Labour party conference demonstrated the scope of
Kinnock's ambition to re-fashion the party into one that would be seen by the ruling class as fit to govern. The
Policy review and Kinnock's speech firmly establish that the leadership wish to manage capitalism more efficiently than the Tories.But conference also indicated that the left has not been crushed and in some ways is stronger than a year ago.
The decision of Benn and Heffer to run in the leadership elections against Kinnock and Hattersley was never seen primarily as a contest about votes.
Rather it was a political stand to attempt to stem the tide of new realism which seeks to change the whole nature of the british labour movement. The challenge acted as a focus for many militants including outside the Labour party. Certainly it is the case that without it the left would have been in an even weaker position after Blackpool.
Through introducing a series of rule changes
(the infamous agenda 2) which had not been discussed anywhere in advance, the leadership have taken a gigantic step to undermining the sovereignty of conference and moving towards an individual membership party on the same lines as most european Social Democratic par-
The most important changes are ties.
the decision to centralise all membership applications through Walworth Rd, the decision that
20% of the PLP have to nominate someone before there can be a leadership challenge, the imposition of bye election candidates and suspending members under investigation.
These are designed to produce a much more passive membership and could lead to intensification of the witch hunt. Further it was made clear both during and after conference by Kinnock that decisions by conference were fairly meaningless given the Policy Review.
The most dramatic event of the week was
Ron Todd's pre-prepared speech to the Tribune rally in which he made a passionate defence of unilateralism. This intervention clearly changed the mood of conference from one in which teh leadership had complete control to one in which there was hope of some successes for the left. While Todd himself wishes to dif-.
ferentiate between support for the 'dream ticket' and support for thier policies, neither the leadership nor the media will brook such sub-
Iteties. The press gave Todd the Scargill treatment not because they don't know the differnce, but becuase the right need to isolate him.
There was no serious challenge to the presence of the EEPTU scabs at confernce.
Several constituency delegates raised the point
HER ALT US REELS at the begining of conference and were fobbed off. But no one single trade union delegation raised the issue - not the NUM nor the printers. Twice during the week