the civil services notably the PCS, have declared their determination to fight back and defend key services and the staff that work in them.
SERVICES: Labour's increased spending on the NHS has not prevented Trusts running up record deficits across the country, heralding a major round of cuts and closures to take shape this summer and autumn, with even more havoc to come when the delayed introduction of a fullscale market system begins next April. THE ECONOMY: analysts from varying viewpoints appear agreed that Gordon Brown's budget plans leave a large and growing gap in the government's finances which will force either a cutback in the growth of public spending or a significant increase in JOBS: the collapse of Rover, massive job losses in Marconi and the decline of other manufacturing industries have highlighted New Labour's refusal to intervene in the processes of the capitalist market, and its helplessness to defend jobs and working conditions in the face of market forces. EUROPE: if the French government manages to win the referendum for support of the new European constitution at the end of May, New Labour will face the task of trying to sell this reactionary document to a generally Eurosceptic electorate.
This is seen as one key reason why Brown is keen for Blair to stay on for a couple of years, so that any referendum defeat damages Blair's reputaJAR! CRE
As we go to press,
it's far too early to
predict how long
Blair will hold on
before lining up the
book deals and
lecture circuits and
handing over the
reins to Brown tion rather than landing onto Brown. NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND NUCLEAR POWER: behind the scenes, New Labour has been lining up to announce a renewed expansion of nuclear power generation, while the obsolescent Trident nuclear fleet is set for a costly f10 billion refit and Blair is poised to authorise work at the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldermaston to develop a new generation of weapons of mass destruction: without the pretext of the Cold War, it is hard to see any popular argument that New Labour could wheel out to justify this potentially lethal policy. STUDENT TOP-UP FEES: This latest unwelcome reform is due to hit universities, creating problems for students while university bosses mount savage programmes of course closures, cuts and redundancies as they battle to balance their books.
Add these to the ongoing New Labour populist attempts to appease right wing opinion on "yob" culture, law and order, immigration and asylum, giving tacit encouragement to the far right BNP and NF, and there appear to be no shortage of potential conflicts with Blair's own back-benchers, civil liberties campaigners, trade unions and wider sections of the electorate.
As we go to press it's far too early to predict how long Blair will hold on before lining up the book deals and lecture circuits and handing over the reins to Brown: our task on the left is to ensure that the openings that will arise meet a prepared and political response from a strengthened opposition, which builds its roots among the communities of the working class, the exploited and the oppressed.
That way Blair's electoral setback can be followed by a real resistance which can do more than protest - and build action to block and challenge New Labour's reactionary agenda of "modernisation" privatisation and war. Bob Crow, general secretary of the rail union RMT summed up the election result well. He said that while Britain doesn't want a Tory government the huge number of voters staying at home shows that it doesn't want a Labour government pursuing Tory policies either.
Only 61% of the electorate chose to vote and Labour's 355 seats won with 36% of the vote reveal starkly both how undemocratic and unrepresentative the British electoral system is and how the war shaped the
Socialist Resistance has always maintained that there are no significant political differences between Blair and his eventual replacement Gordon Brown. The result will probably expedite Blair's departure from Downing Street, but it does not mark the end of the authoritarian, neo-liberalism of New Labour.
During the election campaign Brown went out of his way to express his endorsement of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and provided an alibi for Blair's lies on the Attorney General's legal advice. And of course he has been the architect of fiscal neo-liberalism since becoming Chancellor.
Hopes of a backbone being discovered in the Labour benches are delusional. The majority of Labour MPs and councillors have spent years believing that adopting Tory policies is the price they have to pay to keep the Tories out of government.
The continuing decay of Labour is a great opportunity for Respect. We report in this issue from some of the areas where Respect has blossomed. Salma Yacoob won 27.5% of the votes in her constituency, Abdul Khaliq Miah won 20.7%, Oli Rahman won 17.2%, Lindsay German won19.5% and of course George Galloway romped to victory in Bethnal Green.
Four other candidates saved their deposits, an extreme rarity for smaller parties in Britain. Even in some areas where the results were more modest reports suggest that the election campaign helped coalesce Respect branches and raise its profile.
By contrast almost all of the other far left and left organisations which waged campaigns
against New Labour secured votes between 0.5 and 2 percent, despite squandering a great deal of their time and money in the process. The obvious conclusion from this compared with Respect's results is that it is time to call an end to the politics of the futile left gesture. Respect is the means through which a growing number of youth and working class voters can be won, and the only place to be for activists who are seriously committed to creating a new working class party in Britain. Respect's electoral successes mean that it is here to stay. In his acceptance speech George Galloway said that the campaign for the council elections starts the day after the general election. He has also promised to organise militant peaceful resistance This to the removal of a local fire engine. It is combination of
just this combination electoral of electoral activity activity and and mass campaignWing that will help
mass Respect grow to campaigning replace Labour as
the party of the workwill help
Wing class in Britain. Respect grow Now that the time to replace of hyperactive electioneering is over Labour as the Respect needs to use party of the the coming months to
recruit many of the working class people who voted for
it. Branches must establish local structures which give members the sort of democratic space for discussion and decision making that they would expect in their union or that used to exist even in the Labour Party. Respect has developed areas. of real strength in pockets of the country. Now we need to start building on that success in time for next year's elections to give a voice for the millions who didn't vote or only voted Labour because the felt they didn't have an alternative.