Socialist Resistance has argued, Simon of broad articapiab
lishment of broad anti-capitalist parties, uniting those who regard themselves as revolutionary socialists and those who do not, which can embrace the bulk of the left, and mount a credible alternative to Blairism, and the politics of war and oppression, along the lines of the SSP in Scotland, Rifondazione in Italy and the Brazilian Workers Party as it was conceived.
The Socialist Alliance has made an important contribution to such a development in England, but although it has a number of important achievements to its credit, it has remained hampered by the narrowness of its composition.
This is why the AGM of the Alliance took the decision to campaign to build a broader alliance for next year's elections, which could open up a new situation, particularly in the electoral field. The Bush Blair wardrive posed the task of forging a new political organisation out of the mass anti-war movement and the radicalisation it generated.
Now comes the appeal by George Galloway, following his expulsion from the Labour Party for his anti-war activities, for a broad electoral coalition to challenge new Labour in the European and London Assembly elections next year.
This opens up the possibility of a major new realignment of the left. In fact it is, potentially, the most important single move towards an organised broad left alternative in England since the issue was posed with the rise of new Labour in the mid- 1990s.
We welcome George Galloway's proposition - which he made at the British Politics at the Crossroads rally in London on October 29.
It comes as 25,000 postal workers win a stunning victory, after an unofficial strike that defied the anti-union laws and paralysed the industry. This has shaken both the employers and the government and added new force not only to the struggle against the employers for wages and conditions but to the struggle for a political alternative
to Blairism and all it represents.
This victory demonstrates that the political developments in the unions, represented by the arrival of the awkward squad, can NO WAR that the only way we can run our economy is on the basis of exploitation one by anoth er and the bleeding to death of our environment.
"A movement which will take to the electoral battlefield against those who have hijacked the Labour Party and are flying it to destruction, turning it in fact into an antilabour party"
In addition, Galloway said the new formation should oppose the Europe of the Bankers, the Euro and the proposed European constitution.
His move follows that of Salma Yaqoob, the chair of the Birmingham StWC, and writer George Monbiot in publishing a discussion paper as the possible political basis for a such a broad electoral alliance, based on their positive experiences of left unity in the stop the war movement
Galloway's proposals, as he presented them in the meeting, are politically to the left of those of Yacoob and Monbiot. They do, however, come out of exactly the same imperative: the need to construct a political alternative out of the success of the stop the war movement and the unity forged within it.
These different proposals (and others, such as the Socialist Alliance pamphlet on left unity which is the starting point for the Alliance in discussions) may well converge in the course of dialogue around such a realignment. Salma Yaqoob made it clear in her speech in the meeting that her proposals are not set in stone, and that she has already changed them as a result of feed-back she has received.
These various proposals have the possi bility of uniting a large section of the left if what emerges is socialist in content and democratically constructed, There may well be a political struggle for this, of course, and there has to be clarity and transparency in the process.
Most of those currently in the Socialist Alliance may well have reservations about some aspects of the politics George Galloway appears to be putting forward - a recent article in the Morning Star appeared in his name, for example.
This talks about the British bourgeois revolution being unfinished, and the possibility of uniting with liberal and conservative individuals in such a coalition.
Such views are not a barrier to participation in such an electoral coalition, since what is key is what is agreed collectively but obviously they do need to be discussed and clarified in advance.
the process by which such a coaliimportant. There has to be inclusiveness in the preparation and there has to be something like a convention of the left, at the conclusion, to launch it and agree the political platform on which it would be based.
The Convention of the Trade Union Left, on February 7, can play an important part in this process, but it cannot be the vehicle for launching a new coalition.
Constructing such an electoral alliance could well develop the logic towards a new party of the left - although this is unlikely to be possible before the elections themselves
Galloway himself recognised this using the phrase "maybe not yet a party" in putting forward the idea of an electoral coalition. If the election campaign were successful and political convergence took place, such a development may well be possible.
The time-scale for all this is very short. The European elections, scheduled for June 8, may well be by means of a postal vote -which means the voting would start on May 8. This means the launch of a new alliance by the end of February or early in March.
f this can be achieved, however, it will
be a qualitative step forward from
anything the Socialist Alliance has been able to do. No wonder the Greens are bitterly hostile to it and have witchhunted it on their website. It could indeed draw a section of their traditional support towards a socialist platform that could have the chance of winning a seat.
In the meantime it is crucial that the Socialist Alliance remains fully functioning fully mobilised and an organised part of • such a grouping.
The Socialist Alliance needs to be fully a part of it, but an organised part of it arguing for its politics and its perspective on the way forward for the left in England.