Marxists: Go On, I Dare You

There being a lot of repetition between this and some other posts today, the unique bits here are in bold:

To: office@cpgb.org.uk, info@cpgb-ml.org, editor@cpgb-ml.org, csoc21@btinternet.com, info@cnwp.org.uk, edgeorge@usuarios.retecal.es, office@communist-party.org.uk, lalkarpublications@hotmail.com, t.mulhearn@btinternet.com, office@fightingunions.org.uk, contact@permanentrevolution.net, raceandhistory@yahoo.com, office@rcgfrfi.plus.com, frfinortheast@gmail.com, clyder@gn.apc.org, scgn@compuserve.com, info@socialist-labour-party.org.uk, info@socialistparty.org.uk, contact@socialistresistance.org, reports@socialistworker.co.uk, info@wrp.org.uk, info@workers.org.uk, awl@workersliberty.org, uncaptiveminds@googlemail.com, info@stalinsociety.org.uk, office@rcpbml.org.uk, ncp@geocities.com, spgb@worldsocialism.org

From the list of addressees to this email, you will have gathered that the correspondence that has been flying about over the last week or so has been brought to my attention.

In addition to copying this to the local press, I am also BCC-ing it to much of the national media. Let me make it clear that after reading the material in circulation to and among you, I will certainly be an Independent candidate here in North-West Durham at the General Election expected in spring 2010.

Your informants in this constituency are correct that Hilary Armstrong is retiring, and the all-women shortlist is creating enormous ill-feeling within the Constituency Labour Party, not least because there will be no local candidate on it (the CLP’s own fault, of course). They are also right about the sizeable body of Independent Councillors here, and about the extreme anger of those many Labour Councillors who have seen their seats abolished by the imposition of unitary local government against the wishes of the electorate.

It is also the case that an all-women shortlist means, of course, an Emily’s List candidate, who must be in favour of abortion entirely on demand, up to and including partial birth. This constituency has a very considerable Catholic population, which predominates in the largest town. Several Labour Councillors, particularly there, owe their seats to that vote. If they were so much as to sign the nomination papers of an Emily’s List candidate, then I honestly do not know who would ever again sign their own nomination papers, and they would certainly stand absolutely no chance of re-election.

Well, there is no real fun, or even real effort required, in beating some girl who can afford to make Liam Byrne’s coffee for no pay for several years after university in the hope of being given a safe seat in an unfair contest (an all-women shortlist) on the wholly false premise that she was some sort of rising star. The Tories dropped to third place here last time, with a candidate who looked about 12 and had not even bothered to acquire a non-London address for the duration. A party which exists purely in order to secure Cabinet seats for members of the Bullingdon Club has no conceivable appeal here.

And the Liberal Democrats are the Liberal Democrats, with a history of standing aside successfully for Independents at Tatton in 1997, and at Wyre Forest in 2001 and 2005. Never mind for an Independent who shared their local communitarian populism, their support for certain causes such as the opening up of the family courts and the call for a coroner’s inquest into the death of Dr David Kelly, their opposition to the neoconservative war agenda and to the erosion of civil liberties, and their enthusiasm for electoral reform. But not their European federalism, their soft line on crime and drugs, their hostility to traditional family values, or their desire to abolish church schools, none of which plays well in these parts.

But beating you, on the other hand, would not only relegate all three of those essentially defunct parties to bit-part players, but would also be real fun, even if it, too, would require no real effort. An Independent whose election address was largely gleaned word-for-word from my letters to the local free newspaper kept his deposit last time, and took more votes than the reduction in the Labour majority.

So, I dare you to do as you are being urged to do and undertake that you will put up someone against me. I say that there is a ninety per cent chance that you could not secure enough signatures to get onto the ballot paper, and I dare you to try and prove me wrong. I say that there is a ninety-five per cent chance that, even if you got onto the ballot paper, you would lose your deposit, and I dare you to try and prove me wrong. I say that there is a one hundred per cent chance that you would take fewer votes than I, and I dare you to try and prove me wrong.

Yes, as you have been told, I support the armed forces, the police, “old-fashioned” schools (if that is what you want to call them), “patriarchal” families (if that is what you want to call them), farmers, shopkeepers, hunting, shooting, and nuclear power. Yes, as you have been told, I also support the monarchy and the Union, and I am opposed to European federalism not least because I believe in the “sovereignty” (not quite the word that I would use, although I am not sure what is) of the Westminster Parliament. Yes, as you have been told, I suppose that I used to be a “traditionalist Anglican” and I am certainly now an orthodox Catholic.

I dare you to put up a candidate against me who is opposed to the armed forces, opposed to the police, opposed to “old-fashioned” schools, opposed to “patriarchal” families, opposed to farmers, opposed to shopkeepers, opposed to hunting, opposed to shooting (and fishing, presumably), opposed to nuclear power, opposed to the monarchy, opposed to the Union, either in favour of European federalism or opposed to it for some Marxist reason equally hostile to Parliament, and of the view that neither “traditionalist Anglicans” nor orthodox Catholics belong in political life. Go on. I dare you.

Yes, as you have been told, my views on wealth distribution, NHS charges, employment rights, council housing, council services, public ownership, public transport and nuclear disarmament are inseparable from my support for the Welfare State, workers’ (and consumers’, and communities’) rights, progressive taxation, full employment, a strong Parliament, and strong local government. And yes, those are “all the Old Labour means, not to the Revolution, but to the prevention of the Revolution”, which is why I support them.

I dare you to put up a candidate against me who is opposed to the Welfare State, workers’ (and consumers’, and communities’) rights, progressive taxation, full employment, a strong Parliament, and strong local government, and opposed to wealth distribution, to the abolition of NHS charges, to employment rights, to council housing, to council services, to public ownership, to public transport and to nuclear disarmament at least insofar as they are integral to the social democracy. Go on. I dare you.

And I dare you to put up a candidate against me who, like several addressees here, denies or minimises the crimes of either or both of Stalin or Mao, or else disputes that his or her own Trotskyism constitutes a distinction without a difference from Stalinism. Go on. I dare you.

This constituency’s 21,312 Labour and 7869 Liberal Democrat voters should be aware that I am the candidate who wants to ensure that no one’s tax-free income falls below half national median earnings. To abolish prescription charges, and restore free eye and dental treatment. To make employment rights begin on day one of employment and apply regardless of the number of hours worked, as promised by John Smith.

To save council housing, and bring all council services back in house. To renationalise the utilities and the railways. To build a national network of public transport free at the point of use. And to remove all nuclear, radiological, chemical and biological weapons from British soil and waters.

This constituency’s 6463 Tory and 3865 Independent voters should be aware that I am the candidate who wants to restore the supremacy of British over EU law. To return to preventative policing based on foot patrols. To make each offence carry a minimum sentence of one third of its maximum sentence, or 15 years for life. To restore grammar schools, restore O-levels, restore excellent Secondary Modern schools, and defend and restore Special Needs Education.

To introduce a legal presumption of equal parenting, restore the tax allowance for fathers, and allow paternity leave to be taken at any time in the first 18 years of the child’s life. To help farmers and small businesses through a windfall tax on the supermarkets. To defend village services, save shooting and fishing, repeal the hunting ban, and make Gypsies and Travellers obey the same planning laws as the rest of us. And to preserve the historic regimental system, rebuild the Royal Navy, and save the Royal Air Force.

And they should all be aware that I am the candidate who wants nuclear power and clean coal technology. The restoration of British overall control of our defence capability. Ministers to have their pay docked if either spending or outcomes are lower in the North East than in Scotland or the South East. Immediate and unconditional withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq. Total opposition to lap-dancing clubs. And an MP’s office in Consett as well as in Crook.

The Independent vote, one third of the Tory vote, half the Liberal Democrat vote, and one third of the Labour vote add up to more than the remaining two thirds of Labour support. In short, this seat can be taken.

Taken by the pro-life, pro-family, pro-worker and anti-war voice of economically social democratic, morally and socially conservative British and Commonwealth patriots. Taken by the voice of One Nation politics, with an equal emphasis on the One and on the Nation. Taken by a conservationist, not an environmentalist.

Taken at the beginning of a movement untainted by the betrayal of Gaitskellism over Europe, by the betrayal of Christian Socialism over nuclear weapons, by the decadent social libertinism of Roy Jenkins, or by the comprehensive schools mania of Shirley Williams. And taken as the victory of those whose American equivalents flocked to President Obama’s economic populism (including economic patriotism) and foreign policy realism (including economic patriotism) while voting to reaffirm traditional marriage in Florida and California, while voting to abolish legal discrimination against working-class white men in Colorado, while voting against the deregulation of gambling in Ohio or Missouri, and while keeping the black and Catholic churches (especially) going from coast to coast.

We need a captain in each community, who will know where our vote is and who will get out that vote. We need to start organising now. Anyone interested, please contact davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Remember, we only need to be the first past the post. But we need to get our act together without delay.

As do you, if you are going to stop us. Except, of course, that you won’t. You wouldn’t dare. Go on. Prove me wrong. I dare you.