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Workers Power Britain June 2000
The future of the London Socialist Alliance is up for discussion at a conference this month. Here we outline Workers Power's views on where should go now.
The London Socialist Alliance (LSA) achieved a credible series of results in the constituencies in the May London elections. The campaign - despite the poor list vote - was a resounding success. It provided an alternative to New Labour for the growing numbers of workers angry at Blair's failure to deliver and at his blatant pro-business agenda.
The LSA assembled a wide range of activists, from several organisations and from none, who were able to work together, constructively, to put the LSA on the map. The LSA's very existence was a challenge not only to New Labour but to Livingstone.
Despite his break from Labour (a welcome step), both his campaign, and his record in office so far, demonstrate that he is not in the slightest bit interested in building an alternative to New Labour and will make concession after concession to the government whatever the impact of such concessions on the working class who voted for him.
All of this points to one conclusion: the LSA must stay in business.
It must not be put on ice. It must not be confined to the electoral arena. It should be maintained, for the time being, as an alliance of organisations and activists committed to challenging New Labour through elections and through campaigning activity.
If we fail to do this we will be abandoning our own emphasis in the London election campaign on the difference between the LSA and the other parties: namely, the other parties only exist to get your votes at election times.
You might as well not exist as far as they are concerned between elections. The LSA rightly said, whatever vote we get we will not be going away after the election. We will be at the forefront of campaigns and activities that defend the interests of the workers and the oppressed.
We are not in favour, at this point, of the LSA simply announcing itself as a new party. While the election campaign showed the value of left unity it did not obliterate the differences that exist between the various organisations and individuals involved in the campaign.
If we simply glued all of those organisations and individuals together into a new party it would be a premature unity that would most likely break apart at the first serious class struggle test. For that reason we are in favour of the LSA remaining an alliance.
However, alliances, as the very name implies, are temporary and exist only for as long as the allies share common goals.
They are not organisations that can rally thousands of workers and oppressed to their ranks and organise them for a consistent struggle against the bosses and their governments. For this task the workers need a party, not a collection of different parties, groups and individuals which simply come together to strengthen their ability to compete in a general election.
In the longer term, Workers Power favours the transformation of the LSA and other socialist alliances into an all-British party. In the period ahead we are in favour of the alliances conducting a discussion - alongside their activities - about what sort of party the working class needs.
Contrary to the assertion by the International Socialist Group, we are not in favour of the LSA becoming "a revolutionary party more or less immediately". But we are in favour of building a revolutionary party and we will argue, openly, honestly and fraternally with all those who disagree with us, as to why the working class needs a revolutionary party and why, if and when the LSA decides to transform itself into a party it should become a revolutionary party based on a revolutionary programme.
We do not pose this as an ultimatum (accept this or we will take our bat and ball home). But nor do we accept, in advance, as the International Socialist Group do, that the end product will be "a left centrist party". To decide, in advance, that we cannot build a revolutionary party in present circumstances is unduly fatalistic.
At the same time we are against the refounding of a Labour Representation Committee (Alliance for Workers Liberty) or a "mass workers' party" (the Socialist Party) - political character unspecified. These are roads back to old Labour, not steps beyond it.
The Communist Party of Great Britain propose a reforged communist party. The programme of such a project remains vague. But the comrades' insistence that this can be done through a "rapprochement" of the existing left in which competing factions come together within one party is, in our view, a recipe for future splits not a solid basis for lasting unity.
The Socialist Workers Party, the largest group in Britain, recognise the need for a revolutionary party but have, as yet, not put forward a view on whether or not the LSA can play a role in creating such a party. The danger here is that the LSA (and other alliances) simply gets reduced to being an electoral front - separate from party building in other spheres - and the opportunity to create a significantly larger revolutionary party in Britain is lost.
We approach the question differently. To summarise our view: we do not believe the LSA can simply be transformed into a revolutionary party now. But it could be a very important step towards the creation of such a party.
For this to happen the LSA must seek to turn the considerable passive support it won in the elections into active support: a network of activists, firmly oriented to the struggles in the outside world. Only if the LSA draws in such forces can it become the vehicle for building a revolutionary alternative to Labour.
Without drawing in such forces it will remain - to coin a popular phrase - simply the sum of its parts. But by drawing in such forces we can create a meaningful arena within which the character, structure and programme of a new party can be discussed and, eventually, democratically decided upon.
Within that discussion we will advance revolutionary politics and seek to demonstrate their immediate relevance to the class struggle today. In any conference to decide the character of a new party we will advance a revolutionary programme as the basis for it.
LSA Conference:
On 11 June, 1.00pm to 6.00pm, at the University of London Union the LSA will hold a conference to which all LSA supporters are invited. Workers Power is submitting the following two resolutions for discussion at this conference.
Structure and Policy
The LSA should constitute borough based individual membership organisations with an annual membership fee of £10 waged, £5 unwaged. At a borough level officers and a branch committee should be elected by members' meetings.
At a central level the LSA executive should consist of one delegate per sponsoring organisation (political or trade union) together with ten members elected by the conference (ten is a provisional figure). This executive should meet monthly outside of election periods and be responsible for any central propaganda produced.
The existing agreed manifesto should remain the policy of the LSA until a future conference decides to amend or replace it with a new programme. However, as borough organisations develop and as new situations arise new policy issues will be posed. Borough organisations can and should discuss these and put forward proposals to the steering committee.
Between now and the general election the steering committee should be charged with finally agreeing any new policies.
Standing in the general election will require a new programme, since it will be a national election in which national and international issues will predominate. We are in favour of the LSA - and if other alliances stand, those alliances - convening a conference to discuss and decide the programme of the LSA/Socialist Alliance for any general election. If it looks likely that a spring 2001 election will take place we should aim to hold such a conference in early March of that year.
Future Activity
The alliances should aim to draw in thousands of non-aligned workers and youth through a firm outward orientation to the class struggle between now and the general election. The executives and the branches should decide on a programme of class struggle activity depending on local circumstances. However, definite priorities in the next period should be:
ð building the 24 June Asylum seekers demo and campaigning activities related to the issue in the localities (pickets of benefit offices, supermarkets operating the voucher scheme) etc. building a lobby of the Home Office in July under the slogan "Asylum Seekers Welcome Here"
ð building support for the planned week of anti-capitalist protests in Prague (22- 27 September) including organising transport to Prague
ð building a demo in the autumn (called jointly with the rail unions and the Campaign against Tube Privatisation if possible) against the privatisation of the tube and against any backsliding by Livingstone on this issue
ð standing candidates in all London parliamentary by-elections (including Tottenham) between now and the general election and in selected council by elections
ð organising LSA union networks to build for solidarity with disputes, to build for action against the inertia of the trade union bureaucracy and to campaign for real union democracy (e.g. in Unison where a vicious witch-hunt is underway). We should schedule an LSA trade union delegate based conference in the winter of 2000/2001 to plan and execute a campaign within all Labour affiliated unions to break the bureaucratic monopoly on political funds that stipulates money can only be donated to the Labour Party. The conference could also discuss other campaigning initiatives in the trade union movement
ð preparing to stand candidates (in conjunction with other socialist alliances) in the forthcoming general election
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