Left at the crossroads
EDITOR EVEN BEFORE this year's labour conference yields its crop of decisions, many on the left of the party are asking themselves "what next"?
One thing is clear: a fresh turn to the struggles going on in the workers' movement is the key to any long-term fightback against the right wing. And fightback there
There has been little mystery or suspense about the result of the leader and deputy leader elections. While some on the left may be dismayed at the size of the right wing majority - predictably bloated by block votes -they should instead draw some comfort from the fact that at least this year there has been a political challenge.
Only the Benn-Heffer campaign has stood out against the Kinnock drive to impose a new right wing package of policies and reduce the party itself to a apathetic docility. It was a key campaign. But there is no room for self-congratulation. It is now vital to go beyond simply "campaigning for socialism', to an active involvement in mass action if new forces are to be enlisted in the fight against Kinnockite new realism.
Recent NEC proposals that Labour party organisations should meet less often and make less demands on members to become active spell out the kind of passive electoral fodder Kinnock would like as a rank and file.
This is no accident: nor is it simply a device to create the best conditions to force through right wing policies (though the savage new package of rule changes designed to focus ever-more power with Walworth Road certainly do head in this direction).
Breaking down the collective functioning of the Labour Party fits in with the very essence of the 'new realism' which represents above all a regression to individualism, abandoning any collective, class solutions or mass action. This shift in focus reflects a total collapse in front of the Thatcherite ideological offensive, the cardinal belief of which is that 'there is no such thing as society, just individuals and their families*
Such a view can only flourish in a Labour party controlled by politicians and union leaders who are completely out of touch with the realities confronting the working class: indeed Bryan Gould now echoes the Communist Party in querying whether there still is such a thing as the working class!
In the reality of Thatcher's Britain, where millions face unemployment, tens of millions live in poverty,
After Blackpool
facing low pay, speed-up in the workplaces, a huge housing crisis and attacks on the welfare state, the stark class divisions are all too obvious, and collective, class action the only serious answer.
Militant trade union struggles - most recently the postal workers and seafarers - repeatedly confirm the latent possibilities for a fightback, while showing the need to combat bureaucratic union leaders who regard the class struggle as an embarrassment.
For a Labour Party genuinely seeking votes, there is no shortage of popular issues around which working class electoral support could and should be rebuilt. Yet almost every issue has been missed by Labour's smug. well-heeled leaders, or (as with the poll tax) undermined by their timid refusal to confront the Tories and the law.
These same issues — social security cuts, the new ET schemes, the Housing Bill, the Education Bill, cuts and privatisation in local government, and attacks on the NHS - now confront Labour's left wing, emerging intact but somewhat bedraggled from Blackpool. The left's own record of involvement on many of these issues has been far from ideal. To change such old habits will be hard: it is casier to debate than to do.
Yet there is no way in which the left can drag itself up by its own bootstraps - or even defend itself against a new witch hunt through endless internal party activity and policy debates. Generalised propaganda for socialism - good in itself - is not enough either, whether this be the piecemeal abstentionist propaganda of the Socialist Workers Party, or the big rally propaganda of the Socialist Conference.
Crusading words must be turned into action on the streets and the fight for a new leadership to replace the present bureaucrats. The left must hit the campaign trail, linking up with strikes and struggles outside as well as inside the Labour Party, or face even bleaker times
A limited start has been made: the Chesterfield movement has called a December 10 conference on fighting the poll tax, which could help mobilise labour movement campaignsfor non-registration, non-collection and non-payment. But there is much ground still to be covered.
Building a real fightback - long overdue - against the Thatcher onslaught offers the only real antidote to postBlackpool depression and galloping Gouldite bureaucracy.
Building a