I agree with Eric Lee (Solidarity 599) that trying to win public elections should be a part of socialist activity. Workers’ Liberty has in print a pamphlet, How to Fight Elections, based on our comrade Lol Duffy’s campaign as Labour candidate in Wallasey in 1987.
But Eric’s article switches to and fro between “power” and “elected office” as if they are the same thing. They’re not. In fact, a dogmatic over-valuation of seeking electoral office can lead to socialists adapting to the constraints of office, sacrificing real political power from agitation in workplaces and neighbourhoods.
Momentum urges Labour leftists to get elected as Labour councillors. In anything like the current balance of forces, a leftist elected councillor will have zero political power (as distinct from, maybe, capacity to help constituents with individual grievances), and will gain little of what Lol Duffy would have got if he’d won Wallasey in 1987, a public platform for socialist agitation. By getting mired in councillor positions, they are more likely to lose than to gain political clout.
Martin Thomas, Islington
