Editorial
United fight can challenge New Labour's policies
Despite enduring months of calculated insults from Tony Blair the trade union leaders
delivered him the victories he wanted at Labour Party Conference.
Now Blair has a free hand to muzzle any grassroots rebellion inside the party having
got through the rule changes associated with `Party into Power'.
"Flexibility" has become the watchword. Flexibility for the Labour leadership
means dodging out of any positive commitment party activists were fighting for.
Flexibility for working people means being cajoled into accepting part time and short term
contracts on worse conditions. It means putting up with attacks on the welfare state and a
political party that is long on rhetoric and short on delivery.
On May 1 working people voted for real change, for an end to the Tories - and an end to
Tory policies. Exit polls clearly showed a majority - even of first time "New"
Labour voters - supported radical policies.
They voted for redistribution of wealth from rich to poor, an end to privatisation and
defence of welfare provision.
Even for those who understood what New Labour intended the first months of the Labour
government have been an eye-opener.
Blair and his cronies have been proud to proclaim that they are following the same
strategy as the Tories. They have been gleeful that they are getting away with things that
their predecessors could not. Even the apparent commitment to increased spending on health
and education is just a massaging of existing funds that are totally inadequate to sustain
services already cut to ribbons,
The catalogue of attacks is long. They have "liberated" the Bank of England
from political control and thus raised interest rates. They have continued with Tory
privatisation plans and further pushed the tottering plans for Private Finance Initiatives
in the NHS and elsewhere.
Young people and students have been in the front line whether through the introduction
of student fees, the con of welfare to work or the new law and order proposals from Jack
Straw.
Single parents lose their benefits and the unemployed are forced onto schemes as
pointless as those introduced by the Tories, but more glossily packaged. All this has gone
hand in hand with a steadfast refusal to remove Tory laws such as those shackling the
trade unions and making asylum seekers destitute - policies they had opposed only weeks
earlier.
With Brown's latest statement on European monetary convergence - "not going in
just yet but preparing the way" going hand in hand with an attempt to gag any
dissident EuroMPs the pattern is clear.
With the Bosses
The bosses' offensive is to continue, with New Labour proud to help the bosses
prosecute it.
However while all this may seem evident to left activists most of those who voted
Labour on May 1 remain mesmerised. We have the paradox of Blair being promoted as the
world's most popular leader - with opinion polls even Kim Il Sung would have been proud
of, while government policies attack every aspiration of their supporters.
Another crucial layer of voters are beginning to wake up and see what is happening but
lack the confidence to fight back. The long night of Tory rule has left trade union
organisation desperately weakened and political campaigners isolated.
Which leaves the difficult questions: How do you build a fightback against the bosses
offensive? What sort of organisation is necessary?
It is clearly not enough to merely continue to beaver away inside the structure of the
Labour Party - but neither is it possible to merely proclaim the existence of a new
socialist party of labour.
The problems inside the SLP are the result both of the lack of political preparation
before the party was launched and of the failure to build a democratic internal regime.
If declaring a new party based on one extremely well respected old class-warrior does
not work, neither can you just build an effective socialist organisation just by
recruiting one by one. The biggest "revolutionary" parties in Britain are feeble
shadows of what we need - in themselves unable to change events.
We have to relate to the mood that exists for new realignment. We need to build a
united left - inside and outside the Labour Party. This must be based on the practical
demands working people are putting forward and the real actions of our class attempting to
realise them.
Ritual denunciations are meaningless - practical work is the only way to expose
Blairism for what it is. Out of that practical work can arise both the unity of the left
we need and the means of reaching out to new forces we require.
Drawing people into action on straightforward demands, and trying to force the existing
leadership of the labour movement to defend the interests of their members, can mobilise
the forces necessary to change society. Even small numbers can be effective - but only by
promoting such unity in action.
On this basis it will be possible to build an organisation that can lead a fight
against the bosses offensive and pose a threat to the easy ride currently being enjoyed by
the New Labour government.
The mood for change needs to be harnessed. We must set clear goals - in the trade
unions, inside the labour party, and on the streets. We know the issues, the basic
campaigns already exist. The united work must start now.
No clearer example exists than what was achieved this spring with the Euromarch. Broad
coalitions were developed both across Europe and in Britain which mobilised thousands of
workers and built on the actions of millions against the effects of the Maastricht Treaty.
The Euromarch played a part in changing the policy of some major unions in Britain. Now
we have forced the European TUC to call action against unemployment in Luxembourg later
this month.
The ground work has been laid for further campaigning on this issue which is
increasingly recognised as the most important issue facing the British government. On
other issues too there are positive signs - such as the ability of supporters of Workers
Liberty and Socialist Outlook to work together with members of the SLP and many activists
of no affiliation in the Welfare State Network.
None of this is easy - tensions built on years of suspicion don't go away over night
but without eradicating sectarianism we will never build a credible alternative to New
Labour. We must build on these lessons in other key areas, while deepening the debate
about what sort of organisation is needed to defend the interests of our class.