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Convention of the Left: an excellent opportunity

The Convention of the Left (CoL) that took place in Manchester this week brought together more than 300 militants, trade unionists and socialists from many organisations and from none. It was a remarkably successful event reports Stuart King.

Like many others from outside Manchester I was only able to attend the weekend session of the CoL (it carried on until Wednesday). Thousands had attended the Stop the War demonstration in Manchester on the Saturday, which marched past the fortress that was the Labour Party conference, calling for troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq.
 

Inspired idea

Holding the Convention of the Left alongside the LP conference turned out to be an inspired idea. It allowed many of the Labour left, delegates and MPs, to participate in an almost unique discussion and debate with the left outside the party. The meeting also happened to take place in the middle of the most serious financial crisis for decades, an event that gave the gathering an added urgency. The point was made again and again that the costs of this crisis, of the bailing out of the bankers and the rich, would inevitably fall on the working class – in rising taxes and cuts in public services.

The meeting was also being held after a traumatic period for the British left – a period that has seen attempts to set up militant socialist alternatives to New Labour end in splits, collapse and recrimination. In its limited aims of bringing the British left, in and outside the Labour Party, together to start a discussion of the problems that face us, the CoL was an undoubted success. The organisers in Manchester should be congratulated both for their initiative and hard work.
 

From the bottom up

The sessions broke new ground in virtually doing away with “top table” speakers. Those of us used to platforms laden with worthies and self appointed “leaders” droning on for hours were pleasantly surprised to find the exact opposite. Sessions were virtually handed over to the audience, a method that allowed a real interchange of views between the invited speakers, who spoke briefly from the floor, and the meeting itself. The result was a very productive exchange of ideas.

Just to pick out some highlights. There was an interesting debate between leaders of the Labour Party left in parliament and those who wanted to break from Labour – a discussion that involved the usefulness or otherwise of the trade union link, how disaffiliation effected unions like the RMT and FBU and the possibilities or impossibilities of changing the LP. In another session leading members of the FBU, RMT, PCS engaged in a discussion with rank and file militants over the problems of getting a new party, on how to rebuild trade unions strength, and where the priorities of struggle should be in the next period – fighting the pay freeze, struggling against fuel poverty or against evictions of mortgage defaulters?
 

Women's movement

There was a lively 90 minute discussion of the state of the women’s movement, involving the National Assembly of Women, Feminist Fightback, the Abortion Rights campaign and a even female Labour MP defending Labour’s record on fighting for women’s equality. It was a meeting run by women and overwhelmingly dominated by women speakers – surely a first on the left for some considerable time.

And all these debates were conducted in a comradely fashion – the time allowed for floor speakers tested peoples arguments, made people think, and informed us all of the different campaigns and discussion forums going on all over the country. Many trade unionists took back this information and promised to raise, for example, threats of deportations in their own relevant unions. 

 

Chastened left

There was certainly, I felt, a sense of a “chastened left” in Manchester last weekend. A realisation, perhaps, that what had happened to the SLP. SSP. Socialist Alliance, Respect, Left List, Left Alternative, was our responsibility. That collectively we had failed, squandered an opportunity to build an alternative to a neoliberal Labour government – a failure for which the working class would suffer for some time to come.

This sense of having to rethink how we work and how we act together wasn’t limited to the far left, but was also evident in the Labour left, the LRC, after the failure even to get John McDonnell on the ballot paper in last year’s leadership election. While this rethinking didn’t extend to everyone – Lindsey German responded to a challenge from Tariq Ali to learn from our recent failures with a predictable “we shouldn’t look back but move forward”, a sort of Fordist “History is bunk” position” – it certainly was there amongst many of the delegates.

 

Where do we go from here?

As you would expect in such a meeting there were a variety of views as to where we should go next and how we should take the struggle forward. There were some who criticised the organising committee for not organising a fully-fledged conference with voted on resolutions, amendments and agreed detailed positions. Others felt the “statement of intent”, adopted with three abstentions and none against on Sunday, was too limited and left out important demands.
 
But as the organisers said, this was the start not the end of a process. A recall convention is already planned for 29th November, how it takes the process forward is up to us – those who support and are active in this initiative.

What was agreed was to go back to our localities and try to build local Conventions of the Left or forums – not to build something separate or extra to existing campaigns, but to try and join them to local struggles and campaigns. If we can make such bodies centres of discussion of policy, coordination and action, we can strengthen our movement and at the same time clarify our ideas. If the left can do this together, without placing the building of our own organisations and fronts above that of the interests of the working class and its struggles, then we will start to rebuild trust on the socialist left and perhaps make a contribution to the organisational and political unity that has eluded us in the last period. 

Can the Convention of the Left mark a new beginning after years of retreat and shrinking of the left? It’s in our hands.

Mon 22, September 2008 @ 22:56

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discussion of this article

PR webby said…

There is a further report from the Cardiff radical socialist forum here

http://cardiffpr.wordpress.com/

Mon 22, September 2008 @ 22:59

bill j said…

Another interesting thing happened yesterday. At the beginning of the process back in March, the organising group suggested that we hold a meeting on anti-fascism and that we invite Weyman Bennett to address it.

If my memory serves me, I think it was actually me that made the original suggestion - although it was then taken up and agreed by everyone, including various SWP contributors.

Weyman was not contacted for a couple of months, as it was still early days, but so keen were the SWP to have him participate that they re-raised it, the original decision was reaffirmed and Weyman was confirmed as a speaker at our anti-fascism meeting.

Yesterday it was revealed that after having accepted our invitation, and after we had publicised the meeting widely, Weyman Bennett and UAF had arranged *another* separate meeting, at exactly the same time, but in a different place.

UAF’s excuse was that the *always* have a meeting at 6.00pm on the Monday evening of Labour Party conference.

So embarrassed were local SWP UAFers that they did make Weyman briefly attend the COTL meeting, before running off.

Unity anyone?

Tue 23, September 2008 @ 11:01

Joseph Kisolo said…

Weird - This must be a post from the future as the convention hasn't finished yet!?

Tue 23, September 2008 @ 11:17

Jason said…

Indeed, Joseph, the Convention has not finished yet but if you read carefully it did say that the writer could only attend the weekend. Admittedly, the tense in the 2nd sentence ('it carried on to Wednesday') perhaps feels odd on only Tuesday but anticipates that many will read this article after that time!

In general I agree with Stuart- mildly optimistic, it's in our hands and a succcess so far. I too was only able to attend part of it due to my partner returning from three months trip but what I have attended seemed good. One session I spoke at on campaigning against immigration controls agreed- perhaps not formally but from the applause and enthusiasm- for joint demonstrations of idfferent campaigns, for direct action against organisations such as reporting centres, detention centres, the IOM (International Office of Migration) who 'assist'- pressurise- immigrants into 'voluntary' return- co-operating with the Home Office who make benefits dependent on such 'volunteering'.

The event- so far!- has suggested it is possible to begin to build unity on the left and amongst the campaigns.

Tue 23, September 2008 @ 17:02

Pete McLaren said…

I broadly agree with Stuart and Mick having also been there on Sunday. I think the CoL should be seen as a continuation of the process of re-uniting the left which begun at the CNWP Open Forum before its Conference in June when leading members of Respect, the LRC and the CNWP, along with trade union leaders, called for the building of a new left party. This process continued with the Left Unity meeting initiated by the SA on July 5 when, as comrades will recall, 12 different socialist unity projects and left green/left organisations, including all the main players, met together and decided to look at their own positions on cooperation and unity with other groups, and to discuss forming a left liaison committee at the follow up meeting called for October 11th.

My only concern about the CoL is whether it will actually further cement what has been developing over the summer, as it should, or whether it will not really commit anyone to help build the socialist alternative. The Statement of Intent, though thoroughly supportable, does not in my view go far enough - I think we have moved on from 'left forums' in a handful of areas - but the Convention is not yet over, and I would urge those who can do so to attend the final session tomorrow at 6.30pm (Friends Meeting House) aptly entitled 'Question Time for the Left' to argue, as I intend to do, for more concrete proposals to go forward which will help build that new left party.

In unity

Pete

Tue 23, September 2008 @ 21:39

Mark Hoskisson said…

Congratulations to the organisers of the Convention. Good debate, democratic, comradely and a world apart from the Labour Party conference.

The Convention is discussing how we can build unity in the fight against the onslaught on wages, services, democratic rights that all come with the crisis capitalism faces, not to mention the wretched imperialist wars against the people of Iraq, Afghanistan and so on. The Labour Party conference is discussing how it can preserve unity around the government carrying out the attacks on behalf of capitalism and bombing the civilians of Iraq.

I know which conference I was proud to attend even if only at the weekend because of work!

Excellent smaller sessions at the Convention too. The trade union international solidarity meeting heard a brother from Colombia and sister from Iraq give optimistic reports on how workers are organising in the teeth of both death squads and occupying armies. Inspiring stuff.

On the question of left unity at one level I think Pete is right to say that perhaps we have got beyond the question of local forums. Sections of the left have. And if the forums the Convention is calling for are just seen as forums for the left I am not convinced they will be a going concern for very long.

But the whole point of the debates at the Convention was that such forums cannot and must not be just for the existing left. They have to be a means of getting past a discussion of uniting the existing left. They have to be a means of building a new left, involving forces who will place new questions, issues, campaigns and ideas on the table. That is not the central feature, in my opinion, of the process that is taking place in the various discussions and meetings Pete listed. They are discussing unity amongst existing bits of the left. I am not convinced how much of an impact such a unity would have, nor am I convinced it is a unity that would last any longer than the other attempts over the past decade.

I think we need a new emphasis in the quest for unity. It should not be based on the 80% agreement and 20% disagreement we used in the past. It should be around the 100% agreement we have around:

the need to rebuild working class organisations in the unions and working class communities

the need for rank and file organisation to be at the centre of such a project

the need to score some important victories against the bosses on the basis of such unity

All talk of elections etc should come well after we have made some progress in rebuilding a movement. And for that to happen we need to face up to the real state of the movement and not pretend that everything with it is hunk dory. It isn't, by a long chalk.

Concentrating on work to rebuild the movement and score some victories against the class enemy can mobilise wider forces and wider forces will make a debate about what sort of political unity we need much more meaningful than another round of debate in which someone I know well, and probably like but disagree with,telling me I have to leave 20% of my politics at the door!

I also think this all means discussing the mistakes of the past period with each other. This isn't to score points. It is to see if we can learn from those mistakes. After all, who starts a project by saying - never mind the mistakes we made last time let's just try again, let's look to the future? If anyone said that in any forum other than the left - where all too often Alice in Wonderland rules the roost - they would be laughed out of the meeting.

Disagreements at the beginning of a discussion can become agreements on a way forward by the end of the discussion. The Left Forums that the Convention calls for, if the meetings I attended were anything to go by, should be able to do that.

Tue 23, September 2008 @ 22:51

Vicky said…

I can only suggest (as someone who attended the Convention until the last session on Wednesday) that Stuart is being extremely optimistic, both in his rose-tinted view of the Convention and in the prospect of left unity arising from it.

Fri 26, September 2008 @ 01:33

Wladek Flakin said…

What did you think about the CoL, Vicky?

Fri 26, September 2008 @ 09:16

SteveR said…

SOZ comrades that this is 'the day before' but here are details of the

"follow-on conference" from the recent anti-"RWB" mobilisation:

"East Midlands Stop the BNP Network"

Saturday 27th September

11am - 4pm

Queens Walk Community Centre,

The Meadows

Nottingham NG2 2DF

looks like, out of train station down Sheriff's Way, continue down Queen's

Walk which is a pedestrianised (shopping?) street

the Community Centre is down there, on the left.

I only got these details today/last nite

steve r

Fri 26, September 2008 @ 12:27

bill j said…

I don't agree Vicky. You didn't go to the main meeting on the Sunday as far as I know, which was the event mainly described in Stuart's post above.

There was a genuinely refreshing discussion there, which certainly surpassed by far my expectations.

There is room for improvement still, we need to go further with dissolving the top table and encouraging debate, we need a discussion on how we integrate resolutions and amendments and we need to see what develops out of the local forums. None of this is to say that the future is assured, but if we try to intervene positively then we will be able to shape events as they develop.

Fri 26, September 2008 @ 16:42

bill j said…

John Nicholson's Guardian account here;

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/25/labourconference.labour

Fri 26, September 2008 @ 19:53

Wladek Flakin said…

The IBT drew a somewhat less positive balance of the convention:

http://www.bolshevik.org/statements/Convention_of_the_Left.html

Sat 27, September 2008 @ 19:00

Jason said…

Well may be but almost all reports have been somewhat positive so perhaps that says something more about them?

Of course the left is not yet back up on its feet and perhaps just talking about it might not seem enough - but that is after a few years of being not in many cases even able to get together in the same room and we do need to debate our politics as well as engage in joint action. And merely to rcognise our weaknesses is a start- something the left is often unable to do. Plus to be honest it was not just talking- we had a joint demo and planned some acions, at least in the workshops, and a joint forum.

In the campaigning agianst immigration controls workshop for example we agreed to have joint demos, direct action and orient to the unions.

Programme may be important but will only make sense when coming out of iving struggles. The convention was a move in the right direction- perhaps only a nudge but what is important is how chase up contacts and opportunities now.

Mon 29, September 2008 @ 08:17

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