Socialist Workers Party delegates meeting

Big challenge for socialists

DELEGATES FROM Socialist Workers Party (SWP) branches across Britain met on Sunday. They discussed how socialists should respond to exciting and challenging political developments in Britain and around the world. CHRIS BAMBERY introduced the day's debate: "THE SITUATION three years into a Labour government is fantastically favourable for revolutionary socialists. Look at the election results, particularly in London. There is a real polarisation, and a disintegration of Labour's traditional base. There was no major shift from Labour to the Tories. Rather it was Labour voters not voting.

In areas like London North East some 25 percent of the electorate voted to the left of Blair-for Green and socialist candidates. The polarisation is predominantly to the left. The success of the London Socialist Alliance (LSA) is unprecedented-to get such votes from a standing start.

The LSA's success has implications up and down the country. It incorporated those wider forces of people beginning to break with Blair. When we talk of polarisation generally to the left we must also recognise that on one issue discontent with Blair can polarise to the right-asylum seekers. Hague's attempt to play the race card did not lead to massive success for the Tories.

The main beneficiaries were the Nazis, who in their traditional heartlands- east London, the West Midlands-managed to pull back to the level of votes they were getting in the early 1990s. But the polarisation also means the minority prepared to defend refugees is growing, and fantastically hard.

There is a realignment of the left taking place opening up a bigger audience of Old Labour people who are prepared to work with us. The second element in the situation is that discontent with Labour is fuelled by the job losses. Rover, Dagenham, Llanwern-all mean an audience is opening up for us who want to see a fight. That's why there's a relaunch of the Action Programme. The third element is the emergence of a new left. Look at the London May Day demo.

There are people in our organisation who think this is not our audience. In fact, the people there were wide open to anyone who had something to say. All three issues-the crisis of reformism, job losses and the emerging anti-capitalist movement-are not separate.

The Rover demo was a solidly manual working class demo. But the idea that the multinational corporations are wrecking our lives was common on that protest. Within this we need to have a whole number of arguments. We have to say that the working class has the power to beat multinational capital. Inside the trade unions we should be arguing that we need a fightback.

There are issues we can campaign around. One is asylum seekers. We want the big London rally to be a launchpad to build local meetings around the country. The second thing is the Action Programme and job losses. There are "Fightback" meetings being organised in south Wales, east London and elsewhere. In September in Prague the World Bank and IMF are meeting. People are talking of a Seattle in Europe. There is the possibility of doing something big around that.

The success of the LSA poses the question of an electoral challenge to Blair at the next general election. We need to seriously discuss the possibilities of standing. All of this poses a big challenge to us. When there are changes in the outside world there have to be changes in the way we operate. In London, when we decided to stop the branches meeting and operate in the LSA, people found it a liberating experience.

We can't simply shoehorn SWP members back into the old structures now. Outside London we didn't have the LSA, and we can't simply replicate that. But we have to basically follow the London road. We have to start pulling in wider forces and move towards campaigning branches everywhere."

Shift in the mood

AFTER CHRIS Bambery had finished, delegates opened up the discussion. GER from south London said that "the crisis inside the Labour Party is massive. "In the 1997 election in Southwark North and Bermondsey the Labour Party had 200 people delivering leaflets. In the recent election they had six people. "This crisis is opening up a big audience for us." MEGAN from south Wales said that there was a growing mood against New Labour in the trade union movement, "A GMB branch secretary told us "The SWP has to forge the opposition to Blair." Megan then explained how the local branch had moved quickly to leaflet the threatened Llanwern steel works, and had got a good response. "It showed us we need to transform the branches into active storm centres," she said. LSA candidate MARK STEEL told of the brilliant reception he got during the election campaign: "The bare figures don't tell you the enthusiasm with which people voted LSA.

"Everywhere you went you felt that the trend was coming toward you." DAVID from Newcastle also spoke of the shift in the mood: "On May Day last year in Newcastle there were 60 or 80 people. This year there were over 600. "There were not just trade union banners but campaigns on everything from East Timor to the arms trade. There were also 250 asylum seekers. They got a brilliant reception."

Building a network

LOUISE FROM Birmingham spoke of how members had responded to the threat to Rover: "We managed to shape the demo and we doubled the size of the organisation in Birmingham. Now we are in whole areas of the city that we never used to cover. "We now have to move on to the question of asylum seekers and defending council houses."

SIMON from Gateshead said that if the Nissan car plant closes it would be explosive in the north east: "The idea we have campaigning branches is an excellent idea. "We need a network of activists. Come the general election we would like to put up a shipyard worker against cabinet minister Stephen Byers."

Put to the test

LINDSEY GERMAN told the conference: "THE PARTY is facing a fantastic challenge of how we operate inside the working class movement. The people we are attracting are very serious. They want us to pass the test the working class movement is placing on us. We need a radical shift to rise to that level. We want the branches to be vibrant. Every week they need a short political introduction that relates to topical arguments people are having. Then we need an organisational section where we talk about what we are doing against council house sell-offs, or in defence of refugees. We need a monthly public meeting, regular educationals, and a centralised organisation for Socialist Worker sales, Socialist Review and Marxism."

Defend refugees

JULIE WATERSON said that "the only barrier to a huge mobilisation in defence of asylum seekers was how socialists related to the mood. "The massive polarisation, both to the right and left, opens up opportunities for us.

"Every single Socialist Worker supporter has to take the statement round. I want to see ordinary working class people backing asylum seekers. If we do it right we can build huge public meetings and have a national march." STAN from Wembley said that "activism amongst school students is high. We must recruit them to the party. "In my school I raised £100 so I could go on the anti-Haider march in Austria."

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