on sea Most of the time John, Smith's first Labour Party conference was extraordinarily dull. Deiegates were carefully allocated to specific seats to make sure the chair didn't accidentally call a delegate who might question the lack of opposition to the Tories.
Labour leaders were able to steer through a new policy-making framework intended to reduce the importance of conference. They also won an important victory on rejecting calls for a referendum on Maastricht, with the active connivance of the trade union bureaucrats. How many trade union members were asked their views on Maastricht isn't known.
Dennis Skinner lost his place on the national executive, while appalling duo Gordon Brown and Tony Blair were elected. At least yuppie lawyer Blair knows who to thank: he was seen shaking hands with every available journalist muttering: Thank you, thank you. I would never have made it without your help'. extracts from DENNIS SKINNER'S speech to the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs fringe meeting at the Labour Party Conference this year. WHEN THEY out of tai the dockers jail at Pentonville we knew we were changing the very nature of government.
That was an Act of Parliament and it was stopped by the people, by millions of trade unionists up and down the country. There was something in the air.
That s why wegot the victory for the miners' strike in "72 and the next one in '74.
No wonder that me, and people like me, were thrust into these positions [on the NEC] because we were part of that campaign and we were just lucky to be able to get there. You win the real battles on the streets.
How did we beat the Poll Tax? Some of us fought like hell against the Poll Tax in Parliament but we all knew that if it were going to be stopped it were going to be stopped on the streets and it were going to be stopped by those 14 million people who broke the law.
On the Gulf we never thought we were wrong. We walked into that lobby knowing that we were right. And it was the same in the Falklands war.
The German public sector workers did a great job last year Skinner when they fought their bosses to a stand-still and got 7 per cent. Idon'tthink they'd got the 'Social Chapter' - it'd not quite got to 'em' 'ad it? They had to fight for it.
Irefuse to accept that the only way in which this Labour Party can get Socialism is by going and Knocking Helmut Kohl's door and at the German Bundesbank and saying "deliver it for us free!" It can't be Anyway, I heard John Smith today. Why is he not saying, as he should be saying, that Tories are in a mess, they're on the ropes, they're fighting like Kilkenny cats, we're going to vote against them when we go back to Parliament on October 19th and I declare, here and now, that if they put the Maastricht Treaty before Parliament we're going to run them into the ground". That's what he should have said.
The growth of the '50s, 60's and 70's isn't there any more. Capitalism's in a real old mess. I can visualise right throughout the '90s, or the greater part of it, mass unemployment and neofascist parties mushrooming up the battle-ground. No, I don't feel he Campaign Group's in business and it's the only one that can put socialism back on the agenda. We're the only ones that are going to call for stopping the witch-hunt. we're the only ones that'll call for realistic economic policies against Maastricht and the Exchange Rate Mechanism.
We're the only ones that are saying quite clearly "no pacts with the Liberals and all the rest of those tin-pot little armies in Parliament"
We call for troops out of Northern Ireland.
We're the only ones that are saying clearly "no to proportional representation".
We're the only ones that are calling for the maintenance of universal benefits.
We're the only ones that are calling for the defence of the links with the trade unions and the repeal of those laws.
We're the only ones saying the leadership contest should go back to 5%.
We're the only ones that are going to fight the anti-racialist battle, we're the only ones saying that you've got to cut defence expenditure.
We'll deliver those votes in Parliament but we shall always know we're doing it against a backcloth of people fighting outside at every level and we shall be there to join 'em.