North West wishes
Felicity speaking at the founding conference
Felicity Dowling looks at the prospects ahead
Left Unity and all who stand with the working class communities are wishing for – and importantly will be working for – a better year in 2014.
Here in the Northwest, we have additional problem, another mountain to climb. We have a Fascist MEP standing for re-election. He gained 132,194 votes in the last Euro election. In 1999 the fascist vote was 13,000, in2004 135,00 and 2009 132,000. The creature has just been declared bankrupt but somehow has been able to get around the normal resotrictions on bankrupts which would have made him ineligible to be an MEP
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_West_England_(European_Parliament_constituency).
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/01/nick-griffin-declared-bankrupt
The membership of his organisation has imploded, and there has been a growth in anti fascist forces. Even in 2009 their star was waning. Anti- fascist activity has changed local opinion. Many more people know them for what they are. But they still could maintain their position. There has been efforts to coordinate antifascist forces through the unions, North West TUC and Hope not Hate and UAF
The problem is still more complicated. Wikipedia gives the following opinion poll results for the Northwest European constituency;
Lab 32%
Conservative 24%
UKIP 24%
Lib Dems 8%
Other 12%
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Parliament_election,_2014_(United_Kingdom)
These figures need some consideration. We currently have the most right wing government in 50 years; yet it polls 24%. UKIP, even further to the right, also has 24%. The Lib Dems have, true to form, confirmed their reactionary character and some of the “others” are Right crank minority groups and fascist. So reaction has more than 56% of the opinion polls. Labour has bought into the neo-liberal agenda, tagged along with the attacks on the welfare state and played along with the negative focus on migrants (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/10539284/Tristram-Hunt-White-British-boys-are-not-getting-the-education-they-want.html)
Angeliki Stogia, one of Labour’s team for the North West, is reported as having spoken at a UAF conference putting the blame for the rise of the far right in Greece on immigrants, who were ‘a threat to public health’. She was roundly challenged on this at the conference (I have invited her to comment on this with no result so far).This with the dodgy stance on Immigration and benefits from Labour must be challenged.
How then do we put the voice of Left Unity, of socialism and of struggle in this situation?
A struggle is being waged across Europe. On the one side are the EU institutions and European bank that have been bought and sold by neoliberalism – part of the oppressive ‘Troika’ imposing appalling conditions of Austerity across Greece, Spain, Ireland and Portugal, driving down living standards and stripping away the welfare state. They link with global capitalism to minimise workers living standards, cut wages and slash pensions.
Within the EU there is the codified the gains of workers since World War 2. Different Countries joined the EU at different times Greece, Spain and Portugal following the overthrow of the dictatorships in the 1970s, and from that time conditions of life, by and large, improved. While it suited capital to have a level playing field with all European workers having roughly the same conditions, the EU also put into law what the workers won in different struggles such as the equal pay act and the limits on the working week.
Those in Britain who shout the loudest to leave the EU are those who would extend the working day, attack women’s rights, reduce safety and rights at work, and further attack trade union rights. They want to see unfettered free trade and marketisation of all public services – as with the establishment of academy schools and the privatisation of NHS services. They are the clear and present enemies of working class communities in the UK and across the world.
The other side of the struggle in Europe is the strikes and campaigns conducted daily across Europe, with different levels of success or failure, by working people and the unemployed. These struggles can link workers across Europe for a shorter working day and week, for women’s rights, for rights at work, for a European living wage, for the protection and expansion of the welfare state, against poverty of children and old people and against racism and fascism.
Left Unity must stand with the workers struggles in Europe.
Left Unity stands for working class solidarity, for standing together in difficult times, for the right of every human to an income, for jobs based on human need, for a living wage, for protecting the environment and improving the place we live in – and the way we live in it.
How do we, as yet a small organisation, make our voices heard in the North West of England? This piece is intended as a contribution to a discussion on the matter.
The North West of England has a proud history in struggle and in building solidarity. It’s an excellent history of standing up for working class communities and human rights, from Susan and Gerald Winstanley of the Diggers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrard_Winstanley) to ‘Peterloo’ in 1819. The North West was a heartland for the Chartists, saw the “sublime heroism of the cotton workers” (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-21057494) overwhelmingly supporting the anti-slavery cause during the American Civil War, Kitty Wilkinson’s struggle for communal washhouses following the Cholera epidemics in Liverpool, the Liverpool transport strike of 1911, the building of solid labour majorities in Northern Towns (when being labour meant representing working people) through the struggles of the thirties, the women at Ford Speke who along with Dagenham women led the way on equal pay, the 1980s print workers campaign at Winnick Quay, the stand of the Miners in the North west in the 1980s and Liverpool’s Labour council who stood up to Thatcher despite the very real threat of personal financial ruin through the surcharge.
Now though we face the loss of all we have gained in 60 years. My own family has the living memory of numbers of families sharing an outside toilet, of leaving school at 13 and 14, and of children dying through inadequate medical care, of families of 12 children and inadequate housing. But why should people need to remember such stuff? This is a ‘dark age’ new generations should be able to forget and ignore, but instead once again the experience of poverty and hunger, the denial of access to education has comes back to us.
The NHS is shivering in the icy wind of Austerity, with more and more of its services cut or privatised (http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/dec/31/nhs-staff-laid-off-amid-savings-drive, http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/dec/28/sexual-health-clinics-doctors-fear-future-private).
There are some small victories in a long and bitter struggle for the NHS. The young doctors seem to becoming more aware of the dire situation and the realities are hitting home in the A and E waiting rooms. 50,000 marched through Manchester for the save the NHS demonstration; the largest demonstration that the city has ever seen.
Reactionary and destructive plans in education – not just for teacher’s pensions and pay, but also crude and inhumane dictats on what our children must be taught, including the straightjacketing of education of even the youngest pupils and phonics tests at 5 – continue. Access to university and provisions there are deteriorating, the loan book having been privatised. The teachers’ leaders are promising some kind of action by Mid-February and university employees are also due to strike again that month, so that struggle is not yet fully joined.
There have been some victories in the Bedroom tax campaigns (http://morningstaronline.co.uk/a-843c-Bedroom-tax-may-be-on-the-brink-of-collapse#.UsH7w02Yacw)but the tax, as I write, lumbers on causing untold misery. It would be impossible for all those who live in homes with “extra” bedrooms to move to smaller places yet the tax continues causing untold anxiety and anger.
The Atos scandal continues to cause worry, hardship and hunger amongst the very weakest in our society. Fear and repression are spread in the crudest way by sanctions on benefits where people are left without any means of subsistence. Workfare sets out to demoralise and demean those forced to work for their benefits, negating the minimum wage and donating free labour to already rich employers.
Youth unemployment continues to be a major problem yet retirement ages, especially for women, are rising at shocking rates. Like a subterranean pressure the problems for those working but without adequate income build up (http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2013/12/30/britain-needs-a-wage-rise-the-big-economic-demand-for-2014/), with6.7 million people at work live in poverty http://www.jrf.org.uk/blog/2013/12/joseph-rowntree-foundation-findings-2013.
Trade Union membership is growing slowly; the case remains for a mass membership drive in previously non-unionised workplaces.
The Joseph Rowntree Trust reports that deprived areas across England and Scotland are experiencing larger cuts to local government budgets than affluent ones, with a difference of about £100 per head between the richest and poorest areas. The North-South difference in England is £69 per head.
The ruling class rampant still believes it can frack the country without come back, but is being disabused of that belief slowly but surely
Women continue to bear the brunt of the cuts as service users, employees and claimants. Women with children bear disproportionate burdens of cuts and those with disabilities are as ever the hardest hit.
Why did people vote for the fascists?
Undoubtedly, some are just unspeakably nasty, right wing and racist. The size of the fascist vote, however, tells us that its ideas caught hold of people beyond that category. Why? Because there was no voice to explain why the problems people faced day to day were intractable, why real wages were falling, why unemployment and under employment continued even in a so called boom. The strength of the working class communities in the past was a complex web of trade union membership, social and community organisations, and political ideas. There never was a ‘golden’ time; there is always an ebb and flow of ideas. Fighting racism is like housework – it has to be dome again and again and again…
The destruction of the Labour Party as a means of representing ordinary people in their communities blocked the voice for solidarity in many places. The ending of mass involvement in trade unions with the defeat of section after section of the TU movement in the 80s and 90s took this still further. Some of the leadership of unions, who bought into “the end of History” crap and believed ‘we’ had a new era of permanent growth, made it worse. They could ignore the plight of the northern towns and despise the people living there.
The clear and deliberate use of the media to dumb down debate and to focus on demonising the migrant and the “chav” was the medium in which the mould of fascism grew. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/british-public-wrong-about-nearly-everything-survey-shows-8697821.html
The cult of the tough man saying hard things got an echo, it spawned a small organisation which was able to gain councillors and an MEP.
There is a crying need for a voice from those hardest hit, a voice that can shout its anger and opposition from the roof tops and speak it quietly in small company. That anger must include what we would do instead, what our alternatives will be on all the major issues facing us, at community, national and international level. I firmly hold that Anti fascism is a class issue. Fascism is immoral but opposing it on moral grounds alone will not succeed.
In Europe we see at present Le Pen’s right wing neo-fascist party gaining ground and could be the largest party in the Euro Elections in France. In Greece the murderous Golden Dawn is still the second largest party.
Brecht wrote, in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui:
“This was the thing that nearly has us mastered;
Don’t rejoice in his defeat, you men!
Although the world stood up and stopped the bastard,
The bitch that bore him is in heat again.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Resistible_Rise_of_Arturo_Ui)
The fascists can be defeated at this election, but we have another enemy in UKIP (http://liveraf.wordpress.com/2013/12/15/national-front-past-of-ukip-star-at-centre-of-race-row/).
UKIP represents all that is unthinking and reactionary, simply banging on about the evils of the EU. The Tories continue their anti-migrant rhetoric and their charges for migrant women giving birth in UK are causing death and serious injury. Labour is little better. (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/30/migration-politics-fear-syria-refugees, http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/dec/27/nhs-charges-pregnant-migrant-women-danger)
Left Unity has declared itself to be internationalist and anti-racist. What then should our position be on the European election?
Left Unity has been founded; now we have to build it. We can build by working with those who want to stop the cuts, to defend our schools and universities, to defend the NHS, to see a more equal society. Thousands of socialists are looking for a joint and effective campaign to bring back the ideas and practice of solidarity. Then there are many, many other people believing that something must be done. Those who scream at the TV, rant on Facebook and those who are just quietly furious.
If we can link with just a fraction of those people we can become a force to be reckoned with. I hope, though, that Left Unity is a serious organisation determined to listen and consider, one where many forms of struggle are important, as well as the electoral struggles.
An Ipsos Mori survey quoted in the Guardian (Dec 28th 2013) shows 72% of people aged 35-44 support rights of east European workers to live and work in UK. Nearly half (45%) said that enforcing the minimum wage was one of the most important ways of stopping business undercutting British workers by paying European workers less. So all is not lost. There is no huge trend in public opinion in favour of reaction – but the tendency by many working class communities to ignore these elections could let the far right in and success in these elections could embolden the Tories, who are cocky enough already.
‘No 2 the EU’ has trade union backing but no obvious endorsement of solidarity with other workers struggles in the EU. Should we be pushing them to change their attitude and link up with other workers?
What then of the Greens? The struggle for the environment is a critical struggle and one we must support. No other party getting major votes represents any kind of struggle. There are good socialists amongst the Greens but many have indeed bought into the neo liberal agenda on all but the environmental issues. Should we be considering tactical voting? The Greens could have won if socialists had voted tactically last time to keep out the BNP.
I am suggesting the following steps within the North West:
- each branch holds a meeting as soon as possible and produces, as far as can be done, an assessment of the state of far right sympathy in their area, and
- be involved in action on 25th 26th January but with our own material if needs be
- each branch discusses the best way forward for the region in these elections. How do we get our ideas heard? How do we help stop the far right? Should we boycott or vote tactically? Would standing be practical politically (and possible financially)? Would we gain the ear of any one that way? Would it assist us or hinder us in linking with the struggles of other workers in Europe? Would it help win any struggles here in the North West? Would it be a good use of money (Personally I think not, but we need the discussion)? Do we need a critique of the tactics of the North West TUC?UAF mailto:northwest@uaf.org.uk campaign? Do we need our own material?
- These branch meetings be followed by a North West meeting to bring together our collective thoughts by the end of February.
I am look forward to hearing people’s views on this through the website, Facebook pages and email.
31 comments
31 responses to “North West wishes”
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There is a need for people to stand together and develop a new more collective approach to work,education,health care housing etc in the UK. Rewrite this article without the insults to an elected MEP and references to class struggle, the working class etc and there might be a prospect of Left Unity making progress. Otherwise Left Unity will become a tiny minority left wing sect with very little influence.
Fascism is a malignant tumour that is always present, and will always be present, in capitalist societies. Unless capitalism is overthrown, there is always the possibility that the horrors inflicted upon the world during the 1930s and 40s, following the rise of fascism in Italy, Spain, and Germany, will return. The threat is still more menacing today than it was 70 years ago because of the development of nuclear weapons by the capitalist/imperialist powers.
So the struggle against fascism is indistinguishable from the struggle to overthrow a diseased and dying capitalist system.
Fascism flourishes in capitalist crisis like the one that has engulfed the world since 2008, and when and where there is no effective working class resistance to this menace.
Labour and/or Social Democratic Parties all over Europe have gone over to the side of big business in the last 30 to 40 years. The “leaders” of these Parties are nothing but lackeys for the capitalists and their system, and so no effective campaign against fascism AND nationalism can be expected from them. The same applies to their close political relatives at the tops of the Trade Unions, who have completely gone over to the class enemy too, although occasionally they may mouthe some radical words at demonstrations or rallies, before returning to their plush offices, and comfortable middle class existences.
Socialists must lead the fight against the cancer of fascism in the workplace, in the community, and anywhere else it raises its malignant head. We must rebuild and transform our Trade Unions into the fighting, militant organisations of our forefathers (and mothers). In so doing, we will see a flood of new members into their ranks.
We must also build a serious, working class based Socialist Party, uncompromisingly committed to overthrowing capitalism, not tinkering with it, as promised by anaemic, petit-bourgeois reformists the world over, who translate their own material comfort with the capitalist status quo into pious sermons directed at real Socialists about being “realistic” when they are not foaming at the mouth about “madmen or madwomen of the Left” preaching “impossible” Revolution to the masses.
The BNP and UKIP have exploited the yawning vacuum on the Left that exists in Britain, and have preyed upon disillusioned, embittered, and backward layers of the working class AND the flag waving middle class too. This “support” goes no further than putting an X on the ballot paper in Elections in most cases, and is inherently volatile and unstable, reflecting mass desperation with the capitalist crisis, and all its ramifications – unemployment, especially amongst the youth, falling living standards, rising levels of acute poverty, the housing crisis, and the general insecurity felt by all those on or near the breadline.
If Griffin does stand again for the North West EU seat, he must be opposed by a serious Socialist, supported by a mass campaign of workers, Trade Unionists, the unemployed, and community based organisations like the anti-Bedroom Tax groups.
You effectively fight the fascist scum by political, and, where necessary, by physical means. We must have anti-fascist demonstrations wherever Griffin raises his head during the campaign. We must leaflet areas where he holds meetings to combat the fascist lies and distortions with hard facts and with appeals to the working class people in those areas to join in the fight against fascism and for a new Socialist world.
The N02EU outfit is an unprincipled bloc, many of whose demands are mirror images of those being made by the BNP and UKIP. Yes, Socialists are opposed to the capitalist club that is the EU, but we are also equally opposed to BRITISH capitalism and everything it stands for too. Pandering to nationalist prejudices in the working class in the discredited manner of Stalinism all over the world is the road to political disaster and defeat.
We do indeed need to link up with workers struggles and Socialists abroad because the fight against global capitalism is a global fight. Two World Wars have shown where the poison of nationalism leads the working class and suffering humanity in general.
Build the Trade Unions into fighting organisations! Build a Socialist Party capable of leading the working class and all those oppressed by rampant capitalism to the overthrow of the boss class and a new Socialist society! Build internationalist links with other workers! The workers have nothing to lose but their chains! They have a world to win!
Jimmy Roberts.
Blacklisted Socialist.
Merseyside.
I agree with your response to Felicity’s idea about calling for a discussion.However, I’ve had some difficulty in finding members or activities in Liverpool. Or even Merseyside. The first objective would be to meet live.
The second objective would be to create or solidify a local group. You and any other people prepared to develop this basic idea have my permission to access my E-mail address from “Left Unity”.
Hi Felicity,
As a member from Preston and I’m glad that you are calling for a discussion around what position Left Unity members should take in the North West come May.
I don’t particularly support any of the parties on offer however I would say that perhaps No2EU is our natural ally for the following reasons-
1) It is a coalition of forces (much like ourselves), with support from the RMT, SWP, SPEW, and Liberal Party, why not throw Left Unity into the mix?
2) Despite the fact their position on Europe and withdrawing from the EU is horrendous we have to accept that their other policies, with supporting the Working Class etc, are similar to our own whereas the Greens and Labour do have any working class policies left in them.
Ideally Left Unity would stand on its own but I doubt we’ll have the funds. Definitely worth having a North West meeting do, who knows? Perhaps Left Unity could have members on the No2EU slate?
Roger.We have set the date for the north west meeting as Mrach 2nd in Wigan. Email me if you don’t get the official invite
Felicity, some points:
1. I think Griffin is a busted flush in this election and will be humiliated, whatever we do. Doesn’t mean being ‘complacent about fascism’; on the contrary I think an anti-Griffin campaign which ignores UKIP means being complacement about the racism which will be strongly represented in this election by UKIP;
2. the No 2 EU campaign is a disgusting pandering to xenophobia. LU should have nothing to do with it;
3. we should not stand in the Euro elections – not ready
4. assuming we don’t stand we should say vote Green or Labour but join LU
5. need to campaign positively for freedom of movement for workers in the EU which over 2m million UK citizens take advantage of, as well as solidarity with Greece and the like
6. what’s happening on 25-26th January?
Thanks for a useful round-up of the current situation. Some thoughts on the far right.
Griffin is largely a busted flush. That’s not to say we shouldn’t oppose him and the BNP, but let’s not run the risk of overstating things.
The same applies, to one extent or another, to the whole of the British far right. The EDL never had any real ambition beyond getting into drunken punch-ups and the numbers they’re able to mobilise are ever dwindling. And they’re the ‘best’ the far right currently has to offer. The EDL splinters (Infidels etc.) are tiny and unable to do anything other then shout abuse from behind police lines. The NF are a drinking club for sad old nazis. Blood & Honour spend their time organising crap gigs in the middle of nowhere to avoid the opposition. Etc.
None of this means we should be complacent. The conditions that led to the rise of the BNP previously are still there and it’s entirely feasible that a credible far right threat could appear in the future. So it’s far better that we build anti-fascism into Left Unity now, while the opposition is weak. Otherwise, we end up reacting to them when they’re strong.
UKIP are certainly a political enemy and some members are racist, but they aren’t a fascist party. Anti-fascist tactics will not work against them for this reason. By conflating them with the fascist right, we run the risk of not being able to oppose either effectively.
You’re absolutely right to say that anti-fascism is a class issue. The incident with Angeliki Stogia is reflective of a wider issue. By inviting establishment politicians to speak, we’re working with the people who often create the conditions that allow fascism to grow. Worse then that, it associates anti-fascism with the political status quo, allowing the fascists to present themselves as the radical alternative by default. We need to break from that and distance ourselves from the “everyone against the fascists” strategy of the UAF and the “anti extremism” stance of HnH.
Linked to that, LU should place itself firmly in the militant anti-fascist tradition. We shouldn’t be calling for state bans or holding cosy little candlelit vigils way out of sight of the enemy. I’ll put my cards on the table and say that I absolutely do think that out strategy should include physical confrontation where appropriate. Some people need to get over their pathological fear of “squadism”. It’s ironic that people otherwise critical of the SWP reproduce their analysis in full on this issue.
Overall, we probably do need a critique of the UAF and HnH as part of forming our own strategy, but let’s not rush that. It’s better if it develops organically through discussion and debate.
What I think we really need in LU is for anti-fascists to start talking to each other and hopefully this article is going to be a springboard for that. I think it might be worth setting up a LU anti-fascist group or section, mostly just to start opening lines of communication with each other. What do you think?
i cant find opinion polls for the north west on the wikipedia link only national ones thought i may not be looking properly. i think that Peter cranie the north west green candidate is worthy of support double so when he came so close to beating griffin last time.a likely out come in the north west is con2 ukip2 lab2 and final two bnp, grn or lib dem with one missing out.
on no2eu i dont see why left unity should back them as they are a narrow project seeking to persuade the left that it should be against the eu. it will not do well and may even increase ukips votes by persuading voters that being against the eu is the most important issue. if people think persuading the left to be against the eu is that imp a non-electoral campaign to persuade the unions and campaigning groups and political parties would be am more natural starting point.
It’s all very well having a go at other Left organisations’ position on the EU is but what the article fails to do is present a clear positive critique and position on the EU.
If Left Unity were to stand in the European elections then it needs to have developed a clear and unambiguous position on Europe and policies relevant to Britain’s present membership of the EU and the European parliament.
For the moment, I feel Left unity needs to urgently concentrate and focus on consolidating it’s base, it’s foundations and democratic structures,while developing it’s actual policies, relevant to up and coming local and European elections as well the looming General elections.
It needs to develop it’s membership strength, in terms of drawing in more people, developing on it’s own members political experience,personal and collective strengths,creating an active membership culture and active ‘united’/coherent local branches/groups.
It needs to become a genuinely coherent party with coherent policies, inorder to become a credible and viable Socialist alternative which can challenge the neo liberal parties and The Far Right in elections.
In challenging the BNP/EDL, Left Unity needs to work with and coordinate in making common purpose as much as is possible with other anti racist, anti fascist organisations and individuals within communities it lives and works.
On the question of UKIP, which, while not a fascist party, it is a nasty dangerous populist nationalist and racist party with serious capital behind it with a great deal of media favour and support to boot.
As the BNP implodes (down but not out), so UKIP grows, as many former BNP activists merge in with disgruntled former tories, liberals and Labour supporters to bolster UKIP’s support base.
If as the post states, UKIP has 24% support in the country on par with the tories then this does mean there is a massive and dangerous shift to the Right occurring.
Left Unity is a small but growing party, which is very positive but trying, as some have, to paint Left Unity as a potential ‘UKIP of The Left’ is a very very bad idea.We dont need to have any assosciation with UKIP in any respect !
Left Unity has to be what it is and has to work to bring about a shift to The Left through strenthening it’s own internal unity while developing it’s own support bases within communities and becoming a genuinely attractive alternative to ever growing numbers of people out there,who are thoroughly hacked off with the present situation. .
We do, of course, need to work with others within anti cuts groups and campaigns, work with and within organisations opposed to all forms of oppression,wotk with those opposed to all neo liberal (structural adjustment programmes) both here in Britain, imposed by the CONDEM’s nationally and the tories, Lib dems and Labour locally as well as from the highly undemocratic , unaccountable neo-liberal centre of the European commission.
the article fails to do is present a clear positive critique and position on the EU”.
Patrick I think I did outline a careful approach to the EU. I will try to expand upon it. I also deliberately was not rude about other left groups and have no wish to be so.
The EU is on the one hand a bosses club, part of the troika that is spearheading the assault on living standards through the grand Austerity project. and the illegitimate debt impositions. It is wrecking the living standards and welfare rights in Greece Ireland and Portugal and other countries . It also helped along with the IMF and the World Bank in the earlier project of restructuring in Africa and Asia which similarly impacted on women’s and men’s living standards and the provision of services.
A hidden bit of recent history is the stripping away of women’s rights and workers’ rights with the mass privatisations that followed the end of the soviet era. I do not want any worker in Eastern Europe to see left Unity as being jingoistic and opposed to the struggles they are fighting. I remember the women who came bay coach all the way from Poland to speak at a rally in London about their fight for their health service and to link with our struggle for our health service.
The EU represented for many workers especially in Greece Spain Portugal and the former soviet states the modernisation of their living standards and rights and is still perceived as such by sections of the working class. Other people till see it as a project based on peace at the end of world war 2. These are all strands of opinion amongst working people. Our clear and positive critique will have to take up those wishes for modern women’s and workers rights and protections
The anti EU rhetoric from the right does not does not mention the need to protect workers rights so any exit will see us worse off and from the left, the anti EU rhetoric does not give respect other workers struggles or talk about defending our rights. Its really bad for us in 2014 to be seen to be anti European. Anti EU is one thing anti Europe is not OK.
In France recently I was shocked by how the British anti Europe rhetoric was perceived as jingoistic and offensive by French socialists
In no way do we want to separate ourselves from workers struggles in Europe, or from the struggles around the environment.
Thank you for your contribution to the debate
A very passionate piece from Felicity – From my perspective I hope that LU comrades in the North West do meet together soon to discuss the European Elections – To me it seems straightforward that we can help ensure that Nick Griffin looses the NW West MEP seat by backing Peter Cranie the lead Green Party Candidate in the North West. As others have pointed out Peter [who has a solid background as a trade union activist and anti racist campaigner] would have almost certainly beaten the BNP in 2009 if it had not been for the unfortunate intervention of the No2EU campaign. I agree with those who have said it is too premature for Left Unity to stand in the European Parliamentary Elections – if we were to stand then I feel it would be a costly and demoralising lesson in the brutal reality of electoral politics and we could contribute to weakening the chances of the Green Party securing a breakthrough. Left Unity as a whole needs to absorb some of the hard lessons of electoral politics that our sisters and brother in the United European Left have learnt over the past 20 years. We can learn a lot from the comrades of Die Linke, Parti de Gauche, Sinn Fein and SYRIZA and how they work together via the GUE/NGL at the European Level perhaps the best place to start is the GUE/NGL website ‘Another Europe IS Possible’ http://guengl.eu/
The EU is neo-liberal and anti working class to its core. Much of the left in Europe realises this (check out the KKE for the strongest anti EU position). NO2EU with the RMT, Socialist Party and Communist Party seems perfectly sensible.
I live in Burnley and think I have some understanding of the “how” Griffin and his party came to be popular. I see at least shades of much the same tactics increasingly from UKIP and its supporters.
Their “tactic” is to develop a rant and through this they try to speak to ordinary folk who are discontented and who, with a whole load of understanding, are feeling very insecure in respect of their daily lives.
They then put forward seemingly simple solutions that would, supposedly, dispel these feelings often using “us-v-them”. Seems to me that the appeal of this approach may well be in being a middle finger to an alienating and out-of-touch politics. One seemingly decoupled and remote from the views and dreams of everyday folk who are busy with their daily struggles and, generally, have no wish, desire or interest in “overt political action”. The kind of things I mean can maybe be exampled eg Frightened the family unit is under siege? Ban gay marriage. Uncomfortable hearing a medley of languages around town? Ban immigrants. Worried the country is in interminable decline? Ban the EU. Etc etc
So, what am I saying? Well, one thing that we on the so-called left don’t have is a compelling rhetoric to offer to anyone, let alone people looking for someone to give ’em hope through easily understandable “solutions” ie there is nothing for them to sign up to.
Yes, it is likely that Peter Cranie does represent our best hope for the euro elections and I will be helping deliver leaflets etc on his behalf but I suspect that his story is neither bold enough nor sufficiently compelling to attract many in my home area. In itself, this is interesting eg from the website, “vote for policies”, it seems that when asked “blind”, folk in East Lancs tend to favour green policies and labour policies almost neck and neck easily doing down the other parties by a fair margin. However, when I speak with people about green policies, ‘erm, well, it often involves me in some interesting conversations!
To finish, yes, let’s get behind Peter Cranie and let’s develop a rhetoric which ordinary people can understand and see how their lives will be improved.
Finally, if there is anyone else in the Burnley/East Lancs area I would be very happy to meet/swop emails and to see how any of this stuff could best be taken forward.
David. If you can get a couple of people together I’m sure we could get you some interesting speakers to come and lend a hand
Thank you for your contribution to this discussion. You are right we do have to build our own responses to the right in the language of ordinary people.
An additional number of points on UKIP.
How ironic it is that it takes a tory to make a fairly accurate description of Nigel Fa……r..aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaage on prime time television, the only dampener being that she felt she had to apologise for such a comment..
(The Sun)…..Defence Minister Anna Soubry said she thought her fellow politician “looks like somebody has put their finger up his bottom and he really rather likes it.”
Blimey. Farage “looks like somebody has put their finger up his bottom”, says defence minister in shock remarks
23 December 2013
(London loves Business): Conservative defence minister Anna Soubry MP seems to have hit a bum note over her shocking remark on BBC TV yesterday that Nigel Farage “looks like somebody has put their finger up his bottom”.
Soubry also told the Andrew Marr show on Sunday that she thinks the UKIP leader looks like “he really rather likes it”.
Rory Bremner, who was with her on the show, said “Are you allowed to say that?”
Lord Peter Mandelson, sitting next to her, said: “Anna, Anna, please, it’s too early.”
Soubry has now apologised for the remarks.
But it’s not the first time her and Farage have come to blows. The UKIP leader has previously accused Soubry of being a “bully” who “attacked” him over immigration.
……………………………………………………………………
UKIP is part of a radical realignment of the Right and the Far right and is presently giving platform for many racist and reactionary, if not potentially fascist views, from Farage’s public endorsement of ‘the principles’ behind Enoch Powelll’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech to Godfrey Bloom’s sexist mysogynistic (‘sluts’ and fridges) and racist (‘Bongo bongo land’) rants to the Cornish councillor Collin Brewer, who repeatedly refers to non white people as ‘coloureds’ and said, as have other UKIP people that disabled children should be “put down” and then compared them to ‘deformed lambs’ which does echo the Nazi ideas of scapegoating different groups according to ‘racial’ theories and eugenics.
Not to mention the present vile and insipid racist climate created around ‘The Roma'(read conflating ‘Roma’ with ‘travellers with ‘gypsies’ and ‘immigrants’ and ‘foreigners’) by the capitalist mainstream mass media with a great deal of assistance from UKIP, The Tories,David Blunkett and other Labour spokespeople !!!
As the Happy New Year spirit rapidly evapourates and life returns to ‘normal’,I have already overheard several people giving vent to their anger, in public spaces eg bus stops, on buses and in pubs, with similar if not far worse ideas than those ‘politely’ expounded by UKIP members above and elsewhere.
Farage appears to have the media at his beck and call as was a similar case with the way the media rushed to hear the present thoughts of the ‘former’ Edl Tommy Robinson.
These views and people need to be robustly confronted as was the case when Far….r….aaaaaaaaaaage visited Scotland where I dont think he will revist anytime soon.
Peter Cranie, the Green Party Euro candidate for the North West, is a solid trade unionist and socialist. Absolutely vital the left unites behind him – he came just a couple of percent off winning the seat last time and kicking out Griffin.
hi joe, it was not a few per cent off it was less than a half a per cent a greens got 7.7 to bnps 8.0 (in the northwest constituency)thats a mere 0.3 per cent behind. hopefuly see some people campaigning for Peter in the future last time was a genuinely broad campaign including respect members and others.
I think this article by Peter Cranie is a good argument for Left Unity getting behind him in thie particular election:
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/peter-cranie/bnp-european-elections_b_4411413.html
But we need to make it clear to Peter, to the Greens, and, in particular to the Green Left, that Left Unity supports Peter because his politics are indistinguishable from ours, whereas the Green Party’s are not, and that we will not put up with the Greens subsequently treating any victory as something they own or making out that the result shows that they are the party the Left ought to be unting behind. Our support should be conditional on them not making either claim, at any stage or on any public platform.
As a new party I think that what is paramount for Left Unity is that we show ourselves to be firm on principles. Flexible on tactics, yes – but way more important than that – firm on principles. This is what the working class is yearning for – a principled, genuinely democratic, progressive, socialist force in politics.
Peter Cranie’s Huffington Post article, to which John Tummon has very helpfully drawn our attention, appeals to us only at the level of plumping for tactical voting. It places tactics above principles.
John suggests that Peter’s own politics are indistinguishable from ours. Let’s ask Peter to demonstrate that then – in writing before the electorate. Let’s ask the LU TNC (in the absence yet of a North West LU Regional Committee) to devise a Minimum Platform of anti-austerity political demands which we will ask Peter if he will pledge his support to pursuing.
The Minimum Platform approach ( which was used for instance, by the Hackney Socialist Alliance with Dianne Abbott MP in the 2001 General Election – see : http://www.cpgb.org.uk/home/weekly-worker/387/hackney-socialist-alliance ) has the beauty of combining principles and tactics, with the former dominating.
My politics used to debar any consideration of a socialist organisation calling for support for the Green Party. This was based on what I now recognise to be an incorrect formalistic approach. The Green Party did not have an aim of superseding capitalism by socialism and it was not a political organisation that was part of the working class movement. I now want to focus on content not form. If there are individual Green Party candidates in elections whose politics are indeed indistinguishable from our own then, subject to our succeeding in irrefutably being able to demonstrate that identity, then we should back those candidates in cases where a very important objective, such as ousting the leader of the BNP, become achievable.
Felicity, Fully agree with you about the importance of the need for a perspective on Europe. We in TUSC campaigned for NO2EU in the last euro-elections as its policy was based on opposition to the treaty of Lisbon being imposed on us. NO2EU is now separate from TUSC. As you say, finance capital, if left unchecked will destroy the EU. However, don’t feel the answer is to withdraw from the Union as that is a chauvinist position, and to allow the EU to fragment into antagonistic nationalisms would be a disaster. Think of the break up of Yugoslavia multiplied by a hundred.
Capitalism in its heyday forged a single nation out of a large part of the North American continent, today, in its dotage it is incapable of carrying out a similar task in unifying Europe in a just and equitable manner. This task thus falls to us the workers to lead this transformation and to create a workers and socialist EU.
These realities define the perspective and tasks for workers. You say that we need a unity of struggle throughout Europe and all on the left would agree with this. What unites struggles is a common aim. This aim surely must be for the workers to defeat finance capital and establish a union run by the workers and their natural allies amongst the small farmers and shopkeepers.
The main aims could be say-
For a Workers Europe.
Down with NATO.
I am personally disappointed in LeftUnity and think it has turned out to be a talking shop, but I would love to be proven wrong.
Call a meeting on Europe Felicity and put this to the test. There is an Urgency to the situation as the Euro-elections are in May and there are no more for three years. LeftUnity claims over a thousand members, so there are certainly the numbers needed for this task. As things stand the left are going to have their arses handed to them on a plate by UKIP, so we have nothing to lose and everything to gain by putting up a fight.
I agree with Frank that No2EU should not be part of any united Left approach to the EU elctions in the NW. It would put us too close to UKIP among voters and just provide an increased airing for their core policy. The way modern, globalised capitalism is structured, we need to be able to work internationally and the EU, even though it is a capitalist body, makes this easier than if it did not exist. These elections are an opportunity to raise international issues like the Coalition’s racism towards Bulgarians and Rumanians, the Greek fightback, the undemocratic imposition of Troika bureacrats with an austerity mandate on countries whose banks and soveriegn debts are bailed out.
I think Peter Cranie is our best bet to unite behind but this must be conditional, as John Perason and me have suggested. An early meeting between Left Unity, the Greens and TUSC is essential and we need to quickly improvise some kind of LU NW coordination to make this happen.
Thanks Frank for this contribution. Its helped me understand what’s happening with TUSC/No to the EU
We are having a meeting March 2nd in Wigan If you don’t get the invite let me know
Nick Wrack put this on Facebook. It is a 25 minute talk that shows how Lenin used the 4 Doumas (Parliaments) – the electoral process – primarliy as a way of gauging the state of thinking in the working class:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtQML8xdIUk&feature=share
To me, we can only do this, as the TNC recognises, “when a political basis of support exists within the community”, which is why grassroots work has to come first and LU should not be standing in this year’s local elections. However, building an anti-Fascist EU campaign is, tactically and strategically, a different issue. Even so, it does not and should not mean that we fight a defensive ‘anti’ campaign. We have to put forward an alternative argument on key issues to that of UKIP and the BNP and we need to seek agreement on what these issues will be and what we will be saying BEFORE Peter Cranie’s manifesto is drawn up by the Greens!
There seems to be some basis of agreement on our basic policy on the EU. Tacticcally i would differ on an electoral alliance with the Green Party. The latest crisis has exposed them as, at best, confused and vaccillating in face of the Condem onslought. Also disagree that we go into an election to ascertain the mood of classes. To me we should be contesting the Euro-election to put forward a policy that is vital to the interests of workers. We should have sufficient faith in the vanguard of the class and our own policies to launch our own campaign. We certainly have the numbers for it, and i see no need to hide behind any middle class, facing both ways, vaccillators like the Green Party
I think the original article is a very useful one and its great to have a discussion about it on the website but this is not how Left Unity makes policy and I think its dangerous to assume that we know what most LU members think through these exchanges.
Personally Im absolutely I think for Left Unity to stand in these Euroelections is not a goer. They are expensive and the constituencies are huge and in many cases not intuitive therefore its difficult to make an impact. We can however without standing use the elections to get some of our political ideas across to a wider layer of people. I think in the North West that would be best done by supporting Peter Cranie but having something independent to say where we dont agree
Terry, I take your point about how to and not to make policy, but even so, this can be read as an indicative discussion thread. There does seem to be a consensus about wanting to work with Cranie, because of his politics rather than the Greens as a whole, but my plea is that the LU leadership holds discussions asap with him and with TUSC to sort out the deamnds we will all, or each, run with in this campaign, bearing closely in mind that both UKIP and the BNP, and possibly No2EU, will be appealing to workers to see this crisis through a nationalist lens.
A little something for our campaign events in the NW EU elections:
https://m.soundcloud.com/nicholas-pegg/ukip-shipping-forecast
Below, please find the paper used as the basis of a discussion on the EU elections at last night’s Left Unity meeting in Stockport. It includes sections from other comrades’ contribtions onthe subject, from this and earlier threads:
Europe, the EU and the European Parliament Elections
Definitions: Federalist (wanting a centrally-run state balanced by relative autonomy for each of its constituent parts), Intergovernmental (an altogether looser coming together of fully autonomous states to pursue the goals they can agree on), Atlanticist (belief in or support for a close relationship between western Europe and the US, or particularly for NATO; ‘the Special Relationship’ is the specific British version of this), autarky (a policy of economic independence or self-sufficiency)
Historical context –
1 WW2 cost Britain £7.3 billion, which amounted to one quarter of Britain’s pre-war wealth. Britain had also accumulated £3.3 billion worth of debt through the US war loan. The British elite, for the first time in hundreds of years, got used to its severely reduced status in the world. This meant that it needed an alternative foreign policy from one that assumed that it was a powerful nation that could get its own way. It settled on the US alliance and this determined every other aspect of foreign and colonial policy, including its posture on European integration. Because of its strong Atlanticism, British policy towards Europe can’t be understood except by looking at the USA, which supported European integration throughout the Cold War period. There were 5 motives behind this US support:
1 promoting the US economic and political model on the European continent
2 constructing an economically efficient Europe that would reduce the US burden (Marshall Aid was to be a one-off)
3 to create a Europe resilient to the apparent post-war economic successes of the Soviet Union
4 to contain the revival of Fascism or Socialism in Germany by locking it into economic cooperation
5 to restrain European socialism by creating a trans-national capitalist bloc
But US policy on European integration was against the emergence of Europe as a ‘Third Force’ in the world, independent of both superpowers. Europe’s role was to be a loyal and subordinate ally of the USA and Britain’s role in Europe was to ensure that Europe did not become more powerful than the sum of its parts and gave up on becoming a third force. Such fears prompted the US to encourage Britain to lead the European integration process, viewing its ally as a ‘Trojan horse’ for US interests in Europe. In private, British state planners acknowledged that ‘the UK will, in own interests, take on at times the role of a Trojan horse’ in the EU, ‘but its effectiveness will depend on not appearing to act as a US stooge’ (Foreign Office, 1972).
European integration is not just about the EU, but also NATO; in both cases British policy arose from its American alliance. NATO reflected not just an alliance for the Cold War but also the fact that the fundamental principle underpinning British foreign policy was to stay close to the Americans and to the nuclear armoury shared with Britain. Minutes of Foreign Office meetings show this clearly.
2 European integration was born in the Committee for European Economic Co-operation (CEEC) in July 1947, which was set up specifically to administer the funds from the Marshall Plan, the true purpose of which was to see off the prospect of revolution in western Europe, especially in France, Italy and Germany. European integration was therefore US policy and it was fundamentally to protect capitalism where it was most vulnerable.
3 The roots of the argument within the British ruling elite about Europe lie in the long battle between two visions – the federal and the intergovernmental versions of European integration as well as in Atlanticism – the urge always to put the US alliance first. Federalists created a single authority to coordinate the Franco-German production of coal and steel, whereas the first intergovernmental challenge to them was the creation of the EFTA (European Free Trade Association), set up under British leadership in 1959 between Austria, Britain, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland. The intergovernmental camp, led by Britain, was outmanoevred by France, culminating in the 1957 Treaty of Rome, which set up the first version of the EU.
4 Britain was at the time governed by an Atlanticist Conservative Party fully committed to what became known as ‘the Special Relationship’ with the USA. British efforts led European federalists to conclude that ‘we must do without Britain’s support if we are to make any headway.’ Atlanticists had their opponents within the British elite, too, and this conflict was reflected even between different government departments, but during the early 1960s a new generation of pro-EU officials joined the civil service, displacing those loyal to the Commonwealth. This precipitated the development of a new pro-entry orthodoxy within the Foreign Office and the Treasury. Macmillan restructured the Cabinet in favour of pro-EU ministers. In 1961 Macmillan formally submitted Britain’s first application to join the EU and the negotiations opened. This was in line with the growing importance of the European market to key sections of British capitalism. Public support was strongly in favour of trying to unite Western Europe throughout this period. Only in 1962 was there below 50% in favour and never more than 22% against. £ Millions were spent on swinging the business sector, the media, political parties, trade unions and ultimately the general public behind entry. It appears to have been a success. Although the first British application to join was refused, by March 1965 public support for joining had increased to 57 per cent.
5 Britain was not the only major intergovernmental force in Europe. President de Gaulle attempted to move the Common Market away from Federalism and towards intergovernmentalism. This resulted eventually – in 1965 – in the creation of a veto within the Council of Ministers, which effectively killed two European projects in one swoop – a) Europe becoming a third force in the world and b) becoming a close, federal union. This gave the British political elite the confidence to apply again under Heath at the beginning of the 1970s.
6 The Treaty of Rome was most definitely a free market initiative – its founding document said that it was “to contribute, by means of a common commercial policy, to the progressive abolition of restrictions on international trade”. The subsequent treaties of Maastricht, Amsterdam, Nice and Lisbon maintained the capitalist nature of the EU, as it later became known – it was to be the means of Europe playing its role in a free trade, globalised capitalism led by the USA.
The Eurozone Crisis & its effects in British politics
1 The roots of this lie in German reunification but its cause was the capitalist crisis of 2007-8. It was not caused by the mere fact of having a currency union (NB the inter-war ‘sterling area’ was a currency union). The Economic and Monetary Union was a Federalist project aimed at converging the economies of all member states of the European Union in three stages – seen by British Atlanticists as ‘backdoor federalism’. Only Britain. Sweden and Denmark did not commit themselves by treaty to join the “third EMU stage” – the adoption of the Euro as a common currency in 1999. Of these 3, only Denmark held a referendum (The right never jumped up and down for a referendum on this occasion – it just did what it wanted!).
2 The rest of the Eurozone members agreed to go along with the German insistence on a 3% borrowing limit in 1997, when the euro was being set up, but the German elite was by then re-structuring its economy – at the expense of the working class and by driving up worker productivity (the rate of exploitation), to cope with the fiscal burden of reunification. This re-structuring gave German capitalism a huge competitive advantage over its Eurozone partners that meant that after the 2007-8 capitalist crisis, drastically reduced demand across and beyond the EU hit the Eurozone members disproportionally, with German industry’s higher rate of exploitation cornering a much bigger % of the reduced volume of contracts and the ‘less productive’ countries experiencing a reduced % and, therefore, mass unemployment. Having ceded their authority to print money to an independent central bank, the Eurozone’s ‘less productive’ members had no alternative in this situation but to borrow to pay the rocketing welfare bills arising from mass unemployment and the debts of their banks. Government borrowing ballooned followed by ‘bailouts’ linked to austerity programmes – the same structural adjustment that the IMF enforces on debtor countries on other, poorer continents.
3 The opportunism of the three mainstream British political parties has led them to blame this sovereign debt crisis on the creation of the Eurozone in the first place, congratulating themselves on their ‘Eurosceptic wisdom’ in deciding to stay out of it, whereas in fact it is just the particular way in which the 2007-8 capitalist crisis manifested itself in the Eurozone. From a working class point of view, the outcome is the same – a credit crunch, leading to reduced demand, mass unemployment and austerity packages hitting social provision, public sector employment, real wages, working conditions and private borrowing. That is why we can and must stand together with the European working class against the common austerity offensive of ruling elites on both sides of the channel.
4 But this British rhetoric and opportunist finger-pointing at Europe and the Eurozone during the sovereign debt crisis has re-ignited Atlanticism and Euroscepticism within the mainstream parties, to the dismay of British capitalists who depend on the Eurozone and EU for markets. The Coalition has tried to see this off by steering it towards a brand of Europhobia that emphasises re-negotiating EU law on workers’ rights and conditions and ‘red tape’ infringing British business – aimed to appeal to the neoliberal outlook, so as to unite business behind government.
UKIP has emerged into the political space created by opportunist rhetoric about the sovereign debt crisis and the Eurosceptic demons it has summoned into the daylight once more, but it also reflects the more general antagonism of the Tory right towards the apparent ‘centrist’ politics of the Coalition. This right wing includes many nationalists who worry about the decline of national sovereignty, including the inability of national governments to control immigration, and find it more comfortable to blame this on the EU than on globalised capitalism, which increasingly constrains all governments’ ability to govern their economies.
Arguably, No2EU has emerged in a similar way, but with far less impact, out of the abandonment of a nationalist social democracy by the Labour Party and TUC, drawing to some extent on those struggles in which British workers have appeared to be pitted against ‘cheap foreign labour undercutting our wages and conditions’. Bob Crowe’s rant at the Durham Miners’ Gala contained very dodgy concessions to the prevailing anti migrant worker debates.
The BNP have buckled under the pressure of UKIP, their own disorganisation and the long-term failure of their political project – to make extreme, racist nationalism electable and sustain their gains in the working class neighbourhoods vacated by New Labour.
What UKIP represents –
Apart from the fact that they are both nationalist and have to expel their less sophisticated members every now and again, UKIP should not be confused with the BNP. One is overtly and primarily racist; the other uses racism in much the same dog whistle sort of way as the 3 traditional parties. The threat in the North West EU elections is unlikely to come from the BNP, but from UKIP – we must not gear up for fighting the next battle as if it were the same as the last one!
We must understand that UKIP comes originally from the nationalist Tory right, but its recent success in the polls is due to a complexity of factors:
• By playing on fears of mass migration from Eastern Europe and stoking up racism, arguing (plausibly) that it is the EU which stops governments being able to control how many people come into the country.
• By appealing more generally to the band of English Tory nationalists, backed by the Daily Express and on occasion the Daily Mail, taking advantage of nationalist antagonism to the ‘centrist’ Coalition.
• By highlighting (plausibly) the democratic deficit at the heart of the European Union Federalist project.
• By cornering the protest vote at a time of mass disillusion with domestic politics: pint in hand, Farage presents himself as one of the people, and with media backing it has had impact so far (apart from in Scotland).
UKIP’s campaign about the undemocratic nature of the EU is powerful. Their weakness is when Farage argues that there is a British solution to the economic and social crisis and an exit from the EU, but keeping neoliberal policies that will enable that solution to be put in place. You can’t have autarky and neoliberal free trade at the same time!
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.
But UKIP says little or nothing about a much more far reaching abandonment of democracy – 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, and, specifically, the installation of a technocratic government in Italy and Greece, to replace elected Prime Ministers; this represents the dictatorship of capital slowly coming into view and it is the European Commission and its President that is leading the process. We have a deeper critique than UKIP of the EU’s democratic deficit!
How can the Left deal with UKIP and other nationalist / chauvinist political campaigns?
Greece and Italy show that socialists must not abandon the democratic argument simply because UKIP have made the running so far. The democratic deficit is a far broader and deeper question than the EU; it includes the gross democratic deficiencies of the British parliamentary system. Our politics alone has the potential to create direct, accountable, mass democracy across the whole of Europe and we should argue this strongly. The key question is how to properly frame the argument so that it both challenges the dictatorship of capital within 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 and miss one of our best chances of arguing our politics.
Beyond this, 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.
It is important, too, to argue for the break-up of the European Union as a political project of capitalist forces hostile to the working class across the whole of Europe and argue for it to be replaced ultimately by a continent-wide democratic commonwealth based on common ownership of wealth and the means of producing it. To achieve this, we should point to the fightback in Europe – especially to the struggles of ordinary victims of enforced austerity in Greece and Spain – and their commonality with austerity victims here, arguing for solidarity across frontiers (an EU-wide living wage) and how the nationalism of UKIP and Cameron seeks to divide us from them and introduce further restrictions on workers’ rights under the guise of abolishing Euro ‘red tape’.
Those in Britain who shout the loudest to leave the EU are those who would extend the working day, attack women’s rights, reduce safety and rights at work, and further attack trade union rights. They want to see unfettered free trade and marketisation of all public services – as with the establishment of academy schools and the privatisation of NHS services. They are the clear and present enemies of working class communities in the UK and across the world.
The other side of the struggle in Europe is the strikes and campaigns conducted daily across Europe, with different levels of success or failure, by working people and the unemployed. These struggles can link workers across Europe for a shorter working day and week, for women’s rights, for rights at work, for a European living wage, for the protection and expansion of the welfare state, against poverty of children and old people and against racism and fascism. Left Unity must stand with the workers struggles in Europe.
What about the EU election in the North West?
Wikipedia gives the following opinion poll results for the Northwest European constituency:
Lab 32%
Conservative 24%
UKIP 24%
Lib Dems 8%
Other 12%
The Lib Dem scandal could halve their vote, or more that will encourage Labour, which is also capable of playing the anti-migrant card. Angelika Stogia, one of Labour’s team for the North West, is reported as having spoken at a UAF conference putting the blame for the rise of the far right in Greece on immigrants, who were ‘a threat to public health’. We have a Fascist MEP standing for re-election. He gained 132,194 votes in the last Euro election but this is likely to be devoured by UKIP, if it emphasises the parts of its rhetoric closest to the BNP’s. ‘No 2 the EU’ has trade union backing but no obvious endorsement of solidarity with other workers struggles in the EU. The Tories are likely to try to compete with UKIP, all of which indicates a EU election campaign high in competitive anti-migrant rhetoric.
But an Ipsos Mori survey quoted in the Guardian (Dec 28th 2013) shows 72% of people aged 35-44 support rights of east European workers to live and work in UK. Nearly half (45%) said that enforcing the minimum wage was one of the most important ways of stopping business undercutting British workers by paying European workers less. So all is not lost. There is no huge trend in public opinion in favour of reaction. The Greens could have won the seat instead of the BNP last time, if socialists had voted tactically last time to keep out the BNP. Their candidate, Peter Cranie, came close to defeating Griffin last time, is a trade union activist and anti racist campaigner and some in Left Unity think he represents our best hope for the euro elections
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.
But we can make Left Unity’s anti-austerity stance our distinctive contribution – on a European-wide basis – to the election campaign. We could show we are in active solidarity with organisations in Europe fighting austerity and cuts in social provision, wage levels and working conditions across Europe and ask for a popular mandate on this basis.
Left Unity is not yet in a position to fight an election campaign in its own name but we can work in alliance with other forces on the left.
There is a chance that in some regions, including the North West, UKIP could be pipped at the post by the Greens.
If we can agree on some things to do with these EU elections, our branch can send our views to the Transitional National Council.
Following the discussion of this paper, the Stockport meeting agreed to ask the Left Unity Transitional National Council to open discussions with Peter Cranie on the basis of some core programmatic demands drawn up by Left Unity, in order to reach an agreement that Left Unity members and branches will work towards his election in the North West provided he publicly endorses these programmatic demands.
As someone who has just joined Left Unity from the Labour party Peter Cranie and the Greens are the best bet for the European elections. I would hope that LU would be looking towards the European Left Party affiliation.
I would welcome the chance for further discussion and very much hope to be working with you soon, in solidarity, against both the BNP and UKIP.
We have now set the date for the North west meeting . March 2nd in Wigan. Details are being circulated.
Felicity