[1] You disingenuously allege that "you are making Martin's point for him by suggesting that anyone who criticises the shambles which is the UK left must be sympathetic to the BNP".
This isn't what I said. Martin is blaming the rise of the far right on those - a microscopic minority at this point - who are most active in protesting against them. And you agree with this. [Mainstream parties 'deal' with the far right by appropriating watered-down versions of their policies (to limit their growth), as has been happening all over Europe during the past decade and a half, the political 'centre' being continually normalized further and further to the right].
I don't agree with your assessment of Martin's post. He is not simply blaming the SWP for the rise of the BNP, there is also a criticism of the way that local govenment in the UK has operated over the last 25 years in there.
Quite clearly the protests against the BNP have either been completely ineffective
or completely counterproductive. How is that 15 years ago the UK far left dwarfed the far right, and now the situation has reversed?
Obviously mainstream parties adopt whatever policies they think will gain them votes. I don't accept that they
consciously do this to limit the growth of the far right. The 3 main parties are far more worried about each other than the BNP.
You conjure up this entirely imaginary entity, "The UK Left", as though it were some vast monolithic structure that has somehow failed itself. What UK Left, exactly? Most of it is now the UK Right! in a country now dominated by three right-wing parties (and similarly right-wing forums like this one. The fact that you're not even aware of this ... [I'll let your imagination finish the sentence]).
Yes yes, the 3 major parties are rightwing neocon anti-working class, whatever. Have a biscuit.
As you seem to characterise
everything, including Dissensus, as being right wing it might be useful if you could identify an actual UK group you would consider to be left wing. Perhaps you would like to start with bordiguists such as World Revolution, the UK section of the International Communist Current and work your way rightwards? Or maybe they too are right wing?
I'm not interested in Christopher Hitchens, I'm more interested in political movements and tendencies. Presumably you would agree that ideology and policies are more important than individuals? Blair/Bush/Barack/Brown/Clinton - all faces of the same beast?
Having said that there remain pro-working class rumps inside the Labour Party. You can dismiss this as much as you like (and I would join you in questioning their sanity) but on a ward level there are still a large number of people who are doing good work inspite of and against the ideology of their party. Similarly there are whole swathes of people doing good community and trade union work, some of whom are involved with political organisations and some who are not.
No doubt you will dismiss these people as being right wing or microscopic but that is where I see the real opposition to both the BNP
and neoconservativsm coming from.
There are several obstacles which may prevent this happening. One is that large numbers of working class people consider the left to be a complete joke which is entirely out of touch with their day to day lives.
There is no 'natural' left wing constituency. It is disputed terrain, and the right have more weapons (including convincing vast numbers that they are 'left').
I disagree with this. I assume this will be another facet of my naievty or right wing views, or tacit support for the BNP in your eyes - but I (still) believe that the natural constituency for the left is the working class.
You yourself have said that the whole political landscape has careered rightwards. Hence the abandonment of the working class by the vast majority of political parties and tendencies. This has created a vacuum. In the absence of a significant pro-working class left wing movement, the BNP has been able to fill that vacuum.