http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/content/towerhamlets/advertiser/postbag/story.aspx?brand=ELAOnline&category=postbag&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=postbagela&itemid=WeED09%20May%202008%2018%3A02%3A52%3A350

WHAT WENT WRONG FOR THE LEFT

ela.editorial@archant.co.uk

09 May 2008

BY JOHN REES

THE election of Boris Johnson as Mayor and
election of the BNP to the London Assembly will mark a turning point in
the history of New Labour.

This is a crisis of New Labour's own making. The relentless Blairite
strategy of chasing 'Tory swing' voters has meant that for 10 years in
office New Labour has been turning its back on its core voters.

The list of disappointments is almost endless: the Iraq war, widening gap
between rich and poor, marginalization of the trade unions, unacceptable
level of child poverty, privatization, failure to restore student grants,
failure to restore the link between pensions and earnings, abolishing the
10p tax band...

Ken Livingstone got his best result for Mayor when he ran as an
independent against New Labour's Frank Dobson in 2000. His vote went down
when he rejoined New Labour and ran as their candidate in 2004.

In last week's election, he moved closer than ever to the Blair-Brown
axis, and has endorsed the pro-business agenda for London. And he lost.

Part of the problem is that Livingstone's response to the rising
unpopularity of New Labour was to try and create an all-party bloc
stretching from Blair and Brown on the one hand to the Greens and George
Galloway on the other.

But this failed to do the one thing that could have begun to rebuild
traditional Labour voters' confidence. It failed to directly argue
against New Labour's pro-business, privatization policies.

Not only did this damage the vote for Livingstone, it damaged those who
traded support for Livingstone for his patronage.

The Greens received huge publicity and Livingstone's explicit backing.
But their vote barely changed since the last election.

Galloway got much less from Livingstone and his vote declined sharply.

The Left List vote was low and suffered from the general shift to the
Right and the lack of time needed to establish and name and profile
distinct from the 'old' Respect.

What is necessary now is for the Left to establish a clear profile
independent of Labour.

There is a ready audience in the Labour movement for this argument. The
400,000 who demonstrated and went on strike in the action by teachers,
civil servants and lecturers on April 24 shows how deep-seated the
contradiction between the Government and its natural supporters has
become.

The 100,000 who attended the 'Love Music Hate Racism' carnival in
Victoria Park the Sunday before the election shows how deep the
opposition to the Nazi ideology of the BNP is, despite the rise in their
vote.

In these springs of resistance, we can find the strength to build a Left
better than New Labour.

John Rees
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