Greg Tucker, ISG member of the LSA steering committee WORKERS International Press has been circulating widely an opeh totter to Socialist udook on ine Green London Assembly elections.
arisy nave ahucu as sectarian for socialists to unite in the London Socialist pullance. ratner, they say, we should fall in behind the leadership of the Campaign Against Tube Privatisation.
n this they have, of late. been encouraged by the Socialise Party, who, for their own internal reasons, have CATP standing in the GLA list section, whilst themselves standing as part of the LSA in the constituency based sec- out to do.
WIP correctly point out thar, one hundred years after Party, workers again need to address the burning need for a new party of the working For them, such a party cinnot 00 04s00 01 ar alliance of left groups. SPUTTS Ie can only come out of a miss moyemen cT ing broad expressions of discontent and action with the working class at its head.
Concretely they argue, what AKOr War Co Chai yu reactionary policy of the gov.
than to support the CATP?
The new party, we agree we need. wil be built thoush a dialectical combination of political debate amongst the left and reschine out to link up with the actual existing mass movement. It will not be AS A NEW CENTURY BEGINS, the battles of the last century rmain to be won. milions of women and men are taking part in and the bureaucratic dictatorships. This reflects the fact that humanity face widenThere's more to fighting Blair than rube privatisation built by artificially cailoring one's politics to what you believe to be the limics of part of that mass movement. Unfortunately, that is precisely what the WIP and the onvausauon (politically experienced) lead. ership of the CATP have set From the start the LSA has Campaign Against Tube Privatisation. Long before the nothing. CATP had considered whether to stand in the electonh, te n woe Hiteo to take part in the LSA discusLink up Privatisation -Indeed all the original moves taken within the London Underground RMT and CATP concerning standing in the elections were on the basis of the possibility of a link up with the LsA. Liscussions thas were being had with other forces on the left of the workers movement were originally in that framework.
Onty later did n become clear that some members of the CATP wanted to leave their options open. it was argued that the membership nature of capitalism. In a situation where the inability of the social democratic an communist parties to provide socialist solutions is becoming clearer, the task of creating new leaderships remains ahead Socialist Outlook is written and sold by socialists committed to this struggle. We are the British supporters of the worldwide marxist organisation, the Fourth International. We stand for the revolutionary transformation of society and a pluralist. socialist democracy world wide. The overall goal which we pursue is the emancipation of all human beings from every form of exploitation, oppression, alienation and violence. Socialism must be under the control of ordinary people, democratic. pluralist, tarist and internationalist. It must abolish wage slavery and national oppression. The working class is the backbone of unity among all the exploited and oppressed. The working class and its allies So it agreed that it could not ppose the anti-union laws Veither would it take a posi con on racism - UntE DaKCK tube workers complained and KEC CAC UD TRWY racism affected tube workers and passengers! Secondly, it decided that its candidates would have to be drawn solely from the ranks of RMT tube workers. Kather than using the election campolitical forces, the dynamic of their stance has been to cut themselves off more and more. Only the most die-hard tube groupies are now to be One Kw nocreaoy co embrace working with far-left loweo io ne burer All this has moant that the organisations, and that the CATP has found itself turning focus of the election had to be clearly the issue of tube its back on campaigning, failIng to capicalise : debate about tube funding Repeated attempts to reach a compromise that would whilst not able to build the electoral front it needs to allow the CATP ies political independence but stop the Its message across to the five problem of opposing slates million London electorate. emerging eventually came to Workers International Press out forward three arguments ared to be flexible about siy at cocaintoro gramme cannot be drawn up (formally registered) electoral by committees of socialist names, proposing for instance groups, only derived and that we calf ourselves the developed in the actual expe'Campaign Against Tube riences of the working class. Secondly, that the possesAllance", and then having in sion of a socialist programme pracace two separato cart paigns, the CATP leadership isno susantee ayainst sucsar- ianism. For that you need to vould not accept any position understand a groups relationwhich associated the CAl ship to the working class. And with the left. Our task was to thirdly, any socialist group work under their direction.
worthy of the name would To make matters worse, and not be competing with work. in order to justify their posi- ers but would be assisting tion on the primacy of tube privatisation the CATP has cut thatn itself even further off. Firstly, In practice the LSA programme, drawn up by comit decided that it would be a mittee, is now developing. It mistake to raise any other is the CATP that has cut itself off from the actual experience commit itself to these struggles.
has been able to rean our to campaigns against police viosell-offs, against hospital cuts and privatisation and the Cicas or Hr usuo drawing in independent activists and enriching our understanding. The CATP has found itself tallorine its own policies oft tube privatisation, on funding by bonds for instance, in order to maintain a link with the debate put forward by Ken Livingstone Whilst the LSA, through its activity, is breaking down barners. the CATP leadership is becoming more entrenched. After a first round of public mecangs, Wnlich rave attracted around two thousand people, and united street Ses acros Lor on wnic have signed up large numbers reach out to broader vol ntocs a real shared experience berween left currents and independent socialists is making things possitie which would have been impossible for any one group. even the largest. Despite our differing theohave been able to reach new the real collective understandings. Pessimistic The CATP leadership on the her ono snoae oros foundly pessimistic, even of the views of its own RMT base. There is a real sense in which the election work is a substitute for building an Industrial campaişn. The LUL RMT leaders know that industrial action will be necessary in the very near future if privatisation is to be halted, bue worry that morale is too low to sustain it. believe their members will not be able to understand that what is happening to their jobs is part of the same Hack on nosaia wone school workers, etc., etc. Rather than wage a struggle to convince their membership to link up with others in action they have closed ranks. This might be understandable if we were talking about must uncompromisingly fight against capitalism and for a clear programme of action autonomy. in order to gradualy acquire the exper ence and consciousness needed to defeat capitalsm at the decaive moment ol crisis.
The movements of women, lesbians and gay men, and black people to fight their particular forms of oppression make an essential contribution to the struggle for a different society. They are organised around the principle None so fit to break the chains as those who wear them". The whole working class needs to fully Furthermore we fight for a strategic alliance The core of the RMT leadership has many years of experience as part of the far-left. They are imposing their personal desire to be free from the restraints that come with working with ouners upor their members. Some of them may be doing this honestly, from a syndical. ist perspective of what is best OT UDE WorK Cynical picion that some are doing this from a cynical perspective of becoming part of an new. independent electoral block around Livingstone. Possession of positions in a mass movement is no guaran• ceo against sectanarism. We want to assist the fight DY CULC WOTRCTE vatisation. The CATP has made this impossible, without harmine the LSA's work with others in struggle. We cannot accept that we cut ourselves off from these developments, however important the tube is. Neither can we accept the cynical position of the Socialise Party. who seem to nave enoorsed the CATP because they want to work in a field in which they can be the major political organisation, rather than throw themselves fully into the LSA, where they have to "compete" with the SWP. Above all. the socialists leading the CATP are not assisting the RMT membership by their stance. There is still time for them to recornise that their elec. tion campalgn, far from being an historic break from Labour, is heiping no-one, ospeciai their own members. A campaign no-one notices and a derisory vote will only sow even deeper demoralisation. aurowis avy e duranlass they now have with opinion polls showing overwhelming support for keeping the tube in public hands The socialists in the CATP should not fear the possibilities of working with the rest they decide to do so. between workers and these organisations an alliance which respects their legitimate By building simultaneously revolutionary organisations in each country and a revoluencompass the global interests of the workers and oppreisco. By building a united struggle against exploitation and oppression we aim to ensure the survival of the human race. If ike what you read in Socialist Outlook, why not join us? Drop a line to us at PO Box 1109, London N4 2UU, and we'll be in
OUTLOOK monthly marxist review. No 32. March 2000. 50p if you Socialist Water fuels war danger -inside p 15 ---7