After the party

In 2004 the Fire Brigades Union disaffiliated from the Labour Party. FBU general secretary Matt Wrack explains what it has meant for the union politically. (first published by Red Pepper at http://www.redpepper.org.uk/After-the-party )

There had been a long-running debate in the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) about our affiliation with the Labour Party going back to the 1980s. But it all came to a head during the 2002/2003 disputes. Our members were taken aback by how suddenly the pressure was put on by the government and the harshness with which we were treated. One Labour politician even described us as fascists. We settled the disputes in 2003 and at the following year's conference we disaffiliated from the party.

An overwhelming percentage of the FBU membership supported the decision. I suspect that in the beginning a lot of our members just wanted to give Labour a bit of a kick but they have continued to back disaffiliation in the following years. Since then we have been thinking through how we develop: what we do politically as a disaffiliated union.

There was a concern among our officials that we would be left isolated and politicians wouldn't talk to us anymore. I don't think that has happened. We have a very good relationship with a lot of MPs and have also rebuilt some of our relations with government. Ironically, it seems that since disaffiliating we have formalised a lot more of our parliamentary work.

Using the political fund

We continue to use our political fund to support individual Labour MPs, such as John McDonnell in his leadership bid. Our regional groups have supported Green and Respect candidates, although the FBU nationally has not supported any other parties' candidates since Labour.

In Scotland being disaffiliated has opened more doors for us. We have backed a range of candidates, including the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP). We have a good relationship with the Scottish government, possibly better than the one we have at Westminster. It strikes me how different the political debate in Scotland is to England. The first minister goes to the Scottish TUC and talks openly about council housing and opposing the war – stuff that a politician would never tell you here.

We also support plenty of single-issue campaigns. This year we have worked closely with the anti-fascist movement, funding the Love Music Hate Racism march and festival.

Some people think we should be moving further towards an approach where we pick out individual candidates and campaigns. I don't agree. I feel strongly that there needs to be a wider approach – the left and the working class needs a political party but there isn't one for them at this time.

No longer Labour

In theory, you would think that if the Labour government is on the ropes it would be an ideal opportunity for the trade unions to put some demands to them. I've not seen any evidence, although I hope this will happen.

Instead, it seems that among the affiliated unions there is currently a move to rally round the Labour Party as the election approaches. I'm pleased we don't have that in the FBU, as I don't think it washes with either members or people generally. There is no sign of a change in direction now and there is unlikely to be any change after an election either.

There is a huge amount of frustration with mainstream politics. There is consensus among the three main parties around a neoliberal agenda. For us as trade unions that is about the privatisation and restrictions on trade union rights that have alienated Labour's core supporters.

I am no longer a Labour member. I am not convinced the party can be reclaimed in the way people want it to be at the moment. But we need to be political and the working class needs representation in parliament. How we achieve that is a drawn-out process. The trade unions that are clearly opposed to the mainstream agenda need to discuss and co-operate a lot more. The challenge for us is the need for a fundamental debate about the type of society we want.

For me as a socialist, I'd like a socialist society. I think there is a growing unease about some of the developments – ever-growing inequality and climate change, for example – and the fact is the policies around which Labour, Liberals and Tories address those issues – a market based approach – can't do anything.

Matt Wrack was talking to Lena de Casparis

Question Time for The Left

And it finally seems like we've figured out what the questions are

By Tom Walker (from the Red Pepper blog at http://www.redpepper.org.uk/Question-time-for-the-left

The convention's final session, 'Question Time for the Left', brought together a panel from across the left to see, once and for all, if they could work together. Not to spoil it for you or anything, but the answer was 'yes'.

The panel was certainly wide-ranging: the panel took in Colin Fox (SSP), Clive Searle (Respect), Lindsey German (SWP), Robert Griffiths (CPB/Morning Star), John McDonnell, (LRC/Labour left) Mark Serwotka (PCS union), Derek Wall (Green Left) and Hilary Wainwright (Red Pepper).

I'd be blogging all day and all night if I wrote about every question that was asked and answered: the session was rapid-fire, with speakers' points kept short and audience participation made central to the session. The 'us and them' wall was broken down once and for all.

Their verdict on the convention was unanimous, though: it was 'historic' (Wainwright), 'a tremendous success' (McDonnell), and even 'maybe, just maybe, the start of 21st century socialism in Europe' (Wall).

The discussion darted from why left organisations are so 'pale and male', to the anti-war movement, to free public transport to tackle climate change – but it somehow stayed on track, making real links between the problems we face without resorting to the old 'the problem is capitalism' schtick. Suddenly the underlying question wasn't 'what are the problems?' or 'can we work together?' – it was 'how will we win?'

Lindsey German pointed out that not only can the left make a difference, but it does every day: on strike picket lines, in the anti-war movement, in fighting the BNP. 'I don't think the left should beat itself up,' she said. Our groups might not be perfect, but our convention was full of life – Labour's conference had none.

On fuel bills, most of all, the mood to go out and build a mass campaign right there and then was palpable – some members of the audience told of how they'd seen their bills almost double. 'We need to be going straight onto action,' said John MacDonnell, while Mark Serwotka called it 'the best issue I can think of' to organise around.

Colin Fox called for militant action to stop people dying from the cold: 'There are millions who will be disconnected this winter. We have to say: if they try to disconnect one single worker…' – the rest of the sentence got lost in the wild applause.

German offered a nice slogan – 'can't pay, won't pay' – while Clive Searle said it was an opportunity to really make the left relevant to people's lives, and Robert Griffiths told an encouraging story of how well petitions on fuel bills had gone. Hilary Wainwright added: 'The importance of a mass campaign around a winnable issue is that it opens things up for us.'

Other campaigns with broad support included the climate camp (which may be forced to launch direct action at Heathrow as soon as December if the third runway gets the go-ahead in parliament), civil disobedience against ID cards (the next poll tax, for sure), renationalisation of public services, and the Europe-wide mobilisations against Nato and the spread of war.

When the convention's idea of local left forums was raised again, McDonnell had news of some people who have already gone home and started setting one up: 'I think it could be a tremendous breakthrough.' Searle tackled the 'talking shop' issue head-on: 'If they were just talking shops they'd be good, if they're talking shops linked to action it'll be excellent.' There is going to be a 'recall conference' on 29 November to hear reports back from the local forums, so we'll soon know whether we're getting anywhere.

Summing up, Serwotka said: 'If movements like this are to mean anything they've got to be linked to action. We need some victories.'

So, after five days of discussions, the job of the left suddenly appears much clearer than before. All we have to do now is get started.

There IS an alternative

By John Nicholson, Convenor of the Organising Group

 

An unknown Labour Minister (they all look alike to us) responded to a leaflet given her about the Convention of The Left – "there's no such thing as left ideas".

 

And to listen to the radio or watch the TV you would have thought nothing more was happening in the world than whether Brown would still be here next week, next month or next year.

 

But the entire Cabinet could have lined up in Albert Square in central Manchester and none of them would have been recognised. What was desperately missing from both conference and sycophantic media entourage that ate their free pizza and drank their free wine on the outdoor patio behind the steel and wire protection alongside Lower Mosley Street, was any discussion of policy.

 

The honourable exception was the Guardian journalist who came to our transport session on Tuesday and told us that since he'd had an advance copy of Gordon Brown's speech, he'd come to the Convention instead.

 

The reality was that the Convention of The Left was brimming with new ideas, exciting debates, and a vision of a world free from the tyranny of market forces. In our strong debates about how to reclaim our world from the spivs and the speculators, everyone agreed that we don't need more war and privatisation and that we are not going to punish the poor for the economic misery caused by the rich.

 

Much More than Just a Talking Shop

 

The Convention was three things together – buy one and get two free.

 

Protest. Against the security-bound city-centre and the waste of public resources protecting Brown & Co from the very public who've paid for this. Against warmongering, privatisation, failure to tackle environmental destruction, and inflicting on the victims the consequences of the crisis of capitalism. And crucially against following (or even writing) Daily Mail headlines which legitimise the far right and leave the door open to the rise of the fascists.

 

Alternative. Right next door to Labour's official (non)event, a positive alternative – save the planet, stop the war, scrap privatisation. Not just a windfall tax but taking the utilities back into public ownership. Not just stamp duty holidays but extensive public house building (we don't mean pubs, but we can't necessarily trust councils who've sold off all their housing to be in charge of future homes for people in need). Not just cancelling the debts of the banks but cancelling student debt. Not just scrapping Trident but all existing weapons of nuclear madness (in the hands of the UK, US and Israel…… er, not Iraq…..). And using the savings to provide free public transport and free school meals – a fraction of the cost of PFIs in hospitals and academies.

 

Unity. There's nothing wrong with a talking shop, but we must unite across The Left to win the ideological arguments for peace and public ownership.

 

This really was unprecedented. We all signed up to a Statement of Intent – creating local left forums to promote discussion and co-ordinate united action across The Left, in an inclusive, participatory, pluralist, tolerant and democratic way. The style will be as the Convention – sessions were free entry, no security, no queues. Debates were participatory, not top-down platforms. The whole thing was organised by local activists, without any major funding backer or any big name or single organisation dominating. We are about policies not personalities.

 

Immediately there will be practical outcomes – first, a united Campaign Against Fuel Poverty, involving trade unions, MPs and local campaigns. Over the next year we will work together to combine our different Charters and Petitions into one.

 

Then maybe even the mainstream media will notice, by next year's Conference, in Brighton, that there is indeed an alternative. Not just any old alternative, but THE alternative – The Left.

A statement of intent

The following statement was passed overwhelmingly by the final session of the Convention on Sunday 21st September. We hope other individuals and groups will add their names.

We explicitly challenge Labour’s programme of warmongering, neoliberal privatisation and failure to tackle environmental destruction.We believe that there is an alternative.

The wealth exists in the world to abolish famine and poverty and to pay for our essential needs; the debt-fuelled culture of conspicuous consumption does not produce a fairer or happier society – and is anyway unsustainable; and peaceful collective public enterprise is preferable to the private profit-making of the unregulated market and its escalating competition for scarce resources.

The problem is capitalism, which produces only for profit not need, which destroys the environment and carries out endless warfare in pursuit of market domination.But we also believe that we must win these arguments. We must find ways to develop and promote alternative positive policies and demands – of peace, social and environmental justice, public ownership, workers’ rights, civil liberties and equality.We must join together with all those seeking a better society, as an anti-capitalist left fighting for an alternative socialist society.

Question time for the left

The Convention of The Left takes place in Manchester 20-24 September as the alternative to Labour’s conference (held right next door at the same time). The Convention aims to debate alternative strategies that are critical of capitalism – environmentally and socially just, inclusive and peaceful, pluralist, tolerant – in pursuit of a greater common objective that benefits the many and not the few.

We aim to ask ourselves the essential questions – and we hope to arrive at some of the answers.We also aim to encourage participation from below, not top-down platforms. We want to start defining new ways of working - so that we can join together in making policies, putting forward demands and campaigning in practice - regardless of the organisations (or none) that we may belong to or support.Participation in debate - unity in action

We are not saying that this means the construction of another political party. But we do resolve to find ways that the Left as a whole can co-ordinate action both nationally and locally wherever we can. We are not aiming to displace existing united campaigns, but to strengthen these and to encourage working together across the widest range of organisations and individuals.

We therefore resolve to encourage the development of local left forums, where appropriate, and to support those already in existence, in order to promote discussion and co-ordinate united action across the Left, in an inclusive, participatory, pluralist, tolerant and democratic way. We also resolve to hold a “Recall Event” on Saturday November 29th at which we will seek agreement to ideas and demands emerging from the Convention.

Signed prior to the Convention by (among others) nationally :Tony Benn, Alice Mahon, Ken Loach, John McDonnell MP (Labour Representation Committee,) Robert Griffiths (Secretary, Communist Party of Britain), John Haylett (Editor, Morning Star), Liz Davies, Derek Wall (Principal Male Speaker, Green Party,) George Galloway MP (Respect), Councillor Salma Yaqoob (Respect), Professor Gregor Gall (Labour movement academic), Chris Bambery (editor, Socialist Worker), Linsdey German (SWP)

and by members of the Convention of the left organising group including:Declan O’Neill, Chris Jones, Margaret Manning, Richard Searle (Respect), Dr Kay Phillips (Respect), Linda Clair, Norma Turner, Chris Hyland (Green Party), Peter Allen (Green Party), Cllr Susan Press (LRC), Denise McDowell, Bill Jefferies (Permanent Revolution), John Nicholson, Roy Wilkes (Socialist Resistance), Ann Papageorgiou (CPB), Clive Searle (Respect)