[Individual-members-EL] The British left scene

Sun Feb 17 19:20:54 CET 2008

Hi all,
Francis is right. The only try would be for the European elections
where the is a certain dosis of proportionality. But with the D'Hont system,there is little chance of getting a seat (lists between 30 and 40%  make the most profits from it ).We have that for the Federal Parliament in Belgium.
The argument would be for Labour voters " let them feel your weight!".
It implies that all grouplets would unite and let it know. 
The British and US systems are too oppressive for little parties.
The Dutch is better : the Socialistische Partij has become even strong
as theLabour Party there. It is a purely proportional system :
with 0.66% of the votes in the whole country you can get a seat.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Francis King 
  To: Steve Spence ; individual-members-el at listi.jpberlin.de 
  Cc: Andrew Stevens ; helmut.scholz at die-linke.de ; Thomas Kachel ; Helmut Ettinger ; claudiomolinario at talktalk.net ; pascual.bb at tiscali.co.uk ; Bob 
  Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2008 6:43 PM
  Subject: [Individual-members-EL] The British left scene

  Hi all

  I cannot see European Left England making any meaningful interventions in English politics at the moment, simply because there are too few of us and we are too scattered around the country. With the British political system, based almost entirely on local constituencies, you either need a geographical concentration of support, or a large presence all over the place. We have neither at present. In this situation, if we attempt to get involved in English or UK politics now as "European Left England", we will just appear as another little leftist sect, even smaller and less relevant than all the others. I have no objection to an EL England network, through which individual members exchange news and ideas, and maybe meet and organise events now and again. However,  I imagine that most people who have joined the ELP in England have done so precisely because of its European orientation, because we believe that in the longer term, the left will need to coordinate its activities on a European as well as on a local and national basis. So I think our main emphasis should be on European rather than national networks.

  Speaking for myself, the group in Britain I am most in sympathy with is the Alliance for Green Socialism ( http://www.greensocialist.org.uk/ags/index.shtml ). But that is a rather small organisation, and is very concentrated around the Leeds area, with just a few local groups in London and elsewhere. The Communist Party of Britain, with its 900 members, seems to me to be a thoroughly backward-looking organisation. The CPB is still obsessed, 20 years after its foundation, with raging against the "betrayals" of eurocommunists and revisionists. Its "unity" list is just the CPB along with a few ex-pat members of other CPs from the former British empire. It will only stand in a few constituencies in Britain, elsewhere it will tell people to vote Labour, because that is what Lenin advised back in 1920. Ils n'ont rien appris, ni rien oublié.

  Respect is imploding, as Steve's latest news item shows. The SWP makes and breaks alliances according to where it sees a short-term advantage. I am sure it will make and break many more in the future. On the other side, George Galloway is not an ideal figure to build a left movement around. Then we have a multitude of Trotskyist grouplets in Britain, who demand to be allowed to take part in any new "unity" initiative, then use it mainly to intrigue against the other Trotskyist grouplets. Meanwhile, many good leftwingers still cling to the Labour Party, hoping that its current rightwing orientation is just a passing phase and that they will be able to "reclaim" it. Looking at the British left landscape, I cannot see anything new that represents hope for the future. Sooner or later this must change, and we should be ready for it.

  Cheers

  Francis
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Steve Spence 
    To: individual-members-el at listi.jpberlin.de 
    Cc: Andrew Stevens ; helmut.scholz at die-linke.de ; Thomas Kachel ; Helmut Ettinger ; claudiomolinario at talktalk.net ; pascual.bb at tiscali.co.uk ; Bob 
    Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2008 2:14 PM
    Subject: [Individual-members-EL] SWP Respect Councillor Defects To TheConservative Party!

    Dear All,

    I keep adding other individual members that I know about to this list.  I suggest if you are not on the list you should approach the Brussels office to be added.  Sometimes I remember to include you sometimes I don't.

    In London a Tower Hamlet Respect elected Councillor has defected to the Conservative Party (The Tories).  In the Respect split he was with the SWP section of Respect rather than George Galloway.  A defection to Labour, the Greens, even the Liberal Democrats might be understood, but the Tories!  The concerns European Left England members have had about some elements of Respect have never been so clearly demonstrated

    In relation to the Greater London Authority elections later this year the SWP Respect have selected candidates, George Galloway is still trying to put together a 'progressive' list although I have heard nothing more about this initiative.  I read on the Communist Party of Britain website or in the Morning Star, I can't remember which, that a 'Unity for Peace and Socialism' list is being developed for 'communists and their allies'.  This all seems to be the usual madness, three micro lists for 'the left'  The film 'Life of Brian' scene involving the 'Peoples Front of Judea', 'The Judean Peoples Front', and the 'Popular Front of Judea' comes to mind.

    It is very hard to know how European Left England should intervene positively in this situation.  Only Francis gave some feedback which was not against the 'progressive' list whilst wary.  However the development of the 'Unity' list seems to me to make the 'progressive' list  less likely to bring people together.  It seems we all prefer to stay in our little groups or our independent individual position.

    I have heard nothing on my request that European Left England be accepted as an observor member of EL but a few more indivduals have been in contact since the website www.theleft.org.uk was put together.

    We continue to be a small group after six years of patiently putting things together.  Effectively in England we are a small network of individual leftists attached to nothing outside the EL.

    It seems to me we either need to develop our connection in England with other groups to build something else broader (I thought the 'progressive' list was maybe a way of doing this) or decide its a waste of time trying to develop a samll nation based network and take the pan-European position of building the individual member network as one body across Europe through this list and to simply exist as the 'European Left Party - Individual Member Network' with no England, Belgium, Germany borders.

    Does anyone have a view?

    Bestest

    Stephen   

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    _______________________________________________
    Individual-members-EL Mailingliste
    JPBerlin - Politischer Provider
    Individual-members-EL at listi.jpberlin.de
    http://listi.jpberlin.de/mailman/listinfo/individual-members-el

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    No virus found in this incoming message.
    Checked by AVG Free Edition. 
    Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.20.7/1283 - Release Date: 16/02/2008 14:16

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  _______________________________________________
  Individual-members-EL Mailingliste
  JPBerlin - Politischer Provider
  Individual-members-EL at listi.jpberlin.de
  http://listi.jpberlin.de/mailman/listinfo/individual-members-el
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://listi.jpberlin.de/mailman/private/individual-members-el/attachments/20080217/47c27abb/attachment.htm 