Aims of a new party of the left – proposed resolution to conference.

This motion, on the aims of a new Left Party, will hopefully be submitted for debate at the founding conference of Left Unity.

It does not claim to be a complete programme – such an endeavour must be a collective effort that cannot be abstracted from the need for the left to develop much deeper roots in the working class we aim to represent. But it is rooted in contemporary politics and economics, and corresponds with the experience of recent years. And it does in my view offer a perspective by which this project can avoid the fundamental flaws of bureaucratic reformism that have wrecked the previous attempts to build a new party to the left of Labour. By adopting this kind of genuinely radical ideas, we can become a polarising force, aiming to strike blows at the ruling class who have for the last few decades waged a one-sided war against our class, which has been misled by people with a vested interest is maintaining capitalism and hence defeating our side.

Obviously it needs the endorsement of 10 members of LU to be able to be presented, and I am inviting those who wish to endorse it to email me at donovanianNOSPAM@aol.com (remove the NOSPAM, obviously).

Friendly amendments, that strengthen the motion, will be considered on merit and possibly incorporated – other amendments should obviously go through the formal amendment procedure.

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Reformism is no longer a viable strategy for social reforms. Existing social reforms are under attack to a degree not even seen in the 1930s.  Even then there was not the scale of attacks we see today; indeed there were some advances despite the Great Depression, particularly in council housing.

In the aftermath of WWII, fear of working class revolution coupled with the considerable post-war boom, led to a massive expansion of the social wage from the health service, contributory benefits and national insurance, council housing, to many other forms of public provision.

Over the last 30 years or more we have seen a chipping away at social gains, coupled with Thatcher’s offensive to tame the trade unions, a project that has only succeeded with the on-going collaboration and acquiescence of the leaderships of the trade unions. Labour and Tory governments have done a double act in undermining all aspects of such social gains and replacing them with various market mechanisms, designed to force workers to pay for more things while cutting corporation taxes and the like to boost profits and ‘attract investment’.

The ongoing fall in the rate of profit in the advanced countries is the root of this. The tendency to compete to offer low rates of corporation tax is one symptom of this: so-called globalisation, whether it be the migration of capital to cheap labour zones like China, Bangladesh, Indonesia, etc. , or the growth of low wage migration to advanced countries, the underlying motive is to squeeze out every last drop of profit in a situation where only a gradually diminishing rate can be obtained.

The financialisation of capitalism is another such symptom.  The incredible growth of speculative financial instruments that rely on selling ‘future’ (fictitious, in many cases) income streams and profits, and often take very complex forms – as with the packaged securitised mortgage ‘assets’ and ‘credit default swaps’, as well as the ‘shadow banking system’ was seen clearly in the Credit Crisis.

These are all symptoms of the desperate search of capitalism for sources of profit in a world where profit rates are inexorably, but gradually falling. But the fictitious and speculative nature of these income sources can only introduce huge financial instability into the system. The threat of another great depression (or worse) is ever present because of this situation.

All these are the material reasons why the strategy of reformism has ground to a halt, and reformist governments in power have generally been little different from openly reactionary ones, whatever their promises or lack of them. The change of ideas is the result of the decline of capitalism’s ability to offer reforms, which has undermined the reformist strategy.

In order to provide a political alternative in this situation, we must reject all forms of reformism as a strategy. This does not mean abandoning the fight for reforms. It rather means that we have to recognise that demands for reforms today will generate determined resistance from the capitalists, and will have to be extracted as never before by mass actions and the threat of revolution from below by the working class. Otherwise, no concessions of any importance will be made.

We need to tell the working class the truth – that to reverse the offensive against us will require struggle of the magnitude of general strikes. It will be necessary to wield such weapons repeatedly to defend existing gains, let alone to win new ones. Obviously we are a very long way from that situation at present, but the working class needs to bridge that gap and rebuild both organisation and fighting strength. Otherwise the reactionary offensive will simply go on.

If we as a party do not work on this basis, and instead concentrate on getting elected on the basis of reformist campaigning and what we will ‘do’ in office, we will achieve nothing and will be constrained to follow the last generation of reformists into the reactionary camp.

Even when such concessions are made as a result of struggle, there will not be a prolonged period of relative social peace for the workers to benefit from, as in past periods when capitalism was relatively solvent. Rather, there will be a desperate counter-offensive by the ruling capitalist layers, using every dirty trick in the book to divide us, to mobilise backward sections of society against the working class, and to undermine and crush those movements that brought about any gains.

The consequence of this is that we need the method of transitional demands. That is, not only reforms, but also more advanced demands that attack the foundations of capitalism and strengthen the working class, so that taking power becomes feasible to workers.

In conditions of endemic unemployment, we need full employment, now. This cannot wait on the market to provide, but can be achieved in a very short time by cutting working hours – with no loss in pay – and absorbing the unemployed into the workforce on an equal basis. The capitalist state must be forced to pay for this measure, which would strengthen the working class and the unions enormously. Anti-union laws would be smashed in short order were this to happen.

Similarly with prices – real wages are being eaten away and indexing of benefits, pensions etc. is now fiddled by government, resulting in drastic cuts. We must demand that the working class controls wages and benefits, and raises all of them to a rate where everyone can live decently – but also that they be raised progressively to keep step with inflation – as a right. No fiddled figures can be accepted, the working class consumer can easily determine what the real rate of inflation is. Trade unions and consumer organisations must organise this.

The working class will face physical attacks from the state and from other right wing forces when it fights for these things. Ethnic minorities will face attacks from fascists and state forces as part of the campaign to divide us, on a scale we have not seen yet.

We will need to organise proper defence groups, composed of people who at least have some knowledge of how to defend themselves and others, whether from being in the army or any other source of such knowledge. When such defence groups develop, it is certain that the ruling class will resort to armed force against the workers and the defence groups, and it will be essential to avoid any adventurist acts that lead to unnecessary casualties.

But on the other hand, it is also inevitable that the taboo on arming the population will at some point be done away with in the popular mind by ruling class violence. Without adventurism or any stupid rhetoric, we need to prepare people’s ideas for that, so that when that consciousness changes, the reality on the ground can change as well, and more advanced forms of defence organisation can take shape.

This is not a full transitional programme. It is merely an indication of the approach that we as socialists need to develop such a programme. Many more such demands using a similar approach could no doubt be formulated. But the conclusion of such a programme must address the question of the government we are out to create.

We need a government of the working class, not a government of the capitalists or their privileged political representatives. We cannot at this point predict precisely what form the working class movement will take when it is ready to address the question of government. Obviously the growth of a mass revolutionary party within the wider movement is paramount – and Left Unity must play our role in preparing for that. In form it may consist of revived trade unions, involve workers’ councils (soviets) that transcend existing trade union divisions, or it may consist of some form of working class organisation we have not seen yet.

But whatever form it takes, it must be based on democratic organisation of the working class.  It must establish norms to make sure control is not monopolised by a permanent bureaucratic layer of privileged officials. Those who exercise power must be paid no more than those they represent, and must be subject to instant recall from those who elect them. Whichever party they come from, they must not be allowed to undermine this norm at any cost.

It is obvious that in the aftermath of such a major social change, there will be those who will seek to overthrow the working class’s new power. Sometimes by violence, but it may be more subtle that that. It may be necessary for the working class to restrict the right of some sections of the population to organise politically. This is so particularly so when opponents of working class rule are able to organise abroad and use resources from elsewhere against the workers.

There is no need to fear any degeneration of the revolution from this, providing the working class remains strong and organised, and able to recall its representatives if they err. If the economy were driven to collapse by prolonged siege of hostile foreign regimes, there would be a danger of decline of the working class and hence degeneration – socialism cannot ever be built in one country.

Properly understood, the process of holding the representatives of the working class to account through democratic structures, and the process of restricting the field of action of privileged layers, should be viewed as different aspects of the same thing – control from below by the working class. This requires political freedom for the working class, obviously.  With a strong working class in power, there will be different schools of thought about many things, which inevitably will mean the formation of different parties, even if perhaps on a shifting basis. It is perfectly possible that several pro-revolutionary parties will disagree strongly, while uniting to maintain the security of the workers state against counter-revolutionary organisations in conditions of workers democracy.

In the globalised world of today, an isolated revolution is even more impossible that it was in the past, as countries are more interdependent economically and the global division of labour is more developed.  This means international organisation becomes more important than ever – both revolutions and counterrevolutions have the potential to spread rapidly and it will depend on the consciousness and organisation of our side to make sure we prevail.  It will take regional blocs of workers state power,  for instance on a European, or Middle Eastern, or Far Eastern, scale, to create stable conditions in which the advance to socialism can get underway. Ultimately, this is a task for the whole world and the advance to communism itself, though that will take more time.

Proposed by Ian Donovan