Kinnock's Review seeks
With the publication of the Policy Review in mid-May, Neil Kinnock now only needs the stamp of approval of Labour Party conference in October to complete the process of bringing the Party back into line with policies acceptable to the ruling class.
Since the demise of the Liberals as the second main bourgeois Party, the ruling class has (reluctantly) used the Lahour Party as their fall-back at times of Tory popularity, safe in the knowledge that it was also concered with the orderly running of capitalism, and could even in certain circumstances, police the working class more easily than the Tories.
For a period after Thatcher cane to power in 1979 this arrangement looked like being upset. In reaction to the policies of Prime Ministers Harold Wilson and James Callaghan the Labour Party moved (at cast on paper) considerably leftwards, introducing measures of democratic accountability (such as the clection of the Leader and automatic reselection procedures for MPs) and some socialist policies, such as unilateralism.
Ever since he was clected leader in 1983 it has been Kinnock's intention to reverse these changes. In this he has been pressured and encouraged hy the bourgenis media and the Alliance. Kinnock and the SDP renegades from Labour wanted the same thing - to bring "mainstream" British polities back into safe bourgeois channels.
Despite their tactical disagrecments over how this was best done - the Labour right believing they could beat back the left within the Party, and the Owenites believing this was hopeless and setting themselves the task of creating a new force to replace Labour as the alterative Party of governoent -they assisted each other in this The support for the Alliance (en
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New realism for old: Kinnock has ditched unilateralism couraged by the media) gave credence to the Kinnock line that Labour was 'unelectable" with left policies.
Throughout, Kinnock has been assisted by the refusal of the trade union bureaucracy to fight back against the Tories' onslaught on jobs and democratic nights or their programme of privatisation. Every time they have retreated or sold out a struggle they have under mined Left policies feeding the view that there is no alternative to capitalism and little chance of stopping the Tory onslaught other than by eventually electing a Labour govemment
Frustrated with the slow process of reversing policy by way of conference resolutions, Kinnock instigated the Policy Review two years ago. It was clear from the start that this was designed to change policies wholesale, while maintaining (very thin) vencer of being democratic procoss. Having defeated the hard left, reducing them to a handful on Labour's National Executive, and confident that the remnants of the soft left would not put op a challenge, the Kinnockites could be sure of winning on the NEC.
The first year of the Policy Review was used as a softeningup process for the more difficult issues, in particular defence. Last year's phase one, with its bland
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talk of individual rights rather than collective action, together with significant constitutional changes (one of which was used to keep Martha Osamor off the shortlist for Vauxhull), sailed through the 1988 Conference with little op
Phase Iwo, to be put to this year's conference, is far more sig nificant and crucial tn Kinnock's project, and recognised as such by the media. Its sections on the economy. trade unions und defence contain Kinnock's blueprint for the programme of a future Labour govemment.
economy. the programme could not make it clearer that the "new" Labour Party represents no threat to capitalism. Of all Thatcher's privalisations, only British Telocom and water would be taken back into state hands (and then bought back). There would be no wealth tax. with a top tax rate of only 50 per cent, perpetuating the role of Labour as the Party of high taxes - for the working class, not the bosses. There is no threat to nationalise the banks or institute exchange controis, only to reduce
Key Tory anti-union laws, introduced by Thatcher to hamstring the working class during her attempts to restructure British capitalism, would not be repealed by Labour, The right of the courts to intervene in union affairs and to declare strikes illegal would be relained, as would secret ballots and the banning of many sympathy strikes. The statement on defence was the most awaited, even though its broad outline was widely foreseen. In its essentials, Kinnock has not failed the ruling class, rejecting unilateralism and accepting the myth of a Russian threat. His refusal to answer the question as to whether he would actually pressthe button, while the source of much humour, is of less imThe outcome of the Policy Review on disannament has always been seen as the touchstone for the Left's fortunes. Formany Party members a commitment to unilateralism has been one of the strengths of the Labour Party in recent years, even if its Icaders have refused to campaign for it, It is around this that resistance will he greatert at Labour Party conference and it is the issuc on which the soft left on the NEC might have been expected to put up some kind of
Yet opposition to the Policy Review on the NEC was restricted to the hard left on virtually every major issue, Even on disarnameat Clare Short, Robin Cook and Bryan Gould failed to support an amendment calling for the removal of nuclear weapons and bases within the lifetime of a single parliament. Short, feted by the "Time to Go' campaign against the British presence in Ireland, could not even see her way to supporting the deletion of a commitment to the Anglo Irish agree-
For years the soft left promised to keep Kinnock and Labour policy out of the hands of the right, while in fact retreating all the time on policies they allegedly support, and directing their attacks at the hard left for their oppositionism', Now it is clear for all to see where their attitude is leading-complete victory for Kinnock and the nght
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