The following is my latest submission in a debate in the Weekly Worker newspaper (www.cpgb.org.uk), which will hopefully appear in Thursday's issue:

 

 

John Masters (Letters, October 1) admitted he was wrong to exclude former Militant MPs Dave Nellist and the late Terry Fields from his analysis of the 1992 general election, and that including them would have led to an average of 1,370 for left-wing candidates, exceeding the 1,000 mark he said had not been reached since 1966.

However, his analysis is still flawed because, according to Wikipedia, the 20 non-Militant far left candidates in that election were of tiny sects - the Workers Party, Revolutionary Communist Party and Communist Party of Great Britain (PCC). It is frankly ridiculous to equate such electoral forays with that of Militant (which obtained over 5,900 for all three candidates) or the far more important left unity projects which stood in later elections, specifically the Socialist Alliance, Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) and Respect. These projects largely arose due to the successes of Militant (including Scottish Militant Labour's Tommy Sheridan who he did count) in that election.

Militant did so well in the 1992 general election due to its role in leading the mass non-payment campaign which had by then defeated the poll tax. I joined Militant during that campaign, in 1990, when it was proving itself serious rather than just urging people not to pay. I left the Socialist Party of England and Wales (which it had become) in 1998, due to its shift towards sectarianism and to expose infiltration, which I believed was behind its failure to support the establishment of the SSP. I'd argue that the presence of significant forces within these broad formations and Marxist organisations within them not committed to achieving socialism are a major reason for their problems since.

Masters' pessimism about opportunities in the upcoming general election is not justified either. Mainstream politicians are more unpopular than ever due to the expenses scandal (which is in the headlines again), the credit crunch has exposed the flaws in the capitalist economic system (which would make socialism popular if argued for skillfully) and the main parties promise a future of massive cuts hitting the living standards of ordinary working and middle class people.

Whatever programmes socialists put forward at the next general election, we must say where the money will come from to be seen as credible. And I say, use the money left from the massive bank bailouts - by nationalising all banks, only compensating pension schemes! And more power should be in the hands of borrowers and savers than workers (but the trade unions and government should have representatives on the boards).

But be warned - David Cameron, in his speech at the Tory conference, has prepared the ground for a big attack on welfare, particularly single parents, by highlighting the case of a single mother with two children earning £150 a week who would only receive an extra 4p with a £1 pay rise. Also, elements within the BBC are encouraging fascism by allowing BNP leader Nick Griffin MEP on Question Time and providing biased coverage of the English Defence League (EDL). National BBC TV and radio news said 2,000 EDL supporters protested in Manchester on Saturday without mentioning the protesters opposing them (a local BBC text report said there were 700 EDL supporters and 1,400 on the Unite Against Fascism counter-protest) and Jeremy Paxman cut off an interviewee on the October 12 Newsnight when he started talking about anti-fascists.