UKIP results shame the left
Phil Hearse wrote this piece for his site Crisis and Revolt.
The worst possible response to the local council elections in which UKIP won 25% of the vote would be complacency. For this result is shameful for both Labour and for the left-of-Labour left. While it’s true that the mainly rural areas and small town being polled are the heartland of sections of the petty bourgeoisie and not at all representative of the electorate in general, for all that the result is dispiriting and frustrating.
This vote shows who is on the offensive politically, even if the vote is untypical of Britain as a whole. It reveals once again the chosen terrain for all of right-wing reaction in Britain – nationalism, xenophobia and racism – and the mass base it has. And it shows the terrible weakness of Labour’s ‘alternative’ and the absence of a coherent left at the electoral level – mainly as a result of division and futile sectarian factionalism which has sabotaged unity initiatives over the last 20 years.
In June 2009, the day after the county council and European elections I wrote:
“The outcome of the county council and Euro elections means that the British left – the left to the left of New Labour – has to wake up and break out of its dire sectarian, bureaucratic and factional mindsets. Nothing is more shameful than the lack of united left slate, around a minimal set of demands in the interests of the working class, in these elections. The near-absence of the Left from the electoral field was one important reason – though far from the only one – that such a large number of the protest votes against the main parties went to the hard right UKIP and the fascist BNP. It is shameful that the Left abandons so much of the electoral field to the far right because of nothing more than hardened, bone headed, factional idiocy – topped off by bureaucratic exclusions and anathemas.” (http://www.marxsite.com/leftcrisis.html)
What has changed of course is the relative demise of the BNP. UKIP is a much better instrument for right wing reaction without the stain of fascism and the bourgeoisie won’t touch it.
Hundreds of thousands of workers voted in these elections and many of them voted for UKIP. It was a case of the reactionary petty bourgeoisie leading the working class, rather than the working class and the left making inroads into the petty bourgeoisie. Many of the people who voted UKIP were doubtless protest voters, but Labour doesn’t inspire workers and middle class people who are suffering at the hands of the cuts and economic downturn. How can a Labour front bench that promises absolutely nothing for when and if it comes to power inspire anybody? The ‘left’and no-so-left union leaders who think that Ed Miliband is their man and can maybe be pushed further left are foolish beyond belief. Even with tens of millions suffering from austerity Labour is struggling to get the kind of poll figures that would ensure its return to office.
The failure to construct a left electoral alternative to Labour shames the left, and in particular the leaderships of the SWP and Socialist Party, jointly culpable for the collapse of successive left unity initiatives. Certainly on the kind of unfavourable terrain that existed in yesterday’s elections would not guarantee any kind of left electoral breakthrough. But the left should try to be a growing electoral force, to put forward an electoral alternative to austerity, xenophobia and racism. The present practice on much of the left is in fact a form of electoral abstentionism, although at a formal level organisations like the SWP and the SP reject it. Shrugging your shoulders and muttering about the primacy of mass struggle is (at best) a capitulation to syndicalism and spontaneism. The right wing must be fought in elections as well as in the mass struggle, obviously.
Both the subjective forces and the objective circumstances exist for the creation of a force to the left of Labour capable of creating a credible national electoral challenge. Probably the circumstances are not so favourable as they were 10 or 12 years ago, but we can only start with where we are and the forces we have to hand. The logic of course is to fight for a broad left party which of course prioritises mass struggle, but does not abandon the electoral terrain.
The left has to do everything possible to confront racism and xenophobic nationalism, so assiduously cultivated by the state and right wing media over the past decade, particularly in relation to ‘our boys’ in Afghanistan and Iraq. Neither should the left act as an echo chamber for the anti-EU xenophobia of the right. UKIP and the Tories attack the most progressive things in the EU, like the European Convention on Human Rights. It is a total diversion to imagine that austerity and the plight of the working class and middle class people suffering from the effects of austerity can be solved by leaving the European Union, or indeed that the EU is a central factor in imposing austerity in Britain.
The Left in Britain has been marking time – no worse, wasting time. The construction of a broad left party is an urgent necessity to fight the right.
11 comments
11 responses to “UKIP results shame the left”
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Oh dear, this is an unfortunate response to UKIP’s ascendency. For starters the hyperbole of blaming the left in general is moralistic, and smacks of the wrongheaded notion that individual groups on the left can magic a mass reformist party out of nowhere. Also, to blame either the SP or the SWP is not only provocative but not the whole truth. The Respect debacle was multifaceted and cannot be laid at the SWP’s door; even if we accept some culpability we have to accept wider contexts. I would also argue that the left jargon used is impenetrable to many of its target audience (Tom Walker writes a good article about this on the IS Network). Surely the point is that we now have an opportunity with left unity to counter UKIP. We should do this in a friendly, open way and welcome anyone into this, whatever their politics. Not alienate them.
The author seems to believe that the UKIP’s vote indicates that the socialist left might have pulled off its own breakthrough, if only it had got its act together.
I seriously doubt it. The core Labour vote held up and a mass breakthrough by the left on a national scale won’t happen this side of another Labour government.
Labour isn’t attracting younger voters though.
Those hardest hit by the difficulty of finding work & housing and the cost of education.
UKIP shrewdly calls for a return to student grants, while Miliband doesn’t.
He hasn’t promised to restore the EMA either.
Another clever move by UKIP is that it doesn’t whip its local councillors.
So it can attract all manner of matey local opportunists onto its bandwagon.
It’s hard to see how their new councillors will have any coherent policies once in office though.
Perhaps council business will be discussed over a pint in the saloon bar?
It would be foolish to deny that there is a populist fear of Eastern European immigration.
UKIP’s anti EU stance has exploited this fear rather succesfully.
But “Left Eurosceptics”, have never challenged this position very succesfully.
It’s simply not credible, for instance, to defend gangmasters in Lincolnshire, herding low-wage Eastern European workers from dawn to dusk in the fields.
UKIP’s national and international policies don’t stand up to serious examination either.
A flat-rate income tax, would lead to a sharp drop in public spending, deepening the recession in Britain.
It claims that it will defend the NHS, but how will it pay for it?
Pulling out of the EU would mean trade barriers erected against British goods.
These are the sorts of issues on which UKIP needs to be relentlessly attacked .
UKIP, as presently constituted, is by no means a fascist movement.
The most serious threat that it poses is that it might push the Tories to the right.
This could produce a serious populist right-wing challenge at the next General Election.
Stopping this threat in its tracks requires a United Front of the Labour Party, Socialists and Greens.
Socialists need to operate within that arena, to argue for the economic policies needed to pull Europe out of recession.
How does the SP reject bourgeois elections at a formal level? They embrace them whole heartedly, but The SP and CWI are Marxist organizations and know that ultimately socialism must come through revolution and will never succeed merely by reforms under bourgeois dictatorship.
I think it’s a mistake to simply say it’s the left’s fault in general for not creating a left alternative earlier. The fact is that the closest thing we had to a revival of resistance in this country was November the 30th and the mass demos/strikes. This momentum was thrown away by the trade union leaderships and the Labour Party both of whom had the power and influence to turn them into serious resistance. So a section of the ‘left’, yes, but by no means all, and certainly not the serious left. All the other left groups supported and agitated in favour. And surely the point is about small revolutionary groups is that, on their own, they simply don’t have the influence to build a mass party in Britain at this time. That’s why LU is such a fantastic opportunity, and please, whatever party you are in reading this, get involved. I know we all disagree about stuff but we all agree on the basics.
While I am not denigrating the potential danger that right-wing populist organisations like UKIP pose in creating an anti-immigration backlash, after all I hear it every day from one quarter or another. But in my opinion there needs to be a sense of proportion to the County Council Election results last Thursday and not have shrill and pejorative dictums as the one from Phil Hearse.
To start with according to some turnout analysises, both on a local scale and England wide scale only 30% of the voting population actually voted in this election; which I believe is 10 points down from the last equivalent election in 2009 in the New Labour Brown leadership days and the Tories were the main beneficiaries.
Up to the election UKIP was hailed by the mass media as the alternative to Labour which all had an effect on a certain section of Labour voter as well as others. And after the election the mainstream media have portrayed the election of the UKIP councillors as though they had taken control of the majority of Councils in England and Wales. But when these same people see the UKIP councillors acting in the same way as the ConDem councillors, and I will also say the Labour Councillors as well, which is following the austerity agenda of the national Condem Government and imposing cuts on local services. Then I believe the majority of people who voted UKIP on 2 May will turn against them.
While I agree a mass alternative to the austerity capitalist parties needs to be built in opposition to them. I am not so certain that a broad Left party is the option at this moment. I would be more inclined to build and create a new workers’ party in this difficult political terrain is more attune to the task. That is why the construction of TUSC is such a crucial development. As one of the leading members of the Independent Socialist Network, Nick Wrack, who said in the Weekly Worker, which was partially printed on the Left Unity site, this week “One thing that I am absolutely convinced about is that a new socialist party cannot emerge fully formed and fully armed like Athena from the head of Zeus. Zeus, of course, got a terrible headache, his forehead split open and out sprung Athena. That is not how a new party will emerge.“ Now while he is correct on the formation of a new socialist party that is equally true of the creation of a new workers’ party.
So to be quite honest I think the screeching admonitions just does not give an informed justice to the debate on how to combat the austerity programme on the one hand and all the capitalist parties on the other.
I really like it when individuals get together and share opinions.
Great site, stick with it!
Another point worth making about UKIP is that, unlike the socialist left, it now receives serious funding.
The Former Tory donor, spread betting millionaire Stuart Wheeler gave them £100,000 in 2009 and has subsequently become UKIP’s Treasurer.
Evidently the pound sign in the party logo has a double-edged meaning.
Could Farage’s ubiquitous photocalls, with a pint in one hand and a fag in the other, be a case of product placement?
Are their policies for smoking rooms in pubs, opposition to wind turbines and support for nuclear power and fracking a sign they’re being financed by the well-known suspects;
brewing companies, the tobacco industry, fossil fools and nuclear power industry?
Working class people voted for UKIP because the Labour party abandoned them years ago. The Labour party don’t even canvass where I live, they walk past our road to the middle class semi detached area next door. The people I work with are not racist or anti EU they just feel they are not wanted by the three main partys.
UKIP is a mirror image of the tory party wealthy backer/backers who will expect the political status quo to prevail & to ensure any political agenda largely reflects the donors viewpoint otherwise its bye bye donor .The anti environmental agenda & their disgraceful view on aid ,would be welcomed by tory activists & a fair proportion of members of parliament . They have the same thirst for a cuts agenda in local government .
Machine politics that has been served up by the three main political parties ,whereby they come & see you (if your lucky) every four years canvass you (maybe) ,throw a few leaflets in your letter box ,then take your vote & then disappear like a thief into the night ,never to be seen again for another four years ,its not hard to see why voters feel turned off ,ignored & will turn to someone who is not part of the “political tea set” .
UKIP set about tapping into the void put in place by the three main parties & irrespective of its message they were welcomed by a cross section of the community . Throw into the political mix two emotive media driven issues namely race & europe ,the political environment for UKIP to strike was all in place .
The left in its various shades can be critical of UKIPS blatant opportunism ,but in the short to medium term they may have political legs ,time will tell if there is life beyond the European elections.
The left historically respond by splintering in various directions .LU has to buck that trend with a sense of purpose & maturity ,given the attacks being made upon working peoples communities ,jobs & welfare infrastructure ,they cannot afford that luxury as Labour is tory lite & lacks the political will to step up to the plate .
Peter…………
The right aim to distract working people by setting them against each other – white against black. People almost temporarily forget 287,000 top earners got an extra £10,000 in April and millionaires become invisible from people’s thinking as they are distant from their lives. we need to get this message over re what they are doing DIVIDE AND RULE. and UKIP believes in more tax cuts for the rich! We need to counter the propaganda and unite working people and my great hope for LU is that it gives working people a progressive voice. There is hope brothers and sisters!
exactly. nice one bazza – you’ve made some great contributions!