the need to set itself up without even acknowledging the existence of TUSC. I mean fair enough you may not agree withTUSC and think it doesn’t go far enough but to go ahead and try setting up a new party without even considerin to involve TUSC and its partners the RMT too smack’s of a bit of sectarian behaviour I’ve noticed for a while. Those who groaned when the left set up rival anti cuts bodies will now surely be smiling again as it looks like history is repeating itself with two rival left of labour projects. Of course we don’t know what left unity will stand for yet or what their aims are I’m sure we’ll find out in due course but for the two projects to not evn enter into some sort of discussion is very sad in my view. I’m a member of the socialit party and any new left party or mass workers party will likely and hopefully in my view see us involved others on the left who are turned off by the likes of us and the SWP and our behaviour over the years cannot simply wish us out of existence. They cantry and ignore us but I think that would be incredible sectarian as we can offer many ideas and organisational practises whichhave worked well for us in the past. For example all elected reps subject to immediate recall, no elected official to receive more than the average wage of a skilled worker and democracy at every level of the party with no appointed officials for them all to be elected by the membership. Key principles I think we uphold to and any new formation on theleft should stick to too. Disappointment and disenchantment with the Labour Party, exemplified by 8,000 signing up in support of the Left Unity statement, is hardly new. For example, when Arthur Scargill broke from the Labour Party the potential existed to immediately rally many thousands. But Scargill did not want any of the groups. He wanted to be the unchallenged labour dictator The most farcical of the SLP’s anti-democratic practices was Scargill’s use of the bloc vote of an ‘affiliated organisation’ - the North West, Cheshire and Cumbria Miners Association, made up of retired members of the National Union of Mineworkers. If conference looked as though it would vote the ‘wrong’ way, Arthur would ensure with just a nod and a wink that the NWCCMA delegates put their 3,000 votes to good use. Any new party or project bringing together Marxists and the left needs democracy at its heart. It cannot function or call itself a party with democracy as a added option in my view. WE strive to maintain democracy in the socialist party and I believe we do so very well. I know at this stage groups like TUSC, respect, Left unity etc hold up broad almost social democratic programmes clearly anti capitalist in nature but comparing these programmes which are small deliberately atthis stage they are often to the right of where we claim to stand. Take the SWP’s adventure with respect many of respects policies were decided and developed to please the likes of George Galloway and other big names involved. The SWP therefore foun itself making bigger and bigger concessions to keep them sweet. We are all aware of George Galloways out of touch views on the likes of abortion and the question of rape too more recently but When these questions came up more often than not respect fudged these difficult questions and left open ended questions like a womans right to choose very broad so you could red into it that it’s a womans right to choose whether to wear a head scarf or not. Not very clear comrades. There is an extraordinary paradox. As capitalism has gone into deeper and deeper into crisis, not only have we seen the Labour Party move further and further to the right, along with the whole of bourgeois society: the left itself has also been moving to the right. And it is common sense amongst comrades on the left that, while within the privacy of our own groups we can talk about Marxism, socialism, the history of our movement and the difficult ideas it has grappled with, when it comes to the ‘children’ - that is, the working class, a class that is meant to liberate itself - we pretend, especially when standing in elections, that really we are just like Labour used to be. That we are committed to a parliamentary road to socialism, to welfarism, to some sort of Keynesian golden age: in short that we are born-again Labourites. Now, I am not arguing that we ought to stand under a banner which simply reads ‘Revolution now!’ In fact we do stand for reforms. Quite clearly we are not in a revolutionary situation and in terms of readying our class to become the ruling class reforms are essential. We must have more democracy, we must have more power within capitalism. So it is not an argument about reform or revolution: it is an argument about what sort of reforms we want and how we go about getting them. That is the question. any Left Unity programme should explicitly state that it is about superseding capitalism. With that in mind it is also vital to stress internationalism. Socialism cannot be achieved in Britain alone. Nor can it be achieved even in Europe alone - though I think we need a bold, pan-European strategic perspective. Socialism is the task of the working class of all countries; socialism is the total transformation of all existing conditions. So, yes, we must argue that Left Unity must have a clear programme that commits us to the global supersession of capitalism. Of course, we have to defend and advance the existing gains of the working class. But that can best be done through a class struggle that does not stop at the shores of Britain.

3 cheeks of the same buttock

This was the phrase used by George Galloway this week as he stormed to victory in Bradford west. He was referring to the fact that labour, Tories and lib dems are all very much the same these days, Serving capitalism and looking after the rich and big business rather than ordinary people.

You can understand Tories and lib dems doing this as they have never been in touch with ordinary workers but labour it is a disgrace that they sit their condemning strikes, supporting cuts and doing Tories dirty work for them. They claim as their left of their party claim that they have the union link. This union link is weaker than ever before and I’m sure if you ask many trade unionists they would not object to disaffiliating from the labour party and having their political fund put into proper causes and to supporting campaigns that support workers. The simple fact that all 3 main establishment parties today subscribe to capitalism being the only show in town gives us on the real left a huge opportunity to make in roads in this coming period.

Wit the need for a new workers party greater than ever I think TUSC can gain a big echo out there among people.

I mean why on earth you would vote for your job to be cut slowly by the labour party or quickly by the Tories. That is no alternative at all. People want an alternative they want a choice a vote they can feel proud of.

TUSC doesn’t command a big pool of support as yet and we’d be foolish to claim it does but for people to have that alternative on their ballot paper at least gives people the opportunity to express a desire to move away from the major political parties and get behind a credible alternative which I feel TUSC can develop into.

But George Galloway’s victory highlights something else. It wasn’t just a vote for him but a complete rejection of the major parties in an area that is largely working class. The argument that he only won due to the Asian vote is wrong he gained support from across the board and posed as an alternative to people. We don’t of course agree with all that George stands on but it shows the echo that can be had by posing as an alternative with a clear programme to defend people’s living standards and not to attack them like the main 3 parties look to at any chance they get.



You can fit a cigarette packet between the policies of Labour, lib dem and Tory these days there is very little difference they all look to try and manage capitalism better than the other. Te reality is capitalism looks after a minority and their wealth not the majority and their living standards. A transformation of society towards a socialist planned economy where people’s needs were put first every time would be the sort of society I strive for and look to convince others are entirely possible. Nothing stays the same forever, we haven’t always had capitalism. The seeds of a new better equal society are in the womb of the current society we live under it will take the working class and the mass’s to realise this to unlock the potential of the mass of people on this planet .

A big opportunity is opening up in front of us we must be bold and not be afraid to try and convince people of an alternative. People will be actively looking for it they may just not know it yet.

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.