The Left failed to capitalize on the economic crisis
We fluffed it, boys and girls. It has been obvious for some time that a fundamental crisis of social democracy was brewing, and that this was going to be deeper than ever before, and that nothing the left could do – even if it was so deranged as to want this – could rescue it
By Richard Seymour on Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 - 802 words.
I just want to summarise what is already known about the election results and put it into some shape and perspective. The worst, first. The BNP gained two MEPs, Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons, worth 120 139 and 132 094 votes respectively. [Figures at UAF]. Across the country, they averaged 6.2% of the vote according to the BBC’s figures, and gained a total of 943 000 votes. I see that this confirms the UAF’s pre-election analysis [pdf], which disputed the complacent tendency among some liberals to play down the BNP’s prospects. There is still a fight to be had over whether these votes translate into long-term party identity or whether they amount to a temporary right-wing protest vote. But whatever the basis of the vote, that number of votes for a fascist party has to be treated as a menace and the basis for urgent organisation and rethinking.
Secondly, and relatedly, Labour’s electoral annihilation has overwhelmingly benefited the right. The surprisingly strong votes for No2EU (born yesterday, as it were) and the Socialist Labour Party (no campaign, no profile) suggests that it didn’t have to be this way. Their combined vote nationally was just over 2%, or about 300 000 votes. Had there been a united left alternative, with a real campaign, I am willing to bet it would have been capable of drawing three times that number of votes. The Greens saw their overall vote increase by 2.4% to 8.7%, just over a million votes. Otherwise, people shifted their votes from Labour to other reformist alternatives such as the SNP. Many, many people were obviously desperate to vote for some kind of left alternative, if only to really stick it to the New Labour machine. Nonetheless, it’s true that across Europe the right made sweeping gains, despite some very good results for radical left candidates. This meltdown of social democracy is not just a British phenomenon, although the utter cravenness of New Labour has probably advanced the degeneration much more rapidly in the UK. There is some talk in the comment pieces suggesting that the very odd distribution of votes and the powerful showing by UKIP make it unlikely that such patterns will be reproduced in a general election. Perhaps not, but who can now be sure that the assumptions about general elections that worked in the past will continue to be operative a few months hence?
Thirdly, of course, while social democracy is disintegrating, this doesn’t automatically rebound to the benefit of the right. In fact, those who think that the best response to such a crisis is to try to save social democracy and bolster its left-flank have some explaining to do. The UK results plainly show that even if the field is more less left open for New Labour, with only marginal challenges from the left, it still loses big time and the right-wing makes gains. The contrast between the UK and Ireland is striking. There, the Socialist Party made a breakthrough, sending Joe Higgins to Brussels by ousting the Fianna Fail MEP. In the council elections, the SP gained six seats and People Before Profit gained five. The ruling Fianna Fail-Green coalition was hammered for its attacks on workers and its decision to re-run the EU Treaty referendum until it obtained the result it wanted. Similarly, in Portugal the Left Bloc got 10% of the vote and the communist-green coalition also received 10%. In France, the combined vote for the Greens and the radical left was about 28%. In all of these places, the major reformist parties had treated their core voters like sandbags to be tossed overboard the better to ascend to loftier heights. As a result, they shed votes in abundance. But the political significance of the elections is very different from that in the UK.
We fluffed it, boys and girls. It has been obvious for some time that a fundamental crisis of social democracy was brewing, and that this was going to be deeper than ever before, and that nothing the left could do – even if it was so deranged as to want this – could rescue it. We watched a yawning political vacuum open up and, due to our shibboleths, totems and taboos, our inward-lookingness, our traditions of feuding, and many other flaws, we failed to fill it. Elections are not the be all and end all, and ultimately what will matter far more than such votes will be what we do between elections. But this was one important way for us to assert ourselves in this crisis, and we handed the initiative to everyone but the radical left. I am not saying we should hammer ourselves over the head repeatedly with such facts, but I think it would be healthy to begin by acknowledging them and resolving never to let that happen again.
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Damn right Joe Higgins is an MEP! The Socialist Party of England and Wales did through their weight behind No2EU. This could be the new worker's party we have been waiting for, an alliance of socialist parties and trade unions.
Checkout more about Joe Higgins win here:
http://socialistworld.net/eng/2009/06/0804.html
There is a hint of content in this article when conveying the disintegration of social democracy. As long as the void is capitalized by the radical left then all is well.