Trotsky: stick to his method but not necessarily each and corry demand of 1938 programme Veronica Fagan repiles I welcome Jason Travis' contribution to the debate about the direction and shape the Socialist Alliance should take both now and in the future. And I agree with him these is issues needs serious discussion. The International Socialist Group has tried to stimulate and participate in such a debate through the pages of Socialist Outlook and through our involvement in the Alliance itself. We agree with most of the main political points that Jason puts forward; that the Alliance should become a political party, and that it should do so using the method of the transitional programme.
Our disagreements however are important, and centre on concretising Trotsky's approach to create a living instrument that can take the working class forward in the concrete conditions we face today. don't think that we- or anyone else - has fully worked through what this means and we welcome any opportunity to explore these Certainly it is true that the Socialist Alliance The ISG agrees with Jason that the creation of a new party is a step that should be taken, we don't think it is yet clear when the most opportune moment would be for such a transformation. It is important that we go forward with as much consensus as possible amongst both current and potential support. ers of the Alliance, both on the need for a party and what form and political content it should have.
No return to Old Labour The second major point that Jason makes. where again there is agreement, is that we don't want to recreate Old Labour. This is an issue now in terms of what policies and Ideas the Alliance puts forward, and would become an even more crucial debate if we The Labour Party since its inception has been a bourgeois workers' party - that is a party whose very existence came about to prevent working class people taking power for themselves, while claiming to speak for But there is a complication here which Jason doesn't really address. We don't want to replicate what was reactionary about Old Labour - but at the same time we want to win to the Alliance those thousands of working class people who are angry with what Blair is doing, but not yet convinced of revolutionary ideas.
Jason refers to the transitional propramme drawn up by Leon Trotsky in 1938. and says that this is the approach that the Alliance should adopt. We agree. That is the approach the ISG adopted in putting for. ward in its submission to the Socialist Alliance Conference ( available on the webcitel and in aseeeeing the matenal that went to the Alliance conference in Birmingham in IF YOUTA OO STAFF US not be seen as a transional coman in today's political conditions. Most people, even politically conscious and organised people don't have a clue what we mean by them. So that's no bridge. On the other hand, the slogan 'selfnow part of the Socialist Alliance manifesto - is much more accessible. It has been the spontaneous slogan of many protests and demonstrauons especially those led by black youth. And it incorporates the same political idea - that is no confidence that the ruling class will police our communities with anything other than repression in mind, so we have to organise our class independently. Jason says "Millions of people have dropped out of voting all together and become utterly cynical about the ability of parliament to do anything significant."
Certainly it is true that many of the people, particularly the young people, involved in the anti-globalisation movement have drawn some of these conclusions.
Ultra-left
One of the problems for us is that some of them have gone further, in an uitra left direction and adopted anarchist ideas because of the failure of the revolutionary left to address It is certainly true that this layer of people is one with which the Alliance needs to engage, to leam from through our dialogue as well as to suggest ways of organising that can take forward the struggles they are involved in.
But you can't explain the increasing level of abstentions in elections solely - or even pri. marily - on the basis of the growth of this layer.
Most traditional Labour voters who have stayed at home, or cast a protest vote in have done so because they are fed up with this new Labour goverment. They voted Plaid, or SNP or Green or even Socialist Alliance to protest against the widening gap between rich and poor and the fact that privatisation has been taken to hey have not however drawn the conclusion that what is needed to further the interests of the working class is the replacement of Parliament with genuine workers' democ-