Great chance for left in European elections
by Steve Wallis (www.socialiststeve.me.uk), 24 May 2009

 

The upcoming elections to the European Parliament (on Thursday 4 June) should be the best opportunity ever for the left in Britain, due to the economic crisis exposing flaws in capitalism, the furore over MPs’ expenses reinforcing hatred of the mainstream political parties and the fact that these elections will be conducted using proportional representation (PR).

 

Unfortunately, the British left is very divided, and the form of PR used in these elections only allows voters to put a single 'X' on the ballot paper, so many are likely to vote tactically rather than for the party or candidate they most agree with. I argue for the single transferable vote (STV) version of PR, using which votes are transferred to second choice if the first choice is eliminated or gets more votes than necessary (and so on for later choices). This form of PR has another advantage in allowing voters to choose between candidates of the same party, rather than enormous power being in the party machines as with the European lists (and similarly with lists for the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and London Assembly), and voters could dump those representatives who have fiddled their expenses for example.

 

As I explained in my document "Towards a Theory of Everything", which you can read at www.socialiststeve.me.uk/theory-of-everything.htm and which provided a scientific justification for my views, I am in favour of the dominance of everybody’s free will decisions in what happens in society. In that spirit, and because each has its strengths and weaknesses, I will list the options of who to vote for, providing links for those who want to know more, rather than arguing for any particular choice.

 

Green Party (greenparty.org.uk)
No2EU - Yes to Democracy (no2eu.com)
Socialist Labour Party (socialist-labour-party.org.uk)
Scottish Socialist Party (scottishsocialistparty.org) [Scotland only]
Socialist Party of Great Britain (spgb.org.uk) [London only]
[You can of course vote SNP in Scotland or Plaid Cymru in Wales as alternatives to the three main parties.]

 

Some will have heard of the opinion poll reported in The Sun, in which the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) was level with Labour on 19%, and feared that it indicated a shift to the right in society. Less reported was Tory support plummeting to 29% and the fascist British National Party (BNP) on a meagre 3% (and the Lib Dems also on 19%). UKIP supporters are not necessarily right-wing, even if most of their candidates are, and No2EU could take some votes off UKIP, putting forward left-wing arguments against the erosion of our democratic rights by the European superstate (with more power in the hands of ministers, judges and bureaucrats than the European parliament). Although we shouldn’t be too complacent about the BNP, partly because some may be reluctant to indicate their support for them in an opinion poll, we should regard these elections as an opportunity to indicate support for left-wing politics rather than worrying about the miniscule difference our votes make in the possibility the BNP wins a seat. When I handed out some "Hope not Hate" newspapers in the Moss Side area of Manchester, which urged people to vote to stop the BNP getting in, there was enormous hostility to the mainstream parties, so suggesting voting for them wouldn’t have gone down at all well - I got a very good reception suggesting the Greens or No2EU.

Although No2EU has been criticised by some, including the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), for not spelling out what sort of democracy they are in favour of, the "Yes to Democracy" part of the coalition’s title has forced its participants to discuss and put forward their views on this issue. Now both of the main organisations involved in No2EU, the Socialist Party (SP) and Communist Party of Britain (CPB), support PR with the latter specifically advocating STV, despite them both regarding themselves as Marxist parties. The massively undemocratic nature of elections to the UK parliament, in which only (predominantly middle class) floating voters in marginal constituencies affect the government and small parties find it hard to make a breakthrough, is crying out for change and the traditional Marxist solution of hierarchies of committees based on workplaces and local communities would appear ludicrous and hard to justify (though I would support this in addition to PR).

 

Marxists find PR hard to square with their conception of democracy under socialism. The editorial of the SP’s newspaper which comes out in support of PR (The Socialist, 14-20 May) also says "MPs could then be elected on the basis of democratic local assemblies with the right of recall by their constituents". There would have to be massive meetings or a huge number of MPs for this to work! A better and more practicable alternative to the right to recall of individual MPs would be the right to force a general election with a petition from a certain proportion of the electorate.

 

The CPGB have adopted a dishonest approach to the issue of PR. I’ve had several letters published in their Weekly Worker newspaper, some of them advocating PR, but they always appeared in an edited form missing out my support for some degree of workers’ control - which in my opinion would have made my arguments appear better and more acceptable to Marxists. They ignored my views on PR until they finally discussed the issue of democracy at a meeting and decided in favour of PR, but ironically ignored workers’ control completely, in "provisional" sections of their programme ("Debating draft programme", Weekly Worker, 5 May). [They also decided on annual elections, while the SP calls for elections at least every two years; in either case more democratic than having to wait up to five years as at present.] Now, when debating No2EU in their paper, they have completely avoided mentioning PR, even though they took a few quotes from the above-mentioned editorial of the SP ("For recallable MPs on a worker’s wage", Weekly Worker, 21 May). In my opinion, the CPGB’s primary role is to wreck left-wing organisations while offering a space for debate (particularly on their letters page). Our interests have coincided to a certain extent when I wanted to attack Marxism (in addition to helping the cause of democratic socialism by radicalising people and telling the truth) but now that Marxists are taking up some of my ideas, that phase of my life is over; they haven’t published any of my submissions recently and I no longer intend to submit letters to their paper. To substantiate my view of them as wreckers, they concentrate on attacking socialist organisations with the agenda of arguing for Marxists to unite, but after taking a leading role in the Campaign for a Marxist Party, failed to build it and then shut it down. A fairly minor point but one that alienates environmentalists - the Weekly Worker is printed on pristine white paper rather than newsprint (largely recycled paper); I was told that their printer could not handle newsprint but they now use commercial printers after it broke down.

 

Largely because of the electoral system, socialist change won’t just happen by building outside the mainstream parties - a split in the Labour Party will happen at some point in the future, perhaps even before the next general election (which is the most realistic way of stopping the Tories forming the next government). If all three mainstream parties advocate cuts in public services and tax rises, which they will need to do to come anywhere near balancing the books, then a party advocating a sudden thorough change to democratic socialism (i.e. a socialist revolution) could win mass support. Socialist candidates would be more likely to be seen as credible rather than a wasted vote if the left does well in the European elections, however.

 

A big rise in government borrowing for the month of April and a rating agency (Standard & Poor’s) suggesting it may remove the AAA rating on UK government bonds has brought the issue of the massive government debt back into the headlines, with the possibility that it may default. As Jeremy Warner said ("What's the point of the rating agencies?", The Independent, 22 May) if they can no longer sell the bonds, the Bank of England can simply buy more bonds - with so-called "quantitative easing" - which could cause problems with a falling currency price and inflation (perhaps even hyperinflation like Zimbabwe today or Weimar Germany) but the UK wouldn’t actually go bankrupt. The real thing investors have to worry about is something no economic model can predict - a socialist government that confiscates assets and refuses to pay back debts!

 

The announcement of an extra £50 billion of quantitative easing seems driven by concerns that investors may not continue buying bonds if they do not have the option of selling them straight back again to the Bank of England! It is possible that a crisis point will be reached as soon as this measure comes to an end. Alternatively, the next government could come under a lot of pressure from capitalists (including the European Union) to reduce borrowing. In either case, a mass movement of opposition from ordinary people that capitalists try to make pay for the crisis they created would be unleashed - coming onto the streets, going on strike and possibly leading to a revolution! If the left does not come to power then, the right will, and the balance of forces between socialists and capitalists at that time will be crucial. I am offering the left new direction at this important time - particularly with my document "Towards a Theory of Everything" providing a scientific alternative to Marxism, on-line at www.socialiststeve.me.uk/theory-of-everything.htm. There are interesting times ahead and we can all play a role in helping shape the future of the world!

 

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Steve Wallis (Manchester, England)
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