CWI MAKES GAINS IN ELECTIONS DEAR COMRADES, Here are the election results from Committee for a Workers International candidates (the group Militant Socialist Organisation is affiliated to). BELGIUM (MILITANT LINKS) Belgium election results: In Liege our candidate Jean Peltier on the PC-list obtained 108 votes and in Nivelles Yves Godfroid received 57 votes. Comrades in Brussels stood on the PC list [Communist Party open list]-which got over 3000 votes and 0.8%. In Aalst-Oudenaarde we stood as part of a left wing unity list, called LEEF, for the national Chamber and the regional Flemish Parliament. We stood one candidate on this list, Eric Byl. The list in total obtained 1622 votes for the Flemish parliament (0,6%). Our candidate stood as the 3rd on the List and received 5 preferential votes In the district Gent-Eeklo the results for the Flemish parliament are almost complete. It should be mentioned that off course we mainly campaigned in Gent, and not in the villages around Gent. Our total vote was 450 (0.1%). Roberto D'Orazio (leader of the Clabeque steel workers=92 struggle) and his European List will get 2.0% of the votes (according to the last results). D'Orazio himself obtained 20,185 votes. Our candidate on the Euro-list of D'Orazio, Francine Deconinck, got 685 votes (the Maoist candidate Jan Fermon 567 votes, and the Mandelite candidate Freddy Dewille: 485 votes). After the shocking results in the Belgian national elections, PM Dehaene announced he no longer will play a role in national politics as a responsible figure of the Christian Democrats. Earlier social democratic leader Louis Tobback announced that it will be the new generation in his party who will have to solve the present crisis. Both coalition parties received severe losses in the elections. The gains go mainly to the Greens and the far right. In Wallonia the Green party becomes bigger than the Christian Democrats, while in Flanders the fascists become the third party BEFORE the social democrats! In the big cities in Flanders (such as Antwerp, Gent, Mechelen, St. Niklaas, Aalst) the Vlaams Blok now is the biggest party. In Brussels they are the biggest Dutch-speaking party. BRITAIN (SOCIALIST PARTY) The Socialist Party won a council by-election in south London yesterday last Thursday. SP member Ian Page was elected as a member from the Pepys ward (area) to the Lewisham Council. Ian is well known, having previously been expelled from the Labour Party while he was a councillor. Last year he received 836 votes (38%), coming second to Labour's 1,060 votes. The results were as follows: Socialist Party 786 40% Labour Party 663 34% Greens 10% Tories 9% Liberal-Democrats 7% Comrade Dave Nellist led the Socialist Alliance List for the Euro elections in the West Midlands of England. West Midlands Euro results Party Result % Seats Tory 321,719 37.81 4 Labour 237,671 27.93 3 LibDem 95,769 11.26 1 UKIP 49,621 5.83 Greens 49,440 5.81 C Oddy (Independent Labour) 36,849 4.33 Liberal Party 14,954 1.75 BNP (Fascist party) 14,344 1.69 Pro Euro Tory 11,144 1.31 SOCIALIST ALLIANCE 7,203 0.85 SLP 5,257 0.62 English Freedom 3,066 0.36 Natural Law 1,647 0.19 TOTAL 850,866 Turnout was 21.2%, higher in Tory areas, lower in working class areas as in other parts of the country. Fuller analysis will take place over the next few days, but a few points are already self evident. The huge drop in Labour's vote (and the low turnout itself) was an expression of the "politics of discontentment". Christine Oddy's vote was one of sympathy as to the way she had been dropped by Labour, particularly in the area she used to represent. Approximately 20,000 of her votes (54%) came from the 9 constituencies in and surrounding Coventry; she averaged 350 votes in each of the other 50 constituencies. It looks like many people who wanted to actively put a shot across Labour's bows saw a vote for Christine as the best way of doing so. She had the greatest media coverage of the 'minor' candidates, again particularly in the immediate area she used to represent. The Greens benefited from their national profile, their greater resources and their Party Political Broadcast, though may be disappointed that the votes for them in rural areas of the region were not higher. The Socialist Labour Party, led by Arthur Scargill, had a party political broadcast, and a nationally known leader. It did not , however, have any campaign on the ground nor did it widely circulate any election material. Had it not insisted on standing alone, but used for example the =A35,000 it spent on the deposit to add to the budget of the Socialist Alliance, then it would have been possible to circulate an election leaflet to all 2.4 million houses in the region. In the event, the Socialist Alliance was only able to send a leaflet to 65% of households - almost 20 of the 59 constituencies did not even know we were standing (and naturally we got few votes in those areas!). The press coverage was abysmal. The fact we (probably) had the youngest candidate in Europe (certainly in the UK) was totally ignored. The Alliance in the West Midlands has only met together for the last few months. Dozens of people throughout the region have got in touch during the campaign for more information, and their involvement will strengthen the work in the weeks and months ahead. Unlike Christine Oddy's campaign, which did receive a sympathetic vote, the Alliance project is more long term - of creating an alternative structure for socialists to work together in. It remains to be seen whether she and her supporters will play any role in that project in the future Economic stagnation and further anti-working class policies from the will cause further disillusionment in New Labour. Future elections will be fought on more favourable terrain for the Alliance and its component parts, than was the case for this first time out. FRANCE (GR-CWI) THE LO/LCR bloc got 5.2% of the vote nationally, winning 5 seats. This important result shows the potential for the forces of revolutionary in France. IRELAND - SOUTH (SOCIALIST PARTY) The Socialist Party in Ireland made important gains in the Euro and Local elections held on Friday 11 June. Joe Higgins was re-elected in the Mulhuddart ward with the Socialist Party's second candidate Karen Allen narrowly missing election as a councillor for the Party. Clare Daly built on the tremendous vote in the general election and the Dublin North By-election last year by winning a council seat in Swords. This means that the Socialist Party now has two councillors on the Fingal County Council. Mick Murphy in Tallaght Central, part of the South Dublin County Council missed election by the narrowest of margins. The election campaign also saw Socialist Party candidates standing in other parts of Fingal County Council (Mick Cheevers in Castlenock - 2.9%; Eamonn McNally in Malahide - 2.7%) and South Dublin County Council (Lisa Maher in Terenure Rathfarnham - 3.2%) gaining important votes for the Socialist Party and creating the basis for further growth in electoral support and membership for the party in the future. Comrades also stood in Shannon, County Clare (Dominic Haugh for Shannon Corporation Council - 1.7% and for Shannon Town Council - 2.4%) and in Cork (Mick Barry for Cork North Central - 4.9%). These were creditable results considering that the comrades were standing for the first time. In the Dublin Euro-elections Joe Higgins received 10619 votes (3.8%) which was a very creditable performance for the Party standing on an all Dublin basis for the first time. The SP vote was squeezed by the vote for Sinn Fein and particularly in the Euro vote by the Green Party candidate Patricia McKenna. All in all, the party has had an excellent campaign and can be very proud of the nine candidates who stood in Dublin, Cork and Shannon. Up to 35,000 homes were canvassed by party members and supporters. 800,000 leaflets were distributed for the Euro election through the post in Dublin, which has a population of 1.3 million. 70,000 four page manifestos were distributed in the areas were we stood, along with some 200,000 other leaflets on the canvas or dropped through doors in the campaign. In addition party ads were placed in a wide range of local newspapers. Four new members have applied to join the party during the campaign, and some twenty other people have expressed an interest in doing so. The general mood in the elections was very low key. The Euros were little more than a 'beauty' contest, with no issues and almost no media coverage. Needless to say the Socialist Party was deliberately censured of coverage in the national media. The turnout of 42% was low, but no lower than the norm in Euro or local elections. However the turnout in working class areas is the most affected in these situations, and given the slight swing behind Sinn Fein, was a factor in keeping our vote down in both the Euro and local elections. Not withstanding this, the Socialist Party has made another significant step forward and can now confidently plan to possibly win two seats in the next general election which could take place within the next year. GERMANY (SOZIALISTISCHE ALTERNATIVE) In Rostock comrades got 859 votes (0.5%) standing on a SAV List for local muncipal elections. This was a very good first outing, especially given that comrades were up against the PDS. Before the poll comrades had a target vote of 300 and a target of recruiting 5 new comrades. So far, 2 new people have joined and 2 have agreed to join. PORTUGAL (LUTA SOCIALISTA - Comite por uma Internacional dos Trabalhadores). The Portuguese ex-social democratic "Socialist Party" won the European elections of 13 July. Despite their aim to win an absolute majority they only managed to get 43% and 12 seats (2 seats more than 1994) and they got this by putting forward the ex-Republic President, Mario Soares. The liberals-conservatives of PSD got 31.1%, and 9 seats (the same as 1994), the CP/Greens of the CDU got 10.3% and 2 seats (1 seat less than =9194), and the rightwing-conservatives of the PP got 8.2% and 2 seats (1 seat less than 1994). Our group gave critical support to the Bloco de Esquerda (Left Bloc), a electoral grouping of Mandelists, ex-pro-Albanian Stalinists, and Left intelligentsia. LB got a national average of 1.79% and got 24,246 (3.24%) in Lisbon district. The LB campaign was mainly based on urban students and the Left middle class, failing to gain support amongst the working class. Nevertheless LB has the potential to become an attractive left force if it change the "Mandelist" tactic of an appeal only to urban middle class lefts and students, and embraces a clear class appeal. The LS-CIT will continue to work amongst LB activists, arguing for a more class based campaign for the coming October Legislative elections. SCOTLAND (CWI IN SCOTLAND) Comrade Philip Stott reports: The Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) polled 4% of the vote in the Euro elections, doubling it's vote for the Scottish GeneralElection on May 6th. Support for the SSP was highest in Glasgow where 11% voted for the party, placing it third, ahead of the Tories, Liberal Democrats and the Greens. In Scotland as a whole the SSP was the 6th largest party out of 11, coming behind the four main parties and the Greens(5.8%). The SSP vote was significant everywhere in Scotland. The Highlands and Islands, for example, which is a remote area with scattered pockets of working class communities, saw 2.5% for the party. Unlike the Scottish parliamentary elections, when Arthur Scargill's SLP received a greater number of votes than the SSP (53,000 to 46,000), this time the SSP defeated the SLP in all 73 constituencies, polling 39,720 (4.02%) to the SLP's 9,385 (0.95%). The SSP vote was all the more creditable given the fact that 75% of the electorate failed to vote and that rose to 80-90% in the working class communities. Clearly the election of Tommy Sheridan to the Scottish Parliament and the enormous levels of publicity this has generated (including a weekly column in the Daily Record, Scotland's biggest selling newspaper) has helped launch the SSP into a truly national political force. This has been reflected in the turnout at public meetings in every corner of Scotland that have seen so far seen over 1,000 people come and listen to Tommy Sheridan (with 300 applying to join). The numbers who have applied to join the SSP currently stands at around 1500. The SSP is attracting a significant number of former Labour Party members and trade unionists as well as new layers of the working class who have not been involved in politics previously. It is possible that the SSP is now developing the outline of a future mass workers=92 formation. For the bourgeois parties the vote for the Scottish government coalition of Labour (28%) and the Liberals (9.8%) fell sharply while the SNP polled 27%, which itself was 6% down on their 1994 share of the Euro vote. The CWI organisation in Scotland has just produced the third issue of the International Socialist, our journal in Scotland. The branches of the CWI are currently holding a series of meetings aimed at the new members of the SSP based on what the CWI stands for and why you should be a Marxist in the SSP. SRI LANKA (USP) The comrades put a big effort into yet another provincial election this time in Hambantota, in the far South on June 10th. Our candidate - at the top of the New Left Front list - is a popular and well-known leader of a 700-strong fishermen's union. Hundreds turned out to the rallies and 52 trucks took part in a noisy and colourful motorcade just before polling day. There was such a good campaign and so much publicity that the comrades were convinced he would get into the council. In the event, the percentage of the vote (2.8) was double what it had been in other areas where the NLF had been successful; but by some quirk of the electoral system, in this area it was not enough to get a councillor! The comrades were very disappointed but the party has definitely been strengthened by the work done. More than 400 papers were sold in the campaign, 20 new recruits were made and the basis has been laid for a solid branch in the area, breaking new ground for the USP. 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