and trade union members to challenge the party's trajectory and address the burning issues of the day. It has been largely a wasted opportunity.
First we had Brown's coronation. And then a lacklustre deputy leadership campaign.
All but one of the candidates Jon Cruddas) have been involved in the central leadership of the party and government - tied hook, line and sinker to the string of reactionary policies associated with a decade of Blairism in power, in particular the criminal war on
It was largely an exercise
pretending to offer change whilst representing solid continuity, sustained by hot air, hypocrisy and humbug.
Barring an unforeseen last minute rank and file revolt, the left in the party will come out of this whole process thoroughly marginalised. 263 Constituency Labour Parties made nominations.
Cruddas's rating as second most popular to Benn, at 67, at first sight shows promise. But 75% of the CLPs nominated candidates who have
The call for a new party to the left of Labour was explicitly raised by Bob Crow, and echoed by the SWP's Nick Wrack speaking from the floor. Speaking for the Communist Party, both Star editor John Haylett and General Secretary Robert Griffiths acknowledged that New Labour is right wing to an unprecedented degree, and that the fact that McDonnell failed to get on the ballot for leadership was a major defeat.
However, rather than believing that a new mass party of the working class can be built in the present circumstances, the CP are proposing deepening and strengthening the processes by which the trade unions develop political ideas in opposition to neo-liberalism.
For example a think tank or foundation, funded by the rubber-stamped a decade of imperialist wars and assaults on public services.
With membership figures slumping from (if you believe the spin) 407,000 in 1997 to 177,000 earlier this year - it will be in the unions that any hope of a revival of radicalism in the labour movement lies.
But a sober reflection of the state of play in the unions is also necessary. Those backing Benn, Blears, Harman, Hain and Johnson included: GMB, Unity, Usdaw, Aslef, BFAWU, TSSA, UCATT, Unison, and (tragically) the NUM (who backed Hain).
These candidates had nothing to offer at the various union hustings other than more of the same.
Against that the CWU executive's backing for their former fellow-bureaucrat Johnson was censured by a militant conference that was also balloting for strike action. And Amicus and TGWU backed Cruddas. politics after Blair unions but with the participation of the socialist left, for promoting public ownership. This idea was warmly received by Matt Wrack.
The significance of the CP's current position is that they are uniquely situated to act as a bridge between the trade union left, the Labour Party left, and the non-sectarian left outside the Labour Party.
Although the Labour Left have been crushingly defeated over McDonnell there is going to be no collective exodus from the Labour Party, and despite some excellent localised electoral results for Respect, the far left outside the Labour Party are clearly unable to attract the four and half million votes that Labour have lost since 1997, neither is Respect nor the Socialist Party-led Committee for a New Workers Party] CNWP attractive to militants and activists used to the democratic norms of the movement.
Given this impasse where the left both inside and outside the Labour party are extremely weak, neither side are going to convince the other to join them.
But what we do have is a developing political opposition from the trade unions, leading the way in ideological opposition to private equity, PFl, promoting equal rights for Agency and migrant workers, etc.
If a new mass party is to be founded only the trade unions have the prestige, personnel and finance to do so, but it cannot happen until they conclude they have exhausted their options with the Labour Party.
The role of socialists is to encourage the unions to put the
New party: Bob Crow value of their special relationship with the Labour party to the test, and draw the necessary conclusions.
It is also worth mentioning that the atmosphere was very friendly and welcoming, and perhaps surprisingly the age profile of the delegates was not noticeably older than for equivalent events organised by the Trotskyist left.
I had a chat with CP general secretary Rob Griffiths afterwards who said this is the first of many such events they hope to be putting on - which is good news. Bring it on: Brown knows that he need have no fear of the independence or fighting capacity of any of the candidates to be his deputy. All are compromised by their prior involvement with Blairism and their current links and sponsors. The character of the campaign was well captured by a special edition of the BBC's Question Time programme. The first audience question to the six candidates set the tone: what did they think was the biggest failure of the Labour's past decade in government?
Harriet Harman said the Iraq war, Peter Hain said the lack of affordable housing,
page 6 of the scan
Skeleton crew: pensioners protest at New Labour's failure to link pensions back to average pay - with little or no union opposition The failure of John McDonnell's Labour Party leadership challenge even to get as far as the ballot paper represents a new low water mark for the power and influence of the Labour Left.
But the situation poses challenges also for the building of any new left wing alternative to Blairism, and has highlighted the weaknesses of Respect, as sections of the trade union and Labour left begin to regroup forces without abandoning their conception of "reclaiming Labour" (see Editorial, page 2).
A recent Socialist Resistance London forum took up this issue, in the form of this debate between Alan Thornett from SR, and Simon Deville, who spoke from Labour Left Briefing. Molly Cooper NATIONAL CONVENTION
NOW PENNERS SAYS I died before the link with earnings was restored