Home - SR Editions - Socialist Resistance No.46

Communist Party debates politics after Blair

Andy Newman

Andy Newman reports from the Morning Star organised conference and finds that the Communist Party of Britain is having serious, strategic discussions about the left’s future.

The “Politics After Blair” conference organised by the Morning Star was a very interesting event. It was reasonably well attended, with usually between 150 and 200 in the hall, but lots of people seemed to be there for only one or two sessions, so the overall attendance was higher than that.

There were some very positive aspects to the conference, not least of which was genuine and real commitment to allowing debate and contributions from the floor.

This was especially true of the fascinating session about the peace movement, where the panellists (Andrew Murray from the Stop the War Coalition, Kate Hudson from CND, and Alan MacKinnon from Scottish CND) did not lead off with speeches, but just responded to debate and questions from the delegates.

Alan was able to report on the extraordinary success of Scottish CND, in achieving the rejection of Trident by almost all parts of Scottish civic society, including an overwhelming vote in Hollyrood.

The continued weight of influence of the Morning Star was also clear from the fact that Jon Cruddas, John McDonnell, Ken Livingstone were on the platform, as well as Matt Wrack of the FBU, Bob Crow of the RMT and Tony Benn. Sometimes at left conferences, the “celebrity” speakers are there to play the role of ornaments enhancing the prestige of the organisers.

But the conference saw fraternal disagreements running through it about the attitude that socialists should take to the Labour Party, and the practical tasks for building the left.

The session on Social Equality and Multiculturalism became a bit muddled. It tried to cover too much ground, and was not able to adequately deal with genuine controversies that became apparent, for example with Salma Yacoob from the platform and the SWP’s Sean Doherty from the floor defending faith schools against the mood of the meeting.

The question of the break up of the UK, and Gordon Brown’s defence of the British union should also have generated debate, and the CP do not yet seem to have grasped the importance of this issue.

Bob Crow put the cat among the pigeons with a very forthright rejection of the idea that the Labour Party could be reclaimed, and both he and Matt Wrack pointed out that there is no appetite in their unions for re-affiliating.

Jon Cruddas, true to form, gave an extremely perceptive analysis of how New Labour is failing its working class supporters, and John McDonnell acknowledged the unprecedented weakness of the Labour left, but was sceptical that an electoral alternative could be built.

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 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, PFI, 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 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.