Socialist electoral unity

Submitted by Anon on 8 October, 2005 - 3:26

The Alliance for Workers’ Liberty met with representatives of the Socialist Party, the Alliance for Green Socialism, and the Socialist Alliance (Provisional) for a Socialist Green Unity Coalition committee meeting on 2 October.

We agreed that we will run a common SGUC campaign for the 2006 local elections as for the 2005 general election. A discussion will be opened on additions especially relevant to local government for the current agreed SGUC common political platform.

SP will be focusing their efforts in the 2006 local elections on Coventry and Lewisham, but will run elsewhere. AGS will focus on running several candidates in Leeds, but will run elsewhere. AWL has one prospective candidacy, in Hackney, east London.

The committee also agreed, in diluted form, the proposal for a SGUC campaign on pensions first proposed on AWL’s behalf by Pete Radcliff at the previous SGUC meeting.

What’s proposed is a joint campaign in the form of stalls, petitions, leaflets, posters etc agitating for decent pensions for all, to be achieved by taxing the rich — a much-increased basic state pension without means-testing, and defence of public provision.

Obviously AWL is unlikely to be able to campaign jointly with the SP within the unions on the question of pensions, given what we see as their compliance with the trade union leaders’ avoidance of industrial action on the issue. But we could perfectly well do a joint street-stall and public-meeting campaign without compromising debate on trade-union policy. Indeed the joint activity would increase the possibilities for having out the debate between AWLers and SPers.

Perhaps aware of that, the SP was reluctant to agree to joint activity. Eventually it agreed to a joint SGUC leaflet, poster, and petition on the issue, though it would not commit itself to actually using the petition.

Joint stalls and meetings should be possible where local SGUC activists agree.

www.workersliberty.org/sguc

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