A round-up.
Charlie Kimber, the new editor of Socialist Worker, was the main speaker at the SWP's Central London "after the election" meeting on 13 May.
His speech sounded like part of a campaign by the SWP leadership to re-educate their membership away from the "Rage against Labour" orientation which they were pushing as recently as September 2009.
Kimber emphasised that the surprisingly buoyant Labour vote on 6 May was a class vote. People now rallying to Labour. Labour will talk a different language from when in office.
Another leading SWPer, Candy Udwin, followed up from the floor by saying that the flow of new members to the Labour Party was to be welcomed.
Kimber's practical conclusion was that SWPers should seek join with Labour people in campaigns and united fronts, and should actively support John McDonnell in the Labour leadership election.
Meanwhile, Labour is tied to the system, and strikes and demonstrations are more important than elections, so people should join the SWP.
Kimber said that TUSC votes on 6 May had been poor. SWP is calling for TUSC to organise a conference to discuss its results, because SWP wants to "broaden it out more".
Martin Thomas
Clive Heemskerk of the Socialist Party took part in a discussion on "after the election" at the Left Unity Liaison Committee on 15 May.
He seemed indignant when I put it to him that the SP's dogmatic position on the Labour Party would cut them off from the possibilities now opening up within the Labour Party. He said that I'd missed the nuances of the SP position.
They would support for John McDonnell for leader, and argue for McDonnell to raise in his platform the reinstatement into the Labour Party of the RMT and "all expelled socialists".
Generally the SP has been arguing for unions to disaffiliate from the Labour Party, and in 2007 they pointedly stood aside from John McDonnell's challenge for Labour leader.
Heemskerk also indicated that TUSC will not be calling a broad conference to discuss the election results, despite the call for such a conference from the SWP.
Daniel Randall
Speakers at the Scottish Socialist Party's "after the election" meeting in Glasgow, in mid-May, claimed that the SSP vote held up well in the general election compared with the Holyrood elections of 2007.
In fact the SSP's vote is down to about one-tenth of what it was at its peak. It got 3.36% of the total vote in Scotland in 2001, and 0.3% in 2010. In 2001, it got over 6% in eight of Glasgow's constituencies; this time, the SSP's average vote where it stood was 0.7%.
Now, the SSP speakers said, the issue is fighting the cuts and the national question. For the SSP now, fighting the cuts is the same issue as campaigning for independence for Scotland. The slogan is: "The Tories have no mandate to rule and ruin Scotland - Defy the Tory cuts!"
Dale Street
A meeting called by former London mayor Ken Livingstone's "Progressive London" group on 17 May, and co-sponsored by the CWU and Tribune, was standing-room-only.
The platform speakers did not name any Labour leadership candidate as deserving support. No-one defended Ed Miliband when Ken Livingstone criticised him. No-one mentioned John McDonnell.
Themes in the platform speeches which won applause included:
- Opposition to British military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan;
- Defence of civil liberties;
- Opposition to anti-immigration demagogy;
- Calls for more social housing;
- Attacks on "New Labour";
- Attacks on "neo-liberalism".
Livingstone's denunciation of Blair's restructuring of the Labour Party after 1994, and his call for democracy in the Labour Party, was the most trenchant note in the platform speeches, but stopped short of precise demands or campaign proposals.
The term "socialist", or any synonym, was not used from the platform. Synonyms for "working class" were not much used. Issues not mentioned in the platform speakers' attacks on the New Labour record were privatisation, PFI, anti-union laws, tuition fees, SATs, and Academies.
Martin Thomas