here is info on a Socialist organisation in the UK that I've heard about can I hear your feed back about them comrads?
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On February 5, the English Socialist Alliance was wound up as a
national organisation at a conference called for that purpose. The
alliance, which drew to its banner all the main English far-left
organisations, had been a viable left unity project for almost 12
years. Dave Riley interviewed Andy Newman of the Socialist Unity
Network about the closure.
Newman was a national executive member of the Socialist Alliance. He is
a candidate in the forthcoming general election backed by the Socialist
Alliance branch in his town, which has continued despite closure of the
national organisation. Newman is also member of the national steering
committee of the Stop the War Coalition.
What is the Socialist Unity Network?
We are a network of socialists committed to left unity. This [was
formed by] non-aligned members of the Socialist Alliance national
executive, but some others have joined, including some prominent
members of the Socialist Alliance from a left Labour background. We
seek to provide a forum for friendly debate through our website, but we
also try to coordinate activity where appropriate. We do not seek to be
a group competing with other left groups, and we have no democratic
centralist discipline.
What was the promise and achievements of the English Socialist
Alliance?
The context is the drive towards neoliberalism by the Labour Party over
the last decade that has left many thousands who used to argue a left
social-democratic agenda within that party without a natural home. Good
evidence of this potential is that Ron Davies, a former Labour cabinet
minister, and John Marek, a former Labour MP, have collaborated with
some members of the far left to create Forward Wales - the Welsh
Socialist Party, which is broadly modelled on the Scottish Socialist
Party.
At one stage it looked like the Socialist Alliance would realise this
potential, for example when Liz Davies - a hard left member of the
Labour Party's national executive - resigned from the LP and joined
us.
At the 2001 general election we enjoyed the participation of almost the
whole of the English left, and contested nearly 100 constituencies. In
many towns we really did break down the old futile barriers between the
left groups and comrades started very fruitful cooperative work.
As recently as January 2004 we organised an excellent trade union
conference. Mark Serwotka, the general secretary of the civil servants
union PCS, was a member of the Socialist Alliance, and Matt Wrack who
just won assistant general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU),
was a Socialist Alliance member.
What impact has the determined commitment of the British Labour Party
to the Iraq occupation had on the course of left unity in England? Has
there also been a growth of support for the Greens as a consequence?
Some individuals left the Labour Party over the Iraq war, but very few.
The main establishment parties, both Tories and Labour, agree on the
issue of the war, so it is less of a political issue for the mainstream
media than it should be. Unfortunately, the Tories seem to be making
race and immigration the main election issue, and over this issue
Respect and the other left candidates are correctly taking a very hard
anti-racist line, but that is hardly electorally popular.
Actually, it is not the Greens, but the Liberal Democrats who have been
the main electoral beneficiaries of the anti-war vote. My own contacts
with the Greens suggest that they are hardly better off than the left.
They are only marginally more successful electorally than us, and
suffer tiredness and ageing membership, having failed to make any
breakthrough. As they are only an electoral party they don't have much
else to sustain them.
How successful - or not - was the Socialist Alliance in regard to
its potential?
We came nowhere close to our potential. The Scottish Socialist Party
has about 3000 members today in a country of just 5 million. If we had
the same impact in England we would have had nearly 30,000 members,
comparable to the Communist Party at its height of influence. Four
years ago, there was a mood that we were going in the right direction,
whereas the last 18 months has been bad, and some good people who have
dropped out or become very bitter may be hard to win back.
What were the factors bearing down on the Socialist Alliance that
limited its success?
There was a big cultural gap between some comrades from the Labour
Party, and those in the Leninist organisations that caused some
problems.
The Socialist Party simply walked out in 2001 when they didn't get
their own way over a constitution, which was the start of the loss of
innocence. But the Socialist Workers Party, as the largest single
component party, tended to blow hot and cold, partly because there is a
poorly concealed but not publicly expressed disagreement amongst the
leadership. I believe the [SWP's] ambiguous theoretical formulations
such as ''united front of a special type'' paper over the
cracks.
In particular, the SWP put the Socialist Alliance completely to one
side in the lead up to the Iraq war. I was in the SWP at the time, and
I was instructed in no uncertain terms that I should prevent the
Socialist Alliance having a profile in the local anti-war movement -
which I ignored. At the same time, other leading SWP comrades praised
the way our local Socialist alliance branch kept its profile high
What impact did the formation of Respect, the Unity Coalition, have on
the Socialist Alliance?
Respect has caused considerable damage to the left. This was not
inevitable, but the SWP acted as if anyone who was not immediately
convinced about Respect was an enemy. My observation is that very few
members of the Socialist Alliance have joined Respect. Although Respect
has a nominally higher membership than the Socialist Alliance had, it
has far fewer activists, and minimal branch structure.
Respect has made considerable progress in some areas, particularly with
Muslims, who (more than the rest of the population) perceive the war as
the big issue. It is an achievement that some prominent members of
Muslim organisations have publicly associated themselves with the far
left.
In particular in Tower Hamlets, in London, Respect does seem like a
vibrant organisation, and there are forces in Respect there who
understand it needs to be more than an electoral coalition. And because
Respect is the only far-left challenge to New Labour nationally, it has
also gained some support from Fire Brigades Union branches and regions,
because that union has broken from Labour. So whether it is fruitful to
participate in Respect depends where you live.
What sort of unity are we talking about?
I think most of the ideological and organisational barriers between
socialists today are historical baggage. We should work together to
solve the day-to-day problems that the movement and the struggle throw
up, this can best be done with the organisational form of a broad
socialist party, but the existence of such a party is not a
precondition for cooperation.
Is Respect a socialist project? Do you think that left unity should be
built or can it be done much more generally?
In my opinion, Respect presents what is objectively a minimal socialist
program. The problem is not its program, but the social content of the
organisation, and its trajectory towards being merely a front
organisation for the SWP. The SWP would love Respect to have a mass
membership, but are not prepared to loosen their control to empower
that to happen.
More generally I believe left unity can only be built through long term
practical cooperation between socialists over concrete issues; and that
inevitably means also working with non-socialists. It is not possible
simply to proclaim a socialist party; people need to be patiently won
to the idea.
What is the Socialist Greens Unity Coalition?
For the forthcoming general election a number of socialist
organisations and individuals who are putting forward socialist
candidates have agreed on some minimal cooperation, for example,
avoiding seat clashes, and publicity. We have also sought to
collectively negotiate with the Greens and Respect about possible seat
clashes. We will see what happens in the longer term.
You yourself moved for the dissolution of the Socialist Alliance at its
recent final conference. Why did you do that?
It was controversial, but over the last year the Socialist Alliance
branches had been effectively demobilised. In some cases, comrades have
just become demoralised by the uncertainty caused leading up to the
launch of Respect. In other cases, SWP members have packed meetings and
voted branches out of existence. There is no realistic prospect of
reviving the Socialist Alliance as a grassroots organisation in face of
hostility from the SWP, and remember the SWP are past masters of the
false polarization ''you are either with us or against us''; so
there was a real danger that continuation of the SA as a rump national
organisation would simply unite people on the basis of opposition to
the SWP - which makes left unity harder.
So where does left unity go to now in England?
The objective need for a broad socialist party exists whether or not
any particular initiative succeeds. We need to build left unity from
the bottom up, by working in our own communities and unions: there is
no shortage of issues to campaign over. Until the general election is
over most comrades are going to be in their entrenched positions, but
afterwards there will be a possibility of opening up a debate.
website is at
<
http://www.socialistunitynetwork.co.uk
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