British politics today is dominated by : aradox. The Tories mav have got rid ol Thatcher, but not the causes of their unpopularity. Banana skins abound. The economy is in deep trouble. Tory attacks on education and local government remain deeply unpopular. And the real effects of NHS Trusts - mass sackings of health workers - are beginning to become apparent.
Such a situation should lead to a certain Labour general election victory. But the polls remain volatile -one moment showing a Labour lead, one moment a Tory lead. For the average voter it is extremely difficult to discover the policy differences between Tories and Labour.
The rush to occupy the 'centre' ground of politics - a centre which has been shifted drastically to the right by the years of Thatcherism has obliterated major differences between the main parties.
Nowhere is this more true than on economic policy. Both Kinnock and Major are converts to the old SDP watchword of the 'social market. The social market means simply that the market rules everything (and any talk of social ownership is dispensed with), while its adherents have a 'consciencé'.
No pledges Labour is making absolutely no pledges about improvements in the lot of working people under a Labour government. With the sole exception of a national minimum wage, any other reforms will have to await the (illusory) hopes of a major economic recovery.
'The change that Kinnockism has wrought on the Labour Party is drastic. While the Labour left is still relatively strong compared with its counterparts in countries like France and Germany, there is no use pretending: it is much, much weaker than it was, and many socialists no longer see any point in activity through the party.
How has this change been brought about? Electoral defeats, in 1983 and 1987 have played stituencies. a role. Those defeats made it easier to argue the party had to move right. But election defeats do not automatically shift parties rightward. Ihe explanation is more profound than that.
The basic reason is the successive defeats of working class struggle in the 1980s, most crucially the defeats of the miners strike, the dockers and the print workers. During the 1980s trade unionism declined from 48 per cent to 35 per cent of the workforce. These defeats were compounded by the successive Tory victories against the local government left.
The Kinnockite operation in the Labour Party has been centrally underpinned by the grip of the 'new realist right wing in the trade unions. This grip is tightening with what seems likely to be an important victory by the aptly-named George Wright in the TGWU general secretary election. Time and again, it has been the right-dominated union block vote which was the foundation stone of Kinnock's domination in the party. But on that foundation was built a dramatic reversal of left domination in the con"Strengthening left organisations in the unions is an obvious task"
What should socialists do now? One thing that is certain is that the smug certainties of Kinnockism are heading to a crash. The next ganising such an opposition. us our future indefinitely. sure that it will. election will either produce defeat, and Kinnock's replacement, or the most right-wing Labour government ever. A Kinnock government would have nothing to offer the working class; there is most unlikely to be a 'honeymoon period' of mass good-will towards such a government. Either way there will be new ructions in the party. It is too early to write off a new surge of the Labour left for a whole period.
British politics are heading for profound transformations. The important thing is that socialists prepare for this new period. What are the priorities? Strengthening left organisation in the unions is an obvious task, including crucially beginning to organise against the trade unions laws. In the coming period unemployment will go over three million. Mass unemployment will again be used to discipline workers and to force down wages. The left has to begin to re-raise demands for a 35-hour week with no loss of pay, and for work-sharing. But overall socialists have to work towards the preparation of a coherent nation-wide socialist opposition.
Socialist Outlook supporters have been active in building the Socialist Movement (SM). Linking together socialists inside and outside the Labour Party the SM, especially its 'sectoral' structures like Labour Party Socialists, Women for Socialism and the Socialist Movement Trade Union Committee can play a vital role in orThe new-style Socialist Outlook will fight to build the Socialist Movement. More than that we will fight to win new forces to the politics of Marxism. We reject the fainthearted pessimism of those who who think that 1980s Thatcherism and its ghastly Kinnockite mirror-image shows The events in eastern Europe have shown us how quickly things can change. British politics will change drastically, that is certain. The question is whether the left will be ready for these changes. Socialist Outlook will fight to help en-