Crisis in Leeds New Labour
New Labour in Leeds and their fellow travellers in the Liberal Democrats are in a crisis. It is a reflection of the national crisis of Blairism caused in part by the immense public unquiet over the invasion of Iraq and the government's continuing pro-American and right-wing policies.
The crisis spreads down into local government and into our local communities. We are all making the links between the individual events affecting our everyday lives and the overall direction of the government. The closure of post offices is seen as preparation for further privatisation moves. The removal of the designation "Her Majesty's Prison Service" marks similar privatisation moves for the prison service as well as massive expansion of prisoners in the course of the fight against terrorism.
The continuing exposures of the craven nature of the Blair administration will not go away. Among serious voters the fact that Blair spied on the United Nations for Bush to prevent any peace measure over Iraq makes him a major warmonger. Blair can't come clean and the various allegations will not go away. That drives the political calculations behind the Tories' and Liberal Democrats' decision to distance their parties from the Butler inquiry.
This crisis has unique local manifestations depending whether you are in Coventry, Hull, Liverpool or Leeds. The job of socialist politicians is to wrestle with the manifestations of the crisis, to study them and then act. What changes things is the specific detailed analysis in a local area and then for activists to become part of a living and vital force for change.
The crisis in social democracy in Leeds is not abstract. After 23 years of Labour being in power in the second biggest city outside of London in Britain they have lost control. They face even larger losses in the June elections. They are in trouble. All their trappings, privileges and illusions of power will go. They are faced with second-rate Tory and Liberal Democrat groups in the city. So the crisis comes from within and from their relationship with Blairism nationally. In fact the Liberal Democrats don't provide any serious opposition and are operating more like a gang than political party.
The specifics of the Leeds New Labour crisis are as follows:
- There has been a two-month delay because of threatened legal action in preparing the panel of candidates for the local election.
- They have not been able to find enough Labour Party members to stand in the elections. This has been a particularly severe problem this year in an all-out election situation where they have to find 99 candidates. They cannot even find enough women candidates to stand one for every ward.
- The candidate selections themselves have been fraught with coups, anger and mistakes. At least four wards were suspended over their selections.
- They haven't enough money to fight the elections and what money they have is being levied to fight the European elections which the region and Blair regard as more important.
- They are demoralised and have few activists to fight on the streets. This has been made worse by the their Regional Office (thanks again to my mole in Wakefield) suspending telephone canvassing because of possible legal problems over election expenditure. I understand the more legal-minded members of the Alliance for Green Socialism are watching this very carefully.
- Another measure is their lack of leadership. A number of Labour Party members have offered to help in the Alliance for Green Socialism election campaign and in some cases candidates have offered election deals. Although this may not be a reflection of New Labour's problems but of the relative strength of the AGS locally.
- They don't even have an election manifesto. The AGS has already distributed 300 copies of its draft manifesto for consultation with community and green groups throughout the city.
Some of their main policies are in crisis. For instance:
- They have cut the staff working on the new Leeds tram system back to 4 after having spent £40 million on the infrastructure. The Leeds Cabinet leadership show no signs of fighting for the government grant to make this important scheme go ahead. People are openly saying if Councillor Wakefield, the New Labour leader, can't swing this one how will he get anything out of Gordon Brown's treasury for Leeds
- They still have Ridsdale running their education system
- It is rumored they are running out of money for the SureStart schemes
- Many of the arms-length companies set up to run the council estates have not got the money for improvements. This drives them closer to privatisation.
This adds up to a severe crisis. It is of course a reflection of the national crisis of Blairism and of the financial costs of the invasion of Iraq. However unless socialists put their alternatives forward in these elections others will benefit from the crisis.
In order for green socialists to help the electorate they have to be very concrete, very specific. No abstractions or generalisations. If they are clear-headed they can win or least make substantial gains.
The danger of the British National Party comes from the failure of the mainstream parties to address the needs of poor, the marginalised and the petty bourgeoisie. This can only be met by a political challenge. Leafleting areas saying 'don't vote for the BNP' and then in effect inviting the voters to support the very parties they are protesting against is completely counterproductive.
Hilary Wainwright
Hilary Wainwright is a real human dynamo. Editor of Red Pepper and author of Reclaim the State: Experiments in Local Democracy (ISBN 1859846890), she managed to address two Alliance for Green Socialism events in the space of five days as well as speaking at other events. And she still hammers out her valuable research.
In London Hilary addressed the AGM of the AGS over the future organisational shape of the left and the lessons that can be learnt from the last few years. She went through the formation of the Socialist Labour Party, the Socialist Alliance and the formation of Respect. Her conclusion, like many on the left, was that we had not learned the lessons from the development of the Scottish Socialist Party. Hilary combined this analysis with the results of the research for her book in terms of the lessons from the development of community power in places such as Porto Alegre, East Manchester, Newcastle and Reading.
The AGS's AGM recorded an overall increase in the resources of the organisation and a number of important political initiatives. This included the organisation writing to all the United Nation members over the illegal invasion of Iraq. This played a role in preventing the UN from lining up with the invasion. The rest of the conference saw a number of sharp and important debates on Palestine, Iraq, Class and the development of the organisation. These were notable for the comradely and well thought out approaches. The first year of the Alliance for Green Socialism has not fulfilled all the hopes of those at the founding conference but it has managed to make its mark and has laid solid foundations for future growth.
Hilary returned to these lessons of the development of community power at the Chapel Allerton AGS meeting. Her observations started a lively discussion over the struggles that members of the branch had been involved in including the closure of Leopold Primary School and the attempt to open a Macdonald's next to the Scott Hall Sports Centre. There was general agreement that struggles in which the community was predominant should not simply be submerged in party political campaigning; however without a political dimension the Council and others in authority could wear down the community.
The Chapel Allerton AGS has continued with its tradition of working in the community with campaigns to keep Chapeltown Post Office open and to remove Ridsdale as Chair of Leeds Education.
Members and supporters leafleted outside Chapeltown Post Office. They received a very favourable response and a report with a photograph of some of them appeared in the Yorkshire Evening Post. The AGS clearly calls for the Post Office to be kept open, a demand that the New Labour's prospective councillors explicitly do not make. Instead they asked people to tell them what they think about the closure. New Labour has deliberately closed post offices throughout the UK in order to place more business in the hands of the already bloated banks. In the case of Chapeltown they are asking pensioners and others to walk over a mile to the nearest already overcrowded post office. The Post Office provided the only banking facility along Chapeltown Road. Its closure will effect all the businesses in the area. The AGS demands the Council to initiate a judicial review of the whole Post Office programme in Leeds.
The AGS members and friends also lobbied a Leeds City full Council meeting over Ridsdale's continuing presence as Chair of Education Leeds. This organisation runs all non-higher education in Leeds and is completely owned and controlled by the Council. Its management committee consists of two senior Council officials, two member of the discredited Capita company and Ridsdale. This sinister body was behind the closure of Leopold Primary School, the attempted closure of Potternewton Primary as well as the present attempt to close Royal Park Primary. The New Labour Council leadership finds it convenient for the unaccountable Education Leeds to do its dirty work for them. The lobby attracted some support from councillors across the political spectrum. However one rather stupid individual alleged that the alternative was for the government to run education in Leeds. This has not happened elsewhere and could only happen in Leeds if the Labour group let them. It also begs the question whether the government could do worse. The Alliance for Green Socialism is pledged to restore a proper democratic and open Education Committee for Leeds that can really serve the interests of the children and staff at the schools.
The Council's education policy and its support for Ridsdale will be a central issue in the all-out local election campaign in Leeds.
Garth Frankland promised the meeting more of these campaigns over the next few months. There was a groundswell of support for the polices of the AGS which will end New Labour's sorry reign in Leeds and give the AGS the resources to make a real impact.
Stan Cohen
Stan Cohen, a former right-wing Labour MP and trade union official, has just died in Leeds. Most of the broadsheets have carried rather formalistic obituaries of this eminently forgettable MP. Some briefly mention that he was deselected and replaced by Derek Fatchett who at the time was on the left of the Labour Party. Some even implied that the main role in the attacks on him came from the Militant Tendency. There is no doubt the General Management Committee of Leeds Central Constituency Labour Party contained some exceptionally talented members of Militant and they played an important role in trying to get Cohen to follow the democratic wishes of those who elected him. However the key role was played by the non-aligned left led by Nan Sloan. The last straw being Cohen's continuing opposition to abortion law reform. My good friend Garth Frankland introduced Fatchett to Sloan and the left. The rest is history. Sloan went on to become the right-wing full-time New Labour apparatchik for the Yorkshire and Humberside region. In fact she is even further to right than her illustrious predecessor, the legendary Witchfinder General Lady Gould of Potternewton.
The War, the Truth and You Conference
This was organised by Leeds Stop the War Coalition. Though attendance was well down on last year's conference the delegates were treated to some top-class contributions.
Liz Davies went through the various measures that Blunkett and the New Labour government had introduced to clamp down on our liberties since the terrorist attack on New York. These included further undermining of the right to trial by jury, the ability to lock foreigners up without trial, the withdrawal of legal support for asylum seekers and the unequal extradition treaty with the United States.
Sophie Hurndall, sister of the peace activist Tom Hurndall murdered by the Israeli defence force, gave a moving, factual and dispassionate account of her family's struggle to find justice. Tom Hurndall was a member of the International Solidarity Movement and was shot by a high-powered sniper rifle while trying to protect some young Palestinian children. Sophie was the lead item on Sunday evening's Calendar News in Yorkshire but the report opened with 'Jewish leaders outraged ...' etc, as comments made were considered anti-Israeli. The Leeds Stop the War Coalition is developing a sophisticated media response to deal with knee-jerk reactions from the Leeds right-wing Zionist gang.
The invasion in Parliament
During Prime Minister's Question Time, the day after the murderous explosions in Iraq, Charles Kennedy pressed Blair to acknowledge the comments by ex-prime minister John Major and two former foreign secretaries, who said the attorney general's legal advice on the Iraq war "should be published in full".
The Liberal Democrat's line was typically phased in fence-sitting parliamentary obscurantism. His line being that the failure to disclose the advice was "only going to encourage people not to believe what they are told".
Kennedy speculated: "Isn't the real danger ... that in the absence of this publication there will be a growing perception that perhaps the attorney general's advice was itself 'sexed up'?" Of course the real danger for the establishment is if the war was found to be illegal.
Blair said he did not agree. "For some people who have been opposed to the war, it really doesn't matter what happens .... they simply cannot get over the fact there's a legitimate disagreement about whether the judgement to go to war with Iraq was right."
Then attacking Kennedy, he added: "I'm surprised, frankly, that you should get to your feet today and not at least condemn what has happened in Iraq yesterday."
Whatever the views on the war, "surely the most important thing now is to rebuild that country in the interests of Iraq and the wider world", Blair said.
This is the lie that stands at the centre of the invasion. The war was fought for American oil reserves. The Americans are building huge permanent bases in Iraq. They have no intention of leaving and the British are staying with them.
Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have died as a direct result of the repeated invasions and economic sanctions led by the British and American governments. Hundreds are continuing to die each month. The invasion managed to achieve the impossible by making the evil dictator Saddam Hussein's supporters gain some limited support and to allow the Al Qaeda operatives into the country. Why doesn't that snivelling moral coward, Ann Clwyd, call Blair and Bush to account?
Some people have expressed surprise at the huge amounts of money it takes to buy the American presidency. However they do get Blair thrown in when they win.
Claire Short and the UN
Since the Second World War the Labour Party has supported the United Nations. It is has been a figleaf to hide behind in supporting the United States imperialists. The invasion of Iraq involved sidelining the United Nations. Smaller countries were bullied into line to support Bush and Blair. Those working for a peaceful solution to the crisis had to be defeated and this meant intelligence was crucial. Blair's refusal to answer the allegations that British Intelligence spied on the United Nations is an admission of guilt and an attack on international law.
The United Nations is an imperfect and in many ways a corrupt organisation; however it is the only one. Blair has deliberately chosen to undermine and wreck it. And what is alternative? To do what Bush asks him to do.
Again the key political point is not being spelt out in the UK media. Instead of defending the United Nations Blair has authorised attacking it. Does this make the world safer or more dangerous?
And along comes Claire Short to confirm that Blair did have the United Nations bugged. So does the Parliamentary Labour Party or the New Labour Executive call for an investigation into the claims? Of course not; the attack is focussed on Short for being disloyal.
In a future Umbrella I will be going through Clare Short's history, covering her life in Birmingham and Chapeltown, her relationship with Alex Lyon and Andy Moss her deceased husbands, her metaphorical knifing of Liz Davies at the Labour Party Conference, her role as Minister of International Development. I would welcome further information to be added to my already extensive collection of anecdotes for a potted biography (email mailto:info@greensocialist.org ).
Norma Hutchinson
It would be amiss for this column not to record the sad death at the early age of 55 from cancer of Chapel Allerton Councillor Norma Hutchinson. Norma, a former shop steward in the Health Service, was a proud trade unionist all her life. She fought for her members and for her voters when elected. Sometimes she seemed to be too respectful of the powers that be at the Leeds Civic Hall, but when she believed that something was wrong she took them on.
One of Norma's main political achievements was to break down the barriers between Chapeltown police station and the black population in Chapeltown. She fought tough battles on both sides of the divide. With the help of a brilliant set of community police officers, including Sam Warmington, Kevin Spencer and above all Spike, she achieved a common sense of purpose between the community and the police. Her work did not just involve meetings but stretched to patrolling the streets with her friends during nights of crisis.
During the huge political battles in North East Labour Party over its parliamentary selection she totally backed Liz Davies. And she continued to help her left-wing friends and to discuss with them despite spiteful and small-minded pressure from New Labour hacks to distance herself.
When members of the community were ill or in hospital they could guarantee a visit from Norma. But she didn't just visit but often spent many hours and days bringing comfort and support. This was reciprocated through her illness where it was often impossible to get into her room because of the number of visitors.
As her old friend Garth Frankland commented: "We will all miss Norma's wicked laugh and her positive take on life. Her successes in the community will honour her memory. She helped me on numerous occasions in work in the community.
"But Norma was more than a councillor or trade unionists, she was a warm human being who always went the extra mile (and often two) to help someone. She particularly loved children as can be seen from her enormous number of godchildren.
I will always remember her."
-- Half-Celestial Khan
