The most striking thing about Labour's 'alternative' to Tory/LibDem policy is the complete lack of any commitment to undo the cuts on their return to power. Miliband has refused, for example, to promise a repeal of the £9,000 tuition fee hike.
Add to that Labour's rejection of strikes and all other effective means of fighting the coalition. That leaves the prospect of awaiting a Labour victory in 2015, by which time the Tories would have destroyed the public sector – services, jobs, unions and all – a defeat for workers even worse than that suffered in the Thatcher years. Labour's poor showing in the May local elections – 37% against the Tories' 35% – indicates there is no guarantee they would win in 2015 anyway.
As regards the Labour left, there are no signs of a significant revival, and they remain isolated. The Labour Representation Committee lacks the means or will to mount a campaign to democatize the party. And their radical left reformism appeals neither to the centre left of the party nor to the far left militants outside the party, whom the LRC might hope to attract.
This means that a real political alternative to both ConDem austerity and Labour treachery is an absolute must. The mass youth rebellion against fees in late 2010, the half-million-strong TUC March 26 demo, the public service union strike of June 30, and the rapid spread of local anticuts groups across Britain provide the basis for this political alternative.
But the missing factor which can unify these forces and provide the leadership essential to victory – a working class political party with a strategy to challenge and replace the capitalist system itself – remains to be built.
The left has already allowed a whole year to pass since the 2010 general election with no move towards the formation of a new workers' party. Yet there is an objective need for such a party – the scale and ferocity of the coalition attacks and the developing movement of resistance demand we now address this need.
Does this mean we should abandon any orientation towards the Labour Party? No. One aim of building a fighting movement is to confront Labour with the question: "Are you with us or against us?" As a minimum, we should demand of Labour leaders, MPs and councillors: A moratorium on all public sector cuts, a commitment to tax the rich, and to reverse all Tory and New Labour privatizations.
There is no contradiction between this tactic and that of building a fighting, anticapitalist alternative to Labour. Rather, the development of such an alternative will add leverage to any campaign to pressure Labour to fight the cuts, whether from within the party, through the unions, or the wider movement.
Furthermore, if we are ever to challenge the system that threatens both our livlihood and our freedom, our strategic goal must be to break workers permanently from reformism. We cannot possibly do this without creating a revolutionary allternative, in the form of a new working class party.
Commencing this process is a task facing particularly those activists – old and new – who have no illusions in the Labour Party. These people are particularly concentred in the local anti-cuts and student movement. It is especially among these forces, in the course of struggle, that the foundation for a new anticapitalist workers' party can be laid.
Because of their readiness to resist and openness to revolutionary ideas, radicalized youth clearly have a key part to play. Their participation also means that, from the outset, the new party would reflect the interests of young people, fighting youth oppression, and forming bonds of solidarity between students, young workers and unemployed and older workers in the party.
There is also a need to combat the strong autonomist trend within the youth movement, which a campaign to win support for a working class party would help to do, both on a theoretical and a practical level.
Among anticuts activists generally, there is growing awareness that we must not only bring down the coalition government, but replace it with one that will pursue an alternative to ConDem austerity. To do that, we need a party controlled by workers, with policies and leaders that reflect our interests, and which puts those policies into practice.
How can we begin the process of building a new anticapitalist party? We cannot expect a new party to emerge spontaneously from the anticuts movement. Nor will a campaign around abstract slogans or moves by existing groups to form alliances from above succeed. Even an open conference, without first laying the basis, would yeild nothing new.
What's called for is a campaign of agitiation and discussion among youth, anticuts activists and workers in struggle to build a network of supporters, before calling an open conference in which the emphasis would be on rank and file participation. Existing far left groups could also participate, of course, but should not be able to dominate the process.
To win support for the idea of a new anticapitalist party, the campaign needs to focus on:
- avoiding the fatal error of relying on a future Labour government to 'undo' the cuts
- escaping the dead end of the current sectarianism of far left politics
- overcoming the political atomization of thousands of non-party activists
- the positive alternative of a party which breaks with reformism and electoralism
- the massive gains which would flow from overcoming sectarian divisions
- the opportunity for workers and youth to formulate an alternative program in an organization that is truly their own
The first task of a new workers' party would be to arm the movement with an action program to bring down the coaliton and mount a challenge to the capitalist system itself. We need a party that fights for our class with even greater determination than the Tories fight for theirs. The time has come to build such a party!
