Socialist Alliance AGM A time to build and a time to get better organised
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The Socialist Alliance Annual ] General Macing on March 1s
comes at a time of the biggest political radicalisation in Britain since the 1970s. The watchwords of the AGM should therefore be: it is time to build the Alliance, it is time to recruit new members, it is time raise the political profile of the Alliance and to increase its impact and influence.
The war is going ahead despite public opinion, despite its total lack of legitimacy and of any evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
The role of US imperialism is stripped of any pretence. It is a war launched for imperial domination of the globe through the control of oil and through military supremacy.
This is what is generating public opposition to the war. This is why large numbers • • • of people (particularly young people) are drawing conclusions from this and becoming politically active.
Hostility to the war raises the issue of imperialism, which in turn raises the issue of capitalism itself and of a socialist alternative.
In Britain the role of New Labour becomes ever more scandalous, with Blair refusing to point to any conditions whatever under which he would not support George Bush and his war. This slavish support of Bush is now the first principle of New Labour: the much vaunted UN is to be used as a vehicle for war ... or cast aside. Labour MPs are getting the jitters, and support for the Blair line is hard to detect in the Labour rank and file.
This is the situation even before the war on Iraq is fully under way.
It the same time the anti-globalisation movement has developed and radicalised, and has linked up to the anti-war movement. This was shown by the hugely successful European Social Forum in Florence and the I million strong demonstration against the war it generated.
But it is not just on the war that New Labour is breaking new ground in reactionary policy.
Asylum seekers are being left destitute on the streets; people are being locked up without trial, accused of unspecified terrorBlair has decided to take on and smash the fire fighters and the FBU, to stop the radical developments taking place in the unions ist activities; health and education are under attack; and the neo-liberal agenda of privatisation and deregulation is being taken to new levels.
Alongside all this Blair has taken the decision to take on and smash the fire fighters and the FBU, in an attempt to stop the radical developments which have been taking place in the unions in recent years.
New Labour has not only forced the fire brigade employers into a hard line stance, which they know the FBU will reject, but are making it clear that they are very happy to have a battle with the FBU, and that they intend to win it.
The issue is raised again of the relationship between the unions and New Labourthe Labour Party's relationship with the employers and big business.
All these developments are a total vindication of the decision to establish the SA as a national organisation at its founding conference in December 200l. Since then New Labour have moved further to the right, and the space to the left of Labour has widened.
f the Alliance had not been established,
then it would have to be established
now. This reflects a growing trend across Europe to establish broad socialist parties, containing both revolutionary socialists as well as those who do not consider themselves as such, as an alternative to the betrayals of social democracy.
However the AGM must also consider the problems of development of the SA, which have become clear over the past year. At the moment the Alliance is not going forward in line with the opportunities
It has had some good election results, it has done good work in the unions around the political fund - an issue which goes to the heart of the relationship between New Labour and the unions. It is organising a women's day school, and it has launched Left Turn as an ongoing publication. It has held a policy making conference on
It has not, however, made the transition into a strong campaigning organisation which can reorganise the left on a broad inclusive basis, and which can begin to fill the space to the left of Labour in a way we
It has not yet become an organisation which can adequately attract those, including young people, who are not only breaking with New Labour but are fighting against
This is partly because it is a difficult thing to do. Those breaking with
New Labour to the left will not automatically come to the SA. They need the confidence to come into an organisation in which at the present time the biggest components are the far-left organAlso, the SA is not the only organisation seeking to fill this space - the Greens are seeking to do it as well, as are other left organisations. People can go to the antiglobalisation or the anti-war movement without coming to the SA. Even the LibDems are playing for the softer edge of that
We have to convince those who see campaigning as adequate that whilst campaigning and protest are extremely important, in the end they are not enough. In the end there has to be a political, i.e. socialist, soluAnd for this we need a political organisation which not only challenges the actions of the Bushes and the Blairs, or even global capital, but which can present a rounded political and socialist alternative.
Despite the decisions of the founding conference, which took the SA towards a contra los contra migrant Irag! a The Alliance can build in line with the international revulsion against the party-type structure (national organisation with individual membership, elected leadership body, local branches, extensive political platform) the SA remains essentially an alliance of the component organisations and individuals activists (some of whom are colIt lacks the minimum organising base and public profile with which to make the decisions of the founding conference a reality. It has difficulty in acting as a party-type organisation - other than during election campaigns, when, given the nature of elections, it is more able to do so. This is an obstacle
f the SA does not move towards
becoming a party, but remains, as the kind', it will repeatedly come up against
It is not a matter of names or proclamations, it is a matter of functioning as a party, and that means in particular the constituent organisations become platforms in such a party and doing the bulk of their agitational work through the party - along the general
This implies a much bigger apparatus, the day-to-day functioning of leadership bodies
The Alliance is not in a position to make such a development at the present time. It needs more members, particularty independent activists, and new breakthroughs before it can take such a step. It needs to strengthen its organisational and financial
The AGM needs to adopt a set of priorities which can raise the profile of the Alliance, improve its effectiveness and draw
These must include: maximum involvement in the Stop the War Coalition and support for its initiatives and campaigns; full support for the firefighters; campaigning in the unions, including on the political fund, continue its initiative amongst women, continued involvement with the European conferences of the left, and organising for the
A new party, of course, might not come as a linear development through the Socialist Alliance: that is only one possibility. Bush/Blair war drive, as well as the growing anger at New Labour policy at home The political convulsions ahead might throw up other initiatives, of which the SA could
It is hard to predict what the war will do the Labour Party. Tam Dalyell is talking about a "bonfire of membership cards" -although not his own of course. There may well be resignations, but again it is hard to
Whatever the precise developments, it is clear that the war will raise anew the issue of a socialist alternative and open up a new constituency of potential supporters.
The same will arise in the unions, where the political impact of the war could be even greater than in the Labour Party. The firefighters' strikes at the end of last year raised the issue of the political levy and a political alternative to a new level: exactly the situaThe resumption of the strike is likely to be a bitterly fought battle which will raise this all over again and with new force. Andy Gilchrist was already saying that he would support something new along the lines of
have changed the political balance old social partnership consensus. Many of them do not look towards Labour for political representation, and some look towards an alternative left party - as yet undefined. Some see the current public sector alliance as some kind of step in that
There is therefore more than one way in which a new party to the left of Labour can emerge. The Socialist Alliance needs to be sensitive to these developments and stand ready to link up with them. This AGM must begin that preparation. This means taking full advantage of the opportunities opening up.
The Socialist Alliance needs to win those large numbers of people, particularty young people, who are opposed to the war and to what new Labour is doing, but are not ye
A strong campaigning Alliance can be the crucial step towards launching a party which can meet their aspirations and in which the
8 socla stret Prospects for 2003 The new world crisis stance February 2003