Europe

Throughout the history of the labour movement we have witnessed the development of sectarianism within a section of the left. It reflects the inability to understand that the mass of the working class moves through its traditional mass organisations. The sectarian ignores this and believes that all you have to do is declare the "new party" and then the masses will come flocking.

We are reproducing here a letter sent by John McDonnell to all his supporters in which he stresses the need to now build the Left of the Labour Party. The campaigning work of the recent period is not wasted. It can be the basis for strengthening the left.

The ranks of the Labour Party and trade unions have been denied the right to vote on who they think the next leader of the party should be. This has been achieved by convincing a handful of Labour MPs not to nominate John McDonnell. But this is not the end of the story. Now is the time to redouble efforts to build up the left of the Labour Party in the coming period.

On Mayday our Swiss comrades issued the first edition of their new paper “Der Funke”. This is the first step towards building a Marxist tendency also within the Swiss labour and youth movement. Here we publish a report by our Swiss comrades about there experiences on Mayday.

For the third consecutive time, the left has lost the presidential elections in France. Their programme did not have one single measure to seriously improve the lot of the victims of capitalism, through which they could have been enthused. This is the editorial of this month’s Marxist paper La Riposte.

The armed struggle is over. Class struggle is the only option. Those who ignore the class question and stand alone on their “republican principles” stand condemned to remain in splendid isolation. We now live in different times and the old certainties now no longer hold. We all on the left need to forget our petty differences and become relevant to the lives of the working classes in Ireland while keeping alive our vision of socialism.

While the Blairites are licking their wounds after last week's elections results, the results of the Scottish Socialist Party and Solidarity in Scotland and the Socialist Party in England should leave no doubt in anyone's mind that sectarian politics is a dead end.

Last week’s elections confirmed the damage that Blairism has done to the Labour Party. Far from being the man who “wins elections” as the Blairites boasted in the past, Blair has become a liability. After ten years he has thrown away the 1997 victory. Now is the time to draw lessons from this whole experience and fight to change the leadership of the Labour Party.

May Day in Austria was a bit different this year. Participation was lower than usual, and the mood was distinctly different. Many came to demonstrate their anger at the behaviour of the Social Democratic Party in the coalition government, and expressed their solidarity with the comrades recently expelled from the Socialist Youth.

Tony Blair is now more unpopular than the much-despised Margaret Thatcher, an amazing achievement, considering how hated she was. The latest polls put Labour on 29%, the lowest support for the Labour Party for 25 years! Today we will see how close these figures are to reality once the results are out.

Support for nationalism in Scotland is an indictment of the widespread disdain towards the agenda of New Labour. And yet a recent poll revealed that while 88% of Scots want more power for the Scottish parliament, only 27% want full independence. Rather than independence, the workers of Scotland want an end to cuts, privatisation and all the other Tory policies Blair has continued to apply.

Today Scotland goes to the polls. With capitalism red in tooth and claw and public services cut to the bone, people's needs are at odds with parliamentarians' actions. What developments can we expect? A grim reminder of the ultimate failure of Blairism and the policies it represents.

After great successes in the Socialist Youth organisation of the Social Democratic Party of Austria, supporters of Der Funke have come under attack inside the youth organisation. The bureaucracy of the party as well as the youth organisation have employed the worst bureaucratic methods to attack the Marxists, in an attempt to stop the spread of Marxist ideas. Please support our campaign against expulsions by sending letters of protest.

In mid-June the WASG and the Linkspartei.PDS will come together and form a new left-wing party, Die Linke. Hans-Gerd-Öfinger looks at the significance of this development and the perspectives for this new political formation.