Workers' Liberty

The Left List's explanation of the results of Thursday's elections strongly suggests that the SWP is stubbornly refusing to learn the lessons or even face reality.

No, readers of Solidarity should not vote no.1 for Ken Livingstone for mayor of London. Despite all the frantic appeals to us to vote for him as a "lesser evil" than Boris Johnson, he deserves no credit or endorsement from working-class people.

Forty socialist candidates will be standing in the local government elections on 1 May, under the umbrella of the Socialist Green Unity Coalition.

New Lib-Dem leader Nick Clegg has announced that the Lib-Dems will back a Tory minority government so long as it promises some "liberal" measures (such as, for example, "liberating" schools from local authority control).

On Thursday 27 September, the RMT London Transport Regional Council (which represents mainly workers on London Underground) passed a motion for a slate of independent working-class candidates in next year's London mayoral and assembly elections.

Results so far from the 3 May elections look poor for the left.

On 3 May, when voters in Scotland, Wales and some parts of England go to the polls to elect local councillors and regional assembly members, most will face a very limited choice. In many council seats, the only choice will be between Labour, the Tories and the Lib Dems; in only a handful will there be independent working-class or socialist candidates standing.

If you can't vote socialist on 3 May, vote Labour
Organise to stop the BNP

At the AWL summer school in July 2006, John McDonnell MP, Maria Exall and Sean Matgamna debated "Blair, new Labour's crisis and the fight for working class representation". Hear John McDonnell's speech by downloading this MP3 file.

The council elections on 4 May were a disaster for the Labour Party, but not wholly surprising. As is the norm these days, turnout was low, and there was a worrying increase in support for the BNP in certain areas.

By John Bloxam

DESPITE losing seats, New Labour retained control of Tower Hamlets Council on 4 May, winning 26 seats and a bare majority of the total 51.

Significantly, many of the cabinet members most closely associated with the Tory policies pursued by the previous New Labour administration were defeated – notably the Council leader and lead member for Housing.

by John Leach

In Spring next year, we get to vote for our Councillors. Hackney Solidarity will stand in this election, giving people the chance to vote for socialist candidates who support Hackney working-class interests.

By Dave Jessop

Six Birmingham Labour councillors have been found guilty of corruption and a systematic attempt to rig the 2004 city council elections.

In 2001 Pete Radcliff stood for the now defunct Socialist Alliance in Nottingham East. He polled over one thousand in the constituency (one of the best SA results in the country).

This time round Pete will be standing in the name of the Socialist Green Unity Coalition.

Socialist Green Unity Coalition: IN THE looming general election a joint campaign against Blair is being mounted by five left parties and some independent socialists.

Philip Waker (Labour): 1,085 votes.
Lawrence Rustem (BNP): 935.
Kerry Smith (Conservative): 410.

The voice of the militant class struggle left in America may seem too quiet and abstract to bother with. But the future of American working-class politics, and of the world, lies with them.

Note: this article includes details of the forthcoming by-election in Dagenham where the BNP threaten to win another seat.

Far right wins in E. London and soars in Germany.
Cut the roots of fascism - fight for a workers' government!

How did the European left fare in the June elections? Martin Thomas reports

The results

Two point six per cent in France, 5.8% in Italy, 8.1% in Denmark, 7% in the Netherlands, 5.2% in Scotland, 4.9% in Portugal... I do not know of any significant radical-left electoral efforts in the new EU member states of Eastern Europe, but in some west European states, at least, there were some scores for the radical left in June's Euro-elections better than those which parties to the left of the Communist and Socialist parties got in the 1970s.

By Garth Frankland, Alliance for Green Socialism

Over 100 socialists stood in the local elections under different left political banners. In the main they consisted of people who had subscribed in different ways to the early days of the Socialist Alliance. The numbers standing were not very different from that organisation at its height.

The biggest concentrations were on Merseyside with 51 candidates, Coventry with 14, Leeds with 14 (12 Alliance for Green Socialism and 2 Socialist Party) and Walsall with 10. There were other candidates across the country. Respect stood very few local candidates.

Following the SWP's wrecking of the Socialist Alliance, a number of comrades stood as 'Democratic Socialist Alliance' candidates in the 10 June local government elections. One of the most successful of these campaigns was run by AWL member Alison Brown, whose campaigned in the Burngreave ward of Sheffield.

Les luttes continuent!

By Vicki Morris

The French far-left suffered a knock in the recent elections for the European parliament. The joint list of the Ligue Communiste Revolutionnaire (LCR)-Lutte Ouvriere (LO) received 432,000 votes, 2.58% of the total. They lost their five MEPs (although because of European enlargement they were always going to struggle to get an MEP this time).

Gerry Bates (Solidarity 3-52 27 May) says "The PJP has called on Muslims not to vote Lib-Dems because the Lib-Dems are in favour of equal rights for gays and lesbians."

Gerry knows this is not true. Jim Denham reported in early May on one of the left e-mail lists, that the leaflet had been withdrawn.

Two point six per cent in France, 5.8% in Italy, 8.1% in Denmark, 7% in the Netherlands, 5.2% in Scotland, 4.9% in Portugal… I do not know of any significant radical-left electoral efforts in the new EU member states of Eastern Europe, but in some west European states, at least, there were some scores for the radical left in June's Euro-elections better than those which parties to the left of the Communist and Socialist parties got in the 1970s.

By Rhodri Evans

The threat from the far right in the 10 June Euro-elections may come as much from the UK Independence Party as from the British National Party.


The BNP hopes to win a Euro-seat in the north-west. But the UKIP has edged ahead of the Lib-Dems in one opinion poll. It is spending more on the Euro-elections than Labour and the Tories put together. It has the backing of multi-millionaire Paul Sykes, actress Joan Collins, freelance racist Robert Kilroy-Silk, and former Clinton campaign manager Dick Morris.

By Martin Thomas

On our way to leaflet a new batch of streets for Alison Brown, the socialist candidate in Sheffield City Council's elections, we passed the Yemeni mosque.


A group of men were standing outside, so I gave them leaflets. "I'm supporting Respect", said one of them.

Alison Brown, standing for the Democratic Socialist Alliance (People before Profit) in Burngreave ward, Sheffield, tripled her vote by comparison with 2003 (which, in turn, was her best result up to then of the three times she had run in the ward).

For more Democratic Socialist Alliance results, click here.

By Colin Foster

Thursday 10 June will be a big election day, but, unfortunately, one with a small socialist presence. Seventy-eight Euro-MPs will be elected, by proportional representation in each of 12 giant regions.

Socialists candidates Alison Brown and Daniel Murphy are standing in the local government elections in Sheffield and Manchester respectively.


Alison Brown is standing in Burngreave ward, Sheffield, for the fourth time. On the previous three occasions Alison, an ambulance worker, has increased her vote each time. She won 8.1% in 2003.

In past elections she was the Socialist Alliance candidate; this time she will be standing as "Democratic Socialist Alliance - People before Profit".

Burngreave is a poor, inner-city ward, containing large Yemeni, Somali, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Iraqi Kurdish communities. Its three councillors are all Labour. One of them, Steve Jones, is deputy leader of Sheffield City Council, and a hard-faced advocate of the council's policies of privatisation of housing, refuse, parks, recreation, and youth services.

By Joan Trevor

The French regional elections delivered a big snub to right-wing UMP (Union pour un Mouvement Populaire) prime minster Jean-Pierre Raffarin.

His coalition now control only two - Alsace and Corsica - of the 22 metropolitan regions.