Stalinism in action

Comrade Arthur Scargill is speaking at The Lighthouse on Thursday, as part of his Socialist Labour Party election campaign.

I'm going along, though I certainly don't support the SLP. I'm deeply dubious about Scargill too. On the plus side, he took on Margaret Thatcher in the last campaign of organised working-class resistance this country has seen. In the negative column, he made major tactical and strategic errors which contributed to his defeat, and he became a ranting demagogue. His party isn't socialist or communist in the progressive terms I attach to those names - it's Stalinist: centralist, still obsessed with an outmoded focus solely on industrial production despite the absence of industry, and unconcerned with issues such as the environment, feminism and civil liberties.

If I wanted a political party like this, I'd vote Tory. Boom, boom. Jesting aside though, there are plenty of more convincing leftwing parties (the CP, the CPGB, Workers' Alliance etc.) if you don't want to use your vote combating the Tories, which is my focus in this election and this constituency. Better purgatory now and heaven tomorrow than descending into hell today.

Still, Scargill's a fascinating character and a great speaker, and the last representative of what might have been, now Foot's dead.