influence to pull strings for the limited For the working class, sitaton a gutte aurerent. ane only way an individual shop floor worker er voice heard by the leadership of the labour movement is to act collectively. through policy resolutions from branches and through their union conference which then commits the union to support a policy or a candidate.
Abuses
Of counse there are often abuses of the delegated powers vested in union leaderships, not least in the way they cast block votes at Labour Conference.
With rare exceptions these abuses of democracy. struck blows against the left: union block votes have been the bedrock of support waenever Tant wins Labour leaders have attempted to push through unpopular policies, Kinnock's 'new realist' project, ditching almost any radical or rogressive polic Many of block vote has been used, often with little or no consultation within the unions concerned, must be taken up in the battle for democracy in the unions.
In particular, it would be more democratic if block votes representing Labour Conference 1988: Kinnock relying on union block votes
Principle
however, the However the principle of workers who whose political levy payments are the mainstay of the Labour Party having the basic one to be defended against all those who would prefer to cut the Party loose the wheel of history. Liberals in the twilight zone of 'middle ground' politics.
The fact is that Labour could cut its union links only at peril of bankruptcy. It can't afford to forego the income from the NUPE's 'No no declares, union leaders will not continue to pour funds into a party over which they have no control.
Irrespective of the delusions of the want wins Labour cannot survive as d party of individual members: general and secretary Larry Whitty recently revealed that, under Kinnock, lunged to just 270,000, the lowest since 929, while budget cutbacks of upto 309 of spending are already having to be made.
The fight must be to go forward, battling for union democracy and socialist policies in the struggles against the Tory government, not backwards to a feeble and disastrous re-run of the failed Lib-Lab years before Taff Vale. and rejoin the political levy. And, as pay' slogan divided by the issue.
made opposition to PRa principle. Although some prominent socialists like Arthur Scarill support PR, the majority of the Campaign Group of MPs membership has make opposition a key Ронов 13300 Many in the Labour Party who oppose PR do so because they believe that it would prevent Labour ever having a parliamentary majority. This Socialism is out of the question in any adquestions. real battle. cis and workers' control. The Tory election victory means that proportional representation is off the agenda as far constitutional change is concerned. But it is not off the political agenda for the left, which is deeply Many socialists have defeatist. Opponent of PR: Ken Livingstone vanced capitalist country without a majority. And opposing PR puts socialists on the defensiye on the question of democracy. After the collapse of Stalinism, i is absurd that socialists should retreat on democratic Al the heart of the argument against PR is the concern about coalitionism and the issue of class independence. But sections of the left are clinging to an undemocratic institutional for rather than engaging in the sentation.
Workers' control Revolutionary socialists do not defend the existing form of state - bourgeois democracy. We stand for a much more democratic system based on workers coun However, we are not indifferent to the lor of capitalist rule. We fight to extend No. 23 democratic rights within the existing system and to defend those rights against un democratic and authoritarian attacks.
Britain's parliamentary system has beer particularly effective at providing stabk govemment for the ruling class. That's why not just the Tory party but the overwholming majority of the ruling class are against PR and want to stick to the first-past-the-post sys tem. Under the presen system Thatcherisn has been in power fo thirteen years on t minority vote. Wha other Western country perhaps with the excep tion of the US, has suct a stable system? And of course the Tories are quick to point to the government chaos in Italy as proving their point.
But there are those on the leff who support PR for narrow, sectarian reasons. They believe that PR is the way to create a new "red-green coaltion, to break Labour's nearmonopoly of working class poitics.
While it is true the present system dis. criminates against small parties, any PR system introduced would almost certainly have a 5 percent cut-off point, making it very dilficult for small parties to get repreBut in any case, the idea that constitutional reform is the key to changing the balance of class forces, or to fighting against new reaism, is absurd.
Socialists should take a principled position in favour of democratic reform. But for the moment, in terms of the immediate tasks of socialists, it is at least a secondary, if not tertiary question.
June 13, 1992
By Pete Firmin LABOUR'S election defeat was a disaster. Not because a Labour government, elected on a pale Tory platform and inheriting crisis-ridden economy, would have done great things.
But because it was a disaster for those millions who have borne the brunt of Tory attacks for 13 years - the homeless, the unemployed, the low paid.
Labour would not have done a lot to change their plight, but it would have lifted morale, showing the Tories could be And it would have given workers the feeling they could beat back the bosses' offensive through their struggles stead, morale is going to sink further before there is the confidence to fight back.
The responsibility for the weat mes squarely with t adership of the labour mov.
ment. They spent the best part of ten years distancing the Labour Party any fightback against the Tories the fight against the Poll Tax.
They ditched all policies which offered an alternativeto me tones, and sarea rary Yes! I want to become a Socialist Outlook supporter U 1 I want more information about Socialist Outlook O I sell a Name: Address: 1 Tet. Return to: Socialist Outlook, PO Box 1109, London, N4 2UU Page 10 June 13, 1992 out of crisis Heyday of the left 1982: Benn, Scargill and Livingstone democracy including by a massive witch-hunt.
And then the Labour leaders offered no inspiration to ac tivists and no vis sion of an alterThere is new Featre dean that if Realism' than that could not win an election in the middle of the recession. The trade union leaders played their part in this. They discouraged and undermined the struggles which took place, limiting their horizons to a Labour government which would welcome them back to a clear alternative, the corridors of power. ! I want to take an order o.......... copies of Socialist Outlook to No. 23 Battles in the unions are the key to the survival and strengthening of the left the bosses the upper hand and let the Tories win the election. And now these architects of aereat are terns us that the way forward is to take even greater stege to the toont They want to sever the Labour Party-Trade Union the union leaders) and are Developing a statesy to acreat the coms Tory attacks is furthest from their minds The Left has to put forward rejecting such proposals. They would mean the end of the Labour the left must reject the class. leadership over the last ten years.
The fight for socialism re quires a link with the struggles of the working class, not the Liberal Democrats. The Left needs to overcome its frag: mentation and build a united democratic left which links together all those in theunions, Labour Party and campaigns who agree with such an ap proach.
Time is short. The formation • of a united left will not immeL ----J diately turn the balance of forces in either the class struggle or the labour crably strengthen our ability to campaign for policies to defeat the Tories and to capitalise on the upsurge when it comes.
It might even enable us to defeat the 'new realists' on particular policies in the short term, something our divisions undermine at present.
failure to grasp this opporthe working class as a whole, in a weaker position in the coming battles.
The Leeds conference of the Left called by the Campaign Group of MP's is the first of a series of conferences which will help the development of such a Left.
The Socialist Movement Trade Union Committee has brought ellatey in the unite pri ticularly through its shackle the Unions' campaign against the anti-union laws.
It is holding a ference on July 18/19. And the Socialist Movement is initiatinga 'Conference of the Left' in October.
Rather than be three entirely separate events with separate 1 Yes! I want to take out a subscription to Socialist Outlook a I €15 • Six months' subscription (12 issues): 68 d I Non-EC Europe: 1 year £20 Cl Six months 611 O I Rest of the World: 1 year £24 Six months months O I include a donation of E.... me... ' Send to Socialist Outiook, PO Box 1109, London N4 2UU agendas, these three conferences should be linked towards a The fate of the Labour Left and of the fight in the Labour Party cannot be divided from the fight by and in the unions and the campaigns against particular Tory attacks, suchas he Asylum Bill and the ongoing resistance to the Poll Tax.
A revival of the fortunes of the Labour Left depends on an upsurge in the class struggle and its ability to link up with And taking struggies and campaigns forward depends on developing structures in the labour movement which sup port their aims and challenges The Left should drop secondary differences and agree to build a united democratic ororm of sur or the working clas and spe cially oppressed.
It would need to fight for labour movement democracy for keeping the Labour-union coalitions, and or anti capitalist and internationalist policies. EC Europe (including Britain): 1 year's subscription (24 issues):
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