meeting that was described by all was hoped to be a continuing and comradely debate between socialists inside and outside the Labour Party took place on 3 March, when over 800 socialists gathered in Friends Meeting House in London to debate the current crisis in the Labour Party.
The overwhelming call was for unity amongst socialists. A speaker on behalf of RMT General Secretary Bob Crow talked about debates running in the RMT around the political fund and the desire for RMT members not to give money to politicians opposed to union policies and priorities.
He talked about the RMT's decision at their 2002 AGM to remain affiliated to the Labour Party but to be able to give support to other political parties supportive of RMT policies.
Linda Smith, London treasurer of the FBU asked why there was money for war -billions of pounds - but no money for pay rises for FBU members. She stressed the FBU's respect for Labour Party members who have supported the union on picket ..... lines but said that members are increasingly asking why they should give money to support a government so hostile to them. Many firefighters have said they will never vote Labour again.
Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the civil service union PCS began by stating the PCS's full support for the fire fighters' 30K pay claim and their opposition to war on Iraq. He said that decent wages should not come at the expense of cuts in jobs and services. Serwotka focussed on the broken promises and attacks on the working class under New Labour, ridiculing their election victory claim that "Things can only get better". For Serwotka 6 years of New Labour government amounted to 6 years of continual broken promises.
He also highlighted New Labour's racist asylum policies and the resulting rise of racist attacks and the opening of the door to the BNP. He said that for trade unionists the job is not to apologise for the Labour Party - the government of the day is the employer of the day.
Serwotka highlighted the fact that there has been more privatisation in councils under New Labour than under the Tories and that two-tier workforces had been pro services. Their actions were, he said, those "of a government I did not vote for and never would vote for". What was needed was a radical socialist alternative and he ended with a call for unity on the left because "more unites us than divides us".
For the Socialist Alliance, John Rees highlighted the democratic deficit that has led to the turnout in the last general election being the lowest since the introduction of universal suffrage.
This was not, he said, because people were satisfied and nor was it because they were apathetic - two million people marching against war on the streets of London could hardly be described as a symptom of a politically apathetic population.
He said that the Socialist Alliance had made a start in terms of developing a new left politics but highlighted the need for dia logue and discussion way beyond the Alliance's current membership and supporters. A unity of socialists, he said, is what we need.
Labour MP George Galloway talked about the current time as pivotal for the future of the left, the labour ship engineered with CIA support. It managed to survive over 30 years. INDONESIA 1965: brutal Suharto dictatorship installed with CIA support after nationalist Sukharno ousted: | million
Communists and many others slaughtered
followed by three decades of dictatorship. PHILIPPINES 1972: Ferdinand Marcos
takes dictatorial powers with full support from Washington, keen to retain strategic
bases.
CHILE 1973: democratic government of
Salvador Allende destabilised with CIA
assistance, and ousted in coup led by
General Pinochet and applauded by US govMark Serwotka: slammed Labour's six years of broken promises movement and the country. He quoted Lenin on the "decades where nothing hap pens and the weeks when decades happen".
We were, he said, in those weeks. He talked about the undemocratic nature of the current Labour Party, focussing on the impossibility of political debate or challenge to New Labour policies.
He talked of those who were locked out of politics - young people, ethnic minorities, trade unions, the peace movement - and said that if the House of Commons will not provide a voice for us, we will create our own voice - with the People's Assembly as a stage in that process.
He was also clear that getting rid of Blai would not in itself solve the problems, say ing that if Britain deserves a better choic than between Tony Blair and lan Dunca Smith, it also deserves a better choice thai between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
It can only be positive for socialists fron different background and tradition t meet together to discuss ways of workin together politically. The Labour leadershi shows no signs of deviating from its inex orable move to the right and away fron policies that benefit working people.
In such circumstances those on the lef cannot afford to be divided amongst them selves. Let's hope the dialogue continues.