Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Election Hangover, Part II. posted by Richard Seymour
Believe it or not, I had several e-mails protesting my "negative" coverage of Respect's electoral performance. Now, I suppose I invited that misunderstanding, but my view was more ambivalent than "negative". A couple of the correspondents have asked me not to quote them directly, but Lev from the MediaLens message board makes a number of suggestions, which I will brutally summarise:1) Only in times of major upheaval will a genuine left party get a sizeable vote - and then it won't be needed (barricades, strikes etc).
2) We do not look to elections to change things; they are just useful ways of raising the arguments for revolutionary change - propaganda, not agitation, etc.
3) Respect will not overthrow capitalism, which will take a great deal longer than the next election.
4) UKIP and even the BNP got acres of press coverage, while Respect was ignored.
For all these reasons, he politely suggests that I stop being such a bloody sissy and build on what we have achieved so far. (No, he doesn't use those actual words because he's unerringly civil). I happen to think his remarks highly pertinent, which is why I have reproduced them here. Another correspondent who asked me not to quote him directly pointed out some psephological data about the Euro elections which I hope he won't mind me using since I know them to be accurate:
1) John Rees may have only scored 2.4% in the West Midlands, but in Birmingham it averaged 7%.
2) In Tower Hamlets, we topped the Euro elections, gaining 21% of the vote.
3) We did well in run down areas with a left-wing tradition, inner city areas with a large working class, and did poorly in areas with lots of little towns and provinces, and no particular radical tradition.
Those also seem pertinent points (although I'd be interested to hear from anyone why we did so poorly in Wales). So, what's the point? Well, in trying not to cop the usual attitude of 'putting on a brave face' or just pure irrepressible optimism, I plumped for an un-called for melancholy and whined like a starved kitten. It's true. I apologise.
Nevertheless, I would still love to see us take a council seat or two. And I would maintain that the latter points confirm my suggestion that the Euro election was not the best arena for us to fight in. Council elections would have been a better pitch.