A massive 29% swing to LibDems. The collapse of the neo-Labour vote. Does this spell the end of neo-Labour, the rise of the LibDems? Hardly.
Under Ken Livingstone, the constituency of Brent East, in north London, was a rock solid safe Labour seat, and probably would have remained that way under Ken.
For the by-election, neo-Labour had over 200 MPs, at least half the cabinet, crawling all over the constituency. Enough to put anyone off voting neo-Labour.
LibDems are understandably cock-a-hoop at seizing a safe Labour seat with a 29% swing, but the rest of us should not get excited at the prospect of LibDems.
Was it not the LibDem-controlled local council that pushed through the Newbury by-pass? In Farnborough, LibDems supported the Tory-controlled council in pushing through an unwanted business airport, and have colluded with the same Tories in destroying the town centre on behalf of a Kuwaiti-controlled property company.
The LibDems will jump aboard any passing bandwagon. They jumped on the anti-war bandwagon, then just as quickly jumped off when war started.
What happened at Brent East was that the Labour vote collapsed. The LibDems are simply the dustbin into which the protest vote is cast. It is a pity a Green Party candidate was not elected, but to have any value beyond a one day wonder it would have had to be someone of the calibre of Caroline Lucas, and such people are rare in any party, let alone the Green Party.
The real protest at Brent East was those that did not bother to vote. The turnout was 36%. A continuing trend, not so much of voter apathy, as 'up yours' to the lot of them.
There are many in the Labour Party, especially at grassroots, who welcome the result. It strengthens the case against Blair. But will they revolt at the Labour Party Conference and call for the resignation of Blair, as that's what it needs.
Liar Blair has to go. Maybe then he can be indicted as a war criminal. But it is not only Liar Blair who has to go. It is the whole top layer, all those sycophantic arse-lickers who support the neoliberal, neo-fascist, neo-Labour Project.
We need a new labour party that is based on principles of social and environmental justice, where power is devolved down to the lowest possible level.
We need something like the New Political Initiative in Canada, that is re-evaluating and re-aligning left-wing politics.
At Cancun, poor world countries working with activists, said no, and forced the WTO talks to collapse, and may have sounded the death knell of the WTO.
But there is a caveat. If the countries do not stand solidly to, and even if they do, they will fall one by one to CIA coups.
This would be true of even wealthy western counties, although then it would a sudden flood of foreign capital out of the country.
I mention these seemingly unconnected places and events in one breath, because they are connected. The people have had enough of corrupt politicians in the pocket of big business, and they are now grouping, linking up and fighting back.
The wall at Cancun, keeping WTO delegates from the world's masses outside, was breached several times, and in one part collapsed. The collapse of the barrier represented the collapse of the neo-liberal project in the same way the collapse of the Berlin Wall represented the collapse of communism.
We are at a turning point in history. We have to be prepared to seize the opportunities it presents, as such opportunities only come once in life time.
What we now have to do is seize power back for ourselves. The Brent East vote is not good in terms of where it went, but it is if it is seen as the previously powerless banging nails into the neo-Labor coffin.
Brent East is good news if we can turn every seat in the country into a marginal seat, not marginalised as at present.
Like the discredited Tory leadership before them, the neo-Labour leadership bemoans the fact their message is not getting across. Their message is getting across loud and clear. The message that is not getting across is that we do not want your politics, we do not want your leadership.
We need to field candidates at elections, they can be members of existing political parties, but preferably not, who are prepared to work with activists to hand power back to the people, so that no matter who gets in power in future, the power has since passed to the people.
We have to do this worldwide. We can then began to roll back the neo-liberal corporate agenda.
Politics is too important to be left to politicians. Our world is not for sale.
Work is currently in progress on a manifesto for this new revolution. Hopefully an edited version will appear in the alternative press soon. The full version will be published on my website with extensive links and references.
http://www.heureka.clara.net/gaia/ Lib Dems celebrate over Brent East poll, BBC News on-line, 19 September 2003
Lib Dems seize Brent East victory, BBC News on-line, 19 September 2003
Blair and Labour 'under threat', BBC News on-line, 19 September 2003
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note turnout
20.09.2003 10:34
Liberal Dem 8,158 14.2
Labour 7,040 12.2
Conservative 3,368 5.8
Green Party 638 1.1
SA 361 0.6
Public Services Not War 219 0.4
Black Voice 197 0.3
Kelly McBride 189 0.3
Harold Immanuel 188 0.3
UKIP 140 0.2
SLP 111 0.2
Neil Francis Walsh 101 0.2
Monster Raving Loony Party 59 0.1
Aaron Barschak 37 0.1
Jiten Bardwaj 35 0.1
'Rainbow' George Weiss 11 0.02
Total 57602
vote nobody
numbers
21.09.2003 14:00
The rules of the game are simple: all you've got to do is split yourself down the middle, so no-one can pin anything on you.
But tenths is going a bit far, no?
(apologies to Leon Rosselson)
non-voter