Tendance Coatesy

People’s Choice for European President.

So it goes.

Blair for this.

Blair for that.

Blair’s like a cat that’s got the cream.

It is hard to imagine anyone who has done nothing at all for Europe except smirk is now, trying to be, well we know what.

Le Monde carries the news today that Blair faces competition for the post of European President (here). Jean-Claude Juncker, of Luxembourg, the plucky chap, is entering into the race. He is described as a David standing up to Goliath (shouldn’t that be Godzilla?) Blair.

Jean-Claude (as I call him) sounds a bit of a lad. Or an utter bastard to be frank. I once met the Luxembourg left. He was at a meeting in Paris. The country does not seem a workers’ paradise.

No matter.

Jean-Claude it is, and Jean-Claude it must be.

(*) I claim to have invented this pun btw. I made it back in 1996.

While the British Left is absorbed in a debate about whether to ‘No-Platform’ the BNP the French ‘left of the left’  is taking steps towards a political challenge. That is to ecocapitalists, social liberals, and the right. No prizes for guessing which more-to-the-centre parties the first two bits of jargon refer to. The occasion? Next year’s Regional elections (under decentralisation, the stake is a large amount of local government responsibility).  It would be good if we had this alternative. Rather more productive than discussing how horrible Nick Griffin and his policies are. Indeed it hard to imagine anyone in France even thinking about a strategy of denying the (declining) Front National space in the public media. Were the left in the UK serious we would spend some time looking at the Front de Gauche. Its strategy of successfully aligning separate left parties, and independent currents has something to say to our own fragmented left.

“Le PCF, fort de l’expérience positive du Front de gauche pour les élections souhaite contribuer à la formation d’un front de gauche élargi, ouverts à des forces nouvelles, à des personnalités, à des militants du monde syndical associatif travaillant autour de projets régionaux bien ancrés à gauche. (Here)

The PCF, strong following the positive experience of the Front de Gauche for the European elections (where they won seats for the European Parliament) supports creating a wider Left Front, with new forces, ‘personalities’, trade unionists, social movement activists, to work together on projects for the regional elections that are solidly anchored on the left.

This, involving the PCF, the Parti de Gauche (left wing democratic socialists), ex-NGA supporters and other left currents (alternatives, left republicans),  will be independent of the Parti Socialiste and the Greens. It would stand lists on own for the first round of the elections. However, negotiations with the Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste (NPA)  have been less fruitful. The PCF would welcome their co-operation,

Le NPA aurait sa place dans ce mouvement, mais de la même manière qu’aux élections européennes, la formation d’Olivier Besancenot se refuse à prendre sa place dans des majorités de gauche dès lors que le PS y participerait.La semaine dernière, alors que Jean-Luc Mélenchon venait de déclarer qu’un accord était proche, la direction du NPA durcissait le ton sur le thème des « deux gauches inconciliables ».

The NPA will have its place in this movement but, showing the same behaviour as they did during the European elections, Olivier Besancenot’s Party has refused (in advance) to join with any left majority administration as soon as the Parti Socialiste is involved. Last week when Jean-Luc Mélenchon (Parti de Gauche) claimed agreement was close the NPA began to harden its line around the theme of the ‘two irreconcilable lefts’.

The sticking point remains the issue of alliances behind the Socialist Party (or Greens) in the second round of elections. For the NPA it is unthinkable that any backing could be formally given to the these parties. The reason? This would be negotiated by the Front de Gauche as a precondition for joining with them in local government. Which would imply more than blocking the route to the Right; it means co-operation with their policies. Or, as the Front would argue, putting more pressure on them to change them.

The Gauche Unitaire (ex-NPA) states (here) that a debate on this legitimate,

 Un débat est ouvert, au sein de la gauche de gauche, à  propos de la participation aux exécutifs des régions avec le Parti socialiste et Régions écologie. Ce débat a sa légitimité. Il n’en fait pas moins l’objet, depuis longtemps, d’échanges multiples. Il ne saurait, pour cette raison, constituer un préalable conditionnant la formation de listes unitaires de premier tour.

A debate is open, inside the left of the left, regarding participation with the Parti Socialiste and Ecologists,  in regional council executive.  This is a legitimate debate. However, despite this, acceptance of such participation should not constitute a condition for forming joint-lists in the first round of elections.

I would have thought that the issue is not really a question of fixed principle, but whether the Parti Socialiste and the Verts (Greens) have policies – in the Regional Government context – which make them beyond the pale for the left. It seems doubtful that they do have any. The relatively modest programmes they do have (a kind of  watered down version of municipal socialism with a green tinge), and the fact that they are mainly interested in sustaining the full-time political (paid) layer that dominates both parties (in the Verts over one third – 2,000 out of 5,000 -  of its real membership!) make one wary of them. What do you think of parties where the widely circulated  joke on their activists is they can be divided into two groups: those making a living out of politics, and those who’d like to. But does that mean refusing all co-operation? Before you’ve even had good enough electoral results to be asked?

A rather pleasanter dilemma than the one we face here. At least.

Judge of Legitimate Political Parties?

The Weekly Worker has published (here) some analysis on the emergence of the Rees Faction in the SWP. It’s called the Left Platform.

I just note this claim. That is, in Rees and mates’ initial public declaration of dissidence. The Defend the No-Platform Resolution (there’s a joke in there somewhere but I can’t see it yet),

5. The BNP will not be beaten by ‘clever’ debates. What they want is legitimacy. If we appear with them, even if we win the argument, we lose the real battle because we add to their legitimacy. The principle at stake here is that the BNP should not be regarded as a legitimate bourgeois party.

Since when does the SWP, or a small group of it, have the responsibility of deciding what is, and what is not, a ‘legitimate bourgeois political party’?

German Anti-Fascists Now Face State As Well as NPD.

In Taz today there is a report that the new German FDP-CSU/SDU Coalition plans a crackdown on all kinds of ‘extremism’. That is, far-right, Islamist, and far-left. Or, to put it bluntly, concerning the latter category, militant opponents of the German neo-Nazis.

“Die Koalition will das bisherige Programm gegen Rechtsradikalismus auch zum Kampf gegen Linke und Islamisten nutzen. Aktivisten gegen rechts sind entsetzt.”

The Coaliton will extend the implementation of existing policy against right ‘radicals’ against leftists and Islamists. Anti-fascists are enraged. 

In practical terms this measure will be directed largely to extending records of far-right violence to the violence of Islamists and the far-left (???). In effect, downplaying neo-Nazi racist aggression. But its significance is rather greater.  

The importance of this is simple. It illustrates how the term extremist can slide easily across the political spectrum. It opens the way for restrictions. It shows how state measures to deal with unwelcome political organisations have a habit of being broadened. By the will of who’s in power.

Those calling for a state ban on the BNP, rooting out its members from jobs, and suppressing their rights, take note.

Tendance Coatesy has always had a soft spot for Ian Bone. Anyone who feels for the repression of Kronstadt as if it were yesterday cannot be all wrong. We have the same attitude to the Fall of Ur (BC, 1940).

But disturbing news comes to  us. After the formation of the ‘real SWP’ faction (here) the fashion for lefty bust-ups appears to have reached the erstwhile comrades of Class War.

It began, apparently, with Ian becoming a supporter of Animal Rights. Then it was Veganism. From whence to pacifism and Buddhism. Now he is said to be working for Demos on the Progressive Conservatism project. His hand can be seen in the paper, “Democracy, Community, Neighbourhoods & Power”. This argues “that the best way to kick start democracy is to drive control down to town halls, neighbourhoods, and individuals.”

Ian is said to  have linked up with the SWP’s  John Rees. Rees has worked closely with ultra-conservatvives such as George Galloway and  the Jamaat-I-Islami. He has many lessons from that experience.

Meanwhile died-hard Class War supporters are planning to picket the Anarchist Book-Fair where Demos has booked a stall.

Poitiers. Saturday afternoon, around  250  people, according to the police, took over the centre of the town. Declaring they were a ”collectif anticarcéral” (collective anti-Prisons), masked and hooded, they broke about a dozen shop windows, bus shelters and telephone boxes. There were 18 arrests of which 8 were  immediately judged (by special sped-up procedures). They received two months (suspended)  to four months prison. Weapons and explosive caches have been found (Report - in English here).  

The action was in protest at the opening of a new Prison.

The police have announced that they have been following the organisation of this protest – through Web networking sites (and no doubt infiltration). The Mayor of Poiters has protested at not been informed of their prior knowledge.

The Minsiter of Interior, Brice Hortefeux, has declared war on the ‘ultra-left’. French security agencies have, for some time,  predicted that this kind of event would take place. There are demands for the autonomist left to be banned. (more here)

Note: The French prison system is one of the worst, and harshest, in Europe.  
 

Socialists? Nein Danke!

The German media are full of this today. In Saarland the Greens are forming a ‘Jamaican coalition’ (Green, Black, Yellow) with the right-wing CDU and the free-market FDP. Die Tageszeitung reports that a cause is the claims of Die Linke leader, Oskar Lafontaine, to the fruits of Victory (here). The Greens defend their decision, arguing that they never promised to co-operate with the left (who are the largest bloc). From the SPD’s National leadership Andrea Nahles the fault lies with Die Linke,

 ”Absicht oder nicht: Lafontaine agiert als Steigbügelhalter für einen abgehalfterten Ministerpräsidenten”, sagte Nahles der Berliner Zeitung.

Intentionally or not Lafontaine acts as if he is the given victor of the election, and due the Presidency (of the region).

By contrast, from Saarland itself,   SPDer Heiko Maas has thrown the blame on the Greens, 

 ”Wendehälsen der CDU  CDU  und der FDP einen Pakt gegen die strukturelle Mehrheit der Wähler geschmiedet” zu haben.

The Green’s turnaround with the CDU and the FDP goes against the structural majority that was forged by the elections. 

Die Linke received 21,3% of the vote in the region during the recent German General Election. Lafontaine is Fraktionsvorsitzenden (Chair) of the Linke’s group in the  SaarlandLandtag.

2009 Results:

The Duty of Every Revolutionary is to Defend the Soviet Union.

The Workers’ World Party, the Morning Star, the Party of Socialism and Liberation, George Galloway’s Green Shorts, and Socialist Unity, have been discussing joint-action. Internationally. That at least is the message we hear. As part of this on-going merger initiative study-groups have been organised.

The below is an extract from a verbatim account (leaked to TC)  of one such meeting. On The Socialist Sixth of the World. Hewlett Johnson (Fred Kite collection).

Introduction (Ydna Wennam).

Today is the anniversary of the publication of The Socialist Sixth of World (Second Edition, 1939). For generations this book has inspired socialists. For all its faults, and Hewett’s  account here is a little too over-optimistic; but is a useful reminder that for the majority of its citizens the Soviet Union was a society that basically worked. There mass popular participation in the organisations helped in sustaining the society. To those who talk of labour camps and GPU, NKVD, or GUGB, these bodies and their operations were actually quite popular,  at   least as far as one can tell from their  enthusiastic  endorsements at Party conferences and public rallies. There was political repression, but you need to look at what actually happened, rather than assuming some Orwellian template. The groups who were liable to be persecuted were anti-social semi-criminal people; and those who courted political (and sadly sometime just social) links with the West. Let us not forget that the Soviets were encircled by hostile powers. Or that some groups openly encouraged the ‘overthrow’ of socialist power. There were widespread reports of wrecking and illegal factional activity. We can all accept constructive reservations.  But the opposition to the Soviets seems to be towards any attempt to even understand the USSR, or to acknowledge the degree to which it deviated from the Western propaganda stereotype.

Johnson came from a religious background – like many comrades in the fast-growing Respect Party. Yet he recognised that  the Soviet Union’s official atheism allowed full scope for private belief – if kept well  and truly to oneself. In fact the regime was “Christian in spirit”. A society in which “Love is the fulfilling of the Law” (page 368) Nor was he uncritical. “The order of Soviet Union is far from perfect” he noted, “Naturally the new order lies open to criticism in a hundred minor points.”(Page 87)

The material achievements of the Soviet Union were already apparent in the 1930s when Johnson wrote. He cites the growth in the agricultural production: the sugar-beet harvest alone is to show a further increase of 37.2% - as the five year plan products. “The sale of soap in the Soviet Union has increased many dozenfold since 1913.” (Page 212). Tea-leaf output is to be increased by 1939 to 3 million!  In an amazing anticipation of modern green thinking the author states that “Home grown food saves transport” (page 159) Rippling corn fields, and ballet in the evening!

We cannot recommend this book too highly – for all the comments one may one have about its details. Its message is clear. Who could not inspired by these lines? “Dawn breaks over the east. And in that fresh dawn men see the promise of a new world, nor a perfect world, and not a Utopian world, but at least a  world freed from poverty and explotiation…a world where mankind, realised at last from much that binds it to the earth, may find within itself a nobler and more enduring goodness and beauty.”(Page 384)

I pause for a moment to let this sink in.

Nor did this progress leave everyday life unaffected. The USSR , regarding personal sexual relationships, and respect for women as being the equals of men, then the Soviet Union was a surprisingly innovative and successful society. Stalin’s closest comrades, such as Beria, gave women many opportunities. And can I say that the Party General Secretary was a good dancer, a superb one, unlike Churchill…

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There’s a Place for You in the Front de Gauche!

Christian Picquet  is a former Ligue Communist Révolutionnaire leading figure. He fought for a distinct set  of politics in the Nouveau Parti Anti-Capitaliste, before, with his tendency, resigning just before this year’s Euro-Elections. He is now of the independent Gauche Unitaire (GU). The GU, with the French Communist Party (PCF) and the Parti de Gauche (PG), have this month established a long-term co-ordinating committee. They urge the left of the French Parti Socialiste to combine, not just for next year’s municipal elections, but for mass action, to defend social rights and workers’ interests, against President Sarkozy.

In the PCF’s  L’Humanité this week here Picquet comments of his former organisation,

“Le NPA doit prendre acte de l’échec de son projet initial d’être la force hégémonique à la gauche du PS. Quand Olivier Besancenot déclare que la gauche est menacée d’un désastre à l’italienne, cela devrait le conduire à renoncer aux replis boutiquiers pour s’insérer dans la coalition la plus large possible, respectueuse de l’apport de chacun.”

The NPA should take stock of the failure of its initial project – to be the hegemonic force on the left of the Parti Socialiste. Olivier Besnancenot has announced that the left is threatened with an Italian-style disaster. This should mean that instead of shoring up his own group’s interests, he should get involved with the broadest possible alliance, one that respects everybody’s contribution.

The background is clear. On the one hand the Socialist Party has been sucked into a vortex of its own making. Unable to decide whether it will be an openly pro-market liberal party or a reformist one, its life is overshadowed by personality clashes. Rather than end this in-fighting itself,  it has found a novel way out. It has decided (by direct membership vote) to select its future Presidential candidate by ‘open primaries’. Instead of an internal duel, between Aubry and Royal, there’ll be a public battle – open to all-comers. But this means that instead of the membership of the PS, its activist core, the self-declared public sympathisers will decide a crucial aspect of its political strategy. This means even more of rule of the media-telegenic, and financially well-supported. In short, the reign of opinion-poll politics over democratic deliberation over programmes and strategies.

On the other hand, the feeble mobilisations of public opinion – on the streets and the enterprises – against Sarkozy, accelerate this process. Who has even heard of the latest wave of Union (token) protests? The result is that there are indeed pressures in French politics for the official left to concentrate ont he centre-ground. And to go the way of the pathetically impotent Italian Democratic Party, unable to challenge the brutal domination of the Right.

The Front de Gauche is a deep alliance of three principal forces - left Socialist, Communist, and Far-left . They offer a challenge to this process. It corresponds to the politics of Die Linke and the Bloco de Esquerda.  Whose rise has been widely noted on the French left. It remains to be seen if the NPA will listen (more details of how the NPA is reacting, with great difficulty,  to unitary pressure here).

Labour’s Flagship.

The Sun no longer behind him, Brown still has his flagship policies to save the Labour Party.

Hah!

Last week I was in the pub with the local Labour Party delegate to the Brighton Conference. His view was that the stage-front of the Conferences of today, with no votes on anything important, did not matter. The Government ignored them in the past, so why bother? Behind the scenes stuff, and the ‘policy-making’ forums, had at least some role. His goal, modest in the extreme, was to have a word in the ear of Ed Balls. About an alternative to a planned Academy take-over in Felixstowe. Which just about sums up life as a humble petitioner in the Court of Brown.

Didn’t Mandy do well? No he didn’t. Anyone can make fun of their own faults. Particularly when you’ve got as many as he has.  Didn’t Brown rouse them? No he didn’t. He trolled through a boring list of boring lists. The thinning ranks of the faithful would swoon over the ten-times table to stop them contemplating the Government’s failures.

What do we have? The Guardian cites three axes of Brown’s polices.

• Appealing to Middle Britain’s angry and struggling families with various poll-driven policies aimed at swing voters, including greater powers to curb 24-hour drinking, reforms of tax relief to give the parents of 250,000 two-year-olds free childcare for the first time, and the creation of a network of “supervised homes” for all 16 and 17-year-old parents who receive benefits.

Apart from the promise of free-child care (a promise unlikely ever to be  fulfiled) more ineffectual work for interfering busy-bodies.

• Showing how the government will be prudent with the public finances by pledging to put the government’s deficit reduction plans on a statutory footing.

See “unlikely to be fulfilled” above.

• Reaching out to disillusioned Labour voters, who may have been tempted to defect to the Liberal Democrats or even the Tories, by pledging that ID cards would not be compulsory.

This is so going to make me vote Labour….

So it’s still full throttle on Welfare ‘Reform’ (now with young mums forced into ‘homes’), pumping loads of cash into para-state private companies, privatising parts of the NHS, PFI schemes, low pay for the public sector, and, well the rest. Including wars. Brown has left all the mechanisms in place for a Tory Cabinet to accelerate the transfer of public revenue into private hands. In short, the Market State.

You can already see a gaggle of outsourcing companies queuing up next week  to get in Cameron’s good grace, the ‘voluntary sector’ gearing up to implement Workfare, and ..hop… here comes the Sun.

Is there anything to say other than, yuck?

A few. Electoral scores of the German Die Linke, and the Bloco de Esquerda in Portugal, are encouraging for the European Left. That is, the non Social Liberal, Market-State left. They indicate that a  strategey of radical reform programmes can have an appeal in the ballot box. That broad parties (or alliances), anchored in democratic socialism, pluralist internally and rooted in the labour movement, can be political players. And that less inclusive, narrower, initiatives (such as the NPA in France) have become a problem when they refuse to stand with others (as proposed in France by the Communist Party and Left Party). Finally, that the left does not need to hide its colours and attempt to cash in on the vogue for green politics (ultimately a road to the centre): it can stand on its own merits.

Or would if we had anything resembling this here.