A word first about the support band. You go to a show to forget the world and its troubles. During the White Williams’ set my mind turned to a relative’s illness, an unpleasant trip to the dentist earlier in the day and a bit of botched DIY to distract me from what was happening on stage. The set started on a low point and got worse but it did defy the laws of space and time by making five minutes feel like fifty years. Some fool had sold them one of those children’s keyboards that you blow into and they used it to create what they considered a Mogwai style soundscape. They failed in that endeavour but they did create a world of pain and torment. It went on and on for what felt like decades. The band seemed tired and cheesed off at the end of their stint supporting the next big thing and it transmitted to the performance. Though I’d heard one or two of their tunes on the radio and they’d sounded pretty good. Maybe it was just a bad night.

By any normal measure Vampire Weekend should inhabit that daytime XFM sludgy netherworld of bands with half an idea of their own and a ripoff of three other groups’ good bits. A-punk sounds like The Beat were pulled out of retirement to write it. Cape Cod Kwassa could have been inspired by The Bhundu Boys and M79 seems to describe a bus journey by a lovelorn undergraduate to the accompaniment of a string quartet playing Bach in the rear seat. It’s effete foppishness pushed to the max but by god it’s great music. It’s so effete in parts that, like many others, I’d assumed they were from Massachusetts but we were told tonight that they are New Yorkers.

The album has been a favourite in this house since its release and for the first time ever I bought a concert ticket from an Ebay tout at nearly three times the face value. The first surprise was when it arrived. The bigger surprise was when it turned out to be legit and fingers crossed the profits aren’t being used to finance unspeakable criminality in Guildford.

For a band that only released its first album Vampire Weekend already inspire a lot of affection in their fans. The Electric Ballroom was packed. I’ve never had a harder time slipping to the back of the hall for the encore the crowd was so dense. There were several singalong moments, the call and response on Blake’s got a new face being particularly popular. To prove the point about effeteness part of the lyric goes:

Occident out on the weekend
That’s the way that we relax
English Breakfast tastes like Darjeeling
But she’s too cute to even ask

Is that the way Americans really talk? Most American tourists I hear communicate using a vocabulary consisting of “like”, “so”, “like” “I”, “like”, “he”", “like”, “she”, “like”.

The band’s entire repertoire comprises a forty minute album and two untitled new songs - so we got the lot. A ruthless editing process seems to be part of the band’s winning formula. They avoided the temptation to cram their first CD with the full seventy minutes and focussed on pulling together a strong set of songs. The live versions lack a lot of the polish of the record but the energetic performances and audience response compensate.

The omens are good for Vampire Weekend. They drink nothing but water on stage, look clean and healthy and the new material is as strong as the “old” stuff. I’ll give them the kiss of death and predict that they’ll be enormous in eighteen months.

Alain Krivine was one of the speakers at the 1968 And All That event in London last Saturday. I’m not in a position to give much of a report on the whole day. A comrade from Belfast decided at the last minute that he wanted to speak at it but without taking the trouble to let anyone know much in advance and it fell to me to chaperone him. Unsurprisingly the Woodcraft Folk got an audience of more than a dozen and John got three. All was not lost as his talk was recorded for that small bit of posterity that will want to watch it.

When you’ve seen as many Provie commemorations as I have you develop a real aversion to anything marking an anniversary. They usually are little more than a bureaucracy legitimising itself. Saturday’s event was very different. It had an emphatic political pluralism which, in the bits that I saw, encouraged participants to think rather than declaim. It’s a shame that there aren’t more events pulling together a spectrum of the left that can encourage the same spirit.

Comrade Krivine gave pretty much the same speech on a lunchtime light entertainment show on French TV called Vivement Dimanche the next day. The host is something like the French Michael Parkinson. Each Sunday a guest is interviewed and is allowed to invite other people onto the show. On Sunday’s edition Olivier Besancenot was the main guest for three hours in which time he talked about the LCR, his job, illegal immigrants, Stalinism, music, the price of food and work related illnesses. This is on a Sunday light entertainment show.

I’ve extracted a couple of sections. In the first Krivine talks about his interpretation of May 68. For brevity I’ll put it into bullet points

• It was more than a cultural and sexual revolution. People fought for themselves.
• The best slogans did not come from the political people. They emerged from below
• Millions of people became aware of their own strength.
• It was the very beginning of a new working class - office workers, IT, technicians with new demands
• Three quarters of the population has more reason to revolt now than in 1968
• In 1968 there were 400 000 unemployed. Now there are several million.
• In 1968 environmental situation was not as bad.
• It was easier to make ends meet back then
• Now there are two million students and more than half of them work
• In many ways things are worse now than in 1968

To which Besancenot added

• It’s a reference point each time something happens
• For the last five years there has been a youth explosion every year - school and university students, young people in the working class areas
• People think that their May 68 is still in front of them
• In February 68 the bosses were saying that it’s impossible to raise wages.
• In June wages went up by 30 % after a general strike.
• In 68 the revolutionaries had a let of certainty. It’s important to doubt.
• the weight of the revolutionary past is heavy
• Stalinism, as well as the tens of millions of dead, discredited the idea that any society but capitalism is possible
• So it is necessary to reinvent a new project for society

The second section deals with the sans papiers which probably translates as illegal immigrants and concludes with a video clip of a number of young asylum seekers.

About a year ago a police officer came along to speak to the residents’ association meeting on my estate and remarked that according to their figures we had the highest number of callouts for domestic violence incidents in their patch. The following month we organised another meeting to which we invited a police officer to speak on the subject to let women know what they could do should they be attacked at home and what support the authorities could provide. Now before anyone gets all sanctimonious about collaborating with the state’s repressive apparatus let them make a sensible suggestion about what to do when some drunken arsehole starts smacking a woman around. I’ve had no hesitation calling the cops in the past.

When it comes to music a good tune can sometimes make the listener set aside reservations about political correctness. Other times the song is just so offensive that it’s genuinely appalling. Normally the radio in this house is set to local pirate deep grime stations of course. This morning on 6 Music Natasha Desborough played a new single by Florence And The Machine - ‘Kiss With A Fist’. It’s a pretty good song until you pay attention to the words.

You smashed a plate over my head

then I set fire to our bed

My black eye casts no shadow

A kick in the teeth is good for some

A kiss with a fist is better than none

There is a vague hope that she will do something subversive with this hymn to domestic violence but she does not. It’s a straightforward account of a mutually abusive relationship set to a poppy melody. That’s it. Like most of you I’m completely unfamiliar with Florence Welch’s oeuvre and background. It may be that this one song is part of a three part concept album exploring the meaning of love or something. To hear it cold on a Sunday morning and presented as just another pop song is just about the most shocking thing I’ve ever heard on the radio.  Now it is foolish to read too much into one song but this indicates more than just one singer’s witless detachment from what domestic violence really looks like. There is no awareness on her part nor that of the BBC staff that this is a horrific little vignette asserting that getting a black eye is as normal as arguing over dirty dishes.

Sound ideology only rarely makes great music but this song plumbs a new depth. It feels no social constraint to add a lyrical twist or point out that no one should put up with violence in the home. It celebrates it. This is music in an intellectual vacuum.

Women’s abortion rights under attack

Emergency protest— as MPs vote on women’s abortion rights

If you haven’t already, now is the time to  write to, email, phone or visit your MP in advance of the vote on 20th  May to urge them to vote against any amendment to lower the abortion  time limit. It is also important to urge them to be in the House of  Commons (unless they are not on the side of a woman’s right to choose)  because May 20th will be a free vote so the main political parties will  not demand people are there.
A model letter and information on how to identify and contact your MP  is available on the campaign website www.abortionrights.org.uk.

If you are not already a member of Abortion Rights then please  sign up now - go to www.abortionrights.org.uk.

“Why would I want to see that miserable c#*t?” was Mrs Mac’s reply when asked if she fancied going to tonight’s Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds show in Hammersmith. It’s a common enough opinion and completely wrong. Cave’s last two albums had more laugh out loud moments than the last decade of ITV’s comedy output. The wanking baboon on the Grinderman cover is a comic gem and No Pussy Blues must be the funniest song ever written. The miserabilist reputation is well out of date.

The show was sold out for Cave is at the height of his creative powers at the moment with a run of three recent very strong albums under his belt. If the band had just run through the current Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! it would have been a top rate show but there were frequent dips into his huge back catalogue starting with an intense blistering version of the splendidly gothic Tupelo coming in early. Highlight of tonight’s performance was the rib tickling We call upon the author to explain the only song I’ve ever heard which uses the word “prolix” - as in “prolix, prolix - nothing a pair of scissors won’t fix”. This is witty, literate writing of a high order set to harsh guitars and tambourines and is thrilling to witness.

The pace never slackens. Cave is an incredibly physical performer who dances all through the set and often emphasises a phrase with a twist of his hips without looking stupid and for a man who projects such a forbidding persona his rapport with his audience is affectionate and reciprocated. A first class night’s work from a man and his band.

Breathless

The New Labour project is falling apart at the seams. Its local elections results were the worst in 40 years, with only 24% of the vote and coming third behind the Liberal Democrats. This is a disastrous result for Brown. In London, the election of Boris Johnson as Mayor and the presence of a BNP member on the Greater London Assembly will disturb and depress all who value the multi-cultural diversity of the city.

The most immediate catalyst for the collapse of the Labour vote was the abolition of the 10% income tax rate (i.e. Labour attacking a large part of its core base), but looming large behind that is the economic crisis ­ the credit crunch, rising fuel and food prices set against continuing low wages for a big section of society. Added to this was Brown’s inability to spin the New Labour project in the way Blair could do it. All of this raises the prospect of a further electoral disaster in the European elections in 2009 followed by a drubbing in the general election of 2010 and the possible election of a Tory Government.

Against this background what are the prospects and possibilities for building a left-wing alternative to New Labour’s neo-liberal policies. What is the terrain and what can be achieved?

Firstly, nothing in the general political situation has fundamentally changed since the launching of Respect in 2004. Large numbers of traditional Labour voters remain alienated, disillusioned and demoralised by the right-wing policies of New Labour. Some seek solutions in a “change” and vote for the Tories. Many more abstain, casting a plague on both parties.

Such is the nature of party politics in Britain today, and the media coverage, that the rivalry between the main parties has become one of  presentation and personalities. Ideological differences have been left far behind as all the establishment parties support neo-liberalism to the hilt. Differences are miniscule, reflected by petty point scoring. In these circumstances voters can cast a vote for the opposition in order to register their dissatisfaction without, in fact, registering a vote for any fundamentally different policies.

At the same time, there is widespread anger at rising prices and the budget attacks on the poorest. There is opposition to privatisation and a fear about the future of the health service and education. The war and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, although receding as an issue, remains of concern for millions.

Of course, not everything flows in the same direction. Fears about crime and the issue of immigration are factors used by the press and politicians to drum up support for right-wing views. In general, however, disillusioned working-class voters and the progressively minded sections of the middle class will not swing to the Tories. Some may be tempted by the social liberalism of the Liberal Democrats but most will withhold their votes unless and until they see a serious, viable, alternative. When the threat arises of a Tory win most of these will vote once again for New Labour with heavy heart and holding their noses whilst doing so. This was a significant feature of the Livingstone vote in the London Mayoral election. Such an attitude will be played upon by the right-wing trade union leaders to argue against “rocking the boat”, arguing that New Labour has to be supported to keep out the Tories.

In these circumstances, there are possibilities for building a left-wing alternative to New Labour but it will not be easy or swift. We may not like where we are starting from but every journey has to start from where you are.

The first point to register about the performance of the left parties in the recent elections is that they confirm that there is the basis of support for such a project. Although the experience was very limited, with only a few handfuls of good results outside of London, the results demonstrate that where consistent and patient work has been invested, support can be obtained for left-wing candidates.

Respect’s results confirm this. In Birmingham Sparkbrook, Respect’s Nahim Ullah Khan won 3,032 (42.64%) and became Respect’s third councillor in the ward. Elsewhere in Birmingham, Respect polled 25% in Springfield, 17% in Nechells and just under 5% in Moseley and Kings Heath. These are extremely significant results. They indicate the possibilities of obtaining very good votes in elections and demonstrate that it is possible to win. They augur well for Respect’s prospects in the city at the general election.

In Manchester’s Cheetham Hill ward Kay Phillips polled 14.4% following an energetic campaign that built serious links with the local communities. In Moss Side Respect polled 5.8% and in Wigan 6.7%. In Bradford Manningham ward Respect won 7.5% and in Walsall 7.6%. Of course, these are very few wards contested but are small indications of what can be obtained in the first instance if there were forces to contest more widely.

A few of the results for the Left List also demonstrated the same potential for the left. They received a very good 37% and 25% in Preston and Sheffield respectively to 12% and 10% in Manchester. It is worth mentioning that the result in Preston and Sheffield are the products of work over a long period of time with a commitment from the core activists to the building of a broad electoral left alternative; a completely different approach from that of the SWP leadership.

In London the most impressive result was the vote for Hanif Abdulmuhit in the City and East constituency. Here, Respect came third, polling 26,760 votes (14.59%), an increase of 7,085(36%) against the background of a polarisation of the vote between Labour and Conservatives. This was a tremendous vote, beating the BNP and consolidating Respect’s position in its east London stronghold.

Across London Respect’s vote did not fare so well. Respect did not stand any candidate for Mayor or in any other constituency apart from City and East.

Respect polled 59,721 (2.43%) in the London-wide list, a disappointment to the many Respect supporters who had hoped to win at least one seat on the Greater London Assembly by obtaining the minimum 5% required. Notwithstanding the high profile of George Galloway this was always going to be difficult in the circumstances. However there is no doubt that the response to Respect’s campaign, albeit limited by a lack of resources and any real presence in large swathes of the capital, confirmed the potential to build outwards from the success in east London.

This was not a bad result in the circumstances. There was a massive polarisation in London around the Mayoral election which no doubt squeezed smaller parties. Perhaps more importantly, the war no longer featured to anything like the same degree as in 2004. Although Respect has a broad array of policies covering the breadth of the issues facing the electorate it is probable that most people still see Respect as the anti-war party. This needs to be addressed. What exactly is Respect and what does it stand for?

There is no doubt that the split in Respect damaged the party’s prospects, both in terms of voters seeing Respect as damaged goods and weakening the party’s ability to campaign across London.

We did not have a Mayoral candidate, which meant that we did not get an entry into the booklet which went to every household in London. Nor did we have an election broadcast.

Unfortunately, with the exception of Newham and Tower Hamlets, Southwark, and some pockets in North London and elsewhere, Respect does not exist as an active force with an organisation on the ground. This is a consequence of four years of neglect, compounded by the split last year. The lesson of last years Southall by-election demonstrated again in these elections, is that Respect cannot expect to get significant support unless it carries out regular, consistent work in an area.

Respect was not able to overcome these difficulties. It shows that Respect has to be built across the capital, with branches in every borough, if we want to become a real force in London. The vote in City and East, however, demonstrates that we can build in other areas by developing an active base carrying out regular and consistent work within the local community. Of course, our priority areas are Tower Hamlets and Newham in the east where we have to continue to build and consolidate, but no national party can be built on the basis of support limited to two or three areas.

The London results

Neither the victory for the Conservatives, nor the election of a BNP member to the London Assembly, contradict the argument that there is a need and a realistic possibility of building a left-wing alternative to New Labour. In fact, the election results demonstrate the need for such a party more than ever. The neo-liberal policies of New Labour will lead some to try out the Tories and will even drive some working-class whites into the arms of the racist and fascist BNP. A party espousing policies that benefit working-class people, rather than big business is the only way to cauterise that flow.

An election is only a snapshot of political developments and these results should not be seen as a generalised move to the right. Given the absence of any authoritative left-wing party it is not surprising that many voters plump for the “other” party in the hope that things may improve marginally.

But the vast majority of traditional Labour voters still vote Labour or abstain. There is a sizable proportion of working-class voters, especially newer immigrants in low paid jobs, who no longer have any allegiance to Labour.

Notwithstanding the election of Johnson and the election of one BNP member to the GLA, the London elections show that the situation is much more complicated -than simply being a reflection of a shift to the right. Livingstone’s 1st preference vote increased by 208,336. His combined 1st and 2nd preference vote increased by 340,358. While there was massive discontent with New Labour’s policies and with Livingstone’s own performance, the fear of Johnson winning drove Livingstone’s supporters out in massively increased numbers. Unfortunately, this increased turnout for Livingstone could not match the increased Tory turnout, which added over half a million votes to their 2004 result. Following the election of Cameron as leader the Tories have cynically repositioned themselves towards the centre ground of politics to increase their appeal particularly to a new generation which did not know Thatcherism. Alongside this the selection of Johnson as Mayoral candidate has seen a confidence returning to the Tory supporters, especially in the suburbs. Livingstone appeared jaded, grey and on the back foot in the campaign and the Tories scented a huge scalp. They turned out in force to take it. This produced a fairly narrow Tory victory for Mayor. This shows that, notwithstanding the increasingly personal nature of political contest in Britain, there was still a clear left-right contest taking place. Voters for the most part understood this. No matter the serious concerns that many on the left would have with Livingstone, it was clearly understood that Johnson had to be beaten.

Whilst the vote for Livingstone went up in the inner city areas it could not compensate for the doubling of the Tory vote in some of the suburban constituencies. The Mayoral election was overwhelmingly a class vote. There was a clear ideological aspect to the vote, fuelled by the massive attacks on Livingstone led by the Tory-supporting Evening Standard. It was understood that the multicultural nature of London and its public services were seriously at risk. Johnson’s victory will demonstrate very quickly how justified that fear was. It was a huge victory for the Tories and a defeat not only for New Labour but also for all those to its left, - particularly when taking into account that the BNP are now on the Assembly.

Part of a wider trend

New Labour’s defeat came directly out of the New Labour project itself. It is part of a wider and more fundamental picture involving the direction of social democracy at the European level. Over the last two decades European social democracy, without exception, has abandoned its traditional roots and adopted the full neo-liberal agenda. Now, one after another, these parties are suffering the backlash from this and falling into disarray. Italy is the most recent example where social democracy, after a disastrous period of coalition with a centre right Prodi administration, has collapsed and now we have a Berlusconi government and a fascist mayor of Rome. France is another example of a centre left government opening the door to the right, bringing Sarkozy to power. In Germany at an earlier stage it resulted in the election of Angela Merkel.

Right across Europe social democratic parties have moved to the centre ground and the ideological difference between them and the centre-right parties has disappeared. Politics are reduced to sound-bites and spin. In Britain, New Labour comprehensively rejected its traditional electoral base and, initially, successfully reached out to middle England - to win three elections with such support. But such support can disappear as fast as it comes. Unless governments rest on ideologically-based core support they are continually vulnerable to the latest twists and turns of the political situation or stunts pulled by their opponents.

Does this mean the end of new Labour? No. It might mean the end of this particular phase of New Labour in the sense that they are heading from office at a rate of knots. But any idea that they might draw the conclusion that the neo-liberal path has been wrong and that they should now turn back towards some kind of old Labour model is unlikely to materialise. This will become clear enough when the new policy review is published in the next week or two. They are more likely to conclude that they have not gone far enough and the way to get their voters back from the Tory Party is to embrace the market even more.

The response of the left to all this right across Europe should be clear enough. The need to build broad parties of the left, based on broad
socialist policies, designed to embrace all those looking for a political alternative could not be more sharply posed. This is not an easy project. It requires determination, élan, openness, patience and consistency. But it has to be done.

The way forwards after the election

The basis for a broad pluralist party clearly exists, despite the current divisions on the left and despite a reduced vote in the London elections. If we take the very good results in Birmingham and East London, along with some of the other results outside of London and the 3.6% won by the various left parties on the London list, there is clearly the basis for a much bigger party of the left than has been built up until now.

Respect therefore has a two-fold task in the post election situation: to consolidate the important and central bases in Birmingham and East London and start to extend outwards into other areas with the objective of establishing a national spread for the organisation.

This requires a rapid turn back from election work to party-building work through patient but energetic and lively local activity together with strengthening our national profile. We need to recruit and consolidate new members and build branches where they don’t yet exist. The structures of Respect must be strengthened. The paper should be utilised to win more supporters and sympathisers. We should begin to prepare for a conference in the early autumn which can consolidate the organisation and reach out to others.

We must renew our approach to all those people in the communities with whom we have been working during the election but also find new areas to work in.

We must reiterate our commitment to reach out to and work with all others on the left who want to build a left alternative - the young people of the environmental movement, those opposing racism and islamophobia, and local community activists. This also means approaching trade unionists and other sections of the left to argue for a regroupment broader than Respect, which can reflect the full potential available to the left and which can more adequately address the crisis of working-class representation. We should participate in initiatives like the “Convention of the left”.

Forging links with serious organisations on the left will not come easily or quickly, but we must show ourselves committed to the project of working with others to build a bigger, united left-wing party.

In the meantime, we work to build our support in an open and inclusive way.

Glyn was chair of Respect in Tower Hamlets before the split and a lot of its successes were due to his work. He stood as a candidate for the Left List. He has asked me to post these reflections on recent events.

Following Meltdown Thursday, Neil Lawson (Compass) declared the New Labour project dead. That’s a nice thought, but I think it may be wishful thinking. What is far more certain is the demise of RESPECT. I know that some won’t mourn its passing and many more won’t notice it, but with bitter irony, I see May 1^st as a very sad day for the British labour movement.

The election results were, in general, very bad for the left, but the performance of both RESPECT Renewal and the Left List make it clear that neither has a viable future in its current form. I hate to say ‘I told you so’, but I said at the time of the split that is was a suicide pact and for once, one of my political predictions has come true!

I also said that one of the reasons for the split was the blame culture that emerged so quickly when the organization hit some difficulties. Post May 1^st, there is even less to be gained from pointing the finger and raking over the past. Those of us who know that the working class needs a new political organization need to take stock of what’s happened and think seriously about what to do next.

In doing so, I believe we must remember both the successes and failures of RESPECT. I still maintain that the strategy of coalition is the correct one. Small, independent organizations can play a vital part in this, but they cannot be an end in themselves. If the left allows itself to be defined by its differences, the only winners will be the political establishment and the forces of reaction.

At its best, RESPECT transcended these differences. Anyone who experienced the energy of the last couple of years knows we were tapping into something real. The campaigns we were part of brought together a wide range of people who were desperately seeking a political alternative. It’s true the exact nature of this voice wasn’t always clearly defined and in retrospect, we should have worked harder on that. But when RESPECT championed the cause of council housing or opposed cuts in public services, we made an instant connection with the lives and concerns of working class people, regardless of ethnicity or faith. The collapse of RESPECT has already left a big vacuum. For example, in Tower Hamlets we are seeing the relentless encroachment of the City of London, posing a direct threat to a long-established working class community. But last Thursday, the New Labour party that has paved the way for the property developers in Bethnal Green comfortably won a local ward by-election. This shouldn’t have happened and wouldn’t have if RESPECT (or something like it) had mounted a unified campaign of resistance.

It’s impossible to reflect on RESPECT without mentioning George Galloway. I don’t know what he’s going to do now, but I am very sorry that he’s failed to fulfill the hope and promise he brought to the East End. He could have been a contender! He had the talent to write his name in the folklore of the labour movement, but he chose a different path. But in the end, the real lesson is that we cannot have political charisma at the expense of political accountability. The movement needs leaders and totem figures, but the moment they become detached from the grassroots and the reality of working people’s lives, they are useless.

The SWP is now turning to the industrial front as the most fertile field for growing resistance to neo-liberalism. I’m not sure about that. Of course the trade unions are vital and I’m sure there will be growing militancy as the recession starts to bite. But just as the Labour Party cannot be reclaimed, I think we have to face up to the dead weight that has become our trade union leaders and the bureaucracies that support them. I don’t think even the best of them is capable of leading a sustained or coherent challenge to New Labour. The fundamental need for a political arm to go with the industrial one hasn’t changed. While I don’t think a traditional version of ‘The Party’ is the way forward, the labour movement still urgently needs a unifying political organization. It’s easier said than done, but we have to try.

So farewell then RESPECT! The phrase ‘Up like a firework, down like a stick’ was never more apposite. I’ll miss it, but remember it fondly, in the belief that we can do it better next time.

Socialist Resistance is having a one day seminar on the British and European experiences of broad parties. We’ll be having speakers from Die Linke (Germany), the LCR (France), the Left Bloc (Portugal), maybe Sinistra Critica from Italy along with the Greens, Respect and one or two other British organisations which will be confirmed shortly.

It’s in ULU, Malet Street, London on Saturday 28 June from 11am. To reserve a place send a cheque for £10 payable to Socialist Resistance to PO Box 1109, London N4 2UU and more details will be shortly.

The local and London elections have been bad for the left and for progressive voters everywhere. The backlash against the Brown government, which many now feel has betrayed them on the economic and
social fundamentals, has pushed Labour’s share of the vote below the Liberal Democrats nationally. In London, Johnson is now mayor, although the final margin after second preferences was lower than many predicted. Much worse, the BNP got a first seat on the Assembly. The Liberal Democrats also had a bad day in London, with their vote down substantially and it was a pretty mixed picture for them elsewhere.

For parties to the left of Labour, results were also generally poor with some notable exceptions, particularly but not only in Birmingham. In London the best results were posted by Respect with almost 60,000 list votes, 2.43%, but this was still below the deposit saving level and less than half what was needed to get a seat on the Assembly. The combined left vote, excluding the Greens, was only 3.61% on the list.

On the positive side for Respect, winning another seat on Birmingham council was a sharp ray of light. This now gives us all three councillors in Sparkbrook. Another good result was both the constituency and list votes in East London, which clearly show we have built on our vote after a long period of internal difficulties. The constituency vote for Hanif Abdulmuhit increased by almost 7,000 from the 2004 result. The local roots Respect has established in East London checked the forward march of the BNP. Without Respect East London could have begun to look like the 1970s with the BNP pushing into third place. Instead, Respect is one of the two major parties along with Labour in parts of Tower Hamlets and Newham, we beat the BNP on the list vote and pushed the Liberal Democrats into fifth place.

There was clearly a massive turnout in some parts of the Tory suburbs, a vote with some pretty nasty racist overtones following a campaign of vilification against Livingstone and his support for ethnic minority communities in general and the Muslim community in particular.

There is little for the left to be celebrating after these results. Many Labour voters will be rightly gutted (sic) at what has happened. There will be many battles ahead against this big shift to the right. What we need to be doing now is regrouping our forces with a determination that the resistance starts here and starts now. George Galloway, Salma Yaqoob and Respect intend to be at the heart of that resistance pursuing the approach of building a plural left opposition. We also want to give a big thank you to all the candidates and supporters who worked so hard during an election campaign which has been lots of fun.

Full list of Respect election results

London - City & East: Hanif Abdulmuhit 26,760 (14.28%)
London - list vote: 59721 (2.43%)
London - Tower Hamlets (Weavers): Dilwara Begum 637 (16.78%)
London - Tower Hamlets (Millwall): Reza Mahbob 170 (3.87%)
Manchester - Cheetham Hill: Kay Phillips 502 (14.4%)
Manchester - Moss Side: Ali Shelmanu 153 (5.8%)
Wigan - Atherton: Stephen Hall 222 (6.7%)
Birmingham - Aston: Abdul Aziz 1406 (19.6%)
Birmingham - Moseley And Kings Heath: Ray Gaston 327 (4.91%)
Birmingham - Nechells: Mushtaq Hussain 781 (17.34%)
Birmingham - Sparkbrook: Nahim Ullah Khan 3032 (42.64%) elected
Birmingham - Springfield: Salma Iqbal 1920 (24.84%)
Bradford - Manningham: Arshad Ali 395 (7.5%)
Walsall - Palfrey: Arshad Kanwar 304 (7.6%)

This is the SWP assessment on Thursday’s results.

The whole political spectrum moved right in the local and London elections as voters punished New Labour for ten years of privatisation and warmongering.The whole of the left is paying for New Labour’s failure to defend its core working class voters. We now have a right wing mayor and a Nazi presence on the London Assembly. Ken Livingstone is the biggest victim of this shift. But Livingstone also brought this defeat on himself. When he ran against New Labour as an independent after he was kicked out of the Labour Party eight years ago he won by a landslide. When he rejoined New Labour and fought his second election four years ago he got back in with a reduced vote.

But at the end of this campaign with its endorsements from Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Alistair Campbell, the City of London and with Tessa Jowell as his campaign manager, he has been beaten by the Tories. Livingstone sought to bolster his election campaign by creating a huge cross party electoral block. The deal with Brown and Blair on the one hand and with the Greens on the other was the most publicised part of this process. But there was also a side deal with George Galloway and a nod and a wink to vote for the Liberal Democrats in Richmond.
The problem now is that everyone is going down with the ship. The Green vote is cut and Galloway’s vote is below that in 2004 - and too little to win him a career-saving place on the GLA. Even the Liberals have failed to take anything significant from New Labour’s decline.

Of course the Tory tide is the main reason for all this. But the rest of the left’s attachment to Livingstone has prevented them from standing out as a clear alternative to Labour around which a minority could have rallied. The Left List has managed to do this in some local areas but it was too recent an invention to make its full mark on the electoral process. In addition, the Respect name had been established over four years and many people who voted for Respect did so in error, believing that it was the old Respect.

The period opening up is in some ways like that at the end of the 1970s. Then a tired Labour government also paved the way for Margaret Thatcher by adopting anti-union, socially conservative agenda at a time when it was also attacking working class living standards. What is necessary now is not a left that runs the line ‘Labour at any cost’ but a left that stands by working class people and struggles alongside them. This will not necessarily be a primarily electoral struggle. It will be an industrial struggle, an anti-war struggle, an anti-fascist struggle and a struggle on many other fronts that we cannot foresee. This is especially true at a time when the extra-electoral struggle is not declining, as it was in the late 1970s, but rising. But there will still be an electoral dimension.

The Left List votes outside London showed some good examples of effective campaigning. In Preston we got 37 percent and missed electing a second councillor by 70 votes. In Sheffield we came second with 25 percent of the vote. In Manchester we won 12 percent and, in a newly contested ward, nearly 10 percent. In Cambridge and Bolton the vote was around 15 percent. The Galloway operation in contrast has reduced itself to a local party in a couple of areas without even the pretence of being a national organisation. Galloway will not be able to win a seat in the general election if he cannot win more than 11.3 percent in East London. And although Salma Yaqoob’s Sparkbrook ward returned another councillor the vote went down in the neighbouring Sparkhill and Kings Heath wards, both of which would need to
see increased votes for her to win the whole parliamentary constituency of which they are a part.

The Left List does have serious trade union support and a nationwide presence. We must now use this to assist in the rebuilding of an alternative to New Labour that will not be derailed by the surge in Tory and Nazi support at the ballot box.