Editorial
Vote Socialist where you can - and Labour where you must
The coming General Election is very different from the 1997 election. Then the main preoccupation was to defeat the Tories after so many years of destruction of working class organisations. This time there will be the biggest left challenge for decades.
In 1997 many people had aspirations that Labour would improve things significantly. Others had fewer expectations, but some faith that ‘things could only get better’.
The disappointment that has followed has brought to the lowest-ever turn outs at local government and European elections. Millions of workers have stayed at home in solid Labour constituencies, while others have cast protest votes for green or nationalist candidates.
Where socialists and campaigners were able to put forward an alternative electoral platform, most notably in the first-ever elections for the Scottish Parliament and for the Greater London Assembly, they performed remarkably well.
Building on these successes both the Scottish Socialist Party and the Socialist Alliance have gone from strength to strength.
In this General Election every voter in Scotland will have the opportunity to vote for a party that puts the interests of working people first. It is a huge step forward that the Scottish Socialist Party are standing in every seat and building a fightback against new Labour’s Tory policies.
And in more than 90 seats in England, the Socialist Alliance will be on the ballot paper. This is a magnificent achievement for an organisation that has not previously stood in a General Election.
The Alliance is already reaching out to many people who had been Labour Party members for years and have become deeply disillusioned with the record of this Labour government.
In Newark in Nottinghamshire, for example, a core section of the Labour Party, including the former council leadership, has joined the Alliance. They will be standing a candidate at the election.
During the election campaign proper, the SSP and SA will be able to reach out to more disenchanted Labour voters than those we have so far linked up with.
At this stage of its development, the Alliance has rightly decided not to stand in the small number of constituencies where real left-wing Labour candidates are standing. It would be sectarian to do so when the Alliance is not in a position to stand in all seats.
In places like Islington North, Hayes and Harlington, Meriden and Hackney North, supporters of Socialist Outlook and many other conscious socialists will vote Labour with some conviction.
But even here, questions need to be asked. While a small number of MPs have consistently voted against the government on major issues such as asylum and lone parent benefits, they have failed to organise those who support them either inside or outside the party.
Voting against the government – which relatively few Labour MPs have done – or appearing on platforms of worthy campaigns is not sufficient. These MPs need to put themselves at the head of what resistance exists on the ground to the ravages that government policies are causing – whether on the question of privatisation, racism or international issues.
In other constituencies where there is neither a Socialist Alliance nor other credible left candidate we call on people to cast a highly critical vote for Labour.
We do so based on our analysis that while Blair intends to complete his transformation of the Labour Party, to make it into a straight capitalist party, he has not yet achieved this goal.
As well as supporting Socialist Alliance and SSP candidates, we think that people should vote for Arthur Scargill in Hartlepool and for other SLP or campaigning candidates where they are not standing against the Labour left and can mount a credible campaign.
We do not however call for blanket support for the SLP. The Socialist Alliance has made repeated requests for discussions with the SLP to try to reach some agreement around the election. These have been ignored.
The SLP have declared their intention to stand in a number of constituencies where they have virtually no members, and in some cases against either the Labour left or Alliance candidacies. That is not the way to build a fighting opposition.
We do not call for a vote for Green candidates, while recognising that many will vote for them to show their opposition to new Labour’s socialist policies. But while there are committed socialists within the Green Party, the Party itself has no solutions outside the framework of capitalism.
The undemocratic first past the post system in place for Westminster elections means it is unlikely that either the Scottish Socialist Party or the Socialist Alliance will see anyone elected on June 8. Tommy Sheridan, the SSP’s MP in the Scottish Parliament, won his seat on the basis of a form of proportional representation. In other European countries where the new left has had successes at the ballot box, proportional representation has been an aid to their victories.
We also know that the majority of Labour voters, however frustrated they are with Blair’s record, won’t yet have confidence that we can build a viable alternative.
We judge our success on the basis of the fact that a minority will be inspired by our existence. We are positive about the fact that in area after area we have been able to reach out to people that had become apathetic, to breathe new life into campaigns that had faltered, and see new ones come into existence.
We are committed to building a fighting opposition: and we are in this for the long term. We won’t go away after the election.
Blair will carry through his pledge to deepen the attacks on our living standards, our services, our civil liberties. In that context some of those who now dismiss our challenge will be won to our ideas.
The only way to turn the tide is to build a genuine opposition. The Scottish Socialist Party and the Socialist Alliance represent an idea whose time has come.