crisis, suf- scems that no ivory loweras immune. lemm, smashing up the post-war con project is both coberent will not persuade even the Further Education: contradictions. degree SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 18, October 1989 will serve only to restrict access to working class youth, women and people from the black communities: getting anywhere near a grant or a loan. Until Living grants are available that after long hours of negotiations proposed Top Up Loans' scheme for After being removed from the benefit system and be substantially worse off, even if they take up the Government's generous offer of an index-linked fective abolition of the full grant (one of the main factors in cabling any working class people to enter higher poverishment of students as a whole higher education to an even narrower The Tories claim to be intent on increasing access to higher education. but fail to even address the main issue in this context - the funding of 16-19 year olds. The vast majority of represented in higher education drop out of the system at 16, without even to everybody from 16 this situation nore this reality will be at best play- As the new academic year begins, students are facing the next round in the Tory onslaught. Kenneth Baker, in one of his last major performances as Education Minister, announced agreement had been reached between the govemment and the clearing students. Legislation on this will be forthcoming in the next Parliamen- The tem "Top-Up' is a con- adequate grants frozen, students will loan of about 1400 per year. This ef- education), and the further im- will continue, and schemes which ig having their already completely in administering who are so chronically section of the population.
to the autonomy we have fought so living but on the education system as campaigns in particular are sinking into the mire of identity politics. Though activists on the ground con- tinue to work hard and enthusiastical- ly in their colleges and arcas the amount of support and hack-up they receive from the national organisation is minimal and largely directionless. Now the liberation campaigns are used and abused at Conference as pawns in what has become a battle for survival, with scant attention paid However, the severity of the goverment's attacks not only on students immediate long and hard for. cessfully alienated whole layers of its supporters in the Liberation campaigns with its opportunistic opposition to sexism and heterosexism to further ing the bureaucracy while ignong the base will always be fatal, however such as "Left Unity" have failed to above being an SO front. The decline The history of these two opposing groups is inextricably linked. They. women's autonomy and reactionary accusations of women activists using their careers - the trend is clearly downwards, An orientation to captur- well you manoeuvre, and rocent of- forts to revitalise and reunite SSiN SUPPLEMENT draw in ray new seemsterminal ECURITY GUILD IS: Cart Taylor
the efforts of the NUS buraucracy to potential, some of which was higher cducation should be available to all those who can bencht from it - those students who will have left education by the proposed date of in- troduction of the loans system will fight strongly to defend them. Despite defuse action and dampen the anger, last year saw a wave of action and radicalisation in the colleges, the most obvious point of which was the police charge on the November 24 demonstration. This anger will retum a whole has a very deep radicalising demonstrated during the last ycar. The old Robbins principles - that have such strong support that even heterogeneous, held together downward trajectories are roughly the "independents" (in which category the Greens currently fall as both came to prominence on the backs of Bennism in the Labour Party and have at times been defined more by the fact that they are opposed to the other rather than any positive programme. This is particularly true only by a hatred of Trotskyists, It is parallel - indicating the dim view of Kinnock's Labour Party prevalent in the student movement, and that you The only growing force in NUS of the DL which has been very inter- can only fool people for so long- not suprising Forward to replace them. This crisis of cient service provision, demoralised by the violence of Thatcher's attacks Politics is out, and 'student onionism" The force which has provided the leadership of NUS for the last five years - the "Democratic Left' (a soft left grouping in the National Or- period are cracking and crumbling. with as yet nothing clearly coming leadership has permeated every level of the student movement. Local stu- dent unions are retreating into effi- and disillusioned by the failure of the NUS leadership to stand up to them. of Labour
movement. through which students can build links with other socialists in practical activity, The open structures the Socialist Movement is developing can also enable students to participate in a range of discussions on wider is- sues which we so often absent from Mass action against loans, Linking with the labour movement, is the only with a vengcance as actual legislation on the proposals begins to be dis- The Socialist Movement can play an important role in these devclop- ments, as an exciting, dynamic left force in the labour cussed in Parliament. student politics, ganisations as part of what they see as they have as yet no organisation or clearly delined political identity). As the name suggests, this covers a broad spectrum of political views, hut they are on the whole pair of an apolitical ing hard to serve students* immediate needs within the parameters set down by the Government -cheap beer, wel- services etc, and shunning politics and especially political or- wrong with NUS. They consistently find themselves allied with NOLS The intemal decay and political barrenness of much of NUS can be drift in the student movement, work- against mass action. as politically bankrupt. The laxt year right, such as the eurocommunists This year's proposed loans campaign represents the nadir of this line of capitulation, the central slogan being Ridiculous (NOLS)) is more than ever revealed has witnessed a sharp fall in the num- Labor Clubs. election performances. The DL now relies on alliances with forces to its and various "independents' to keep Its strategy to combat the Tory of fensive has proved woefully inade- quate, more and more pursuing a line ideas No.I - Student Loans!', accom- dramatic internal schisms and of tactical retreat. ber of Functioning *Loans are not excluding still deliberately ridiculous, concept of education, alter the higher they
number of people involved. That situation in slipping things are SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 18. October 1989 Rebecca Flemming. strategy that will defeat the Tory al- tack, It is a strategy that must be fought for against the present NUS Jeadership: but the structures of NUS must not be ignored, for what we are working for is the largest possible mobilisations, the greatest and widest could beat be achieved with the sup- port of the leadership. The signs are thal the hureaucracy's grip on the moving in the right direction. and the women's and lesbian and gay campaigos that ensured that NUS had such progressive and radical policies Liberation and a woman's right lo However, the intemal culture of these campaigns has become stifling clearly seen in the development of the liberation campaigns. Previously one of the most dynamic sectors of the movement, forging ahead with new ideas, new debates and new struc- tures, it was the strength of these choose, long before other national or- on, for instance lesbian and tion. Loans are not ridiculous, they deliberately alter the concept of ready narrow corridors. It is the NUS However, the main opposition in dominated Socialist Students in to take control of NUS with a scries of strategic blunders - such as the "femocracy" debate, where SSiN sue- panied by a Heath Robinson illustra- wider layers of people from its al NUS - the Socialist Organiser- NOLS (SSIN), is in no better state. Having thrown away its opportunity higher education, excluding leadership who are ridiculous. wider layers of corridors. It is people from ridiculous" its already leadership who are the NUS narrow Page 20
ILP. NOLS. IWC, Clause 4, Labour Action for Peace, Militant, and the cial conference to discuss Labour'» programme, Peace, Jobn and Frocdom". This left programme was adopted by all sections of the Over half the conference delegates attended to hear Tony Benn. The RFMC held 20 meetings around the country between the end of August and conference, building support for the constitutional changes Bean himself became radicalised by his experience as a Minister. In May 1980, on the initiative of the TGWU, the NEC called a spe- party, including Callaghan. Yet the mont significant event of the con- ference was probably the lunch-time launch meeting of the RFMC. secing Labour's programme blocked hy a combination of senior civil servants and Labour's leadership. It wasn't until 1980 that Bean ac- Ten years in the life of the Labour TURNING FULL CIRCLE The downhili road to Brighton '89 LPYS. The Tribune Group refused to join. ari produced several bulletins. IN DEPTH Party The Labour governments of 1974-79 under Wilson and Callaghan To prop up his majority Callaghan made pacts with explicitly anti- working class forces: first the Liberals and then a deal with the Ulster were a disaster for the working class. The IMF, NATO and multina- tionals dictated policics - cuts in social spending, three years of wage- cutting social contract", and vigorous support for NATO (and Polaris). contemplate yet 'another fine mess', while Kinnock's FIRMIN chronicles the political changes since Labour As the Left at this year's Labour Party Conference careerist team revel in the latest poll figures, PETE The Last Labour Governments was last in office - and the role of the Left.
tually joined the Tribune group and lent his support to CLPD's The Commission report in June 1980 first raised the idea of the out with its proposal of 40 percent for the trade unions; 30 percent for tive responsibility, right up until the defeat in 1979, In 1981 he was not leader being elected by an electoral college, even though until then it had always been posed an election by conference, The left, organised in the RFMC, took a tactical decision to support it as the only realisti- The January 1981 special conference saw the left eventually win the PLP and 30 percent for the CLPs — against altematives giving a vir- tual veto to MI's. The key to this victory was the unity around limited Control of the manifesto hy the NEC was never won, despite being demands; he remained a member of Labour Cabinels, accepting collec- even a member of the LCC, widely seen as the 'Bennite" grouping. aims achieved by the KFMC. cally winnabic option. The final collapse came with the "Winter of Discontent of 1978 79, when section afler section of workers went into battle against the government's 5 percent limit on pay rises (which Labour Party con- From 1966 until the mid-70s, the Tribune group of MPs was the main opposition grouping in the party. I called for the whole party to ment and voted against many of its policics in parliament, whenever Frustration with the Tribune Group's purely parliamentary role and dissatisfaction with its holding back in its attacks on the leadership elect the leader and for the NEC to have greater control of the manifes ta. While most of its members were critical of the Callaghan govern- this was followed by a motion of confidence they buckled and sup ference and the TUC had both rejected in 1978). Left organisation ported the leadership. Unionists.
Shortly after the special conference of January 1981, the 'Gang of their CLPs and removal of their sole right to elect the leader was too how, Callaghan resigned as leader. The left fought for Michael Foot, passed in principle in 1980 and 1981; the nocessary constitutional Four' Labour renegades issued their Limehouse Declaration' and in March the Social Democratic Purty was formed. During the course of 1981, 28 Labour MPs defected. The introduction of accountability to Shortly after annual conference in 1980 bad adopted the principle of the election of the leader by the party as a whole, but not decided the deputy leader, to become acting leader pending the implemcatation of the clectoral college, but the PLP voted 2-1 to proceed with a full The Right desert - and fight back amendments were narrowly defeated. much. were factors leading to the founding and growth of now groupings in The Campaign for Labour Party Democracy (CLPD) held its first meeting at 1973 Labour Conference. Its statement of aims said that conference policy decisions should be binding on the Parliamentary Labour Party and urged the National Exocutive Committee to ensure that Labour's election manifesto accurately reflected policy an ex- The Labour Co-ordinating Committee, Conned in 1978 by former Pressure developed around three important areas of constitutional co-workers of Tony Benn's in the Department of Industry, grew guick pressed by conference decisions. CLPD grew rapidly in the late 1970s. Democratic reforms ly to a membership of 1,000. the 1970s.
Denis Healey, most associated with the 1974-79 governments, was: cloction. As a holding operation those left MP's who supported the con- ing against him. Most groups in the RFMC threw themselves into this campaign, with fringe meetings at every union conference and mass rallies around the country. So much was this campaign around policies rather than personalities that the campaign was maintained at the same Healey scraped home by 50.426 percent to 49.574 percent on the second hallot The votes of 4 more MPs in the second ballot would Page 21 still deputy leader. In April 1981, Tony Benn announced he was stand- high level even when Benn was ill and unable to participate. stitutional changes voted for Foot to keep out Healey. had a sitting Labour MP: the clection of the Leader and Deputy Leader change even before Labour lost the 1979 election. These were the right of CLPs to select their parliamentary candidate, whether or not they Mandatory reselection was passed in 1979. 1979 conference also set up a Commission of Enquiry to report not only on constitutional In response to the threat from this Commission of Enquiry, the left set up the Rank and File Mobilising Committee (RFMC), to continue the fight for the changes. On the initiative of Socialist Organiser (at that time the paper of the Socialist Campaign for a Lahour Victory) this included nearly all the left organisations in the Party - CLPD, LCC. by the party as a whole; and control of the manifesto by the NEC. changes but on the generai functioning of the Party. SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 18, October 1989
a second time and was endorsed by the NEC. Bur the damage was done. The media was given "open house" to attack Tatchell, not only as ship, slandered in the press and undermined by the Party NEC. editorial hoand: but the witch-hunt was by no means restricted to Militant supporters. Bermondsey CLP selected Peter Tatchell as its parliamentary action against the Tories, Michael Foot declared in December 1981 that Tatchell would never be endorsed as a Labour After a long and bitter campaign, Tatchell eventually won selection Foot's oventual endorsement of Tatchell meant that he was then pil- loried for backing down. The press began to speculate about Foot and a refusal to expel, a policy implemented by, for instance Islington South, which to this day considers Ted Grant and Peter Taufe to.be Because of Militant's legal actions, the Labour hureaucracy's legal advisers told it to restrict expulsions to the 5 members of the Milifant parliamentary candidate. Provoked by an SDP MP. quoting from an ar- ticle by Trichell in London Lahour Briefing which argued, for extra- an exiremist, but also for his homosexuality. Disowned by the lender- Foot's disasters - then Kinnock arrives Tatchell lost heavily to the Liberals in early 1983. EPTH members. SDP. The left had been making gains on the NEC ever since 1972, the NEC. Foot and his allies on the soft left? (Kinnock and Lestor) Reg (later Lord) Underhill, national secretary of the Labour Party, tually succumbed when Underhill, on retiring, released his report to the press anyway. In December 1981 the NEC commissioned Ron tory held a meeting at the ASTMS educational school in Bishops Stortford. A deal was done to present an appearance of unity in the face come - not a single constitutional change had been agrood, no specific have secured the depury leadership for Benn. 16 Trihunites (led by Neil But the night was far from finished, Not all of them had left with the controlling it since 1974, In 1981 the right were triumphant: 5 right wingers replaced 5 left wingers creating a fragile balance of power on had been agitating for the NEC to publish his documents on the "infiltration' of the party by Militant. At first refusing, the NEC even- Hayward, the new general secretary, and David Hughes, the national In January 1982 the NEC and Trades Unionists for a Labour Vic of the Tory government. The left on the NEC felt relieved at the out IN D Kinnock) abstained in the second roand, while 4 voted for Healey- The witch-hunt takes off agent, to investigate the activities of Militant. were able to frustrate many left wing moves.
proponent - argued that the left needed to cuddle up to Kinnock to "New Realion" had been growing in the unions - having sold out struggles against the Tories the union leaders declared that struggle bipartisan hodies and begin talking to the govemment. In the Lahour Party it meant they gave full support to Kinnock and his "moderation" The advance of new realism' was held up somewhat by the tivists as well as the left on the NEC. Kinnock gave as little support to SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 18, October 1989 When Labour lost the general election in 1983 with 27.6 percent of the Campaign Group) as deputy. Some on the left had their doubts about supporting Heffer because of his poor record on abortion rights. felt, rightly, that Kinnock was a "stalking borse" for the right. Kinnock won easily on the first round, with Meacher, the cundidate of the left The split in the left - between "hurd" and soft - widened alter Kinnock's clection. The "soft' left - led at constituency level by the the vote to the Alliance's 25.4 percent (Labour's lowest share of the immediately declared their support for the 'dream ticket of Coincidentally, Benn, the most credible left candidate, was unable to Eric Heffer stood as leader and Michael Meacher (then a member of for deputy, voting for him! A sign of the shift that had already taken place was that Kinnock got 91.5 percent of CLP votes, despite the fact LCC and with Ken Livingstone as its most prominent national keep him out of the arms of the right, ignoring the fact that he was ac- was futile and the unions needed to rescind their policy of haycolting miners' strike and the support given to it by union and constituency ac- Foot encouraged the promoting the SDP/Liberal Alliance, the party had been riven hy a Foot's political concessions to the Tories were shown mort around government to send the Task Force, and Labour competed with the Tories for jingoism. Nor was there a left campaign against the war, The first vote in the Commons on 20t May was afler 6 debates: only 33 vote since 1918) it was hardly surprising. The media had spent its time witch-hunt under an apparently lame-duck Icader, On top of all this Foot resigned soon after the election. Orchestrated by Clive Jenkins -which Just Kinnock and Hattersley, even before they declared they were standing! others disputed whether Kinnock should he supported on a later round (against the right's Poter Shore) if Heffer was eliminated, because they happened' to be meeting on the sarne day as Foot annourced his resig- Callaghan, the ex-leader, attacked Labour's policies on disamament. that he had been generally despised only a couple of years before. Kinnock's election widens Left split stand for election having lod his seat ufter boundary changes. and Moss Evans, the TGWU & ASTMS executives the Falklunds/Malvinas war in April 1982. Labour MPs voted against the govemment. tually leading the right's counter-attack. Its founding meeting in October 1982 had 300 delegates from CLPs and unions it adopted a policy of non-cooperation with the register the trap of its own policy of the sovereignty of conference decisions, and was never to be the same force again. The LCC described the resulting in the resignation of its chair and secretary and the eventual formation of the Campaign Group of MP's in December 1982, hacked by 23 MPs. Tribune newspaper became for a period a paper of the far Despite this, the fight to prevent a witch-hunt continued. Militant it- self held a rally of 3,000 in September 1982: hut the Labour Steering Committee Against the Witch-hunt', despite non-Militant Figureheads, was it Militant front Militant's chosen method of fighting the witch- hunt, as in later years, was through cout action. The only other thing Within a week of the Bishops Stortford meeting the organisation selection of Boh Clay and, shortly after, the NEC rejected Pat Wall's The Hayward-Hughes report, presented in June 1982, asserted that ceptable to.conference. Instead they proposed that the party set up a porters could not be members of the party. The decision to establish the register was opposed by most CLP and regional conferences, bur The issue of the register certainly had one of the desired effects of confusing the left, which failed to organise either for a united fight against the register or for the crucial NEC elections in 1982. Labour Liaison "82 - an attempt to unite those prepared to continue the fight against the right's offensive - collapsed in disarray. By this time Tribune and the LCC were effectively calling for a witch-hunt of some The right won a clear majority in the NEC clections, and then used its majonty to remove the left from all important NEC committees, Disarray on the left accelerated after the passing of the register (by 5 million to 1.5 million votes at 1982 conference). CLPD was caught in The Tribune Group voted 39-27 (with 6 ahstenbions) to register, Recause Militant's failure to organise seriously with all those op posed to the witch-bunt, "Labour against the Witch-hunt" was formed. move against Militant or parliamentary candidates had been agreed and expulsions seemed a long way off. Reality showed that it was the left sub-committee of the NEC ordered Sunderland North CLP to rerun its pulsion, calculating that such an obvious witch-hunt would be unac- register of recognised gwups within the party, and made clear from the start that Militant would not be eligible — and therefore Militant sup- Militant was "a party within a party", hut avoided proposing simple ex- register as a shambles, but still decided to register. they were interested in was self-advertisement. that was prepared to 'mark time", not the right. of the more secretive sectarian organisations' carried with the support of the anions. selection for Bradford North. with Foot abstaining. Page 22 TelL
The left did win on the indemnification of ference contained no were partnership that will effective unions, lesbian and gay rights and remor- ing MPs conscience clause on abortion, but •A Partnership. A New Britain put for- ward at 1985 con- mention of socialism: new progranime there Icadership. instead Whitty form: New the IN DEPTH of the edicative nature of plained from the rostrum of miners" delegation. In 1984 No better example exists sunggle than the changer Lin by their strike. In 1983a exual harassment by the supported ine strike as he could get away with - heing unable" to speak at miners rallies on more that one occasion and brought about in the miners Labour conference delega- wotan delegate had com- line "picket NUM denouricing violence!
phrases like "partner- ship not confrontation' and a new sense of resolution calling for favour of black mem- favoured Black Sections on the sume basis as the YS and women's sections, Committee was set up which was lo he un- Advisory hem bad been referred to the exocutive A a "Black in 1983 common purpose, positive action and Asian but instead Back majonty positive: Cookson зете pergratses in the North of Prevention of Terrorism Act ter was passed by 3 million to 2.5 million against NEC forward by women and Police behaviour during the minere demands for democracy put black sections, and British 1984 conference passed against the advice of the strike, against local authority und the use of no-jury courts, plustic bullets and su- Ireland. Yet although the lat- often the withdrawal from Ireland. und opposing resolutions, NEC. condemning forward by und radical NEC. cats.
up even a show of fighting the witch-hunt other than by court action, and have a purely advisory role organisational" The Kinnock's attack on Liverpool Council was the clarion call for the next major stage of the witch-hunt. Liverpool District Party was porters of Militant) eventually expelled between May and October 1986. This time the LCC on Merscyside led the witch-hunt, while Lahour Against the Witch-hunt "86 was formed to fight the spread- ing purge, but met problems from two quarters. Militant, having given was willing to do no more than send speakers to meetings and con- suspended by the NEC in Noverher 1985, and 9 members (all sup: others on the soft left allowed themselves to be blinded by the accusa- BAAC was baycotted by Black Sections and the left, and collapsed. only. elected matters A renewed witch-hunt Peter Tatchell: a 1983 victim of Foot's attempts to pander to bigots and the medis tions of intimidation'. the policy-making role of the NEC, handing it over more and more to black on the NEC, The break-up of this unity und the policy gains of levy paying trade unionists have been disenfranchised at a stroke, but In the late 1970s and early 1980s the left had operated as a cohesive the right accelerated from the end of 1984 and during 1985. with Sawyer, Blunkett and Meacher (still a member of the Campnign Group) increasingly voting with the right. Kinnock began to dismantle to introduce a form of 'one member one vote" for parliamentary selec- tion was, to the surprise of many, defeated Not only would political the utter hypocrisy of the move was shown in that it was only to apply The Miners lose and Kinnock hits back Gir advice, only 450, 000 votes British The frst serious attempt the Shadow Cahinet. lor to sitting MPa! cast withdrawul were:
Page 23 This went alongside the smashing up of LLC, and its replacement Lahour govemment. The shift to the right continued with Eric Heffer ferences. The new factor was that sections of the 'hard left" disputed the need to defend Militan, claiming that, because of its reactionary positions on women's libration, the Irish struggle and black and les- bian and gay politics, it was not really on the left. Insidiously, the defence of Amir Khan and Kevin Scally who had been expelled from Haltersley's Sparkbrook constituency was counterposed to the defence in May 1986 with Labour Left Liaison, by those intending to fom an alliance with the "soft left" (or, at best, its "hard" end), Socialist Action In 1986, Kinnock concentrated on his programme for a night wing losing his NEC place. The CLP's now voted 2-1 in favour of expul- of Militant supporters. conference to attack the NUM and Liverpool Council, one of only two declared ufter the conference that the left has never heen stronger and the prospect of a radical left wing Labour govemment has never heen greater', and even Militant Jamarconference remained fully hehind radical socialist policies?. Livingstone, the darling of the LCC after his sell-out of the rate-capping struggle, was describing Kinnock and LCLGR, Labour Women for Ireland, Labour Committee for Treland, With the miners" strike over. Kinnock used his platform at 1985 Labour Councils which had attempted to carry out conference policy on resisting rate-capping. Kinnock's speech dominated, yet Tribune Militant and Labour Ierald of the left papers ignored this call. LLC In early 1985, after a call by Labour Briefing. Labour Left Co-or- dination was formed involving Breling, CLPD. Black Sections. Socialist Viewpoint, Socialist Organiser and Unite & Fight. Only Look important small steps around support for particular issues. SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 18, October 1989
reaffirming left policies, to the outrage of the right of the LCC and Marxism Today. But again this consisted only of demands on a future Labour government, and despite holding one of the largest fringe meet- Phase I of the Policy Review, passed at 1988 conference, was bland, laying out Kinnock's basic principles in support of market socialism, "helping companies to meet the challenge of the next decade. But it war accompanied by constitutional changes which hadn't been discussed throughout the Party in advance, which removed important democratic rights. All party memhership applications were to be centrulined, the support of 20 percent of the PLP (increased from 10 percent) was to be necessary to nominate for a leadership challenge, and the NEC was given the right to impose by-clection candidates (the A 'National Youth Campaigns Committee" was set up on which the LPYS was to be a minority and which would elect the YS r- sentative on the NEC. The Black Sections resolution war yet again defeated, although it won the support of NUPE Victones were won against the leadership - a commitment to one woman on every shortlist produced by some members of the LCC eering committee and LLL rule change used to remove Martha Oramor an a candidate for selec- tion in Vauxhall in the search for a 'safe", white candidate who sup- ported the leadership's policies). ings, nothing more came of it. IN DEPTH The left did win some important victories - the demand for a future Labour government to set up a Ministry for women was passed against achieved 79 percent of the vole. Unilateralism was ruffirmed, together with yet another call for a "real" campaign around it, but conference ing the unsaid desire of the LLL for a new alliance of sections of the 1986 conference saw another new development. Lahour Women's Action Committee (formerly part of CLPD), which had been in the forefront of the campaign for democratic women's structures, switched to providing the most vocal support for a review of women's organisation to be carried out by the NEC/ WAC either had to build links with women in struggle and take up the fight within the unions or By this time the witch-hunt was so rampant, with CLE's and regions being given the green light to expel whoever they wanted, that the poor NEC claimed it was not able to cope with the workload of dealing with the cases and appeals and a National Constitutional Conmittee was set the NEC's recommendation, and the lesbian and gay rights resplation By this time Livingstone was bemoaning the fact that his 'realign- it could wheel and deal with union leaders to get 'the best possible" ment of the left" (around Kinnock) had failed, and was openly express From the consultation, Its leaders chose the latter course. Fudged the issue of nuclear power. forefront of the campaig hard left with the LCC.
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 18, October 1989 (which the NEC opposed); a national minimum wage and a 35-hour week; opposition to the government's Employment Training: and well in advance that it would be ditching umament. The debate al 1988 conference, though Kinnock would have liked to have won, result was dismal. Partly, this was inevitable in that due to the defeats in struggles against the Tories the left was weak. But there were other factors over which there was more direct control. The candidacy was declared Tale, so that although there were fringe mectings at many TU cursed throughout the TU branches in advance. The Campaign Group 1989 has seen the Policy Review with its acceptance of market forces, launched with a fanfare as if it were already conference policy. while existing conference policy (on lesbian and gay rights and Kinnock and most of the Party scc Labour's success in the Euro- clections and higher standing in the opinion polls as a result of the Policy Review. Yet it coincides with the Tories problems with the economy and the unpopularity of their next round of privatisation - water and electricity - together with their attack on the NHS. and the impending implementation of the Poll Tax. Labour would almost in The decline of the Alliance (and its component parts since it fell ing it no longer has a need to promote it against Labour's 'extremism". The other aspect of the unpopularity of the Tories, the upsurge in the class struggle, has produced no support from Kinnock, who told the railworkers to call off their strike, and has refused to support even the The watch-word in the Labour Party during most of the 1980% has been that the left shouldn't "rock the boat", that we have to maintain on their tenns - the "unity of the graveyard" where the membership are Everyone knew that Phase II of the Policy Review was to be the crunch, Kinnock signalled Labour's commitment to unilateral nuclear dis- ship in 1988 was a welcome opportunity to organise opposition to the Policy Review and rampuit new realism. Meetings around the country drew large audiences and breathed new live into left groupings. Yet the conferences, there was not time or the campaign to get the policies dis- itself was divided on fighting the election, with many prefering to try apart) is down to Labour stealing its 'moderation" and the media feel- Party unity in order to win elections. The right only accept Party unity The Benn/Heffer campaign for the Icader 'safest and most popular of industrial action such as the narses. unilateralism was reaffirmed, unilateral nuclear disarmament) has been ignored. Some Conclusions evitably have risen in the polls in this situation. merely tested the water. id build an alliance with the soft left. should now be utilised by the left "The upturn in the class struggle the circle and enable us to fight to bring In new forces to break and defeat the right wing" now felt it opportune to go for the long-expected frontal attack on In 1985 Hattersley had called for, and got, unanimous support for a given by Lesbians and Gays support the Miners'). 1986 conference: Prior to 1987 conference a 14-point statement for "left unity" was The 'review" of the LPYS saw Socialist Youth dropped, regional vance which was somewhat soured by the witch-bunt by the leadership of Sharon Atkin, who was removed as a candidate by the NEC for the After 4 years of pushing the party to the right and the witch-hunt, Kinnock only managed to increase Labour's vote in the 1987 election by 3 percent compared to 1983, 11 percent behind the Tories. He proceeded to blame the defeat on the hard left, gays and blacks, and policies; the two year Policy Review was initiated to by pass the nor- resolution committing the party to extending "social ownership'. By 1987 an NUM resolution calling for privatised companies to he re- nationalised was defeated by 3.9 million to 2.4 million and conference only pledged itself to taking back Telecom and Gas. 1987 conference also adopted the constituency cloctoral college for parliamentary selec- Rights meant that conference had its first ever debate on the issue in 1985, passing a resclution against the advice of the NEC on ending dis- crimination and unjust laws by 3.2m to 2.8m with the support of the TGWU and NUM (the latter influenced by their strike and the support clusion in the manifesto. In 1988, a resolation affirming existing policy, calling for the repeal of Clause 28 and a commitment to posi- port was won with only the electricians (EETPU) and engineers (AEU) general election. Eventually 4 Black MPs were elected, a major ad- Yet, even in this period policy gains were made by the left. Vigorous campaigning by the Lahour Campaign for Lesbian and Gay reaffirmed the same policy with unanimous NEC backing and achiev- tive images of lesbians and gays by Labour councils, 84 percent sup- ing 79 percent of the vote, well over the two-thirds needed for in tion, introducing one member one vote for individual party members. Defeat in 1987 - enter the Policy Review "crime" of stating the truth that the Labour Party is a racist paity: One of the major successes of this period was YS conferences and committees closed down and national conference cancelled. The age limit was reduced from 26 to 23, thus excluding half the membership. Militant and much of the left put up no real fight against what has virtually meant the the drive by Black Sections, supported by the left, to get black candidates selected for the mal policy-making process. death of the YS. Page 24
ship) this was closcly connected to their rejection of Labour's pay policy and inten- tion to bring in anti-union laws. But as this faded into the past and the reality of a class- the Labour Having never again attain the strength it did in Labour Party is linked to developments in goverment. But defeats and sell-nuts in the struggle against the Tories: The uptum in the class struggle should now he utilised by the left - striggle Tory govemment emerged, these leaderships rapidly retreated. Democracy threatened to spill over into the unions, put- ting their own privileges in danger: and the leadership's moves to the right was to or- ganise seious resistance lo the Tories, rome- sanitized policy through the Policy Review he wants to make sure that the left can The past ten years have shown, above all, how much the fate of the left in the the class struggle. The impetus for the post- 79 changes came from disillusionment with Labour's policies in and employers reduced the confidence of the working class and removed the pressure on Labour and trade union leaders for adequate notably the newly launched Socialist Movement that has emerged from the Chesterfield conferences - to bring in new forces to break the circle thing they were not prepared to do, hasn't finished. to supporting and enable us really to fight and defeat the right wing. hasn't Kinnock altomative 1979-81. John Harl Back to Basics: You ain't seen nothin' yet! The dream duo of Kinnock-Hattersley still have more plans policies. prefer a Tory govermont: bur if the Tories are unpopular they are cially as such goverments have in the past proved more successful in disciplining the working class than the Tories during perinds of The strength of the left in the Labour Party cannot be separated from prepared to have what they consider a "safe' Labour govenment, expe- ported the democratic changes in 1979/80 and Tony Benn's deputy leadership challenge (many only under pressure from their member- the strength of the left in the unions. While many union leaders sup content with their role as canvassers and the In the PLP and NEC there have been those "lefts" prepared to criticine so long as this criticism could remain within safe limits - as volved organising wider forces or they were accused of 'rocking the boat", they beat a One of the weaknesses has been the failure to use the democratic changes won. Only 8 desclections of sitting MPs took place by the general clection of 1983, No clections at all When democratic machinery falls into disuse Kinnock's drive to remove all vestiges of left policies and left influence has been in line with the interests of the ruling class. They scion as it threatened their own position, in for leader and deputy leader took place be- ween 1984 and 1987, despite this being the period of the most rapid moves to the right. it is easier for the right to attack it. right get on with making policy. heightened class struggle disciplining the hasty retreat
Whose war was Behind the patriotic it, anyway? ballyhoo Don't mention the War! huge barrage of media hype commemorating the 50th Anniver- A deluge of more and less serious material on the War has of- fered old patriots fresh opportunitles for flag-waving, and the British capitalist class, now the authors of some of the most repressive anti-union and anti-immigration laws In the world, a chance to posture in the fraudulent role of historic defenders of that World War Two was a 'war for democracy", it is relatively Readers of Socialist Outlook can scarcely have avoided the Though It Is still not fashionable to oppose the general line sary of the outbreak of World War 2. democracy.
Page 25 timately there must be war: A large mass of historical ment of becoming Chancellor, many: From the beginning, his crisis-ridden German industry. could not be enough, Ul- evidence confirms that judge- Hitler started to ream Ger- programme had a double ob jective: to make possible the immediate pump priming of a under conditions of a sharp ment. Practically from the mo- The immediate causes war against Russia • As carly as 1931 Trotsky had predicted: if Hitler takes power, he will un- leash a war against the With hindsight, the British his- torian Trevor-Roper wrote in 1964: 'in order to realise his ultimate aim, the res- toration and extension of the lost German empire in the East, Hitler had always recognised that diplomacy Union. Soviet perialist lies and the positions of the Labour and Communist minority of marxist class fighters, mostly around the political banner of Trotskyism and the young Fourth International (founded 1938) took up the fight on many of these issues at the As a tribute te their fight, we reproduce here the marxist It what was the development of class struggle during and after easy 50 years later to make correct points exposing the Im- Parly leaders who threw themselves Into promoting the war ef- What tends to be overlooked is that a small but committed time and upheld the line of socialist principle throughout the answers to some of the key questions that arise: what caused the war? what was the correct line for socialists in relation to the war? and what were the lasting consequences? SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 18, October 1989 war years. fort.
FEATURES cause it understood - the point of view of its Had not Hitler claimed that he would guarantee power from completely and correctly so from own interests - that such only be an interlude onslaught by German imperialism against the British Empire as such. con- tinent of Europe, be- a domination " Crecheslovakia upward rush of profits (both of the mass of profit and of the rate of profit; and to prepare at some point in the future - not later than within ten years - an onslaught against the Soviet Union, in order to conquer for German imperialism in Eastern Europe the equivalemt The Lebensraum in question was by and large already mapped out by the Brest-Litovsk Treaty and the general annexationist trends of radical German imperialists and hig husiness interests at the time of World War One. The greater knowledge which the German bour- geoisie had acquired since then about Russia's natural resources, and the very progress of in- dustrialisation in the USSR, could only make these objechives both broader and more tan: of Britain's Indian empin.
minonity was resolved? London knew what had become of that pledge. question of the German Of course a war of imperialist conquest automatically imply a full-scalo European and plunder against the USSR
This meant war of conquest. And that type of Ernest Mandel though less ahead of the USSK than Hitler toms receipts of only 18 billion RM that year and 25 billion the next. A colossal build-up of public debt ensued. Inflation could less and Timothy Mason suggests that there was a direct link berween this crisis and the option terest payments on the national debt became a grave problem, and exports stagnated in spite of increased recourse to bater, the laws of reproduction of capital reasserted themselves, threatened unless a new and massive stream of material goods was brought into circula- ready stretched to the utmost. No more could casily he extorted from the working class, the Tower middle classes or the Jews within the Third Reich. The only solution was to exlend sive plunder outside of Germany's frontiers. (from his book The Meaning of the Second World War, Verso 1986, E6.95: this is also the SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 18, October 1989 But the race towards an all-out rearma- ment was not only reckless from a diplomatic and military point of view. It also represented a desperate gamble with the German coonomy itsclf. In 1938-39, the economy slid into a Lion RM in 1938-39 (which was to become 63 billion in 1939-40) was offset by tax and cus- in favour of Blitzkrieg in 1938.39. For as in- severe contraction of the economy tion. But German output capacities were al- the scale of physical production through mas- grave financial crisis. A huge budgetary deficit emerged: public expenditure of 55 bil source of the following extract) Hitter: "quite deliberately chose to attack USSR" less be contained. could reulise)... as July 1940, I was his. No outside force was World War was overwhelming - in contrast to the major powers more or less blundered into lo recall that the uptum of the German cconomy engincered by the Nazi-led cabinet was used to amass stocks of raw material for Such measures unambiguously pointed to the growing probability, if not inevitability of war. As early as 1935 they were combined with a step by step liquidation of the provisions of the Versailles Treaty - in a build up of military power tochnically much in advance of that of the Westem powers (al- Likewise, Hitler quite deliberately chose to launch an attack on the USSR even before Britain was eliminated, ie., to spread the war ly new scale. This decision was taken as eady The responsibility of German imperialism in the outbreak and extension of the Second the situation in July-August 19J4, when all a world war without really knowing what they German imperialism's open in favour of open and large-scale aggression can only be understood against the hackgound of thie profound economic, social, political and moral crisis which shook German bourgoois socicly from 1914 on. There is no need to recount that history here. For our purposes, it is sufficient was from the start decisively weighted in favour of heavy industry, machine tools and road-building. All available foreign exchange the eventuality of war. At the same time chemical industries were developed with the accountable for it, although other powers in- geographically and militarily on a qualitative substituting man-made for through their own actions and reactions, Facilitated there le respect the British Empire was not worth the paper it was flucnced and risked war with Britain by attacking Poland on 1 September 1939. From 3 September long-term objective of preventing a hostile of the Nazis, The latter would certainly have preferred to maintain their various adversaries and knock them out or neutralise them one by one. To coax Czechoslovakia and Poland into bocoming reluctant allies of the Hungarian type in a war against Russia But that was only possible if important curred in these countries, and if they ceased to tent British) imperialism. This in tur was possible only through the consent or passive resignation of Paris or London to German Hitler tried to achieve that objective step by step between 1935 and 1939, through a ments, of blackmail and military pressure. ses between 1934 and 1938 (remilitarisation nexation of the Sudetenland). But their failuc was ensured once the German army occupied From that point onwards, British im- perialism (taking a reluctant French ally into tow) was determined to resist by force any Hitler knew this. But he did not want to forego the advance in modern weapons he still enjoyed for a couple of years. He deliberately 1939 onwards, he found himself at war with Britain and France, as a result of that con- British imperialism was committed to the war, let alone a world war, at least not from the point of view of the particular economic Togic of Geman imperialism, or even within the framework of the particular political logic would have been less costly for German im- changes of bourgeois leading personnel oc- pragmatic combination of threats and entice. These manoeuvres scored a series of succes of the Rhineland, Anschluss with Austria, an- further German expansion in Eastern Europe. be client states of French (and to a lesser ex perialism than to have to hegemony on the continent Prague in March 1939. long-term objective scious decision... militarily first. Page 26
Was all the destruction pointless? To be sure, that interlude witnessed a new leap forward of the productive forces - the crease in the material wealth and average skill class, not to mention a big expansion in the divided as between the more and less developed capitalist countries, it enlarged the The material proconditions for a socialist of the social division of labour berweca third technological revolution - and a great in- and knowledge of the international working number of wage-carers. Even if the material and intellectual progress was very unevenly base from which world socialism can be built. world of plenty and a global withering away 'bosses" and 'bossed' were much more con- siderable in 1970 than in 1939, let alonc 1914. FEATURES The legacy of World War Two many. Material resources capable of foeding. clothing, housing, equipping all the poor of The legacy of destruction left by World War Two is staggering. Eighty million people were killed, if one includes those who died of starvation and illness as a direct result of the war - eight times as many as during World tally destroyed, especially in Japan and Ger- this world were wasted for purely destructive tural land converted into wasteland on a scale not wilnessed since the Thirty Years War or Was all the destruction pointless? Has in- War One. Dozens of cities were virtually to- purposes. Forests were tom down and agricul- the Mongol invasion of the Islamic Empire. (..)
physical survival of humanity is similar to the deed solved nothing. Le. remoted none of the self. Hitler has disappeared, but the tide of way (if World War III can bo air, seas, water and forests pose to the very In that sense, the Second World War in- hanic causes of the intensifying crisis of sur- vival of human civilisation and humankind it- destructiveness and barbarism keeps rising, al- beit in more variegated forms and a less con- dynamic of competition, capital accumulation and impenalism incrcasingly turned against it- For the underlying cause of that destruc- tiveness remains. It is the threal of nuclear world war. humankind must pay for the delay of world for the survival of decaying ing. The tendency for the productive forces to be transformed into forces of destruction not only usserts itself periodically in crises of more il asserts itself unrelentingly in the fields of production, consumption, social relations, health (including mental health) and above all wars. This global price in human suffering, same time, however, the price capitalism, becomes more and more frighten- over-production and world wars. More and succession of local' death and threats to the very physical survival They are even more so in 1985. in the uninterrupted for the temational capitalism emerged from World not only structurally, but even conjuncturally? Many observers would have categorically denied such a statement ten years ago, when it seemed that in contrast to the inter-war period, perienced Iwo decades (in the Anglo-Saxon countries, nearly three of unprecedented growth, interrupted only hy minor recessions: and long historical period of high levels of War Two with all the fundamental contradic- the intemational capitalist economy had ex- material standard of living of the toiling mas tions which led to the conflict unresolved and impressive ses in the imperialist countries.
Ernest Mandel weakened its grip, the instinctive response of pendently and take local power into its own 'centre", with all the destructive bours in the face of growing resistance and the working class was to reorganise inde- self, ie. boomeranging from the "periphery" potential this expansion and self-assertion har- defiance from millions, if not hundreds of mil- Lions, of human beings. Trotskyists and the War Europe which, if successful, could swiftly des- tabilise his own bureaucratic grip on the Soviet working class. Stalin was also at pains of humankind is agan staggenng. It outsenps First or Second "The perversion of human consumption profit-oriented standardised mass production is imposing a growing burden of illness and death upon humankind... And the threat which poisoned and human wants through anything seen during the World Wars. At the start of the war, political adherents of Leon Trotsky and the Fourth Interna- tional, who insisted on continuing the Today it Is obvious that the twenty to twenty live years of the postwar boom were only an interlude, a "long expansive wave" of the capitalist conomy following the long depression' of the inter-war period, which will itself be followed hy • 'long depression" of even longer duration than the 1913-1939 period.
haps best summed up in the following