"New Socialist Alliance" idea gets good response at Leeds "No2EU" meeting

At a public meeting in Leeds on 1 June, ostensibly to get people to vote for No2EU, hardly any of the 40 people present, including the platform speakers, could muster much enthusiasm for the project.

None of the three platform speakers - ex Labour MP Alice Mahon, Mike Davies from the Alliance for Green Socialism, and Jackie Grunsell, a Socialist Party councillor - talked positively about the actual national platform No2EU is standing on. Instead they all talked about seizing the chance to build a left political platform with the RMT even if the undemocratic way it had come about and its manifesto was lamentable. Grunsell and Davies even went so far to condemn he name and the leadership.

During the discussion most speakers stood up to echo our comrade Pat Murphy's position that serious internationalist socialist unity cannot be built out of a left nationalist bureaucratic lash up. One very refreshing thing throughout the debate was both that everyone was allowed to speak, and particularly the AGS comrades spoke frankly about there misgivings.

The fact that the Yorkshire slate includes genuine socialists like Davies, Grunsell and Keith Gibson whom we would back if they stood on a working class socialist ticket makes this election a tragic wasted opportunity. The Yorkshire candidates put out an election address that talks about the main enemy being capitalism and opposes border controls, going far beyond the populism of the Morning Star that makes up the national programme of the campaign.

One positive can be taken from this meeting, almost all of the speakers who rightly condemned No2EU and almost all of those who unfortunately supported it called urgently and seriously for a united socialist alliance based in the workers' movement for the next general election. We in Workers' Liberty will seek to hold to their promises in the coming weeks and months.