We welcome readers' letters on any topic. Letters over 400 words may be cut for space reasons. Write to Socialist Outlook, PO Box 1109, London N4 2UU. email: [email protected] Bob Jenkins writing in SO41 outlines some suggestions from the ISG for the SA Manifesto. Whilst I agree with the general conclusion - that what we • need is an action programme of transitiona cemands sod seen confused about the nature of the Throughout the article Bob raises the issue of the "united front". Each time it is used it means something different - and each time misses the actual point!
Bob describes the SA as "a united front-type formation, a political alliance of socialist organisations and individuals". There are, of course, many who talk of the Alliance as a "united front". In as much as they are using the words in their banal sense this is true, the Alliance is "united" and it is a "front" behind which organisations can operate.
But for Trotskyists the phrase has a deeper meaning. This is hinted at when Bob later talks of a "united front orientation .:. to the Labour Party itself, in practice its left-wing" and argues that we should use "A united front method where we try to link up with local councillors, ward parties, even a few MPs." The united front far from being a political alliance of socialist organisations is the exact opposite. It is the way that the socialists (communists) relate directly to the whole of social democracy and not just its left wing or better individuals). The united front method is an appeal, not for programmatic compromise as with the Alliance, but for unity in action of the whole working class in the face of specific problems. S o for Lenin and Trotsky this was about demanding unity in action from Kerensky in the practical defence of Petrograd against Kornilov, whilst political differences were maintained, as opposed to those, such as Stalin, who had argued for a political alliance with the Mensheviks.
To fight for a united front implies no compromise on the political differences we have with social democracy but it is about relating to social democracy as a whole. In today's climate with a very weak left it has been argued that this is impossible other than with social democracy's left wing.
This is again a misunderstanding. Yes, there are a few councillors and MPs with whom we can work. But our work is not enhanced by accepting their limited overall framework but by uniting in appeals for practical activity around issues on which complete unity of the class is needea.
The Socialist Alliance is different. It is not a united tront in this classical sense but a bloc between organisations and individuals where a level of political trust and compromise is both possible and necessary.
It is about accepting that weak as we are the different organisations involved necessarily have only partial understandings of the tasks ahead of us and that by collaborating we can strengthen our ability to develop a political response to the questions of the day.
For some it remains simply an electoral bloc. But in as much as it allows for a real sharing of experiences it has the potential to develop beyond that.
Bob is right to recognise that potential "of becoming the focus of a future recomposition of the workers' movement and the oppressed" - it is our duty to fight within the Alliance to realise this potential.
This means practically fighting for a programme based on encouraging working people to struggle to satisfy their own needs. Not to present a list of abstract policies. minimum or maximum - but an action programme of anti-capitalist measures which, starting trom existing levels or consciousness, can be taken up by the mass movement. It is in this sense that we approach the general election - not as the be all and end all of our activity - but in as much as the election is seen as a point where politics can legitimately be discussed by the whole of society as a useful point in which to raise our programme and to strengthen our implantation to thereby further our continuing fight to realise our demands in practice.
Our target is not merely to get so many candidates elected, or such a percentage vote, but must be to ensure that on the day after the election we are qualitatively better placed to help organise the working class fight back.
George Charon, South London