Bring out your Shibboleths" criminatory immigration controls'!. Gon against lesbians and gay men. in the single issue campargns. traception are omalled, Les. jobs in Britain as it improves lives in Africa. colonialist starting point, no socialist foreign On Southem Africa, while correctly supper- ing sanctions, nothing is said about the role of British capital in supporting the Botha regime, let alone any proposals for labour movement action now against apartheid. On the EBC, the document makes explicit what has been clear for some time: there is no longer a commitment to withdrawal Instead we are told that "Britain could not withuraw withouthuge damage to our cconomy and ruined relations with koy trading partners'. Il iscritical of the unified market and other aspects of the Community's cconomic It is noticeable that a number of key politi- cal questions are completely missing from the talks about developing trade "which will create Asia and Latin America From such a neo- policy, but puts forward no cicar allomative. RES policy could conceivably be developed! FEATU Bryan Gould review condone in any way proposals for the state to to gonn the offensive on the question of trade main worry seems to he on this question of worker/management forums and it proposes greater stress be given to securing union recog nation rather than developing "alteratives 10 Irisclear from this, as well as from the many resolutions to party conicrence on the question of relors of the block vote, that the lett needs union democracy. On the one hand, we cannot interfere in the intemal running of the labour movement. But on the other tand, it is clear that there are major prohlems ahout the lack of in- volvementof trade union members in citective- ly determining policy or electing officials cither within the unions Meniselves or in relationship The section of the Policy Review which questration of assets, use of ex-parte injuns- But it asserts that it will strongthen the role oF ACAS. and enshrine in law the right to a licipation in the election of union executives. It wants to tinker with, hut notthrow out, the rules around secondary action, by making it harder for companies lo win court orders banning such It is true that there has been some contention on these matters within the policy review group itself, and that there are a serics of resolutions o party conference that would improve the review. However it is likely that the hasic ap- proach will be uphek! The most weighty resolution to conference, from the TGWU. cor- tainly doesn't reject the current proposals. Its to clect representatives who will participate in joint decision making. Thin, it savs, will in- crease motivation and company efficiency: And of course as so many workplaces are non- untanised it is necessary, if claims, to involve non-union members. The authors claim that these moves will complement collective bar- gaining: in fact their effect, if not their aim, would be just the opposite - to undermine trade union strength, extending trade union'-type On the question of legislation the document reiterates Labour intention to repcal only parl of the Tory's anti-union laws: It condemns se- tions and protection of scabs from disciplinary action hy unions after they defy a ballot strike hallot before a strikeas well as membership par- recognition and rights to non-union memhers. action by dividing up their firms artifically, collective hargaining. to the labour Party: vote.
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 9 October 1988 couldn'T find many doctrines or formulas: which had been around long cnough to get old Take the collective ownership of the means fudged than fundamental to parly policy and now under renewed attuck from Kinnock's In 1961 Labour had just lost Three elections in a row. There had been witch hunts of the left. The hierarchy were "ro-cxamining" Some of the party's founding principles, including links with the trade unions, and were asking themselves if the working class really existed any more There was a Liberal revival and there were moves to form an clectoral alliance always more "Clause Four' market forces socialism. of production with them. fashioned. What first threw me was that the supporters there were so many shibboleths about. 1 SHIBBOLETHS are very important in The dictionary says they are the old fashioned and generally abandoned doctrine So when the New Statesman's editonal recently urged Fabour's policy revisionism in the Policy Review further, on to new heights. *away from Labour's internal squabbles towards the concerns of the electorate: away from worn shibboleths towards fresh thinking about basic issues.. I decided to chock out of the Policy Review scemed to think that the Labour Party these days, and every Labour Party member ought to know or formula of a party or sect?. these shibboleths: what they are. of key questions: On nuclear disarmament it is the FEC. On the tirst of these, the key section come of US-Soviet negotiations will have a party conference supporting unilateralism, it is deals with international questions is alicast: vinually silent, other than to say that the out- Looking at the number at resolutions to clear that the Icadership is correct to recognizo that this will be onc ofthe most difficult aspects of existing policy to overturn. But the backdrop is here in this report, which emphasises the place of detence in Lahour's foreign policy and in particular upholds the role of NATO, which The issues which are supposedly dealt with in depth in this section of the Review are Aid, Development and Deht. Southern Africa and open about its failure to deal with a whole urray it claims improves relations East and West'! profound effect on Labour's future policy: Page 10
C. Guarta/Reflex for new "inlateral' quango poses ar Furopean level after the new Single European Act in Tinion leaders who scomed divided on some issues were largely agrood in ignoring the British class struggle, making no mention of fighting the huge job losses in Austin Rover, and giving only tokeristic support 1o the strik- ing PocO seafarers. But they were most of all agroed that Euro quangos offer bigger and tas- tier trec lunches. longer and more luxurious visits to fellow officials across the EEC: there level alter the tiew? Strange kind of 'left': Ron Todd the same time manoeuvring hehind the scenes to deliver the unanimous votc of the union's And as Fowler aimed to exploit divisions in the TUC by promptly putting the boot in and closing down the Training Commission, on which some TUC burcaucrats liked to sit with self who led the pack ofunion chiels in the hunt employers and govemment, it was Todd him- "left Executive members in favour of Kinnock Hattersicy for Labour's leadership: favour of expelling the laboration with Noran Fowler's outrageous (ET) scheme, he was at the withdrawal from col- EETPU and later in "Employment Training' TUC Hammond out - but TUC right wing rules EXPELLING the Electricians union (EETPU) from the TUC for breach of the Bridlington Agreement is like kick- Compared to the conscious strikebreaking creasing role as a convenient tool of anti-union employers, the fact that Eric Hämmond'S men beat rival hureaucrats to a few sigic-umon deals and "poached' a lew members of other busting role now being played by the EETPU. and carrying through their expulsion purcly on regarded agreement, this year's TUC Congress ensured that even with the departure of the hard right's guru there would be no real political Indeed Hammond's closest co-thinkers, the hierarchy, while plotting their own merger with ing PW Botha out of a social club for actions of the FETPU at Wapping and its in- By refusing to address the outrageous union- the most burcaucratic niceties of a widely-dis- AEL leadership, remain key voices in the TUC break from collaborationist politics. unions is a total irrelevance, poor table manners, the FETPU.
John Lister were more motions tabled on the 1491 changes than any other issuc on this car's Congress The scal of new rcalism was scorcly affixed with the rejoction of a resolution from the (elecor engineers' union (NCU) calling lor a policy al nationalisation. Insicad a resolution Irom the actoe of new roadism, the GMB, was carried, which called for legislation to ensure lions realtirming unilateralism, demanding a Ing on Thatcher to unpose sanctions against South Africa, there was no doubr that the hard right and new realists remain firmly at the helm. and long only for a chance to mend theirbridges • The opposition to the ET programme bould he used as a green light to build local and regional campaigns to expose the real na- ture of these schemes, keep them out af unionised workplaces, and fight so unionise those unemployed workers unlucky enough to • The decision to sponsor a national follwed up in every union and labour move- Page 11 Despite a superlicial left garnish of resolu phasing-out of nuclear power, and as usual call- demonstration against the Poll Tax must also be Two decisions however do offer campaign- ment body in the fight for a serious campaign. "consumer righis" from private corporations. ing openings for the left in the unions: he drafted into them. ugenda! extremists) rose to object. He pointed out trol of the means of production by the work- that the series of policy documents published and Values and above all the Policy Review) cal, and the general consciousness of consent A left-wing delegato talready being fanatics, cranks or that the resolution failed to propose the con- Webb, founder of Fabianism. replied to him that since there was so much work to do and so many resolutions to be con- sidered they did not want repeatedly, over and over again, to ring the changes on the old Old before their time and apparently failed - hut never tried or tested: I reckon these shib- Now, with Kinnock steam of bright young men listening to the media months before Labour Listened officially, it's pot surprising since the last Labour Party Conference (Aims Drop the unions. And unilateralism. Any vague notion you might have entertained about threatening capitalism. And package it properly too. Try calling it "moderising" the party - that way perhaps nobody will notice referred to by the Fabians at the time various- reflect policies for Labour advocated there: which characterises a true democracy.* boleths have just had a bad press! it's the oldest trick in the book. ly as "nonentities. wanted to delete it from the constitution); and the Party Conference (they pledged to fight They were hampered by a temporarily un- reliable block vote (the TGWU was lefl-led). so they compromised on the first with a fudge: but won the second. A new defence policy, *Policy for Pence was drawn up jointly by the NEC, TUC and PLP for "consultation" in the party and the unions. The right hegan to or ganise around it through the "Campaign for But there had already been a good deal of before it ever got onto the party membership It was the first resolution to be debated at propct, sifier it had adopted the constitution that survives almost intact roday, It concernod the rebuilding of the economy afler the war. and it proposed co-operation in production and distribution, the sympathetic approach 1o a healthy equality, the widest possible par- ticipation in power, both economic and politi- The party leadership then mounted an at- tack on two main fronts: Clause Four (they the unilateralist defence policy just passed by ment was accepted by the next party con ference, and the witch hunt of the left con The first conference of the Labour Party Democratic Socialism. Their policy docu SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 9 October 1988 of the content of Clause Four and fight again" to reverse it). In 1918, to be exact. tinued apace. rovising
HIP m - Black agenda EA for action
lo concentrate solidarity activity - Azania, Icast as part of the Chesterfield process. in tion ol the document is weaker than the rest in The section on Azanis (South Africa) is it- hued with a black consciousness approach, and ment. It takes up the thorny question of which organisations 1o support, and takes the statice that Witimately it will be for the people of Azania to decide which movement is to be their legitimate representative in government Wa must not he hullied, lectured or cajoled into sup- porting just one group lie: the ANC| at this Lastly, where does thiv leave the future for Black Sections? The increased marginalisation of the hard left has also seen receding chances of recognition for Black Sections. In this situs- General Secretary Bill Morris — for sciting up a Black Socialist Society - have emerged as an would be a real advance: hut as the Agenda the Executive of Morris's own union! The Labour's leadership unless backed up by real pressure from a strong left wing and powerful In many ways it is the Black Agenda itself which implicitly maps out elements of an aller- native Strategic option for Black Sections, not Black Sections themselves now.needtocon- centrate upon some sustained campaign work amand some of the proposals contained in the Dave Palmer SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 9 October 1988 is heavily critical of the Anti Apartheid Move- tion the proposals floated hy TGWU Deputy If granted, such a Black Socialist Sociely points out. it hasn't even vet been discussed bv proposals have little chance of acceptance by Palestine and ireland. Unfortunately this sec apparcotly attractive "intermediary ohjective. which Black Sections are also involved. Terns ol practical proposals: Narendra Makanji, chair of Black Sections Black Soctions. Black Agenda. juncture. community based campaign groups linked with the labour and trade union movement and open to individuals, the churches and tenants? On cducation, the