New electoral coalition of unions and left groups

OVER RECENT months meetings have taken place of the participants in the 'No2EU-Yes to Democracy' European election coalition to see whether another alliance could be constructed to contest the forthcoming general election. Informal discussions have also been held with some left trade union leaders not involved in No2EU.

No2EU was a coalition of the RMT transport union, the Socialist Party, the Communist Party of Britain (CPB), the Alliance for Green Socialism, and others, explicitly assembled early this year to fight June's European election.

This was the first ever national election challenge by a trade union, the RMT, since that union's predecessor helped establish the Labour Party over one hundred years ago. It attracted as candidates important representatives of workers in struggle, including Lindsey oil refinery strike committee members and Visteon convenors fighting closure of their plants.

The coalition won 153,000 votes which, along with the vote for Arthur Scargill's Socialist Labour Party, was 2.2% of the total poll (one third of the BNP vote). While not a breakthrough, No2EU was still an important first step towards independent working class political representation.

With the added support this time, in a personal capacity, of Brian Caton, the general secretary of the Prison Officers Association (POA), and leading national officers of the PCS civil servants' union - and with other union figures likely to come on board - the basis is there for a credible general election challenge.

The Socialist Party believes that Labour has been transformed from a 'capitalist workers' party' (a party with pro-capitalist leaders but with a democratic structure that allowed its working class base to fight for its interests) into the capitalist New Labour. This does not mean, however, that in the general election many workers will not vote Labour as the 'lesser evil' in the absence of a clear left alternative (in contrast to Germany, for example, with the existence of Die Linke to the left of the SPD).

This reflects the fear of what a Cameron government would mean - similar to someone instinctively raising an arm to ward off a blow. But unfortunately, a fourth-term New Labour government will offer no effective protection against the effects of the capitalist economic crisis. With New Labour now fundamentally no different to the Tories and the Liberal Democrats, the only certainty is that workers will face a torrent of blows from whichever party, or combination of parties, forms the next government.

To put it another way, there can be quantitative differences between the parties' policies, for example on exactly how deep public spending cuts will be, when they will be made, and where the axe will fall. But to effect a qualitative change in British politics, to provide a vehicle to resist the coming 'savage cuts' and the other effects of capitalist crisis, requires the development of independent working class political representation.

The debate between the capitalist parties over the role of public spending in a cyclical economic downturn is not completely phoney. It reflects conflicting positions within the capitalist ruling class on how best to attempt to preserve their system. But that is different to a clash between parties committed to defending capitalism and a party that starts from the interests of the working class or at least, in the case of 'old Labour', which could potentially be forced by its working class base to resist the capitalists' demands.

The existence of such a party today would transform the political situation, including forcing the capitalist parties to shape their actions in relation to it. New Labour's timid 'Keynesianism-lite' (at least in comparison to the Tories) does not make it a vehicle for workers' representation, revealed once again by its efforts to break the Communications Workers Union as a prelude to the casualisation and privatisation of Royal Mail.

A general election challenge building on the No2EU coalition, while it will be able to attract significant new support, will not fully provide the necessary alternative. But it would be another important step forward. It would also have an impact on post-election developments. Whether there is a Labour victory or defeat there will be a reckoning in the trade unions on how workers' interests can be defended, and possibly even a pale reflection of this inside the rump Labour Party in the event of a crushing defeat.

An election coalition potentially drawing in the most combative sections of the working class in defence of jobs, public services and workers' rights, would be well placed to shape this discussion.

Crawley SP support postal workers

Crawley Socialist Party members in Crawley town centre collecting signatures to support the postal workers.

The privatisation of the post office is bad news for all users of the postal service. If you think the strike is inconvenient, imagine what the abolition of the royal mail and its replacement with private companies whose only motivation is profit would be. Certainly they would not be interested in providing a service and only the most profitable bits of the postal service would remain.

Who do you trust to tell the truth: postal workers or Lord Mandelson?