Some random thoughts on RESPECT ...

Why do socialists fight elections or for that matter engage in any political activity? What is our perspective - why do we do what we do?

I would suggest a fundamental starting point for socialists is an understanding of the class nature of society. The central character of capitalism is the contradiction between capital and labour - the aim of socialists is to resolve that contradiction through the overthrow of capitalism and the start of the process of creating a classless society. At the end of the day the whole point of our activity comes down to that - to help arm the working class in its historic mission to end capitalism and create socialism.

Socialists should ask ourselves when we engage in activity whether it helps the working class prepare for its historic mission in the slightest. If it doesn’t then what on earth are we doing it for?

I see two important reasons for standing in elections - although elections in my view should be only the tip of the iceberg of our activity.

• To build class consciousness within the working class. That is to increase the awareness of workers of their antagonistic relation as a class to capital.
• To help build organisations which can be used to further the class struggle and fight for the independent political interests of the working class, as a class, antagonistic to capital.

In the discussions around the RESPECT coalition there has been much talk of putting a broad as possible Left of Labour alternative - of uniting progressive forces. This view starts from a concept of their being a conflict between Left and Right rather than a conflict between capital and labour. Instead of looking to how we raise class consciousness and form organisations that can fight for the politically independent class interests of the working class we are turning to “Left forces” and ignoring the working class and its central role. Comrades this is a REJECTION of socialism - it is Left bourgeois politics.

There are some that reluctantly justify the RESPECT coalition on the grounds that the BNP are about to get sweeping successes in local elections. This perspective is wrong, wrong, wrong! The BNP are implanting themselves in working class areas precisely due to the failure of socialists to do two things:

• Raise class consciousness.
• Achieve implantation within the class.

In electoral terms the RESPECT strategy is the worse possible thing we could do to challenge the BNP. Why? Well, some in the SWP enthuse about how socialist the RESPECT policies are. They tell us they are similar to the policies of the Socialist Alliance. Well if so why the hell do we have to re-brand ourselves as RESPECT? The first response of your average working class voter on receiving a RESPECT leaflet will be - “Who the fuck are these people?”. They won’t think, look at their opposition to war and privatisation, oh I must vote for them.

Why has the Socialist Alliance done so badly at elections? Well in most places that is not because people reject our policies. Instead it is because many of our potential supporters react with the response “Who the fuck are these people?” - we have failed to get any implantation within the class. They haven’t got to know us - because we have neglected them.

In areas where the SA has been engaging in activity in between election times - the vote has been much higher than areas that have been worked hard in the weeks before an election. Strangely working class people don’t vote for people they don’t know. They are sceptical and cynical about all politicians including fly-by-night Lefties who have never done anything for them as far as they can tell. For your average working class voter, if they have never spoken to the candidate, or worse never spoken to a single member of the organisation concerned you will NEVER get their vote. You need to earn their respect and trust through patient long term work. The voter needs to form a relationship and understanding of who and what the organisation is - this requires something much more than an electoral front - it requires the building of an organisation which working class people know and can identify with as fighting for their interests.

Unfortunately the BNP understand this only too well. They work hard in elections - canvassing several times and speaking to electors. They work target areas for long periods prior to elections. What is more, love them or hate them, people *know* who the BNP are and what they stand for. Who really knows what the SA is and what it stands for? Even less who knows what RESPECT is and stands for - who knows what it will be 6 months after an election or even now - we certainly don’t.

Working class people in their swathes are rejecting mainstream politics. Where do they turn when they reject mainstream politics? It depends how they see the main contradictions in society. If they are persuaded that the main contradiction is “race” then they will go with the BNP - if they are convinced that the main contradiction is class then they will turn to any *viable* socialist alternative. It is important to put emphasis here on viability - because the masses won’t vote for something they don’t know and trust. Some temporary alliance won’t be perceived as being viable - that is a problem both for the SA and for RESPECT. That is another reason why we need a new workers party.

Turn out at elections is at an all time low. In the North West in the European elections last time less than 20% of the electorate actually voted - the turnout across the UK as a whole was 24% in the 1999 Euro elections. In local elections we are seeing record low turnouts.

In terms of defeating the BNP we need to be putting our emphasis on fighting the *local* elections on a class basis. Instead we are being urged to pour our energies and resources into the European elections on some wishy-washy basis that might be attractive in theory to the middle classes but not to the disgruntled white worker who the BNP are targeting. Emphasis on the Euro elections means downgrading or doing no work in the local elections - it means a purely propaganda election campaign which will do nothing to give us implantation into the class. It is the wrong way to go - especially given the threat from the BNP.

RESPECT has all the hallmarks of the worse forms of electoral cretinism. On its own terms it will be a complete and utter disaster. The justification for it, that it will tap into the millions who took to the streets on the anti-war protests, is pie in the sky. RESPECT will flop - and socialists will have abandoned the two primary aims of standing in elections (see above) in the process.

RESPECT will be another disastrous attempt at a quick fix that the Left is so good at wasting its time and energy on. Instead of having a strategy of building serious permanent class struggle organisations for the class we permanently chase around the latest fad that catches the eyes of the SWP leadership. What is worse as always these strategies always end up with the embarrassment of socialists dishing out liberal propaganda for the latest thing that will be long forgotten within a year. This is middle class politics.

I am told I am a sectarian for not wishing to engage in the forces in the anti-war movement. The assumption here is that if you don’t back RESPECT you don’t want to engage with other political forces. That is an absurd lie. Of course we should engage with political movements like the anti-war movement but we should do so on a socialist basis. As I see it the big problem we had back in February with the anti-war movement is that we had no speakers on the platform of the massive anti-war demo and the largest component group of the Socialist Alliance, the SWP, had strictly instructed its members only to promote the SWP and the Socialist Worker on the day of the demo. It wasn’t us “sectarians” who failed to promote the SA and engage with anti-war forces it was the SWP - the real sectarians who put their own self-interests first.

I can understand some socialists feel that the SA it not being successful and RESPECT looks like the only other show in town. Well it ain’t a show it is a farce. A farce headed by a career politician who is to the RIGHT of the Labour Campaign Group of MPs on most social issues. A “socialist” who will have nothing to do with the Scottish Socialist Party. A “socialist” who could never contemplate living on a workers wage - after all what has he in common with workers interests. Nothing.

What exactly is the point of RESPECT even on its own terms? As far as I can tell its prime aim is not to raise class consciousness - indeed socialism and class politics were not even on the agenda when it was first publicly mentioned (“socialism” was tagged on to the agenda at a later date to shut up the socialist critics - it is there as a sop). Its aim is certainly not to build any socialist organisation. As far as I can tell the people who promote RESPECT want some kind of alliance that will get bigger votes than the SA and so give New Labour a bloody nose by, if it is successful, electing George Galloway to the European parliament. Is that what our socialist politics has been reduced to - trying to get a career scumbag like Galloway into parliament? Who will he represent in parliament? Certainly not the working class. If his record in the British parliament is anything to go by, he will be the ENEMY of the working class in the European parliament. Of course he will never get there anyway - the SWP are deluded if they think RESPECT will get support in the elections.

So what should we be doing?

Well I have this really crazy idea. Guess what? How about socialists focusing on the working class. Yes wouldn’t that be novel. A turn to the working class and class politics. A long term perspective of building a permanent organisation that becomes a household name in working class communities, through long term and serious work (not through the media or through superstars like Galloway).

The SA’s focus should be on the local elections with the aim of getting implantation within the working class on the basis of class politics that emphasise the antagonistic relationship between the working class and capital. Above all else the most essential requirement facing the class today is the need for a new workers party tied in with organised labour - or at least those unions who could be on the verge of breaking with Labour - if there was something viable for them to break towards. If the SWP and the SA is not to do this work then it is left to genuine socialists to find a way to do this. That is our task.