Ann Widdecombe to the right.
Any kind of comA plicity with such reactionary and dangerous nonsense ought to be unacceptable to socialists, ane nobody should need reminding that silence is a form of complicity.
In private, many Labour Party leftists will vote for the Socialist Alliances or whatever other alternatives to New Labour are available. It seems a rather "do as I say, not as do approach to working class commumues. Popular cynicism about the efficacy ot any kind of democratic collective action is one of the biggest obstacles socialists face.
The formulae being mouthed al the moment on the Labour left can only reinforce that cynicism, not challenge it.
If socialists forego an intervention in the coming general election, they will only strengthen all those forces, inside and outside the Labour party, for whom it is vital that the entirety of British politics be construed as a choice between Blair and Hague, Straw and Widdecombe.
By standing candidates in selected seats, the Socialist Alliances and other forces will at least be able to alert large numbers of people to the existence of alternatives to the prevailing consensus.
Without that minimum activity, not only the ideas of socialism, but the immediate concerns of the poorest and most excluded will continue to be air-brushed out of public discourse.
After the election, the Labour left will wring its hands about low voter turnouts, but by its own ambivalence and inaction it will bear some responsibility for them. Against that disturbing and imminent eventuality, we are offered the highly speculative Call. unsupported by evidence, that the Party can be "reclaimed" some