Great chance for British left in European elections + economic
analysis
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 everybodys 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 shouldnt 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
wouldnt 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
coalitions 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 SPs 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. Ive
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 workers
wage", Weekly Worker, 21 May). In my opinion, the CPGBs 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 havent 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 wont 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 & Poors) 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 wouldnt 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!
--
Steve Wallis (Manchester, England)
Preferred email address: revolutionarysocialiststeve@yahoo.co.uk
Super-blog: http://www.twitter.com/socialiststeve
Other blogs: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/steve-wallis-socialist-blog,
http://blog.myspace.com/galaxiasteve
My socialist website: http://www.socialiststeve.me.uk
My pages at Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1038291480,
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/galaxiasteve and Bebo:
http://www.bebo.com/SteveW519
Founder, Ethical Capitalism Network: http://www.ethicalcapitalism.net
Founder, Foundation for Proportional Representation-based Socialism:
http://www.PRsocialism.org
Founder, Revolutionary Platform Network: http://www.revolutionaryplatform.net
My revolutionary socialist band, Galaxia:
http://www.galaxiamusic.net,http://www.myspace.com/galaxiamusic,
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Galaxia-a-revolutionary-socialist-band/84310120180,
http://www.bebo.com/galaxiamusic.
My socialist band, Red Day: http://www.red-day.net,
http://www.myspace.com/reddayband,http://www.facebook.com/pages/Red-Day/27468311341
Author, "Revolution Destroyed? Have I ensured that a world socialist
revolution will never happen?": http://www.revolutiondestroyed.net
For discussion of 9/11 conspiracy theories, go to
http://www.revolutionaryplatform.net/forum/index.php?board=89
date: Sun, 24 May 2009 06:20:25 -0700 (PDT)
author: Steve Wallis
|
