A new opportunity for the left

John Morrissey, co-ordinator of The Way Ahead -- the left current in the Green Party -- and a past chair of the Green Party Executive, argues that Blair's victory in the Labour Party gives socialists the opportunity to build something better.

Life in the Labour Party is pretty grim these days, they tell me. Comrades weep into their pints down at the Labour Club, gloomily contemplating whether to shred their membership cards. Yet -- paradoxically -- the left outside Labour has rarely been more confident or more buoyant.

The question which has dogged us for years -- whether to work in, through or alongside Labour, or whether to build the alternative to it -- is at last solved. As former MP Dave Nellist told the Network of Socialist Alliances at its Conference in March, New Labour is "now an openly capitalist party with a big business agenda." A burden has been lifted from our shoulders. Thank you, Tony Blair.

Another reason for optimism is the advent of proportional representation. Under PR the Scottish Socialist Alliance is set to gain seats in the Scottish Parliament. The likelihood of the Green Party sending MEPs to Strasbourg next year is small, but not nil. There are problems: the PR systems introduced are rigged, engineered to exclude small parties. But a bandwagon is unmistakably rolling.

As Blair's project to build a Christian Democratic coalition of the centre gathers pace, the emergence of a left opposition alliance is now almost inevitable.

The immediate problem is that the potential opposition is inchoate: from Socialist Party newspaper sellers to anarchist eco-warriors, from Green Party politicos to peace movement veterans. Not all these groups are on the best of terms. The question is whether the present culture of "openness" and "non-sectarianism" will hold, or whether we will fall back into our bad old ways.

The more fundamental issue is whether this potential alliance yet has any political basis, whether we all agree sufficiently on the issues to make it work. The present basis is little more than "my enemy's enemy is my friend". We agree what we are against -- rapacious exploitative globalised capitalism (and Tony Blair) -- but do we have sufficient consensus on what we are for?

Three emergent groups attempting to pull the strands together are the Network of Socialist Alliances, Green Left and the Independent Labour Network. Representatives of those organisations gathered in Sheffield in April and agreed -- tongues only partly in cheeks -- to form a "triple alliance".

There are about 20 local Alliances in England, with separate Alliances in Scotland and Wales. They are autonomous and adapt their activities to local circumstances. Dave Nellist stressed the importance of building unity by campaigning on issues: his Coventry Socialist Alliance has campaigned against housing privatisation, hospital closures and the Job Seekers Allowance.

There is no national policy on whether local Alliances should contest elections. Some, like Manchester, focus on brokering agreements between existing parties. In contrast, the ad hoc Committee of the London Alliances announced a target of 100 local candidates this year. However, many considered this irresponsible and adventurist: a couple of dozen is more likely.

The consensus is to avoid quick fixes and short cuts. One such which will likely not materialise is a Green-left assault on New Labour in next year's Euro elections, the first to be held in Britain under PR. Such "rainbow lists" were advocated by Hugh Kerr and Ken Coates when they quit Labour.

But the Green Party had already decided to stand full lists of its own candidates and saw no reason to change. A fringe meeting of 120 representatives at the Green Party Spring Conference welcomed Hugh Kerr and the opportunity to work with him in the future, but politely declined the offer of co-operation in the Euros. Coates and Kerr probably misjudged the position of the Green Party and over-estimated the present electoral enthusiasm and confidence of the left.

In the long term however prospects for such a Red-Green coalition have never been more favourable. Green Left, an organisation constructed with painful difficulty over the past three years, now provides a route to draw in both party Greens and a layer of the direct-action movement. It too seeks to build unity through campaigning on issues -- in its case on economic globalisation. The ILN has the potential to reach out to disaffected members of the Labour Party.

There will inevitably be tension between those who -- ignoring the dreadful lesson of the Socialist Labour Party -- wish to rush ahead, and those who want to delay until some mythical objective material circumstances are right. At this stage it is probably correct to err on the side of caution. It will take time to build the alliances, the infrastructure and the platform, and above all the confidence and trust. But that cannot take forever.

Revolutionary theory is now mostly redundant, but at least it teaches us that historic opportunities must be grasped. Tony Blair's intention is to bury the left. Ironically he may be remembered as the person who gave it new unity and life.

previous article ·  May '98 index of LLB ·  write to LLB ·  LLB home page ·  next article