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Workers who are organised in trade unions will play a key role in the formation of a new party.

The fight for the repeal of the anti-trade union laws is likely to be central to the formation of a new party as it was in the early days of the Labour Party.

However, a new party would also have to stand for the rights of millions of low-paid workers who are unorganised.

An increase in the measly minimum wage is a central issue for these workers.

This must include the fight for the rights of young people, most of whom have not yet had any contact with trade union organisation.

It must also include standing for the right to equal pay for the many workers from other countries, most recently Eastern Europe, who have come to Britain and are generally expected to work for less pay, over longer hours and in worse conditions than other workers.

The only way to prevent a ‘race to the bottom’ is to fight alongside those at the bottom and demand they are lifted up and to campaign against any attempts to use those workers to divide and weaken the whole working class.

What is possible has been shown in Ireland last year where, with the assistance of the Socialist Party, Turkish immigrant workers - employed by the Gama construction company - who had the bulk of their wages illegally withheld, were able to win thousands of euros in back pay, at the same time as revealing to the world a cesspit of similar scandals.

In the aftermath of the Gama strike, the Irish Ferries dispute erupted with 100,000 workers taking part in demonstrations during a national half-day strike demanding decent pay for immigrant workers on Irish Ferries.

However, we do not think that a new workers’ party could, or should, limit itself purely to workplace issues.

Other aspects of working-class people’s lives – including the fight to defend and improve public services – particularly housing, education and health, which are currently suffering the hammer blows of New Labour’s attacks, will have to be taken up urgently by a new party.

All three mainstream parties are in favour of privatisation, which benefits big business and the government spending figures, but leaves us with an empty shell where we used to have public services.

A new party would have to fight against cuts and privatisation and for the bringing of our public services into democratic public ownership.

A new party should also stand in the best traditions of the workers’ movement in recognising that ‘unity is strength’ and that it is essential that the workers’ movement as a whole fights for the rights of oppressed minorities.

Broader international issues will also be important.

In trying to prevent the Iraq war over 30 million people demonstrated in February 2003 in the biggest simultaneous movement in world history.

Here in Britain more than two million marched.

On the day that war started, tens of thousands of school students engaged in their first ever political act when they marched out of school, often facing police intimidation or outright brutality, and demonstrated against the war.

Any new party will have to aim to win this new generation – both through its fervent opposition to the brutal foreign policies of Bush and Blair and through taking up the domestic issues which most affect young people.

And a new party will have to fight, not just to defend the rights of young people now, but to prevent the destruction of the planet in order to protect the future of the next generation.

Capitalism is based on the unplanned, relentless drive for profit.

To seriously develop alternative forms of energy – such as wind, wave, geothermal or solar power – requires cooperation and planning.

It means putting the needs of humanity and the planet before profit.

Capitalism, based upon the blind forces of the market, is therefore incapable of taking the action needed to save our planet.

An essential part of the work of a new party will be to campaign on these issues.

Just as the programme of a new party will come out of discussion and debate, we believe it would be wrong, at this early stage, to attempt to decide all the details of the structure or every aspect of a new party.

However, if it is to be successful, it is crucial that a new party learns the lessons of history – including the federal nature of the early Labour Party which brought together many different organisations and trends, preserving the rights of all to organise and argue for their particular points of view.

Conversely, the history of attempts to launch new formations in the last decade, such as the Socialist Labour Party (SLP), demonstrates that an undemocratic, top-down approach will not work.

The young people who are becoming active in struggle in the 21st century correctly have a horror of bureaucracy.

Their experience of the betrayals of New Labour and the right-wing trade union leaders, combined with the effects of the collapse of the Soviet Union - which capitalism worldwide falsely equated with genuine socialism - mean that democracy is particularly vital to the new generation.

It is crucial that a new party, and any pre-party formations, be open and welcoming to all those who want to work together against the neo-liberal onslaught on the working class.

This means that all groups and individuals, provided they are in agreement with the basic aims of the party, should have the right to democratically organise and argue for their point of view.

Where one organisation is initially numerically dominant, we need to find ways to make sure that the views of other currents and trends are heard.

It is only this very open and democratic approach which will ensure that a new formation is attractive to trade unionists, community and environmental campaigners, and anti-war activists.

Most importantly it will assist in reaching out to workers and young people who are not yet active in struggle.

In this way we can unite the strongest possible forces to build a powerful working-class party that is capable of effectively opposing the anti-union laws, cuts, privatisation, environmental degradation and war.

We believe that such a party would represent a fundamental break with the big-business parties which currently dominate politics, giving workers the opportunity to resist the neo-liberal capitalist agenda and fight for a socialist programme – including a living minimum wage, full trade union rights and for fully funded, democratically controlled public services.

The Socialist Party sees a new party as a beginning, not an end.

There can be no doubt that a mass workers’ party, organised on a national basis, would have a huge effect on raising the confidence of working-class people in Britain.

However, it will be a step forward only in so far as it represents the interests of the working class.

We have no interest in creating yet another big-business party like New Labour.

And even before the Labour Party was completely ‘Blairised’ its leadership repeatedly acted in the interests of big business once in office.

In reality, while it was undoubtedly a workers’ party at its base, it was a party of big business at the top.

We are not proposing to build a new party with the same faults as ‘old Labour’.

However, it would be naïve to imagine that it is possible to ‘guarantee’ the future of a party before it is even born.

The best ‘guarantees’ that can be offered are founding the party on sound political foundations, with democratic structures and an active membership.

The Socialist Party will do all we can to make sure that a new party is founded in this way, and that it develops in a healthy direction.

Socialist Party members who stand for public positions, such as MPs and councillors, including within any new formation, will take only the average wage of a skilled worker in the area they represent.

We believe that this policy can play an important role in making sure the party develops in a healthy way and that its representatives remain in touch with ordinary working people.

We would argue for others in a new formation to adopt the same policy.

In the past, when we had three socialist MPs, they took only the average wage of a skilled worker.

Today in Ireland, Socialist Party MP, Joe Higgins, also takes the average wage of a worker.

Even the tabloid press has felt compelled to describe him as a socialist ‘that money can’t buy’.

He recently proved his principles again when, along with thousands of local activists, he organised a campaign against the introduction of an unfair tax, the bin tax.

As a result of standing up for his principles and taking part in a peaceful protest, he and Socialist Party councillor, Clare Daly, were sent to prison for a month by the Irish courts.

Continued...