Ditching the dispossessed AFTERTUEELECTTON From the left. Canpaign: group meriber Livingstone, and (most Ironically) Kinnock: Kinnock(ismy has Bailed spectacularly on both counts. And of course. supporters of the Brian Sedgenors has weighed in. Promoting interest in the cronomy at the expense of con- he blamed too for doing just the opposite. More percept- ive political commentators might Hunk that for minority rights. ceri Labour supporters to drop these issues. wiscly when vou say that Labour loer the by quesrions about political obscssions" and "gestures" i that it is our alleged obsession THESE BASS people in the Lübour Party bod rection because it was too interested in its own inward-looking chessons, and in ge The right answer to the kind of poll-peering and soul-searching signalled with anti-racist with equal opporrunities. sture politics!
DURING THF MINERN STrike great political rainiy ar a rank and he level with women divides seemed to have been travelled, cer is Crucial hilding supportamong it for the demands of Militent can continuc to argue ar they aiways have, and likely always will, that the unity uf the working class is empharically not built by its most oppressed sections concer with all those issues thar interest 1s leshian and gay rights and, though to a lesser with disabilitics is the problem. in short, our and anci-soxist policies, that our gesture on support for peuple "okemstic exren, vur
against pit closures, lesbrans and gays supe Lous 10 the mining communities forging impossible. The developments sent shock- port the miners groups and the black delega- links that shordly befori would have seemed waves throoghiot the NEM, the political Our in the party ranks, activists once galv- unised to support for radical policies by the during Livingstone's leadershup of the cut) strike, and in local govcrument (particularly are rethinking and realigning themselves. positive developments during the miners much less the working class, lost us the elec- tion, Our there, people are only interested in getting their muncil house repaired or sold The consenius on His is surprisingly — hot of course don't affect the electorate — The Bit. James Dorantiallex
riod of polițical retrear, and when the focus is whole fand with all the changes that the mor difficult, and she opportunities Activist, Cresh Irom an election defeat. evervbody but them and that black lesbians fair charlading, with the encouragement of policies 1% SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 1 SeptemberiOctober 1987 workers in snaggle to the working class as a Thatcherian has wroaght in ity, the task inall by voters that Tabour scems to carr abour to ditel them'— ar lens unril the bread and lariscape there at least scemcd to shift and all sorts of possibilities open up. But in a pr- moved from a section of politically advanced where they were told on too many doorsteps get to the top of the concil housing list, are the press and the party munagers, that the best tung to do with impopular' more limited. triersial and urpent. The Tories and their The deleas of those struggles, followed by. another devestating election defear for the dowy possibility (and possibly an invention or the media and the polls), is now perceive! The question — did nur suppon for cven, 'are minority rights causes inberently unpopular with the majority?, is hase, con- media ullies ure increasing their aucks on black people in particular (encouraged by the successful hagn-profile racist element to their clection campaign) and on lesbians and gay men, while the Labour Party (incloding Labour Party, has left many constituency and trade union activiss utterly demora- lised. The Tondon effect', formerly a shu- minority rights lose us the election?" as a rcal and major prohlem The question- men, nent, along will Gavin Taird of the ABU, B ticular, Sinen Tabour lost the election he has in parliamen — by setting up a social club in the House for the working dase? members: Sawyer, Hewitt), have been quick to pin the On the right, Lie most outspoken expo- Joe Ashton MP. Before the election be was jging in Fleet Street's chorus of condemna- don ofthe London Labor Party's interest in equal righs for leshians and gav men, in par- murned his hand to pursuing the class struggle Teadership (Whitty. blame too — if a little more carchully, by identifying the presentation, if mor the gou- Predictably; the managers and thr rea (white, made manual workers prelernod). tire explicitly, as the problem. ligners in lue party hrarl: 28
hysteria hardly met with robest opposition racking the press hysteria, Kinock attacked Bur of course were is a much deper fal- lacy revealed in the argument thar people openly by Joe Ashton's sick joke about sett- ing up a 'working class' caucus in parlia- ment Joe Ashton's caucus would of course be entirely male, whice, beceroscsual, with un average age of over 50. If Joe Ashton thanks that's what the working class looks have goue too far" in anti-racist und anti- sexist policics — a fallacy revealed very like, then he is even more ignorant and marrow-minded than in sccus at first sighs! Jue Ashton and his ilk mischivously and maliciously counterpose the inrerests of the from the Tabour leadership. Instear AFTER THEELECTION its victits: debatabie. But chey do Bly in the face of the emerging consensus that Labour can't wir minorities The more interesting question is Whether such results can be taken as an in- dication of positive support for. or even mle- racon of progressive sands on policies is the Labour vou — despin the outrageously afford' to be identilied with the oppressed On 4 simple electoral lovel Labour did badly because it failed to win tho core — scit- istcally speaking — and politically key, soc- tions of the wurking class Women vorces were targered much more Successfully by the Alliance. 149 of skilled workers have beeh lost to the Tories since 1974, and 195 ol'tra most campaigns waged against them. without marilying ins policics can it afford not to be? progressive measures on equal opportunities perly and (in local government) basic" ser- mainly those people whe wouldn't support anyway — who go further Dropping bur where it is seen as a solan to the party's ills. commitments on equal opportunities and anti-racism is not simply argued as a ramage limitation measure: it is elevared to the point abour printities, and how to build support for butter' issues can be tickled, presented pro almor as if it was the one thing holding Li- Twn main issucs. closely connecied, arr tent of support for, or opposition to. particu- political arguments central to the dehare: the facts about the ex- in the movement lar policies, and the There are others bour back in June. vices deuvered.
in a way which neither corresponds to spcial in the Labour Party raise the objection that undoubtedly rost votes among most oppressed to thosc of the 'working class From the point of view of socialist morality Even fdelcuding the most oppressed did cost some votes it would still be corroct to du it. Delending civil righrs in tire Uniced Srates in posr white racialist bigots. But few in the Demorraric Party, a capitalist party at chat, dued to rabe the abjection that supporting civil rigles in the sourhem United Staces cost the votes of poor whites. That poople stuld unt racist and anti-sexis policies havc lost votes, shows a deep-sealed political oppor- the Asliton type of argumicot is bankrupc. realies and is profoundly divisive. the 19009 LUTHSIL de unionists to the Tories ar the Alliance over that it was Labour's obsession with the oppressed which the samue period, Less Black people vored Li- bour than ever belore. Withour retaining, or rchuilding its black support, Labour stands to lose is ever-morc patchy base in London as genrrificarion and othcr demographical Jost Labour the election has been shown by all the scrious research on the motives of the questions that people made their basic voring decisions: But if Tabour did lose sotue votes because of commitment to the riglits of the cicetors. It was on far more general policy changes erode its traditional support there. *Can Labour afford not to be identified with the The fallacy of the argument London, with only a 1_656 swing in its favour As Jar as the facte are concerned, they're notoriously dillicult to establish and noco- riously casy to bend Labour did badly in (compared no 47e nationally), but then again not as badly as it did in the south cast as a Labour.
Therr are of course hackward seccors of working class prople vote Tory anyway. Bul Many of these you can sue a some inner city areas sections wifthe white working class whose environ ment and licing standards have declined, op- These are the kind of people who provide sume of the ham of SDP support in a consti- lucacy like blington South, or some of the whin ased to vote Labour but have becomr ernments and right wing local Tabour coun- posing unri-racist and anti-sesist policies. Ofice diese sectors include many people disillusioned with Labour in government, and tor mabiliss of successive Labour gov- Bur despite the problem of white workers the working class whe can he whipped up be base df support for the Tahcrals an Liverpool. cils to solve any of their problems policies. bind reachionary oppressed, which is possible in London, the pelicies and responses of the party leadership aud tie right wing bear a lor of the responsi- Before die GLO and Met counties were abolished in 1985, Jeh: Labour authorities scope of community mobilisation over Ines Like rulecapuing bowed it. But alter auli- tion in 1985, the tight wing modia raised Anti-racist and anti-scist policies of conrer The Kinnock leadership, however: instead local authorities toca new pitch at hysteria. Gigured promincarly in this anti-tiny Left' their campaign against the Toomy left" were in general highly populur. oppressed? crusace. hility. whole. And a number of left candidates got good results — particularly Jeremy Corbyn, vase Ilington North constituency is part of the socialist republic of Toony Icft Islington, Also encouraging was the result of Chris where he increased his majority by 107.
29 ppposed so anti-racist and anti-scsist poli- CKs, You Cannul create the basis for future vaews and ditching the oppressed. You can ouly create that busis by sranding up to right wine media watch hunts and by highung your ing class living sandards all round, a poley fundamental sense counterposed to those of Kinnock and the right wing have not only failed to do this. working cluss unicy by capitulating to their corner. The Kinnock leadership, oF course, Te is also necessary to make anti-racist and anti-soser policies a component parr of an rests of the most oppressed are not in any capable cit showing in practice that the inte overall socialier policy aimed at raising work: the mass of the working class. have done the opposite but are opposed to it. Ja 1985 conference speech attacking sensc, to a large degree wont along will it. and urilised it as an oppormanity to attack left extremests in local government Kinnock's Malents role in liverpool was symholic of the whole process: Moreover, the witch hunt inside the party against the left only cocou- DIL The party leadership helped wo consruct the media campaign was based on siraple lies of confronting this right wing hysterical non- ruged the press in its attack on theleft in local the mythology of anti-sesist and anti racis — for example the famons one that Haringer council had banned the singing of Baa, baa black sheep in schools. But the lies and women, black people, lesbians and gay then. policirs policies as Moony/ and extremist goveritment, especiall tumed in the southern half of the same And support for Labour in Mauchester, where the city council has a much publicised with five Labour Mes representing the city: bour in their constituencies or increases t0 borough, morr than doubling bis slim 1983 majority of 363. Amning Tabour's worst res - not surprismply - were constituencies where local (Labour!) councils lesbian and gay unit with high profile poli- potters — were abo elected, with in most had imposed massive rate rises, — as in En Manchester is now complerely Tory-free Smith, the only our gay MP, who was re Four black Mis — all black sections sup cies, increased by berween 1.7 and 5.9% cases minimal swings recorded against La- SOCIALIST OUTLOOK nG 3 Seplembel/October 1987 Ting and Waltham Forest. ults an Londim -
government: the