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Socialist Alliance

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From: The Socialist issue 210, 15 June 2001: Save Our Public Services

Search site for keywords: Socialist Alliance - Socialist - Socialist Party - Britain - Socialist Alternative

Advance For Socialist Candidates

THE GENERAL election saw good increases for Socialist candidates. The total Socialist Party vote in England and Wales (whether standing as Socialist Alliance or Socialist Alternative) was 10,363 - an average of just over 740 per candidate.

This is more than double the average vote our candidates received in the 1997 general election, when the average vote per candidate was 369.

Socialist Party councillor Dave Nellist received the highest vote of any socialist candidate in Britain with 2,638 votes.

In Walthamstow and Hayes and Harlington, Socialist Alternative candidates Simon Donovan and Wally Kennedy received 806 votes and 645 respectively.

This was a remarkable achievement, despite being denied the Socialist Alliance nomination by the Socialist Workers' Party.

In total, the Socialist Alliance in England and Wales received 57,533 votes - an average of 587 across the 98 seats it stood in.

Similarly, the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) doubled its average vote. In 1997 it achieved an average of 466 votes per candidate. The SSP got 72,518 votes. Its average was 1,007 in the 72 seats it stood in - representing 3.1% of the total votes cast in Scotland.

Seven members of the International Socialists (the Scottish section of the Committee for a Workers' International [CWI]) stood as candidates gaining 6,553 of those 72,000 votes.

Arthur Scargill's Socialist Labour Party (SLP), however, paid the price for its refusal to enter an electoral alliance and saw its vote drop. The SLP vote of 57,075 represented an average of just over 487, compared to its average vote of 793 in 1997.

Overall, across Britain the combined Left vote of Socialist Alternative, Socialist Alliance, SSP and SLP came to 188,814. This was achieved in just over 200 seats.

If that average had been maintained while standing in all 659 seats it would have ensured the Socialists secured 2.6% of the vote across Britain. This compares to about 72,000 votes from about 100 candidates in 1997.

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Finance appeal

The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.

The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.

The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.

The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.