Voices Against UKIP – London Left Unity meeting report

Duncan Chapel of Camden Left Unity reports on the discussion at the event

Sixty people came to London Left Unity’s July public meeting, ‘Voices against UKIP’. Turnout was good for a warm July evening and shows the potential for a regular series of central London meetings. It attracted several newer people, mostly in their 20s.

Richard Seymour opened the meeting by explaining the left’s alternative explanation of the social turmoil that UKIP blames on the most exploited and oppressed in British society. Our strength, he explained, will only be developed if we build an organisation to carry these ideas forward.

Zita Holbourne posed a key question: should we challenge UKIP the way we challenge the far right? Austerity amplifies racism; there’s clearly deepening structural racism in Britain, and austerity impacts disproportionally on black communities and migrants. Racism not only limits access to education, housing, jobs and justice, but also criminalises black communities, and especially young people and black women.

But UKIP is not only racist; it’s also sexist and homophobic, and that points to some of the wider alliances that we need need to build. Labour is legitimating UKIP by saying that it wants to adapt to the concerns of UKIP voters, and we need to call them out as a racist far-right party instead. There are many people who don’t recognise what UKIP is about, so we need to dispel myths about migrants, about UKIP and about the real causes of austerity, unemployment and the housing crisis. Instead we need to celebrate migrants and the benefits of multiculturalism. Concluding, Holbourne pointed out how the right shift of the party runs across the whole spectrum.

Two union members involved in the long-running dispute at Lambeth College pointed out how the college plays a key role in providing second chances for people, especially black communities and migrants, through education and training. In the dispute, they have been able to be creative, to learn from each other and to inspire the students. Their petition has gained over 3,000 signatures in protest against a buffoon principal who has acted with impunity to undermine union representation and workers’ rights, under the cover of producing a business culture in the college. The new contracts will erode holidays, reducing education professionals into zero hours workers in a factory.

Jim Delaney, one of the Unison reps at Lambeth College, stressed the importance of their struggle regionally and nationally. Increased working hours and attacks on workers’ conditions and a halting of sick pay support have brought the college into dispute with the six major unions. There are no real financial benefits arising from the cuts, and they will not improve productivity. Collective actions led by UCU, which is out indefinitely, and Unison, which has two actions underway, have met with encouraging solidarity. In these cuts come through in Lambeth, they all be used to undermine conditions in other colleges, and to encourage managers to act with impunity.

Concluding the introductions, Salman Shaheen pointed out that, while UKIP’s support is limited, is shows a substantial base for the right in Britain. Left Unity stands for open borders and with workers who want better conditions. We propose a living wage, rather than a fight against migrants, as a way to counter UKIP. The same strategy that worked against the BNP won’t work against UKIP. Despite all its scandals, it has raised some questions about wages and job security which are real issues for working people, and which need answers. If we don’t provide answers, another right party can pick up the same issues. If we defend migrants and address the economic questions, we can show that it’s bosses, not migrants, who have created this crisis. Of course, greater economic equality will not automatically erode racism, but it will undermine those who seek to benefit from it.

Natalie Sanderson chaired the discussion, somewhat hampered by the arrangement of the room into a long, thin, theatre style. It would have been much easier to hear each other if the seats had been arranged into an oval.

One notable contribution came when Simon Hardy raised the question of Europe. UKIP is nationalist, but we can’t understand UKIP outside of the debate on Europe. Farage’s counter-argument, when accused of racism, is that migrants need to qualify on the basis of their economic contribution rather than their European citizenship. That’s why Left Unity’s policy of open borders is valuable. We should argue for more European integration, and closer relationships between people, and more democratic institutions in Europe. Of course we can’t defend the European Unon as it is.

David Landau pointed out that Farage’s model is Enoch Powell, whose “rivers of blood” speech is echoed in UKIP’s approach. The right says we need more control over immigration: we say the state needs less control. There’s a huge public support for migrants, as we’ll see on Saturday’s demonstration at Harmondsworth. UKIP is part of a wake up call for the left in Europe. Where there was a successful left movement, the far right did not register the gains it did in France with the Front National. Left Unity can work with other forces to amplify the left’s impact in the elections.

Stuart King, a Left Unity member in Lambeth, points out that there’s a space in Britain for a right wing populist movement like the FN in France. Farage will try to build a base in councils and localities by taking right wing Conservatives, and building a coalition between racists in the self-employed, small employers and the working class. The contradiction is that while small capitalists want to attack workers, working people want their rights protected. Left Unity needs to explain that unemployment and low wages result from choices by the employers, not from migrants. This can break up the coalition, that UKP must aim to build, also places Labour in the position where it will be challenged by the left’s arguments.

John Walklate spoke about the need for organising a pole of political strength that is more plausible and more effective than the right. The unions need to be bigger, and more active, than the do-nothing union leaders can make them. Rank and file action in the branches are controlled by the grass roots, and that builds the confidence needed to fight the right.

A sister from Camden NUT spoke about some things that could be done in her union: the STA could hold open meetings to discuss racism and Islamophobia; conference motions could be drafted in advance of the general election to make encourage the development of resources which can be used in the classroom.

A former Labour member who’s been working at TUC pointed to the Congress’s documents which expose the rhetoric about immigration. These are tools which help explain the truth about immigration. All across Europe, social democratic parties are collapsing into the groundswell of racism. UKIP only exists because of its autocratic structure, which constrains some of the pressures.

Rachel Archer, an NUT member in Hackney Left Unity, put a spotlight on some of the facts about racism: when people meet or work with BME people in their communities, their racism lessens. People like Katie Hopkins represent the ‘common sense racism’ which resonates outside London. Here in London, there’s not as much serious racism as their was. We can bring BME communities into the forefront. The UEL cleaners’ campaign showed how migrant can work together and organise. We also need to develop practical strategies to organise others.

Mark Boothroyd, a nurse in south London, spoke about the way that the immigration bill introduces changes into the NHS, and to use immigration to bring in charges that most people would otherwise oppose. The Bill’s through now, and will be incredibly brutal. Mothers will be denied access to maternity care; asylum seekers are being turned away from GPs. Docs not Cops is a new organisation hoping to prevent the introduction of charges into the NHS, and to use the support for universal healthcare to defend migrants. The organisation is open to anyone, but especially welcomes healthcare workers.

Ruth Cashman, Lambeth Unison branch secretary, stressed how their challenge is to deal with both their management and their own union bureaucracy. There’s a real need for political education in the union about the need to defend migrants and fight racist ideas. The unions are intervening so weakly in the elections now, because they have to raise ideas that don’t pressure Labour. There’s now a racist undertone even creeping into the dialogue of left Labour councillors, so we need to push the political dialogue to the left.

Several other speakers raised important points: many workers don’t see the unions as their organisations. We need to attack not only UKIP, but also the way in which the whole political landscape has been pushed right. Facts and figures are not enough: there was to be a moral argument as well. Myth-busting is not enough: we need community based challenges to defend rights. For example, in the local football league there had to be a discussion to secure the entry of a football team composed of migrants.

Luke Cooper argued that UKIP’s politics push all of the bad Tory politics in an even worse direction, towards poverty and misery. Challenges like climate change and the economy requite cooperation across Europe and the world: there are no British solutions to these problems. We need to learn from the European lefts who talk about the need to refound Europe on socialist lines.

Ray Goodspeed from Waltham Forest pointed about that UKIP votes came from the Lib Dems as well as for the BNP. Most people who vote UKIP are not hard-core racist. We can’t appeal for people to be nice. That doesn’t cut it. Our lives have been lain waste by capitalism. The Liberals have no answers. Miliband can’t blame capitalism rather than migrants. Miliband accepts the dominance of the super-rich. We can offer a better future that leads away from racism, and we need to develop that vision with other parties in Britain and across Europe.

Mike from Haringey Left Unity also pointed out that this was the first time when the Tories came third. We have a multi-party system now which creates a space for us. The UKIP base has been on the fringes of the country, but now there was a big swing of the core Labour moving to UKIP in local elections. Labour can either move right, or not. Labour is the best-positioned party to displace the Conservatives, but its record in local government is abysmal. We need to challenge their policies through a vibrant campaign with local bases.

Fred Leplat stressed the need to start now to undermine the UKIP support which the mainstream parties have build a foundation to. In Barnet, there’s a nasty Tory council which has privatised almost everything, and the Labour group’s reply is that it’s not against privatisation. The strike next Thursday will be important: the demonstration outside the BBC will be important.

Dave Kellaway from Hackney Left Unity stressed the need to not underestimate Left Unity. It’s not a bubble, or an invention of the media. It’s taking mainstream Labour votes, not only those on the fringes. UKIP is also rejecting politicians, and that’s something which affects us, and means that we need to rebuild the political independence of working people through a new way of doing politics.

In the summing up, Zita Holbourne pointed out that the media did play a major role in building UKIP, and we need to challenge the way it gives a platform to the right. We need to try to build our own narrative and try to use our own media. PCS will be going out next week, and is not affiliated to the Labour party. We need to encourage people to join unions, even through many migrants’ workplaces are not unionised. We need to campaign for alternatives: the People’s Assembly is part of that, so are the local campaigns like the Focus E15 mums where young women are campaigning against the policy of moving mothers out of London. They hold weekly protests in Newham and are assembling at 12 noon at Central Park in East Ham this Saturday.

Black communities members in unions and organisations talk about the way that racism grinds them down daily and emboldens the right. It’s important to challenge and point out racism: we need to use white privilege, as well, to challenge racism. Brits abroad are everywhere and expect the world to conform to our needs for egg and chips and to speak English. British people have their own clubs and community: that’s hypocrisy that we need to point out.

Richard Seymour stressed that the space exists for a right wing populist movement, which means that the space will be filled over and over because of the way that Labour has legitimised racist ideas in the country. European Union institutions are opposed to Little English: but of course UKIP wants hyper-Atlanticism. UKIP would love to join NAFTA. There are serious structural difficulties facing us, and we don’t have to choose between European nationalism or British nationalism. The led has not been able to talk about the need to oppose the European Union as a pro capitalist organisation.

The UCU comrade spoke about the politics of hope. We need to challenge ourselves when we organise. We are discovering new things about ourselves, and our will to learn more and do more. We got to meet Eric Cantona with the Ritzy strikers.

Salman Shaheen stressed that Left Unity is an internationalist party that wants to rebuild Europe. We need to promote and defend the progressive elements of the European Union, such as the ability to regulate firms across borders, and to control them. UKIP is not a flash in the pan: the far right space can be shrunk, but only with a pole of organisation against the left. A UKIP of the left doesn’t mean an anti-Europe party, but a mass big enough to pull people to the left.

A collection was held for the strikers.