In the aftermath of the European Elections, the Socialist Workers' Party (SWP) published an 'open letter to the left'. Below is the response of the Executive Committee of the Socialist Party:
To the Socialist Workers’ Party
Dear comrades,
Your open letter, entitled ‘It’s time to create a socialist alternative’, poses the important question of how a left alternative can be created to contest the general election. The Socialist Party has always been prepared to support genuine left unity, provided it is on open, pluralistic terms. Unfortunately, in the past your organisation has not done so. You have taken a sectarian ‘rule or ruin’ approach – your own party’s narrow organisational dominance has been put before the interests of the workers’ movement. This is not just our experience, but the experience of a host of other organisations and individuals. If this open letter represents recognition of your past mistakes that would be welcome. However, there are a number of points in the letter that give the impression that this is not the case.
From a standing start two months ago, No2EU - Yes to Democracy has recorded a very creditable vote in the European Elections. The coalition included the Socialist Party, the RMT Union and the Communist Party, and stood on a platform opposing the pro-big business policies of privatisation and undermining workers' rights of the European Union, and for a workers' Europe. Nationally, No2EU received 153,236 votes. In the South West region 9,141 voted for the list headed by Alex Gordon. Together with Arthur Scargill's Socialist Labour Party, the total left wing vote in the Euro elections in Britain was 326,351. This is an increase of over 70,000 on the 2004 Euro Elections, when Respect stood in England and Wales and the Scottish Socialist Party stood in Scotland. Up and down the country, hundreds of workers have organised and attended public meetings, and we have managed by email, leaflet, election broadcast and FaceBook to get across to many thousands, despite the media blackout of the campaign.
