The introduction of the Euro on January I has given new urgency to new Labour's plans for a referendum on Britain's membership of the single currency. Blair thinks that the introduction of the Euro on the streets will open up a window of opportunity in which a referendum can be won as people its head. travel in the Euro-zone and see the benefit of a single currency at that level. This poses a challenge to the left in general and to the Socialist Alliance in particular -which should have a perspecit means we are opposed to a worse form We take this attitude to dif- then! ferent bourgeois governments: They put it this way: we don't just say that they are all capitalist. The idea that we could have been indifferent to the Thatcher governments of the 1980s or Berlisconi in Italy today turns political reality on When we say we are opposed to the single currency, this does not mean that we support the pound. It means that we are opposed to the alternative on offer at this time. We oppose a reorganisation tarism" Europe. No concessions to a transitional approach there the Socialist Party:
"The workers of the EU must reject attempts to withdraw 'their' nation states from this entity, but rather combine our forces more urgently and militantly to overthrow the bureaucracies in each state and in Europe as a whole. We want to build a Socialist United States of Europe with real cial part of this party. big corporations and miliThe CPGB argue that although the EU is indeed a reactionary institution, and that the Euro project is aimed directly at the European working class, they cannot call for a no vote because the campaign against it is reactionary as well.
Well, it depends which campaign the CPGB is talking about. If they are talking about the xenophobic camLetter from John In Socialist Outlook 51 the following statement appears in Alan Thornett's article on "The use of the word 'mass' is crucial. Whilst the SP calls for a new mass party, it is opposed to the formation of a new party. of the left which is not, at this stage, a mass party; for example the Scottish Socialist Party or a party on same lines in England -even though it originally welcomed the formation of the Socialist Labour Party by Arthur Scargill in the mid 1990s".
This is completely false. We do not oppose a new party of the left even if it falls far short of the term mass party. Neither do we oppose the SSP: in fact our section is a cruWe do not see the Socialist Alliance as being a party of the left, although it could have and may still develop in this direction. The SLP at the time of its launch had far more potential than the existing forces in the SA, and could have developed into a party of the left. We need to make the distinction between what are the objective conditions and what is needed to advance the working class. We do not see the development of a mass party as linear rather as a complex process with various forces and formations contributing to this development.
There can be no shortcuts however much will depend on exploiting the likely favourable objective conditions for socialist consciousness in the next period. I would expect an accurate reflection of the SP position from a serious organisation. I suggest you read or even review the latest pamphlet on the mass workers party.
Debate on the left Malcolm
democratic rights for all and free from exploitation by the