mortem? Labour party conference 1989 was everything you could have feared - and more.
The party emerged from this conference with a policy on the unions combining Wilson's In Place of Strife together with plans for an Industrial Relations Court. Unilateralism was defeated - and while Joan Ruddock and Ron Todd argued for it, they made it clear that once conference had decided, their mouths would be tightly buttoned, ditching principles for hollow-sounding unity. While the passing of the motion to reduce defence spending was a victory, we can be all too certain that it won't be part of Labour's manifesto for the general election, which will be the most right wing for decades.
On the poll tax, the voices of the million people in Scotland who have not paid, and the thousands upon thousands in England and Wales that have not registered were scarcely heard, as the leadership's so-called strategy was rubber stamped. On the economy, we heard a range of platitudes which do nothing to address the depth of the crisis, the impact this is having on working class living standards and the very ard/Report real problems that will face any future Labour govemment. We can be sure with these policies that any 'honeymoon' period of such a government will be short indeed.
The position of the leadership that Labour women should been seen but not heard was sold to conference on the basis of a phoney debate about quotas. Increased involvement of women at all levels of the party is something that Labour women have long fought for, but such demands have always been framed as part of a campaign for power for the collective voice of women through the women's conference. It was particularly galling that the Labour Women's Action Committee, originally formed to fight for precisely these demands has now reduced its strategy to one of fighting for quotas without power, and that even on this question they were prepared to remit their resolution to the NEC rather than let conference decide. It was left to Women for Socialism to provide the only voice for socialist feminists raised at Brighton
In a sense, the most depressing thing about the week were the votes that opened and Page 6
FEATURES Terry Conway closed it - on the question of party democracy itself. In the opening session, conference voted that the Policy Review would take precedence over resolutions; thus placing power in the hands of the NEC and Shadow Cabinet rather than the membership. And the Ed monds proposals, which closed the week represent a further attack on democracy; weakening the links with the unions, consigning the CLPs to the role of fundraisers and electioneering (though probably only through telephone canvassing - talking to people face to face is getting a bit radical these days!) The closing down of democracy in the labour movement, and the threat that Labour's or ganic links with the unions could be broken is one of the key issues facing the left inside and Following Wilson's footsteps to Number 102 Nell Kinnock outside the Labour Party: if carried through it would represent a major defeat for the working class as a whole.
But despite this, which is what most a you will have seen on TV screens and in the papers, there were some positive moments for the left. On conference floor, as well as the partial victory on defence, there was the magnificent success on Lesbian and Gay rights which the Labour Campaign for Lesbian and Gay Rights fought so hard to achieve. And on Black sections, we saw an increased vote for the composite on self-organisation, a resounding defeat for Hattersley's racist nonsense, and the Morris proposals lost by only 648,000 votes, after a hard hitting debate in which the left clearly won the argument. There was clearly disquiet about much of what was
Left on the fringe: Eric Heffer decided, especially amongst CLP delegates, and many still warmly applauded left wing speeches from Scargill and Benn There were other successes too. The Per- gamon lobby of Maxwell's beano attracted the noisy support of over 300 people, after the dis- pute had been raised on conference floor by both an NUM delegate and Brenda Dean from SOGAT. Pergamon. strikers, together with striking CPSA members from Wolverhampton jour- nalists from Aberdeen and sacked workers from the Essex Chronicle used the oc- casion of conference to reach new layers of support for their struggles. On the fringe, while the meeting addressed by Sinn Fein MP Gerry Adams stole the limelight (and attracted many delegates), there were successes. A packed other meeting organised by 'Voices for Salman Rushdie' heard Gita Saghal from Southall Black Sisters, Maryam from CART Narendra Makanji from Black Sections and Mike Margusee from Labour Briefing argue the case against racism and fundamentalism. The high point of the meeting was the repudiation given to Keith Vaz, who the previous evening had misused the Black Sec- tions platform to denounce Voices as racist - with the sole effect of ensuring a large atter- dance at this meeting. Vaz challenged Voices to debate him in Leicester - a challenge that was happily accepted, In general however it was clear that atten- dance at left fringe meetings was down on previous years. Many activists decided they had better things to do with their energies than sit through Neil's stage-managed show. SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 19, November 1989
TOF PREDENT Androw Wiard/Report The campaign to defend unilateralism was left to pater out Labour Briefing held a useful fringe meeting on the Sunday of conference with an all-women platfonn, at which Mandy Mudd addressed the question many are undoubtedly asking - why socialists should be in the Labour Party. She pointed out that what was crucial was not the policies of the party but its relationship with the organised labour movement.
The Women for Socialism fringe meeting provided a useful forum for labour women to share ideas and experiences - and called a picket of the Labour Life meeting the following day which was to be addressed by that defender of children's rights, Stuart Bell.
A packed meeting on Thursday lunchtime listened to a range of speakers from the Campaign Group of MPs assess what the week had meant for the left. Two speakers for the floor argued that the responsibility for Livingstone's removal from the NEC - the only defeat those speakers seemed concerned with - lay with the supporters of what has be come known as the 'twin-track' approach of building the left both inside the Labour Party and linking up with campaigns and movements outside.
This hardly veiled attack on supporters of the Socialist Movement, on those who had been fighting the class struggle rather than being obsessed solely with inner-party organisation, gained scant support from either platform or audience. It is not a matter of continuing along two unconnected lines of march: a recognition that to rebuild the strength of the left it is necessary to build support in areas where Labour Party membership is not strong - the trade unions and mass campaigns - is surely now indispensible if Kinnockite new realism is to be confronted and defeated.
For the lesson above all that must be learnt from Brighton is that the time for SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 19, November 1989
FEATURES
For the cost ofone Trident we could have a decent National Health service Terry Conway 'Voices for Salman Rushdie* resolution-mongering for its own sake is long past. The victories of lesbian and gay rights and the lesser one on black sections were achieved by campaigns which have strong links with movements outside the party; many of those on the lobby of conference called by LCLGR for example are not party members.
In addition it is clear that following conference, many activists have thought of tearing up their party cards, and sadly some have already done so. To stem that tide, the injection of the sort of debates on strategy that have been developed through different parts of the Socialist Movement - be it through the November trade union conference in Sheffield, Women for Socialism, the Irish policy group or whatever - can give new confidence to socialists that they are not alone and that links can be made with activists both inside and outside the party.
It is true of course that the left inside the party needs to be better organised The campaign -if such it can indeed be called -around left candidates for the NEC this year was pathetic, and not helped either by the lack of democratic debate at the base of the party about who should be on such a slate. And on unilateralism, it was scandalous that so few organisations were prepared to in-
volve themseives in the campaign launched by Labour Briefing around defence of party policy on this issue, that in the end it petered out through lack of support. In the light of all of this, it is ex- tremely positive that the Socialist Movement has taken a decision to begin to organise its supporters in the Labour Party on a systematic and public basis. Steps towards this were taken both at a meeting held at conference itself and a follow-up in Birmingham the subsequent weekend, and plans are now being laid for a full launch conference early next year. Such a forum will allow the left in the party to develop policies on a more coherent basis and so raise the often pathetic level of political discussion in the party as a whole. It will give confidence and support to committed socialists who feel isolated in right-wing wards and constituencies. It will allow a full debate on the platforms and slates we want to support for the NEC and at regional level. Although two years is a long time in politics, it does look ex- tremely likely that the outcome of general election will be a Labour government in office. But a govern- ment elected on the policies passed at this year's conference will launch massive attacks on the working class which has just voted it in - and which will have high expectations that it will act it its favour. The resultant clash seems set to make the Winter of Dis- content seem like industrial peace by com- parison. In this situation, the political fights within the party will explode in a way which far ex- ceeds anything we have so far seen. If on the other hand, Thatcher were to manage another manoeuvre as she did with the Falklands war, or Labour to score another disastrous series of own goals so that Kinnock were to lose another election, again the battles in the party will intensify further. In either event, the idea that the fight for the soul of the Labour party is over, that socialists can afford to put their energies solely into working in the unions or in mass campaigns such as fighting the poll tax, are extremely short-sighted and only play into the hands of the 'new realists'. From every conceivable point of view, the "win-track approach which uses the methods and lessons of the class struggle and takes them into the party, that understands that the working class wants answers at the level of government as well as in terms of trade union demands, is one that every socialist must sup port and fight for. Terry Conway Page 7
Media recognises