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War, terror, recession, poverty...

Global Crisis

Fight for a socialist world

NOOR MOHAMMED, aged ten, lies fighting for his life in an ill-equipped Afghan hospital. Agham, the village where he lived in Eastern Afghanistan, was reduced to rubble at the weekend by US B52 bombers.

Lois Austin

Noor is covered in bloodstained bandages, he has been blinded in both eyes and has lost his right arm and left hand.

A second village, Kama Ado, where the US authorities still try to claim "nothing happened" was also bombed. There are 40 fresh graves and the houses have been reduced to craters cut deep into the ground. It is estimated that as many as 115 men, women and children were killed. In total three villages were attacked by US warplanes at the weekend, killing hundreds.

These are the latest casualties in Tony Blair and George Bush's war which was supposedly meant to "civilise" the world. A war where the killing of innocents is frequent, as the US administration becomes more frantic to fulfil its spurious war aims and tries to sell this war to people in the West.

It's also a war where prisoners, who should be protected under the Geneva Convention, have been tortured, fire-bombed and massacred by their Northern Alliance and CIA captors.

Bush and Blair's war aims are not limited to their murderous campaign in Afghanistan. US military officials are currently discussing extending the war to Iraq, Somalia and other poor countries.

This war won't end terrorism, nor will it bring justice for the victims of the terrible attacks in the US on 11 September. On the contrary, it will intensify hatred for US and British imperialism and increase terrorism and the likelihood of new conflicts.

Capitalism causes war, poverty and terrorism. The economic crisis that now threatens to engulf every nation will further destabilise the world in which we live.

The collapse of America's seventh biggest conglomerate, Enron, shows the problems facing the world's largest economy.

Argentina's financial system is also at melting point. The savings of thousands of ordinary people could be wiped out. Unemployment stands at an all time high.

Violence is escalating in Israel/Palestine, with the possibility of all-out war. If this is the new better world promised by Tony Blair at the start of the war on Afghanistan, then we can do without it. The Socialist Party is fighting for a world free from war, terror, poverty and economic crisis.

We must end this society run in the interests of a small ruling elite and a few hundred big multinationals. Socialism means planning the resources of the world for the needs of the many. Join us in this struggle.

 

 

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Save The NHS

No to private sector vultures

DID YOU vote Labour at the general election in June? Would you back them again now? A new opinion poll by the GMB union says that half of those voters who supported New Labour then won't do so again unless Blair improves public services such as health and education.

77% of those polled said that hospitals and schools had either got no better or got worse since New Labour took office in 1997.

This week New Labour showed their real health priorities - giving private firms more chances to make profit out of ill-health. Health secretary Alan Milburn decided that the government would fund private health provider Bupa to run a surgical unit next to an NHS hospital.

Bupa will run, manage - and make profits from - an acute diagnostic and treatment centre. NHS patients will use it and taxpayers will pay for it.

Milburn says this move is in line with last year's "concordat" with "private providers". Then New Labour called the scheme "value for money" by making "better use of facilities in private hospitals", saying it would free up beds, staff, operations and money.

How would making profits for shareholders create "value for money" in the health service? Private hospitals and staff should be brought directly into the NHS.

New Labour have tried relying on private sector 'help' before. Britain's dirtiest hospitals are 'cleaned' by private-sector contractors - four out of the five trusts which run the ten dirtiest hospitals use private contractors to clean their wards.

Most of the NHS's capital spending, too, is done under the private finance initiative (PFI) but it doesn't bring new money into the NHS. The services provided by PFI are so expensive that hospitals have to cut beds and jobs in order to pay their bills.

Hospitals have to give repayments to the PFI consortium precedence over patient services. Barnet in outer London will pay £340 million over 30 years for a £55 million PFI hospital. In the longer term powerful private sector interests can dominate or even take over our hospitals.

No to private sector parasites! Health workers and NHS users must fight for a democratically run national health service, publicly run and financed and free at the point of use.

 

 

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Capitalism Offers No Solution

Afghanistan - A future of conflict and instability

ON THE same weekend that un-elected, unrepresentative delegates were meeting in Bonn to try and stitch up a political settlement for Afghanistan, US bombs slaughtered up to 300 Afghan civilians.

The 'official' death toll in the war so far exceeds 2,000; the real figure is undoubtedly much higher. Carpet bombing in the south of the country is creating a new refugee crisis and in the makeshift camps people are dying from hunger and cold. It's clear that the war is far from over.

The US administration care nothing about the humanitarian crisis; even the political discussions are considered a sideshow. As one US intelligence official explained "Our priorities have much more to do with finding bin Laden" (Time 3 December). It is to this end that the Marines have been sent in.

This marks a new stage in the war. The US have made it clear all along that, after the experience of Vietnam, they do not want permanently stationed troops to be dragged into a quagmire of conflict in Afghanistan. But 'finishing off' the Taliban and locating bin Laden could prove a complex operation involving unwanted longer term engagement and a serious risk of US casualties.

Whatever happens in the Bonn talks, it's on the ground in Afghanistan that the real power struggle is being waged. The attitude of many of the Northern Alliance forces is 'we did the fighting and now we are in control'. Bush and Blair assure us that things will be different this time; that there will be no repeat of the raping and massacres that took place last time these same people were 'in control'. Yet together US bombs and Northern Alliance troops massacred up to 600 Taliban prisoners in a fortress near Mazar-i-Sharif.

Warlords, military commanders and tribal chiefs are carving up Afghanistan between themselves. Bitter rivalry is already re-emerging as different warlords stake their claims within cities and provinces. At the same time, regional powers such as Iran and Pakistan are jostling to assert their influence inside Afghanistan. This is a recipe for future conflict. Capitalism cannot bring political or economic stability to Afghanistan. This can only be achieved through a struggle to change the economic and social basis of society in Afghanistan and internationally.

Turmoil and unrest

IN HIS Thanksgiving speech to US troops, Bush declared: "Afghanistan is just the beginning". British defence secretary, Geoff Hoon has said that he will back strikes against other countries "harbouring terrorists". 

How far they will go in extending military action is not clear at this stage. This war has already caused enormous turmoil and unrest internationally, especially in Arab and Muslim countries.

Recent events in Israel/Palestine (see below) graphically illustrate how the Western powers are responsible for creating crises internationally which cannot be resolved on the basis of capitalism. If Iraq were to become the next military target after Afghanistan, this would risk even more instability in the Middle East and beyond. King Abdullah of Jordan has described such a possibility as "a catastrophe".

Extending the war to Iraq would fracture the 'coalition against terrorism'. It would also increase support for the anti-war movements which have organised thousands on the streets against war in Afghanistan. A growing minority are becoming aware that military action cannot bring stability or end terrorism.

The potential exists to strengthen and broaden the anti-war movement, with roots in the workplaces, colleges and local communities. But the question of a political alternative is central to building any mass movement. Socialism is the only alternative to war and terror.

Israel/Palestine - On the brink of war

A WEEKEND of violence in which 25 Israelis - Jews and Arabs - were killed and hundreds injured by Hamas suicide bombers has brought the Middle East to the brink of war.

Cutting short his US visit, Israel's right-wing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's immediate response to the bombings was to blow up Yasser Arafat's (the Palestinian President) Gaza headquarters and attack several other towns - possibly a prelude to re-occupying the Palestinian Authority (PA) controlled areas.

Earlier, US secretary of state Colin Powell - a so-called 'dove' in Bush's administration - gave Sharon and the Israeli ruling class the green light to take military reprisals in the West Bank and Gaza.

Ominously, Sharon has repeated his description of PA areas as being "a terror-supporting entity" and blamed Arafat for the attacks. Government minister Avigdor Lieberman has called for Arafat's PA to be toppled.

However, these bellicose threats were too much for Israel's Foreign Minister Shimon Peres who again threatened to pull Labour out of the governing coalition.

Israeli attacks on the PA areas will only increase the death toll. Moreover, Sharon's military response could lead to a stepped-up cycle of violence, which would pit not just the Palestinians but the whole of the Arab world against Israel. This in turn could lead to an all-out war which could spill over into the whole of the region with bloody repercussions.

However, even though Powell's 'peace' mediator, General Zinni, has been effectively sidelined by the bombings, a new negotiated ceasefire at some stage couldn't be ruled out.

Despair and frustration

LEADERS OF the Islamist Hamas group said the two suicide bombings were in revenge for the Israeli assassination of Hamas's military leader Mahmoud Abu Hanoud two weeks ago.

In an attempt to head off the inevitable Israeli military response the beleaguered Yasser Arafat declared a state of emergency and arrested some militant activists. But such arrests won't satisfy Sharon and will only further enrage Palestinians. Since the start of the second Intifada (uprising) 14 months' ago support amongst Palestinians for these attacks on Israel is averaging around 70% to 80%.

It's unclear whether the strategy of Hamas et al is to continue its attacks inside Israel or to impose a ceasefire to prevent the PA collapsing.

These bombings and the support they generate reflects the deep despair and frustration amongst Palestinians subjected to the ongoing IDF repression and economic stranglehold of the PA areas, and the ever dwindling prospect of achieving an independent Palestine. Therefore for Arafat to take repressive action in order to satisfy US and Israeli demands risks losing what support he still has amongst Palestinians and even his own life.

So far, the Intifada has claimed the lives of over 800 Palestinians and 200 Israelis - a figure set to escalate following Israel's military response. This cycle of violence shows the failure of capitalism to resolve the underlying national question in this part of the world.

However, the bombings have outraged many Jewish workers and will strengthen support amongst sections of Israelis for reactionaries like Sharon and his policy of miltary retaliation. This can only make more difficult the task of forging an independent Palestinian state.

Israeli capitalism is in a deep crisis. Unemployment is at a record high and there has been a wave of public-sector strikes. What is required is the building of mass workers' organisations by both Israelis and Palestinians that fight for a working-class, socialist solution to the horrors of poverty, national conflict and war.

Only a socialist Israel and a socialist Palestine as part of a voluntary socialist confederation of the Middle East could guarantee democratic rights for all.

A statement by the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI) on the Middle East crisis is available on the CWI website. www.socialistworld.net

 

 

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Brown's Budget Won't End NHS Underfunding

GORDON BROWN'S budget promise of £1 billion more for the NHS next year seems at first glance to be a positive move in improving a desperately under-funded health service.

Jackie Grunsell

However, it would take over £20 billion to reach the European Union (EU) average health spending level (9.7% of gross domestic product).

Britain's NHS has been grossly neglected for decades. The Wanless report shows that compared with the EU between 1972 and 1998, this country has under-funded the service to the tune of £267 billion.

That's why staff in hospitals and practices are sceptical about the extra money. Ask any nurse, porter or receptionist what they think and they shrug their shoulders saying 'I won't hold my breath until I see some improvement with me own eyes'.

So far all New Labour's promises have resulted in nothing. No doubt this winter will see another beds crisis, people are still dying whilst they wait for heart bypass operations and there's still a postcode lottery on drugs and access to treatment depending on where you live.

This is the reality of the NHS for patients and those who work in it. What's more, since the announcement of the £1 billion, Tony Blair has begun backtracking on his commitment to meet European average health spending by 2005, saying it is a "broad aim" not a promise!

Greater inequality

OF COURSE the rest of New Labour's health agenda - its plans to push ahead with privatising services provided to the NHS - gets less attention. The private finance initiative (PFI) does not provide new money for public services as the government claims.

In fact services provided by PFI are more expensive so beds and jobs are cut in order to afford them. This 'modernisation' is already leading to poorer standards of care and greater inequality in the NHS. The cost of funding and subsidising these projects will quickly soak up any extra money from this budget and more.

Even the meagre amount of extra money Gordon Brown is offering has got to come from somewhere. As usual ordinary people will pay the price for decades of under-funding. The most likely sources are thought to be increased VAT or national insurance contributions.

Yet Brown managed to cut capital gains tax - a move that benefits the rich. People ask how we can afford millions to go to war in Afghanistan whilst patients still wait for hours on trolleys in corridors to be seen in A&E departments.

The goodwill of NHS staff is the only thing keeping the service going and many are getting burnt out and leaving the profession.

The government's attempts to recruit nurses have worked but they have failed to provide enough extra training places for those applying. Some are waiting 18 months to get on a course.

Once trained the problem is persuading them to stay. Better pay and conditions have to be a priority. However the government prefer to pay academics to do years of research to work out why people are leaving. Why not just ask them?

The other major flaw in Brown's spending plans is that a protracted recession would send all these promises out of the window and workers will be made to pay even more to maintain what little they have.

We need better funding for the NHS. But, on its own that isn't enough. There needs to be a complete rethink of the way things are run to meet patients' needs rather than make profits for private companies.

Bringing pharmaceutical companies into public ownership, run under democratic workers' control, would release billions of the profits these businesses make out of people's ill health.

The whole NHS would be run far better by groups of elected, accountable representatives of patients and workers, rather than bureaucrats who serve the interests of profit above patients.

New Labour have shown they are incapable of providing even minimal funding or effective planning for our NHS. The only alternative is socialism, which would provide the economic basis to give people a decent health service without discrimination.

 

 

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Private finance initiative

Why Our MP Changed His Mind

WAKEFIELD SOCIALIST Party has been campaigning for six years against PFI in the new Wakefield hospital development and in the NHS nationally. We have petitioned and lobbied Wakefield's MP David Hinchcliffe, chair of the Commons select committee for health.

Mick Griffiths, Wakefield and Pontefract Hospitals UNISON and Wakefield Socialist Party

Now in an introduction to the latest Catalyst think tank report Public Services and the Private Sector, Hinchcliffe writes: "We need to bring about a complete separation of the NHS from the private sector, for the sake of preserving and developing the system of collectivised health care that the majority of the British public remain committed to."

As recently as the June 2001 general election campaign, Hinchcliffe was still arguing that if a private financed deal was the only way to get a new hospital in Wakefield then we'd have to accept it!

We wholeheartedly endorse what Hinchcliffe says now. We must keep up the pressure to ensure that the Health Select Committee investigation actually leads to the forced removal of the private sector from public services.

A survey by Yorkshire and Humberside region of UNISON said that regional MPs, reflecting public opinion, overwhelmingly oppose privatisation. UNISON's regional secretary claims there's potential for a backbench rebellion on the issue!

Professor Allyson Pollock, one of the Catalyst report authors, has also produced several UNISON-commissioned reports forcefully putting the case against PFI.

Our branch has also commissioned one. Unlike previous reports which appeared after the event, ours is to be produced at a crucial time, during the negotiations. Management are bending over backwards to try and deliver an in-house best value preferred bid for certain support service provisions.

Hinchcliffe says we are in danger of a long-term take-over by powerful private sector interests, but the tide is starting to turn in our favour.

We must now gear up the anti-privatisation campaign locally and nationally. Drawing on each others' experiences and networking together, we can build a national campaigning strategy to force out the private parasites once and for all.

 

 

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March Against The Bosses' EU

Fight for socialism

Tens of thousands of people will be marching in Brussels on 14 December against poverty and cuts, and against the war in Afghanistan.

While the leaders of the capitalist EU are holding a summit, we will be opposing their support for US imperialism's war, and their policies of privatisation, low wages and cuts in benefits. Their measures are purely to advance the profits of the multinationals in Europe.

With the world economy now plunging into crisis, EU leaders will try to resort to further attacks on the living standards of ordinary people, so it is essential that we say: "enough is enough", and help to build a massive resistance to their policies and system.

We will also be voicing our opposition to attacks on civil liberties being carried out following 11 September in the US. In Britain Tony Blair is introducing imprisonment without trial for suspected terrorists; EU Commissioners are discussing measures against 'terrorists' which could be used against anti-globalisation demonstrators and workers taking strike action.

Socialist Party members in England and Wales will be joining the Committee for a Workers International (CWI) and International Socialist Resistance (ISR) contingent on the march. This will be a very lively contingent, with vehicles broadcasting music as well as providing platforms for speeches in at least eight different languages. Leaflets will be distributed in a number of different languages, stating the case not just against the capitalist EU, but arguing the need for a socialist alternative.

The following day, on 15 December, young people from all over Europe are taking part in a conference to launch a global anti-capitalist youth organisation. ISR in England and Wales has coaches going to Brussels that will arrive in time for the demonstration on 14 December and leave after the youth conference on 15 December.

If you would like to come on one of the coaches then contact ISR without delay to secure your place.

Phone 0208 558 7947 or e-mail:

againstcapitalism@hotmail.com

 

 

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Socialist Alliance conference setback

THE SOCIALIST Alliance (SA) conference on 1 December was a setback for socialist unity. With a narrow overall majority, the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and a handful of allies pushed through a new constitution. This will effectively transform the SA from a federal, inclusive organisation into another Anti-Nazi League-type SWP ‘front’, which the Socialist Party can no longer participate in.

Potentially, the SA could have played an important role in bringing together different socialist organisations, trade unionists and community campaigners. As workers respond to the deepening crisis that Blair’s second-term government faces – on public spending, growing job losses, the aftermath of the war on Afghanistan etc – a democratic and inclusive SA could have helped speed up the development of a mass alternative, a new workers party, to represent workers’ interests.

Now however, far from being able to fulfil that role, the SA could, like Arthur Scargill’s Socialist Labour Party (SLP) before it, become another complicating factor on the road to an independent working class political voice.

A sense of proportion

WHILE THE outcome of the conference was a setback, there is, however, a need for a sense of proportion. The SA, with just 1,690 members nationally, has not established itself as an authoritative force. 

In fact, the forces initially attracted to the SLP in 1995-96, including the figure of Scargill himself, were of greater social weight than the SWP and their allies who have succeeded in changing the character of the Socialist Alliance.

The early electoral successes of the SLP (Hemsworth, February 1996 – 1,193 votes, 5.4%; Barnsley East, December 1996 – 949 votes, 5.3%) compare favourably with the recent performances of the SA. Certainly, its electoral standing will not be enhanced by forcing out the Socialist Party, the most successful electoral component of the Alliance.

The Socialist Party, then Militant Labour, was also represented in discussions with Scargill on how the new party that he was proposing would be organised. Then we also argued for a federal structure, similar to the proposals the Socialist Party presented before the Socialist Alliance conference. 

Our proposals were not accepted by Scargill, however, and consequently the Socialist Party declined to participate in the new party, warning that Scargill’s approach would repel a new generation moving into political action, as proved to be the case.

Scargill’s refusal to adopt an inclusive approach was a setback for the prospects of building a broad, socialist alternative to New Labour, as is the refusal of the SWP to build a broad SA.

But in reality, the debate over the future of the SA is largely a dress rehearsal for the tumultuous events that lie ahead in Britain and internationally, that will put a new workers’ party on the agenda. 

The Socialist Party will push for electoral unity and, at same time, will work in any new networks that may emerge as the reality of life in the new SWP-‘Socialist Alliance Party’ becomes clear. And while striving for socialist unity, the Socialist Party will re-double its efforts in the trade unions, in community and social struggles, and on the electoral plane, to build the forces of socialism and support all steps towards a new mass vehicle for working class political representation.

What happened at the conference?

THE CONSTITUTION debate was organised into two distinct sessions. The first, immediately after the opening rally, was a debate on six alternative ‘stem’ constitutions, one of which was to go forward into session two for detailed amendments to be moved.

This was the most critical debate in the conference. The Socialist Party never insisted that only our proposed constitution could strike a balance between the rights of component political organisations of the SA and individual members.

There were many amendments which, if our ‘stem constitution’ had been passed, could have substantially modified the details of our ‘improved federalism’ approach but which would still have enabled us to remain in the SA.

Moreover, while voting, obviously, for our constitution first preference, the Socialist Party explicitly recommended a second preference vote for a modified version of the existing constitution which was being moved by independent SA member, Pete McLaren. While insufficient, in our opinion, to properly protect the rights of both component organisations and individual members, it had kept the Alliance on the road up to this point and was the bottom line for us.

Our willingness to compromise, however, made no impact on the SWP or their allies. Their proposed constitution, based on one member one vote (OMOV), in reality, takes away all rights from individual members and minority organisations because the SWP are currently able to mobilise enough people to outvote all other forces in the SA. But they were determined to push it through.

What was implicit in the constitution, was spelt out clearly in the contributions. The new executive of the SA, under the SWP constitution, will now be able to "disaffiliate local Socialist Alliances and remove individual membership or refuse to ratify candidate selection".

John Rees, SWP central committee member, made it clear that this power would be used to prevent Socialist Party members running as SA candidates while retaining control over their own propaganda and campaign. In a bizarre inversion of reality, electoral campaigns which have won the most votes were deemed ‘narrow and unsuccessful’ while those with less votes were ‘broad and inclusive’.

One speaker even demanded that there should be ‘no more Lewishams’ – i.e. a council which has two elected Socialist Party councillors!

All amendments with even a hint of ‘federalism’, however ineffective, were defeated. Even the modest proposal to limit the number of NEC positions held by members of any one political organisation to 40% was voted down as ‘institutionalising divisions’.

A new organisation

THE CONFERENCE itself was proof of what ‘one member, one vote’ really means in the SA as it exists today. In the run-up to the conference 23 local meetings had been organised to discuss the SA constitution, attended by, at most, 380 SA members. (This in itself shows the limited base of the SA).

While there was not a majority for our proposals in many of these meetings, neither was there a majority for the SWP’s constitution. The overwhelming mood was that the SWP, as numerically the largest organisation, had the responsibility to ensure that the SA held together.

This sentiment also explained the high vote (97 votes, 14.7%) for Pete McLaren’s constitution at Saturday’s conference which, together with the vote for the Socialist Party’s proposals (122 votes, 18.5%), amounted to a third of the conference.

But with 345 votes (52%) the SWP won a narrow overall majority of 34 and pushed through their proposals almost completely unamended.

As the final constitution was approved and, in effect, the AGM of a new organisation was about to begin, Dave Nellist in the chair announced a recess.

The Socialist Alliance, he argued, was now a different organisation to the one that the Socialist Party had helped to found nine years ago, and the Socialist Party couldn’t participate in the business of an organisation they were no longer members of.

 

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Appeal for socialist unity

Letter from the Socialist Party to the Socialist Alliance national executive

"THE SOCIALIST Party deeply regrets the decision of the 1 December Socialist Alliance conference to adopt the constitution sponsored by the SWP and others.

As we made clear in the run-up to the conference, we believe that enshrining a ‘majority-takes-all’ approach into the SA constitution would seriously curb the freedom of action, including electoral activity, of organisations participating in the SA, and others who might have joined in the future.

On this basis, as we made clear on Saturday, we felt we could not, with any honesty or integrity, work under the confines of the constitution you adopted.

However, as we also made clear, this decision does not mean that we will not work for socialist unity where that is possible.

We note that the Socialist Alliance has, as recently as this June, approached both the Socialist Labour Party (SLP) and the Greens to see if an electoral arrangement could be reached – if not to mutually sponsor candidates, at least to avoid electoral clashes.

In Hackney also, although the details are still a matter of contention, the local Socialist Alliance has discussed with the Communist Party of Britain (CPB), the publishers of the Morning Star, the idea of SA-sponsored CPB candidates in next year’s local elections.

In this light we urge you at the earliest opportunity to discuss with us the possibilities for establishing a committee for socialist electoral unity. In this way we may achieve, with any other socialist or trade union organisation that we can together involve, the greatest possible socialist unity in the May 2002 local elections and in any future by-elections.

Yours comradely,

Clive Heemskerk,

on behalf of the Socialist Party executive committee

 

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Sheffield Socialist Alliance

THE SHEFFIELD Socialist Alliance met on the Monday after the conference (3 December 2001).

A resolution was moved by Socialist Party members calling for early discussions, locally and nationally, between the SA, the Socialist Party, the SLP, and any other serious socialist or working class campaign "to try and achieve electoral agreement".

An SWP full-timer moved that the resolution be referred to the local Socialist Alliance steering committee but the meeting insisted on a vote and the resolution was passed.

 

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Irish Socialist Alliance dissolved

ON 23 NOVEMBER, the Socialist Alliance in Ireland was formally dissolved, one year after the first discussions to get it established took place.

The Socialist Party in Ireland, which has a TD (MP), Joe Higgins, in the Irish parliament, consistently attempted to establish a broader unity on the left as a step towards the formation of a mass workers’ party.

Joe was elected in 1997 as a Socialist Party candidate but worked in collaboration with other significant forces as part of a ‘Justice in Taxation’ coalition. Those forces, however, including the Tipperary TD Seamus Healy, decided not to participate in a Socialist Alliance at this stage, leaving the Irish SWP and the Socialist Party as the only significant organisations involved in foundation discussions. With no agreement reached, the Socialist Party declined to be formally involved in the Alliance which, however, the SWP and others launched earlier this year.

The experience of what happened next is instructive, particularly for the co-sponsors of the SWP’s constitution at Saturday’s conference – the International Socialist Group (ISG). In the words of some of their former co-thinkers in Ireland, the SWP "behaved as if the Alliance and its activities could be run in the same way as their own organisation. 

"They fought against attempts to draw the Socialist Party into co-operating with the Alliance. This resulted in a situation where the Alliance was seen – rightly – as no more than the ‘SWP plus a handful of others’, and therefore many good socialists refused to get involved" (Report to the European Anti-Capitalist Left Conference, Brussels, December 2001). The inevitable denouement followed.

 

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Preston lesson for SA

IN NOVEMBER 2000, the SA contested the Preston parliamentary by-election, polling 1,210 votes (5.7%) for its candidate – the Labour Independent councillor, Terry Cartwright.

This result was hailed then by the SWP as evidence that the SA had ‘arrived as a national electoral force’ but in the June general election the SA didn’t contest the Preston seat. Fellow Labour Independent councillor, and Socialist Party member, Paul Malliband, in a statement issued for Saturday’s conference, explains the reality of what has happened in Preston, and the lessons for the SA constitution debate:

"I have considered the proposals put forward by the various organisations in the pre-conference bulletins and have concluded that at this stage of development of the Socialist Alliance the best way forward would be to endorse fully the constitution put forward by the Socialist Party.

"The Labour Independent Group in Preston have consistently argued within the Lancashire SA (LSA) for a federal approach as per the original constitution, steadfastly retaining our own identity. As a group we would not support a move to a party structure at this time. We joined the LSA because it was ‘an alliance’, a forum of Broad Left groups operating through consensus on a united-front basis, with no one group dominating.

"We are only a small group and need protection from the larger organisations like the SWP who, through greater numbers at LSA meetings, have already turned it into what they now propose for the national organisation.

"In November 2000 we fought a parliamentary by-election in Preston. Terry Cartwright was selected by the LSA but then the SWP convenor tried to get the LSA to reverse that decision, even after we had released it to the press. I was appointed as the election agent only to be constantly ignored by the SWP faction during the campaign.

"Whilst they marched and flag-waved, the experienced campaigners got down to the serious business in what we viewed as our strong areas. The outcome was a saved deposit for the LSA.

"That the bulk of this vote came from our established roots was confirmed in the county council elections in June 2001, when the Labour Independent Group alone stood Terry in a county division which basically consisted of two of the 13 electoral wards that made up the Preston parliamentary constituency.

"Once again, as in the November by-election, but this time with the general election on the same day, we polled 1,200 votes. In comparison the LSA were busy in Blackburn yet, with all the resources of the organisation plunged in there and no help offered to us whatsoever, the LSA managed to poll just 532 votes (1.31%), getting beaten by a member of Scargill’s SLP who only announced that he was standing at the close of nominations.

"The Socialist Alliance should work to its strengths and not the pipe dreams of a dominant faction. Experience of the local area should be embraced not shunned. The SWP do not have a mandate for what they propose within the Alliance and they certainly do not have any authority to speak on behalf of the Lancashire SA as they have not even attempted to consult the membership or called any meetings to air their views.

"Should the SWP proposals be adopted, the wider appeal of the Alliance to other groups and individuals will be lost and set back our cause considerably".

 

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THE Executive Committee of the CWI (Committee for a Workers' International - the international socialist organisation to which the Socialist Party is affiliated) recently met in Belgium. Representatives from 21 sections discussed world economic and political developments and the work of building the CWI in each country. EC member JUDY BEISHON gives some examples of how the CWI is growing.

 

Building The Forces Of International Socialism

United States

CWI MEMBERS in the US, organised in Socialist Alternative, responded rapidly to the new situation following 11 September. A full statement on the terrorist attacks was printed and sold as a pamphlet. Public meetings were organised in eight cities.

In Seattle, San Francisco, Oberlin, Boston, New York, Minneapolis, Amherst and Chicago, CWI members helped with the formation of anti-war coalitions.

The New York branch of Socialist Alternative also organised workplace meetings to discuss the events, and intervened in colleges. In Oberlin and Seattle, comrades organised student walkouts of classes. Over 200 copies were sold of the party's political statement and paper on the 10,000-strong anti-war demonstration in Washington DC on 29 September.

Most anti-war coalitions around the country adopted three slogans proposed by Socialist Alternative: 'stop the war', 'no to racist scapegoating' and 'defend civil liberties'

Nigeria

TWO AND a half years after the end of military rule in Nigeria, the hope held by the mass of people that civilian rule would bring improved living standards, freedom and peace has turned into disappointment.

All the three registered political parties only agree on one thing, the need for neo-liberal capitalist policies - which means attacks on the living standards of ordinary people.

Political violence and ethnic and religious clashes rooted in the acute failings of capitalism are once again on the increase.

The CWI-affiliated party - the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) - is establishing itself as a serious Left force in the trade unions and student movement, fighting against attacks by the employers and government and presenting a socialist alternative.

A trend in the recent period has been for groups of workers and students to approach the DSM comrades for help with their problems rather than their unions. In one case, the DSM organised a picket of a small factory in Lagos whose owners are notorious for depriving workers of their wages. As a result of this intervention, the workers received most of their outstanding wages, they gave a donation to the DSM and four joined the DSM.

The DSM has increased its membership by 27% over the last year, has set up five new branches and has doubled the print run of its paper.

Brazil

IN BRAZIL, as well as working in key trade unions in Sao Paulo, members of the CWI-affiliated organisation Revolutionary Socialists (RS) initiated the MSE ('movement for those without education'), an organisation of youth who are campaigning against university tuition fees and for the right of all young people to higher education.

MSE has organised two university occupations this year in the largest university in Brazil and has managed to prevent the university management on two separate occasions from carrying through privatisation plans. The RS also participate in the Union of Secondary School Students and was involved in forcing the government to concede an extra 55,000 university places.

Germany

WE HAVE already reported in The Socialist that CWI members in Germany were involved in setting up a school students committee against the war, which organised a 5,000-strong school students strike in October. As a result of their anti-war work, comrades in SAV, the CWI-affiliated organisation, more than trebled the sales of their paper in October, and have increased their membership. They reported that there are good opportunities in eight cities for setting up new SAV branches in the coming months.

CIS

(Commonwealth of Independent States - countries of the former Soviet Union.)

THE CWI has had particularly rapid growth in the Ukraine, with members now in 15 cities. At the end of October, 60 members took part in a CWI conference and made plans to launch a new party. While we are growing, the other left parties in the Ukraine, all of which have their roots in the former Communist Party, are in crisis.

It was reported that members in Russia are involved in "an incredible amount of public work", opposing the government's new anti-labour law and fighting the introduction of local telephone charges, amongst other work. They reported that they are presently discussing with a number of people who are interested in joining the CWI.

South Africa

MEMBERSHIP OF the CWI in South Africa has doubled over the last year. The members report that the anti-privatisation general strike in September has altered the political landscape.

With a background of the government pursuing blatantly capitalist policies and attacking the trade union federation Cosatu, there is increasing interest by workers and young people in the campaigning work of CWI members.

CWI members were involved in the founding of the Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF) 18 months ago and have played a key role in developing its work. Community structures such as the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee resulted from the work of the APF.

CWI members have called for mass non-payment of electricity, and this has been taken up in local communities. The CWI comrades in South Africa are highly respected for the work they are doing and are poised to grow significantly.

Northern Ireland

YOUNG CWI members in 'Socialist Youth', have played an important role in fighting against sectarianism. Recent surveys amongst youth have shown sectarianism to be on the increase. Socialist Youth has organised a campaign against sectarian attacks and killings, and courageously campaigned on the streets against the recent sectarian protest outside the Holy Cross primary school.

Every week, new enquiries are received from young people interested in joining Socialist Youth. The Socialist Party (affiliated to the CWI) has been doing very successful campaigning work against low pay, with their stalls selling on average 100 papers.

They have also done successful work in the Northern Ireland Public Service Association (NIPSA), with four members being elected onto the leading body of the union.

Southern Ireland

THE SOCIALIST Party in Southern Ireland held one of its most successful conferences ever during the last weekend of October. The mood was reflected in the collection which raised Ir£13,500.

The recent dramatic worsening of the economic situation in that country will inevitably lead to increased questioning of the capitalist system, and searching for an alternative. CWI members are well placed to explain the need for socialism, with a growing membership in their youth organisation, and with CWI member Joe Higgins in the Dail (parliament).

Dublin airport shop steward and Socialist Party member, Clare Daly, is presently at the forefront of a battle against 2,000 Aer Lingus redundancies, and has gained a huge amount of publicity for her stand and approach.

Belgium

THE HOSTING of European Union meetings over the last six months by the Belgian government has provided plenty of opportunity for CWI members (Left Socialist Party) to intervene in demonstrations and to recruit new people.

They formed the biggest political contingents on the demonstrations against the bosses' EU in Brugge and Leuven in September and organised a anti-EU / Afghan war demonstration in Gent, in October, of 2,500 school students.

They have recruited members in six new areas and have formed three new branches of their party.

 

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