What should socialists stand for in the 2014 European Union Elections?
The next European elections will he held in 2014. Will McMahon argues that British socialists should stand for a socialist Europe, but that this cannot be achieved within the context of the current European Union.
Prior to the 1992 General Election the ostensibly socialist journal New Left Review No 191 carried an article ‘The Ruins of Westminster’ by Robin Blackburn. One of the central themes of the article was to argue for the progressive development of the European Union through a social democratic/left programme and to compare this favourably with the monetarist ravages of Thatcherism and the backwardness of the British state. The article then went on to call for a tactical Liberal Democrat vote where they were most likely to defeat the Conservatives. It is hard to imagine now, but at that time some on the left did actually believe that the Liberal Democrats might be a progressive force.
The progressive social democratic and liberal bloc would then turn Britain to the heart of a progressive and social democratic Europe. The implication being this would be both a bulwark against a revanchist attack on the post war settlement following the collapse of the Soviet Union and represent a defeat of the euro-sceptic nationalist forces that were developing a head of steam on the right wing of the Conservative Party.
The argument that the European Union represented a progressive social force was carried in the main by the TUC bureaucracy, both Kinnock and Blair and the Financial Times.
This analysis, while wrong in all aspects, also had a huge attraction for many on the left who were despairing of ever breaking the Conservative strangle hold on Parliament. especially after the 1992 general election. For others, the advocacy of a single European state was because of a belief that it would bring a broader unity of the working class against capital. This analysis was undermined to some degree by the adoption of the Maastricht Treaty and its monetarist criteria in 1992, but the excitement of the newly launched Euro project as part of Maastricht meant many on the left still felt able to argue that the European Union was an open project with a contested class content.
These days, with the troika smashing up the welfare state across the European Union and carrying out a massive attack on working class living standards, the argument that European Union has the possibility of being a progressive bloc against Anglo-American neo-liberal capitalism is not often heard and with good reason; the collapse of the social democratic project has revealed that at heart the EU project is being governed by the demands of capital at the expense of labour and that the essential argument over the direction of the EU was between neo-liberal and social democratic capitalist ideologies, an argument that the pro-market social democrats have now comprehensively lost. The progressive light has gone out in the European Union as class war rages across the continent.
In fact, from the European Coal and Steel Community, through the Treaties of Rome, Maastricht, Amsterdam, Nice and Lisbon, the European Union has always been a project of European capital. The popular glosses deployed to win mass favour for the project were built upon an understandable popular desire to prevent another continental war, the fact that the British Isles are geographically part of the continent and therefore some form of social and economic co-operation seemed both sensible and necessary, a genuine desire to reject the narrow nationalism of the Tory right and to find a path diverging from the British imperialist tradition, and the oft cited and patronising argument that no one would have to bother visiting the bureau de change ever again before getting on the ferry, boat or train to the continent. However, the popular reasons were not the real reasons.
The European Union was constructed partly as a bloc against the Soviet Union and, following the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, it broadened out into the attempt to create a European capitalist super power that might have a hegemonic influence on a global scale in a three way power struggle with the United States and China. Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Britain (which alone seemed to have the alternative of hitching its wagon to the US train) would either have to form a bloc or be torn apart by much larger imperial interests. There was nothing progressive in either of these driving forces so it should be unsurprising that in the 21st century the European Union emerged as a ‘bosses union’, a fortress against the global free movement of labour, and an imperialist project being built to counterweigh Chinese and US power in the contest for global resources. It is impossible, from this perspective, to argue for the strengthening of the European Union.
The problem of UKIP
The recent rise of UKIP, alongside the capitalist offensive and resistance to it across the continent, has once again placed the question of The European Union at the centre of the left’s concerns. There is the worrying prospect that in May 2014 UKIP’s populist stance on the European Union may lead a section of working class voters to vote UKIP on the European ballot and then to also vote UKIP in the local council election ballot and for some to then jump ship permanently.
UKIP has made headway in the polls through a combination of four factors:
first, by playing on fears of mass migration from Eastern Europe and stoking up racism; second, by appealing to the not insignificant band of English nationalists, backed by the Daily Express and on occasion the Daily Mail; third, by highlighting the massive democratic deficit at the heart of the European Union project and fourth, by becoming the new party of the protest vote: pint in hand, Farage presents himself as one of the people, and with media backing it has had impact so far. Farage argues that there is a British solution to the economic and social crisis and an exit from the EU on neo-liberal policies will enable that solution to be put in place. The nationalism underlying this position and the racism and xenophobia that supports it should be fought on all fronts by the left without concession.
UKIP are on much stronger ground with regard to the democratic deficit in the European Union. Farage’s very public attack on Herman Van Rompuy on Rompuy’s accession to the leadership of the Union highlighted the fact that unlike, for example, Obama, most people who live in the European Union do not know who their president is, do not have the slightest idea how he gained his post and would not know how to remove him. Rompuy is a career bureaucrat who has risen to the top of the EU pile because he is very well adapted to that particular environment. Farage’s attack was gross populism but did highlight a real issue.
The troika’s attack on the Greek working class and application of massive pressure to Greek society to vote for a neo-liberal solution to the crisis, in addition to the installation of a technocratic government in Italy, represents the dictatorship of capital slowly coming into view. and it is the European Commission and its President that is leading the process. The accretion of powers to the EU over three decades, that allows such an attack on democracy to take place, has very little democratic mandate in Britain.
Greece and Italy show that socialists must not abandon the democratic argument simply because UKIP have made the running so far. The working class is the only class that has the potential to create a thorough going mass democracy across the whole of Europe. The key question is how to properly frame the argument that both challenges the dictatorship of capital and imperialist essence of the EU and also the idea that a simple exit from the EU and a nationalist ‘capitalism in one country’ is a viable option. Not to address this fundamental democratic question would be to leave the field to UKIP.
However, the attack on UKIP must be a combination of challenging its reactionary pro-austerity pro capitalist policies as evidenced on its website (e.g. it is comprehensively in favour of smashing the NHS and the welfare state) as well as on its nationalist position on Europe and racist platform on immigration. In fact, an attack on its domestic policies is central to beginning to destabilise the electoral bloc it is trying to solidify. To this degree having the broadest socialist challenge for the
2014 metropolitan elections, where UKIP and the Tories will be indistinguishable, offers the best conditions for breaking any working class illusions in the exit strategy that UKIP have.
Come the European elections what do socialists argue for?
Socialists do not want to build a project that is attempting to create a new imperialist bloc. It is important to challenge the existence of the European Union as a political project of forces hostile to the working class across the whole of Europe (note: this is not just the EU) and internationally. Equally, and at the same time, socialists need to challenge the underlying xenophobia and English nationalism that underlies UKIP’s exit position.
By arguing for a continental Europe working class alliance and programme that can create a political counterweight to the EU project, one that is socialist and anti-imperialist, is against a fortress Europe and does not envisage a national solution to the problems that face the working class, socialists can challenge the UKIP national solution and also the dictatorship of capital in Europe, posing an alternative that would, if enacted, destroy the European Union.
Whatever the detail of such a programme, election times are summed up by central election slogans, key campaign points, with a few bullet points attached to each platform. So what is it that socialists are for and what is it that socialists are against?
In the European Union elections we are ‘For a Socialist Europe’. For me this is the central slogan of the campaign. The key campaign points that follow this slogan should be bullet points of an alternative programme. Obviously each person will have their own preferred positive slogans that sum up what a socialist Europe might be but in essence any combination of serious anti-capitalist measures would operate to break up the European Union because they would not respect the boundaries that make up the European capitalist fortress either legally or geographically. This is not something that we should hide from voters – we are in favour of the break-up of the European Union and its replacement by a wider socialist anti-capitalist project for the European continent.
What socialist are against is both the nationalism and xenophobia of UKIP and the Tory right and also the austerity offensive that is a Europe wide phenomenon, whether a country is a member of the European Union or not.
So the oppositional slogans should focus on saying no to European austerity – an austerity that is supported by both UKIP and the Commission – and no to racism and xenophobia – given UKIP’s racism and the Commission’s desire to build a fortress.
By advancing slogans for a socialist Europe and against austerity and racism socialists neither promote the illusion that there is a British way out of the crisis nor suggest that the existing political structure that dominates Europe offers a solution either.
43 comments
43 responses to “What should socialists stand for in the 2014 European Union Elections?”
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The Euro-elections and Workers’ Political Representation: an article from the Socialist Party’s political journal on the question of the European Elections.
http://www.socialismtoday.org/170/euros.html
…(“)The 2009 No2EU challenge was, as the article explains, a first “tentative step towards independent working class political representation”. It was followed in 2010 with the establishment of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) which, since 2012, has had official representation from the RMT transport workers’ union on its national steering committee. TUSC is still a ‘pre-formation’ on the road to a new workers’ party (see Socialism Today No.169, June 2013) with a modest electoral record to date. While in Liverpool’s 2012 mayoral election TUSC scored double the UKIP vote (and beat the Tories), in recent council by-elections, particularly since its breakthrough in the 2013 local elections, UKIP has been more readily able to position itself as the means to hit back at the establishment parties. Still, over 100,000 votes have been cast for TUSC candidates since 2010 and it is the most established electoral vehicle for a working class challenge in 2014. Another factor arguing for a TUSC challenge is the domestic element to UKIP’s rise, the vacuum created by Labour’s ever-deepening commitment to austerity. The 2014 European elections will be on the same day – May 22 – as elections for over 4,000 local council seats, including London and the metropolitan authorities, with half of the 160 councils affected Labour-controlled. Meanwhile, as the National Audit Office warns that nearly one in eight councils may be unable to balance their books, shadow chancellor Ed Balls commits to the Con-Dems’ “very tough spending plans from this year’s spending review” as “our starting point”, including further cuts to council funding (The Guardian, 4 June). TUSC will stand in hundreds of council seats in 2014 – what better way to campaign against the austerity consensus in Britain and Europe than by TUSC also being the electoral vehicle for the European polls?(“)…
`So the oppositional slogans should focus on saying no to European austerity – an austerity that is supported by both UKIP and the Commission – and no to racism and xenophobia – given UKIP’s racism and the Commission’s desire to build a fortress.’
There is no European austerity in Britain so this won’t fly. The only countries under the cosh of the Troika are the ones in the Euro because they want to stay in it because pulling out would mean immediate economic collapse.
Heard Bob Crowe’s speech at Durham. Whilst New Labour are trying to create a Tory Party Mark 2 Bob’s alternative would be a UKIP of the Left spouting chauvinism couched in socialist rhetoric. Shove it.
You in the article are trying to take the politics out of politics and reduce the question to one of pure ideology. That won’t do.
The correct stance in the Euro elections for LU to take would be to stand on a policy of renegotiation of the founding treaties of the EU in accordance with socialist principles. You could say that you are standing to gain a platform for your ideas and to win the labour movement as a whole to your policy by demonstrating its inherent popularity. No progressive person however much they realise how bad the EU is will vote NO2EU or for some vague socialist europe slogan.
The socialist principles you would seek to negotiate with willing partners would be for instance: an EU-wide living wage; EU-wide full employment; national banks with a national monoply of credit lending Euros at base rate to small business and facilitating social investment in accordance with a democratic plan whilst the ECB is charged with keeping inflation at rates agreed by the nations; abolition of the gravy train that is the European parliament; a federation of sovereign socialist states; redistribution from rich to poor areas etc. etc.
the problem is the rmt and the socialist party are already planning an anti-eu left block in the euros and left unity is i guess probably split on whether it backs nationalism or a trying to replace this eu with a new one. i would caution against left unity making any sort of a electoral launch in the euros i dont think they are a good election for a debut. with less than a year to go it is hard to imagine a strategy that would lead to the left unity doing anything other than winning one to two per cent of the vote making people feel helpless and letting in a few extra far-right candidates. build up locally at first would be best idea.
I think you are correct too, jqmark. The EU elections are an absolute minefield for socialists – because of the sheer weight of petty nationalist, and racist ideology currently attached to the issue. It is very difficult for the Left to argue a clear independent “anti capitalist EU – for an alternative socialist one” position without simply being seen as reinforcing the crude “EU = BAD” message which UKIP is feeding off so successfully.
The Left has to choose its battlegrounds. This is not one where we ( ie, the Left generally, but a still forming Left Unity Party in particular ) can currently find a significant “space” for our anti-capitalist “take” on the issue to be heard and understood.
As for TUSC. No matter how many times TUSC enthusiasts try to “big up” its electoral results – it’s no good lumping them all together for a misleading “national impact claim” as Jimmy Haddow does here – the reality is that they have everwhere been individually pitiful, with NO impact. And not surprisingly; TUSC is just an undemocratic “electoral branding ” front organisation exercise, totally controlled by the unreconstructed Leninist puppetmasters of the SP and SWP , with no roots in communities, and no plans to build them. It’ll never amount to a hill of beans.
And as for TUSC’s “big name ” RMT union supporter, Bob Crowe, Baton Rouge is completely correct to identify Bob Crowe’s rant at the Durham Gala as containing very dodgy concessions to the prevailing anti migrant worker hysteria – of course dressed up in some wafer-thin “pro working class” rhetoric. Nasty !
I don’t think a new Left Unity Party will be ready to seriously contest elections at local, national, or EU levels, until after the next 2015 General election. We have a lot of work to do yet, and have to be patient. There’s a long era of global capitalist crisis to go yet – so we aren’t going to miss out on this era of emerging mass struggle ! We need to get our eventual interventions right ; – based on agreed principled positions and a coherent political party. I’d leave the next EU elections to the SP/SWP and it’s fronts – I suspect they’ll get drawn into some very dodgy political positions given the current petty nationalist and anti migrant worker zeitgeist.
i think that’s probably a sensible approach jqmark
“I’d leave the next EU elections to the SP/SWP and it’s fronts – I suspect they’ll get drawn into some very dodgy political positions given the current petty nationalist and anti migrant worker zeitgeist.”
No, no, no, (a dozen time NO!)and a very sectarian attitude to the SP and SWP as well. Will McMahon has written an excellent article and if Left Unity opts out of the EU elections we will be party to UKIP possibly being the biggest vote winner on the day and that is very scary – a position which itself may set us back for some time. If we are going to be a Socialist Party, a party that appeals to working people, many of whom may once have voted Labour and many of whom distrust all politics (including ours)then we cannot run away from the fight as only political cowards would, while we continue to gaze at or own navel for ever and a day trying to get the “line” right or the right “theoretical” position. Now this wont do, it wont do at all as the task is urgent while our people are being hammered out there, day in day out, (just look at todays benefit cap). We need to offer hope and a way forward and we need to be doing it now (while we of course we do debate our future and that is important).
Left Unity has the unique opportunity and an essential opportunity to be the only Left Party in the EU elections opposing the common market but supporting a future Socialist Europe and in doing so fighting Austerity across Europe (its the same multi national corporations we are taking on). Or slogans could be “No to Austerity”, “No to War”, “Defend our Public Services”. In our publicity we should argue for workers solidarity against austerity and cuts across Europe and the importance of linking up these struggles to one day build an alternative Europe based on Unity of working people and Socialism.
Yes we should stand in the Euro elections in London and other major urban areas while we have PR for the elections. Somebody must take on UKIP and that somebody should be Left Unity with our unique anti austerity appeal across Europe (and an alternative to the “UKIP Lite” No2EU campaign). This would give us a chance to talk to working people about what we stand for and why we are different and bring together our many activists. In any early election any new party would do well to take 5% of the vote so we should not get too hung up on that – we should stand to make sure there is an alternative, that the ultra right wing view of UKIP is exposed and to build Left Unity at local and regional level.
This will be the first big test for Left Unity and I would urge all members to ignore the some of the “faint hearts” and “doubters” who will still be unsure about most things in five years time (unless we agree to their version of events that is).
Will McMahon has outlined a very positive way for Left Unity in the Euro elections – Left Unity cannot afford to abstain or avoid this major political test for us. If we have the courage and organisation to take up this challenge we could come out of it as a Party no one will ignore in the future and begin to offer hope once again to working people.
Yes LU needs to lose its virginity and quick. The Euros are a great opportunity and somebody desparately needs to oppose UKIP and NO2EU’s demagoguery and New Labour and the Coalition’s austerity drive against the working classes.
Don’t understand you notion about a sectarian attitude to the SWP and SP. They are poisonous sects. Politically we want to put as much space between us and them especially their NO2EU front as possible.
Neil – Will McMahon may have ‘outlined a very positive way for Left Unity in the Euro Elections’ but unfortunately this would in my view be a disaster for a new party of the left to stand in the Euro’s in 2014. Why?
Because Elections are a serious business and really hard work and you have to make a clear assessment of what you hope to achieve and what the consequences of an electoral intervention is likely to be.
In 2009, in my view, the RMT funded NO2EU Campaign contributed to the victory of Nick Griffin in the NW Region and likewise effectively contributed to the failure of Trade Unionist and Anti Racist Campaigner Peter Cranie of the Green Party from winning one of the Euro Seats.
In 2014 in my Region I would be totally opposed to our new party of the left Standing a candidate that after a great deal of effort may end up with if we are luck 2-3% of the vote. Especially at the Lead Green Party Candidate in the West Midlands is the Trade Unionist and Socialist Deputy Leader of the Green Party and Dudley Councillor Will Duckworth.
the BNP may be toast but UKIP is on the Rise and in my view we need to understand some harsh realities.
There is a chance – just a chance that in some Regions UKIP could be pipped at the PR Post by the Greens – We ie Our new party of the Left should take the decision to Back the Greens in the Euros… I say this in the Full Knowledge that some GP Euro Candidates are not socialists and some are fairly nasty characters [the example the co-chair of the Green Party Regional Council Jill Mills who presides over the Green Party Kangaroo Courts]
Put Politically the GP is on the ‘left’ and it already has a history of making electoral gains in the Euros and has secured a base of electoral support in Euro Elections that in comparison to left adventures like Scargills SLP or NO2EU regularly achieves over 6% of the vote which in the Regions brings them into direct competition with UKIP for MEP seats.
It is far too premature for our new party of the left to launch a campaign in the Euro’s which could end up inadvertently allowing UKIP to be the beneficiary.
The advantage of our new party formally endorsing and practically aiding the Green Party Campaign is that we may contribute to actual electoral gains for the left and also win more people in the Green Party towards the idea of Unity and possible fusion.
Of Course there could be spectacular changes that cause me to alter this perspective like 10,000 people actually paying to become founding members of a new party in November followed by UnitetheUnion after a consultation with the union membership donating £1million for a Euro Campaign opening up their regional offices as campaign HQ’s and giving our new party a fleet of Battle Buses to win the hearts and minds of the layer of the electorate that normally never vote – However, I suspect that our founding membership will be in the Hundreds Not Thousands… I suspect that we won’t suddenly get loads of cash from TU Affiliates to finance regional campaigning. That means we need a sober assessment of our electoral chances in 2014.
Correct the EU is a capitalist club captured by Neo-liberals but I belive we need to win it with European working people to be run in the interests of the Europen working people. I love the idea of the solidarity of Europen working people and from my experience there is the potential for solidarity and progressive change. In the event of an In/out referendum socialists I would argue should vote to keep in to promote w class international co-operation in short INTERNTIONALISM!. If we win the day it could also be a positive global force – with trade etc it could promote a global minimum wage to address global poverty, a global shorter working week to free time poor working humanity so we can all enjoy life & the planet, Better global health and safety and global earlier retirement. We should also argue for a Europen wide grassroots consultation to reconstitute Europe in the interests of working people to replace a top down capitalist institution. We need fresh thinking, vision, creativity and imagination. Yours in solidarity!
Bazza: you are almost correct. Standing on a platform of renegotiation of the EU’s founding treaties in accordance with socialist principles such as EU-wide living wage, full employment, demoratic plan etc is correct but in the event of an in-out referendum no socialist can possibly vote positively for the EU’s neo-liberalism in that case. It would mark the end of us as socialists. We would be seen for the opportunists we truly are by the wider working class especially if Cameron had successfully negotiated away Humanr Rights and Working Time Directives.
BR you are totally wrong but I will not call you stupid . It is a vote to stay in the EC or leave – is it”s Neo-liberalism set in stone? Can’t our actions bring change. I’m getting tired dealing Trot/Lenin dinosaurs!
Simple message: No to being ruled by Brussels or Westminster. We want real democracy!
Again an anti-establishment message rather than sounding like another group of political wanna-be’s.
You are almost there Bazza: renegotiation of the founding treaties of the EU in accordance with socialist principles is the right approach such as working class solidarity, EU-wide living wage, full employment, etc but then you go and spoil it all by saying something stupid. In the event of an in-out referendum no socialist could vote positively for the neo-liberal principles on which the EU is currently constituted. It would be the end of us as socialists and would mark us a grotesque opportunists. That would go even more so if Cameron and the French and Germans negotiated the end of the Human Rights Act and the WOrking Time Directive and then put that to the vote. Can you imagine anybody with a progressive bone in their body voting for that?
The only pro I can see of standing in the Euro elections is a party political broadcast to get our name out nationally. Apart from that it’s a disaster waiting to happen. Let the Greens defend their seats and offer them our support in this election, we have much more important battles to fight down the road.
Hi Salman
The Greens cut services when in power so I don’t think that that would be a good idea.
Will
I don’t think you can extrapolate the isolated incident of Brighton council to Greens nationwide. Caroline Lucas opposed the council, and the Greens have done some very good work at the national and European level. Obviously if I thought the Greens were perfect, I wouldn’t be signing up to found Left Unity, but I don’t see much sense in standing unprepared against them in these Euro elections.
I strongly agree with you Salman that Left Unity should support the Green Party Slates in the European Elections is 2014…
If we do managed to have our founding conference and adopt a name and a constitution by the end of this year… we will have to recognise that this is the very beginning of a long process of reconfiguring politics in this country… To jump into a Nationwide Campaign organising selection processes and electoral strategy would be suicidal for the 2014 Euro Elections.
In 2009 the NO2EU intervention in the North West contributed in my view to the victory of the BNP and effectively prevented the election of Peter Cranie a longstanding Socialist Anti Racist and Trade Unionist from taking a NW region MEP seat for the Green Party.
In my own Region the West Midlands there is no way I could support or endorse LU standing a European Slate.. when the lead candidate for the Green Party is Will Duckworth a working class Dudley Councillor and longstanding TU and Socialist Activist…. In the West Midlands and across the country the BNP may be toast but the UKIP Bandwagon is Rolling… and they threaten to make great gains…. It would be entirely sectarian and completely self defeating for our new party to effectively undermine the Greens chances of pipping at the PR Post UKIP….
In Fact I would argue that our party and our activists should work hard alongside the Greens in the Euros and hopefully together win a victory for the ‘Left’. This will make the possibility of a future fusion between the new party of the left and the Green Party more likely… or at the very least win some Green Activists closer towards the sort of party we seek to build.
Elections are serious business…. and I am disappointed that Will Mcmahon entertained the idea that we should stand in the 2014 Euro’s given the reality of our electoral inexperience and the disastrous performance of NO2EU in 2009.
Yes in the Future we can look forward to taking our seats in Europe alongside the comrades of Die Linke, Syriza and Sinn Fein as part of the United European Left/Nordic Green Left grouping…. but it is not going to happen next year.
It seems to me that there is a creeping censorship going on here either by not letting posts through or leaving them awaiting moderation so long they become irrelevant. If that is the case, way to kick off as the sect you mean to carry on being.
Baton Rouge is firstly insulting then patronising and I would suggest he ( it could only be a male) needs educating in humanity and on how to conduct a comradely discussion.
I am afraid how he fails to engage constructively with other human beings who are potentially on his side makes me feel that I don”t want to be part of his poisonous interpretation of ‘Socialism’. I belive you should try to treat people (especially those who are on your side ) like how you would want the World to be.
‘There is no European Austerity in Britain’ – Really, it is bad but not as bad but this kind of implies we are not part of the EC.
I don”t think BR quite understood my words.””if we win the day”.
Also if we follow his potentially restricted thinking do we boycott Parliamentary Elections because we live in advanced capitalist bourgeois liberal democracy?
I’m afraid people like BR give me serious doubts about LU and I wonder if independent w class socialist social housing tenants belong in LU and the party has’t even been formed yet!
I just want a democratic socialist World and to help free the oppressed of humanity and I do wonder how many this site imay be driving away?
ONLY POSTED TO MAKE POINT
INSULTED,PATRONISED PUT OUT OF JOiINT
BUT IN LU SOME CAN AVOID HATE
FOR WE KNOW HOW TO COMMUNICATE
SOME OF US WILL WIN A SOCIALIST WORLD
WITH OR WITHOUT YOU
Thank God I read Paul Frolich’s biography of Rosa Luxemburg, Paulo Freire and have the music of John Lennon.
Love & Peace!
What a ridiculous over reaction. All the austerity being imposed in Britain is courtesy of the UK Coalition. To stand in Euro elections against Euro austerity when there is none is to `Do a Tory’ and shift the blame from them to Europe.
Left Unity should prove its opposition to euroskepticism by aligning politically with the European United Left – Nordic Green Left (GUE-NGL) confederation and otherwise with the World Federation of Trade Unions. Learning more closely from Die Linke, Front de gauche, Left Bloc, SYRIZA, and others is much needed.
Problem is Jacob those groupings have signed up to the neo-liberal foundations of the EU and would presumably implement them if they got power.
I agree entirely with you Jacob. on the need for our new party of the left to affiliate with the GUE/NGL – Sinn Fein also participates in this European formation and when we do win MEP seats in 2019 – not 2014 assuming global revolution hasn’t been victorious by then – we will work jointly with these comrades.
Also, consider this EU-wide program proposal: http://reality.gn.apc.org/econ/Berlinpaper.pdf
Jacob – I was unable to access the link to the PDF
Problem with that programme Jacob is that it avoids the question of class struggle and leans towards Keynesian reformism. Lots of people are trying to avoid the inevitability of class struggle by creating purely technical reformist illusions but there can be no solution short of seizing the bankrupt banks and socialising the monopolies and their giant surpluses. Reformism offers only austerity or stimulus: depression or Weimar both of which give extreme reaction the advantage.
I have outlined a position on the EU that avoids both demagogic chauvinism and capitulation to neo-liberalism which is to stand for the renegotiation of the founding treaties in accordance with socialist principles whilst in the meantime refusing to implement any anti-working class edicts from the EU. In the event of an `in-out’ referendum we could not possibly vote positively for in or we’d be voting for neo-liberal economics but would have to argue the case for socialist renegotiation. There is no other principled position. There are only opportunist or ultra-left versions of this. LU can search as much as it likes, avoid the issue as much as it likes but nothing is going to alter this fact.
The ideas chime with a huge proportion on Green Party thinking and stated policy as well as what the leadership of the party is saying. The three yeses to Europe is looking for real social changes to the running of the continent and totally against the troika. I acknowledge that there are some people in the party who would rather make a cack handed fist of trying to mitigate the cuts rather than refusing to be part of the problem but in the European elections there are good socialists standing as lead candidates for the 2014 elections who – I believe – deserve the socialist vote.
Once again, the issue of voting Green is mooted. The Greens are a capitalist party with no class politics or orientation to the working class and its organisations. Voting for them is irrelevant and counterproductive. Aren’t we supposed to be building a socialist alternative. Do I really have to repeat what Will has said about how the Greens actually behave when elected?
Doug – you might find it educational to visit the Green Party national website where you will find that they campaign for the a series of left policies from opposition to Trident replacement, Re Nationalisation of Rail and the Utilities, The Green Parties MP Caroline Lucas is widely respected as a hardworking and principled Socialist Feminist. It is true there is a struggle in the Green Party between ‘Right’ and ‘Left’ which came to a head recently over the actions of Jason Kitcat the Green Council Leader in Brighton over the dispute with CityClean Workers – but both Caroline Lucas and an overwhelming majority of Local Brighton Green Party members including 9 GP Councillors actively backed the GMB strike and heavily criticised Jason Kitcat… So if we are serious about ‘Left Unity’ we should be serious about our relationship with serveral thousand Green Party Activists who self identify themselves as ‘Socialists’ – One of the other ‘Will’s’ who has contributed to this discussion is Cllr Will Duckworth the Deputy Leader of the Green Party a Socialist and Trade Union activist from the heart of Working Class Dudley… who is the Lead Candidate for the European Elections…. I will be voting for Will Duckworth and I hope that any new party of the left will understand that if we are to get anywhere then at some stage people like Will Duckworth will have to be in our new organisation…. For us to assist people like Will Duckworth to actually Win a Seat in the European Parliament would represent a real step forward in constructing a viable socialist alternative to austerity… into the bargain if we take this course we also prove that our new party is not a new sect… a new abstract socialist propaganda group… but something genuinely different.
I agree with both Mark Anthony France and Abu Jamal. Of course I do, but then I don’t have the sense to change my website when using a sock puppet either
Dear Frank Anthony Marx.
LOL! how jolly amusing! Apologies for this… In order to participate in the Internal Democracy and Constitutional Committee of Left Unity – I had to Register and Log in to a Word Press Portal… this would not allow to use the identity of Mark Anthony France so I had to establish another username and password etc… Hence using the my ‘Islamic Name’ which I have used on many occasions in the past. One this thread I have contributed while ‘logged on’ to Left Unity during my duties as a member of the Commission… and I have contributed by completing the normal ‘form thingy’ at the end of the thread when I haven’t been logged on…. This is not a deliberate attempt to ‘sock puppet’ … so please forgive me… If I did want to play such infantile games I would of course do under different avatars and anonymously… just like your good self.
Of course if you do want to make a ‘political’ comment on the issues raised in this thread feel free…. have a good weekend comrade! :)
Commission not ‘Committee’ once again my profound and sincerest apologies for any misunderstanding…. VOTE GREEN 2014!
I’m not sure what Will is proposing. What is clear is that NO2EU is being revived and will be standing candidates – which he doesn’t mention. My own thinking is that it will be pointless for Left Unity to stand as well. £5000 for a deposit and probably £10-15000 for leaflets for each seat. Will’s piece is not as bad as the NO2EU stuff – but ideologically it does little to tackle misconceptions that the EU (and those nasty foreigners) are somehow responsible for our problems. I think better for LU to concentrate on a class anti-cuts agenda in the locals – sadly. I expect the actual option will be NO2EU or Green. I will vote LU/TUSC in the locals and Green in the Euros. Here is my take on NO2EU. http://www.exeterleft.freeserve.co.uk/no2no2eu.html
I have to say I am extremely disappointed with some of the responses to Wills excellent article but I am not surprised as some (but of course not all) of them are written either by members of the Green Party (who I might add have been very happy to stand against other well known and respected Socialist candidates in election after election, time after time over many years)or those that have until recently been in the Green Party or a Party that supported the No2EU campaign and in some case clearly have no intention of joining Left Unity.
Now Left Unity must act like a Party, think like a Party and take action like a Party and the idea that we can walk away from the European elections until some sunlit year in the far future will consign us to the margins of history and no better than a poorly organised pressure group. Taking a Socialist anti austerity, anti cuts and anti war position on Europe and calling for solidarity for all workers across Europe fighting austerity IS the way forward – its a simple message that will connect with working people and one that will make Left Unity different to all other parties.
Should we stand aside for the Green Party? – not on your life (I can think of only one occasion in 1000’s of elections over many years when they have stood aside for any other Party). Should we stand aside to allow the NO2EU “UKIP Lite” message to make the running – not on your life. Will we allow UKIP to get the biggest vote in this election? – no, so but lets take the fight to them at every opportunity up and down the country next May.
Should we run away from elections next year and wait for some magic moment when we are big enough to test our ideas? – no way. We need to be bold and brave and have the courage of our convictions. We need to be Left Unity, a Party (yes a Party, not a pressure group or campaign)that brings back hope to the working people of this country and does not run away from a fight but embraces it in the confidence that our Socialist ideas will connect with the working people of this country and across Europe.
Neil, I would be delighted if Left Unity stood candidates on a slogan of ‘For a Socialist Europe’ although it is not clear to me that Will is advocating this given he mentions neither Left Unity nor NO2EU. The article reads to me as an appeal to the forces around NO2EU but as I understand it they have already committed to their “NO2EU” course.
A big problem for Left Unity standing candidates will be the cost. NO2EU has the funding of the RMT and in 2009 it cost them £118,326 in election expenses (excluding lost deposits).
As I understand it there are 9 constituencies in England, plus Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. A total of 72 or 73 candidates can stand in these 12 constituencies combined. For further details see; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Parliament_election,_2009_%28United_Kingdom%29#Constituencies_and_representation
It is a £5000 deposit per candidate only refundable if over 2.5% of the vote is achieved. So that is a £45,000 minimum on the deposits alone for England. The cost of leaflets will be huge. I’m guessing that the SLP in 2009 managed to keep their costs down by presumably not bothering with leaflets being delivered in the constituencies. In the following figures lost deposits cannot possibly be included. See: http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/minor-parties-european-election.html
With enough candidates a party does qualify for an election broadcast – which is what I presume the SLP concentrated on in 2009.
I’m guessing £100,000 is a minimum cost of standing one candidate in each constituency (including potential lost deposits) and considerably more if we want people to get leaflets as well.
On top of that local Left Unity groups would also have to do some serious fundraising just to stand candidates in local elections on the same day.
I would be delighted if my pessimism on being able to raise these kinds of funds is misplaced. I suppose an alternative maybe to stand just one candidate in perhaps London but that would not qualify for an election broadcast.
this is the difficulty of pronouncing left unity as an electoral party before it has even had its first conference.
bourgeois democracy is a sham. there isnt really an electoral road to socialism or a green utopia.
we can intervene into the elections once or where we are a viable force that has established a record of activity in that local class struggle.
i think the cnd>green party was an exodus of left minded people from class struggle politics. there seem to be some left greens who are in left unity. ok, but spend some time to explain why you think that voting green will assist building the left / left unity.
equally will, how will supporting no2eu help build the left or left unity.
i think it is little englander / chauvanistic crap. a fake grouping through which the sp and maybe the swp can stand as and support reformists in bourgeois elections.
left unity has to seek to become a new centre of the left an organising centre for socialists to intervene in the class struggle.
giving the unfancied euro elections a red tinge and planting a new flag of a new electoralist road to socialism. why?
Do we actually have a chance of getting a reasonable vote at the EU elections at this early stage? I’d suggest not, we simply don’t have the base needed yet. As such, why stand? Getting double digit votes is worse then useless.
Dave Parks you make some very valid points about the cost of standing in the Euro elections and without the help of a union (RMT are re backing the hopeless NO2EU campaign)it will probably be impossible to stand in every area. This does not stop us standing in London or picking say the two best areas for us to put across an anti austerity,defend pubic service, anti war, anti common market but pro Socialist Europe position. Like it or not if we stand in the local elections and I do hope we do the question of Europe will come up.
However the question of “in” or “out” is not on the cards next year and we should not at this stage get dragged into that debate (that referendum may never happen) – what is essential is that we adopt an internationalist position of supporting workers fighting austerity across Europe.
For those who say we should stay out of elections both local and Euro you need to ask yourself why we are building a Party if we are going to hide in the corner in the shadows. A Party that is afraid of its own beliefs or has no clear beliefs will never be taken seriously by working people. Those Socialist (I hope) ideas and beliefs we will represent in Left Unity must be taken into every community and fought for including standing in elections. It is by standing in elections as well as work at local level week in week out we can build our membership, involve our members in the work of their new Party and build support for what we stand for as well as get our new Party name known across the country.
On the finances I see that the SLP have launched a £65,000 appeal for their 2014 Euro election campaign so that is probably the low budget end (probably no election addresses), see:
http://www.socialist-labour-party.org.uk/eurocampaign.html
Incidentally, I recall many years ago a friend of mine saying they tuned into an SLP Euro election broadcast after it had started – they had thought they were watching a UKIP broadcast until Scargill appeared!
In 2009 the Green Party spent over £300,000 on their Euro election campaign.
It might be possible to do a low budget campaign with one candidate in each constituency but it would have to largely rest on people voting for our slate on the basis of our new unknown party name and the chances that they have seen an election broadcast. I doubt we would get much of a vote that way – but it would get the new party name about and help with recruitment.
That does leave a campaign in one or two constituencies without an election broadcast (I’m not certain but I don’t think we would qualify for a broadcast). London as a constituency has a population of 7,400,000. I think candidates are entitled to the free postal delivery of an election address – it would be cost of printing them plus the deposits. For population size of the constituencies scroll down to the UK entries on Wikipedia, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Parliament_constituency
I wrote earlier that it £5000 deposit per candidate. I’m not an expert on this but it could be to stand a slate in a constituency rather than *one* candidate. Anyone know?
Before we consider standing in the Euro elections with no history of campaigning or earning our right to stand and with no chance of doing very well, we should consider the possible damage we could do to Greens such as Jean Lambert in London and the increased chance of allowing the far right to get/retain seats.
If we stand in the Euro elections in just ten months time we will have to raise tens of thousands of pounds and we would be deluding ourselves if we thought that from a standing start we could get anything more than the sort of derisory result that TUSC/No to EU/ SLP campaigns have done in recent years. We would just make fools of ourselves and demoralise a load of our members into the bargain.
We won’t build a base fighting elections, we will win elections when we have built a base
Alleluia. Spot on.