Lib Dem protest: build a political campaign!

Submitted by Matthew on 16 March, 2011 - 5:35

The Liberal Democrats at their Spring Conference in Sheffield (11-14 March) were safe enough — both politically and physically — behind the security barriers.

The police presence was enormous at the demonstration on Saturday 12 March with around 1,000 cops and horses manning fences, a mobile metal riot wall-barrier.

All this — a largely passive protest of 3-5,000 — cost £2 million to local people. An outrage to a city slashed by cuts.

Following a mostly quiet march, protestors massed outside the City Hall compound and heard a multitude of speakers, including some trade unionists and several SWP members.

No one listening left without being told several times how bad the cuts were and how we hated the symbiosis of Tories and Lib Dems.

They would, however, have been forgiven for thinking that the meandering and rather aimless words of Len McCluskey came from a provincial vicar rather than the leader of two million workers in the union Unite who are facing economic assault.

Whilst some union branches mobilised, most did not; there was a bigger presence from Suffolk regional CWU than Sheffield Unison’s health branch — despite its massive size and £37 million being cut from the local NHS.

Much of the organising for the day came from Right to Work/SWP and during the protest focussed on how angry people were through two major themes: calling Lib Dems “scum” and demanding a General Strike.

Is this enough? Will the London demonstration on 26 March with its inevitable flags, rousing polemics and samba bands be enough?

The Anarchist Federation didn’t seem to think so and its report glorified a small group of protestors’ “bail-in” of some high street shops whilst rubbishing Trotskyists selling their group’s papers.

So where do we stand? With the SWP and its endless speeches, chanting and exclusive focus on demonstrating? Or do we just revel in the mischief of the black ninja-style figures of the Anarchist Federation?

The answer is neither! Workers’ Liberty unashamedly thinks that ideas and political direction matter.

Our contribution to a strategy for the working class to defeat the cuts focuses on the coordinated strike action that all unions should throw their weight behind; an approach that draws on the solidarity of service users and communities, and forces Labour councillors to refuse to implement these cuts.

Overall, we know that a government based in the workers’ movement complete with industrial and community control over the economy is necessary to replace the sham democracy of jostling politicians.

Other alternative strategies focus on “sending the Government a message”, but being “heard” by the Government is useless unless it is backed up by a movement that compels its unions to mobilise its members and its Labour-link to actually defeat this attack.

The protest at the Lib Dem Conference reinforces a historic truth: the right have always known what the left thinks. It’s time to make them care.

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