Electoral reformism? in particular. strangest. tersley series of unexpected and interesting fractures One thing is clear: this document and the movement it has generated have provoked a and alignments among the non-Thatcherite for- ces in British politics. It is in the labour move- ment and within its left wing where these dif- ferences are sharpest and the alignments seein The Charter 88 demands Charter 88 Is silent on anti-democratic immigration and nationality laws. Hattersley: right-wing opponent of proportional representation. democratic rights and electoral reform. Andrew Wiard/Report CHOLOS The organisers of Charter 88 expect their campaign to bave 25,000 paid up members by Faster - Fast work for a The Charter has already attracted a broad range of signatorics from across the political spectrum including leading figures in the Socialist Conference; elementsofLahour's soft left and bard right; and leading Social and Liberal Democrats. They join a host of academicx, writers, actors and others in the public eye who have lent their support to the Charter's call for a new democratic constitu- tion - from forces more politically diverse than those harnessed in its support. It demands arc of course opposed by Thatcher. Labour's deputy leader Roy Hattersley dubbed it the leged "popular fronr, coalitionist bast? lias been attacked by Graham Bash and Bryn Grif- fiths in Lahour Briefing, newspeper of But the Charter has also provoked opposi- "charterof despair in the Guardian. And its al- movement launched in December. tional settlement (see box): Labour's hard left.
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 13 March 1989 # Enshrine, by means of a bill of rights, such civil liberties as the right to peaceful assembly, to frecdom of association, to frecdom from discrimina- Create a fair electoral systens of proportional representation. Reform the upper house to estahlich n democtatic, non-hereditary recond chamber. Place the executive under the power of a democratically renewed parliament and all agencies of the state under the rule of law. • Draw up a written constitution, anchored in the idea of universal citizenship, that incorporates these reforms.* Provide legal remedies for all abuxes of power hy the rate and the officials of central and local govemment. tion, to freedom from detention without trial, to trial by jury, to privacy and to freedom of expression. Guarantee an equitable distribution of power between Incal, regional and national goverment. • Subject executive power and prerogatives, by whomsoever exercised, in the rule of law. We call. for a new constitutional settlement which would: • Establish frecdom of information and open govemment. Ensure the independence of a reformed judiciary. Page 8
ZHuo FOR DESTROYIN PEOPLE! LIVES un m SOGAN AT U NE LL the chances of electing a other hand, socialist strategy goverment This is without question a crucial task, but it majority Labour govern- ment. For marxists, on the tion of a majority Labour is not a task to which all other ly undemocratic. The number The British electoral sys- is not reducible to the elec- considerations are subor- tem is utterly and indefensib- of scate won by each party dinate.
say. More appropriate would be an attitude of a hill of rights and a written constitution it soos illusions in parliamentary democracy. This more pay on the grounds that it sows illusions shortcomings of Charter H8 is providing a clear counter strategy on how to pursue the campaign for democratic rights to that propounded by the to explain that a coalition govemment will not We have to explain that the strength, level of pendence of the working class is the bedrock of all democratic rights. Basing nunselves on this understanding, we should aim to build a strong sncialist pole within the broader campaign for by Mike Marqusee in Labour Briefing no. 75, He explains that on Ireland, racism, lestian and gay rights, trade union rights, self-govemment for Scotland and Wales, the police, immugration These are undoubtedly serious omissions, Nevertheless it would be wrong to condemn the Charter simply on the basis of what it does "not" Another argument deployed on the left agamst the Charter is that with its demands for line of argument is ultra-left. To reject a cam- paign for extending democratic rights, on the basis that it sowe illnsions in the parliamentary system, is equivalent to rejecting a struggle for in the wages system! We are for the total trans- formation of the political superstructure in the context of the transition to a socialint society - but we do not counterpose our vision of socialist democracy to the progressive reforms which are More important than criticising the advocates of pacts and coalitions: It is essential organisation and degree of political inde Page 9 and asylum rights the Charter is in effect silent". critical support, pointing nut its weaknesses. deliver the goods. But we need to do more. the subjoct of a campaign here and now. democratic rights and electoral reform. Will Charter 88 supporters take up the defence of trade union rights? project is the automatic corollary of support for very disparate and broad political forces in a toral cfor, without having agreement on the Thatcherism founded on clectoral pacts is a castle huilt on xand. The Labour leadership'= steady move to the tight would speed up if the need for agreement with the centre parties was added to its armoury of weapons to deploy would be bound to pursue policies of austerity No way should socialists have any illusions that such a government would make dramatie improvemcots in democratic rights, or even that it would refrain from further attacking them. For a taste of what such a goverment might mean in practice, look at the socialist government in France, look at the antics of the socialists in Italy's coalition government. These are hardly The pressure towards electoral pacts and coalitions should he resisted by the left, not as a matter of dogma or idcological "purity", but becaase it will not deliver the goods. We are not in the business of replacing Thatcherism with sub Thatcherism. But that should not drive socialists away from a campaign for democratic rights that crosses party boundaries. It does mean, however, that when critically supporting standing of it limitations and our own inde- pendent view of how in develop the struggle for The limitations of the Charter were discussed Wrong. It is perfectly possible to unite with campaign for democratic rights, including elec- channels through which they will be carried out. against the left. A Labour centre coalition such u campaign we make clear our under- and make further attacks on the working class. For marxists, a "united front" democratic rights. these demands. Left wing opponents of PR justify risking ten more years of Tory rule on the grounds that the present electoral system may possibly, at some mons. This is, to say the least, a high risk option - and the left will find itself in danger of being Consider how different the last ten years would have been if there had been a system of minority government ar coalition would have had the political strength or coherence to inflict Compare the situation in Britain with that in democratic electoral systems. There isno douht Another reason why Charter 88 has divided it was launched and the political project of some patty politics. But leader writers and columnists in the Guardian and elsewhere have boon keen. to link the Charter with a call for electoral pacts: dian called for a 'united front against still more Similarly, hard left opponents of Charter 88 point, produce a Labour majority in the Cons- increasingly marginalised if it continues to par- proportional representation in operation in 1979. Who could argue that an unstahle the damage done by Thatcherism with its for- other west European countries with more sive has been most successful in Britain is that the political system here was ideally suited to it. the left is the broader political context in which The Charter was presented by its initial spon- sors in the New Statesman as being "above' orcoalitions between Labour and the centre par- ycars of Thatcher supremacy built on electoral and PR have argued that a coalitionist political that one of the reasons why the austerity offen ties. In an editorial on 12 December the Guar SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 13 March 1989 PLE majority in the House of Commons. of its most prominent supporters. Andrew Charter 88's demands nng o midable Commons majority? (less than forty-three percent ness, where there is a longing desire to see its votes trans- lated into an anti-Thatcher ycars we have endured large Commons majorities bears very little relation to the votes actually cast For ten Thatcher governments with elected on the basis of a minority of the popular vote a bell in popular conscicus- for electoral reform, The anti- Thatcher majority of the cico- has the entirely democratic and rcasonable in 1987). torate pacts'.
typical white petty bourgeois arrogance that the forces of "progress", (the Soviet artillery and in- fantry, napalm and helicopter gunships), would vasion still had serious doubts over the effects of a Soviet withdrawal - and were for various reasons profoundly reluctant to lake up the The most credible argument for this point of view was that the Soviet invasion had substantially changed the status quo in 1979, and that in the aftermath of a Soviet withdrawal the progres- rive forces-Largely grouped around (PDPA) - would be the victims of a bloodbath. Unfortunately for this point of view, the Soviet presence could only be maintained through A less helpful line of opposition to calling for "troops out" rested upon the fact that Thatcher and Reagen were of course using propaganda. However if socialists follow this logic, they wind up gagged on any issuc where a mass popular movement clashes with a Stalinist bureaucracy - as for instance in Poland (where the cold warriors tried to hi-jack the Solidamosc struggle, and many socialists got cold feet). It was never the case that by calling for troops out of Afghanistan socialists gave Others, perhaps entertaining illusions that the Afghan intervention might have presaged a more active line of Soviet military support for (drawing opposite conclusions from the British ger the equivalent of the American Vietnam syndrome*, and thus set back the cause of revolution. Such an analysis rests, in essence upon a crude view of the world as simply two counterposed camps'- with imperialism on the one hand, and the working class (including the Not only does this eliminate any inde- pendence of the working class from their burcaucratic misleaders, but it fails abysmally to grasp the reality of Stalinist forign policy. Cuba in the 1960s, Soviet leaders, beginning Why were Soviet troops sent into Afghanistan in the first place? Why was it correct to demand their withdrawal? Why is the USA sponsoring islamic 'fundamentalist' guerrillas while denouncing Khomeini's regime in Iran? What are the implications for other Soviet-backed regimes? What will happen next? JOHN LISTER discusses Trotskyist movement, some of whom grotesquely (and from the safety of long dis- tance) 'hailed the Red Army, arguing with help civilise' or even bring a form of socialism But many socialists who had opposed the in- the divided Communist Party massive slaughter and destruction, forcing millions of Afghans from their the Afghanistan events for their own cynical revolutionary struggles elsewhere, argued SWP) that a defeat for the Red Army could trig- Since Khruschev's one-off adventure with SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 13 March 1989 any support to the reactionary mujahedin. of Soviet bureaucracy) on the other. the continuation to the 'backward" Afghans. demand for troops out.