Last week saw New
Labour battered in the local elections and the victory of the
Thatcherite Boris Johnson in London’s Mayoral elections. Labour
has gone from 11,000 councillors in 1997 to 5,000 today. With the
Conservative Party taking 44% of the vote nationally, the
nightmare of a Cameron-led Tory government after the next general
election is now posed.
Many working
class people are rightly horrified at this prospect. But the
choice between New Labour or the Tories overseeing public service
cuts and attacks on our pay & conditions is little more than being
asked to choose between cancer or heart disease – neither is
particularly appealing and the end result is the same!
Politicians and
commentators have been lining up to pass judgment on the results –
many of them blaming the fact that New Labour has no ‘foot
soldiers’. Of course they don’t; New Labour has haemorrhaged
members over the past decade and many of those who have quit the
party in disgust are those who made up the active base of the
party. If a party is pursuing neo-liberal, anti-working class
policies it seems obvious that they’ll have trouble
mobilising
working class people to campaign for them!
In London,
incredibly, Boris Johnson was able to campaign as a candidate of
‘change’ posing as a ‘fresh face’. He was able to do this without
going into any real detail about his policies or politics. In a
political vacuum when a clear alternative is not posed, cosmetic
differences and ‘personality’ can be pushed to a greater extent
and Johnson capitalised on this. However, the woolly comedy
character that Johnson put forward in the election is a cover for
an out-and-out Thatcherite who wants a strike ban on the London
Underground and an extension of the Public Private Partnership
(PPP) policy.
Across the
country, the London result has been reflected with councils
falling to the Tories in former ‘Labour heartlands’ and those
parties that have collaborated with New Labour, such as Plaid
Cymru in Wales, taking a hit as well.
But in areas
where a clear working-class alternative was posed an indication
was given of the difference that a nationally organised left-wing
challenge could have. In St Michaels, Coventry, Socialist
councillor and CNWP national chair Dave Nellist was returned with
a 300 vote majority. In Barrow, Michael Stephenson, standing for a
campaign against academies, ousted Tory council leader Bill
Joughin in the local elections. Fire-fighter Phil Jordan came
second in Tuffley ward in
Gloucester
City.
With 594 votes (33.4%), he beat both Labour and the Liberals.
Arrogant Labour
politician have bluntly argued that there’s no alternative to them
to beat the Tories. But these elections have shown that New Labour
are now so hated there’s a real prospect that they can’t beat the
Tories. Moreover, they have shown that genuine left campaigning
candidates can win or do very well where that choice is given. We
can’t settle for the so-called ‘lesser evil’ – death by a thousand
cuts or death by the guillotine is still death!
The fight for a
new mass party based on working people, the trade unions and
community campaigners is now more urgent than ever. If you agree,
join the campaign for a new workers’ party today, come to our
national conference on 29 June and help in the fight for a
political alternative to the bosses’ parties.
