John McDonnell’s announcement that he will challenge Gordon Brown for the leadership of the Labour Party is a breath of fresh air in the manufactured succession squabble between Blair and Brown.

Socialist Resistance has always argued that you can’t get a cigarette paper between the policies of these twin architects of New Labour’s reactionary politics.

McDonnell puts it this way in a posting on his campaign site on September 1: “Blair should go, but if Labour is to survive in Government there must also be a radical break with the neo con politics of New Labour”. The article is entitled “Changing leader is futile without changing policies”.

McDonnell’s challenge will potentially make a smooth transition more difficult, and anything that weakens the ability of New Labour to continue its neo-liberal attacks at home and its war-mongering abroad should be strongly supported by all socialists.

As MP for Hayes and Harlington, John McDonnell has a long and proud record of campaigning. With the immigration prisons at Harmondsworth in his constituency, he has fought for the rights of asylum seekers and refugees.

He has campaigned for trade union rights and in opposition to the anti-union laws which Blair boasts make Britain more friendly to the employers than to workers. He is chair of the 'Public Services Not Private Profit' campaign, which brings together 16 national trade unions and a number of campaigning organisations in the fight against privatisation.

During the Israeli invasion of Lebanon this summer, McDonnell was at the forefront of demanding the recall of Parliament and the demands for an immediate ceasefire. John has been an active member of the Stop the War Coalition since its inception and tireless in opposing the occupation of Iraq.

But Socialist Resistance does not share John McDonnell’s belief, and that of the Labour Representation Committee which is backing his challenge, that it is possible to reclaim the Labour Party as the “voice of working people”: nor do we endorse his call for everyone on the left to join the Labour Party.

We believe that New Labour has gone too far down the neo-con road for that to be a realistic aspiration. We think that the changes made by Blair and his predecessors to the structure of the Labour Party mean that the views of its supporters can be systematically ignored.

The majority of working people in this country opposed the invasion of Iraq and oppose the decimation of public services that Blair has presided over.

This majority includes the majority of trade unionists in unions that continue to fund and support the Labour Party through the political levy. But these views have been completely disregarded by the leadership of New Labour

That’s why Socialist Resistance has focused on building a political alternative to New Labour through building Respect and the Scottish Socialist Party.

But while few Socialist Resistance readers are individual members of the Labour Party, many of us are members of trade unions whose leaders continue to bankroll it, regardless of the determination of Blair and Brown to kick their members in the teeth.

The leaderships of most of those unions – even including some of those depicted as part of the so-called “awkward squad” – have tried to sell to their members the idea that Gordon Brown will make a difference, will be more friendly to trade unionists and responsive to their needs.

McDonnell’s challenge exposes the nonsense of these claims, and this makes those leaders – such as UNISON’s Dave Prentis – desperately worried. How could UNISON defend supporting privatising, neoliberal, job-slashing Brown against McDonnell, who backs all of the union’s policies? That’s why they are doing everything they can to preempt a challenge, by preventing McDonnell securing the support he needs to run.

Too many times trade unionists have been told that their struggles are less important than the overriding need to keep New Labour in office, whatever the cost.

The unions have been cynically milked as a source of funds while Blair and Brown take pride in humiliating their bureaucratic leaders. It’s high time union members demanded a value for money audit of their links with New Labour, and called their representatives on Labour’s leading bodies to account for their abject failure to defend the members who put them there.

That’s why Socialist Resistance supporters will be fighting in their unions to make sure that there is the broadest possible debate on the issues, and as many nominations as possible for John McDonnell’s challenge.

He stands no chance of winning against the one-sided New Labour machine, but his candidacy helps us strengthen the left in the unions and build support for the policies we need to fight and defeat New Labour.

For further information see: http://www.john4leader.org.uk