The Socialist Alliance Executive in August agreed the following paper put forward by NICK WRACK, National Chair of the Alliance. Work to implement the proposals has begun. The conference will be initiated by the Alliance but the aim is also to involve trade union organisations in shaping the day. The conference will take place either in December 2003 or January 2004. The Trade Union conference held by the Socialist Alliance in March 2002 on the issue of "Democratising the Political Fund" was a huge success, with over 1,000 trade unionists attending.
We took over £1,800 in sales of Matt Wrack's pamphlet Whose Money is it Anyway? Undoubtedly, we made a big contribution towards the debate taking place inside the Trade Unions on the question of the political fund.
Since then the RMT has taken the historic .... .••• decision to democratise its own political fund and is considering affiliating to the Scottish Socialist Party. Bectu has decided to review its links with the Labour Party and the same debate is still raging in all the other
The FBU is avoiding the issue by refusing to call its annual conference this year. There is every chance that when it is called the union conference will vote to disaffiliate from the Labour.
The Socialist Alliance has committed itself to building the socialist alternative to New Labour. This has two aspects. Firstly, it
.... means building the Socialist Alliance itself. raising its profile, strengthening the local branches and establishing new ones
Secondly, it means trying to forge alliances with others on the left to try to establish a bigger and broader alternative to New Labour than is currently organised inside the Socialist Alliance.
Whilst it is essential that we try to build links with the radicalised anti-war activists, the key element in building the broader alliance is the trade unions. When it comes to the next set of elections - Greater London Assembly (GLA), European, local
..... government - who are individual trade unionists going to vote for?
More importantly, who are the organised union branches, regions and national unions going to back? Whilst those in the unions who are committed to the Reclaim the Labour Party' project will argue that union members should vote Labour and continue to finance Labour, there will be tens of thousands of ordinary union members who will be moving in completely the opposite direction.
We need to take the debate to the next level. It is not only a question of where trade unionists money goes, but what can trade unionists do to ensure that they have candidates that they can support in the elections.
Where are the candidates who support trade union policies? Should the trade unions put up their own candidates? Should they support the candidates from the Socialist Alliance?
I am therefore proposing that we organise another conference for trade unionists to discuss these issues. Essentially, it would be a conference to discuss the issue of the political representation of trade unionists in elections (and by extension in between
socialist elections). It would raise concretely the issue of what trade unionists are going to do to ensure that they have candidates that they can vote for standing in the next elections
This would also raise the issue of what slates can be or should be put together for the GLA and European elections. It would further pose the question of whether an electoral alliance put together for specific elections is enough.
What about in between elections? Where do trade unionists turn when they want political activity in between elections?
It may be that an electoral alliance is all that can be achieved at this stage but it could not last in that form indefinitely Rather, an electoral alliance would be a stepping-stone to something else
It would inevitably raise the question of some more formal, organised entity whether that be a transformed, bigger Socialist Alliance, filled out with trade unionists and anti-war activists, or a completely new party into which the existing SA membership would go, alongside a whole new layer of activists from the trade unions and the anti-war movement.