In the 2 May local elections, six 'real Labour' candidates chosen local parties stood in Liverpool against those imposed by Walworth Road. Five candidates were elected. Although the candidates were backed by Militant supporters locally, it seems that the initiative to stand them did not come from Militant. The whole episode has caused considerable controversy on the left.
Now it looks as if the 'Broad Left will stand a candidate against official Labour candidate Peter Kilfoyle in the Walton by-election, caused by What attitude should socialists in the Labour Party take?
The decision about how to cope with candidates imposed by the Walworth Road mafia against candidates supported by local parties is an entirely tactical onethere are no timeless principles to be obeyed. In particular, the view that socialists should never stand against so-called 'official' Labour candidates is formalistic and tactically inept.
Exceptional The conditions in Liverpool are exceptional. Because" Rimmer's right wing council leadership has no stable majority, in effect there is a coalition council with the Liberals. Massive redundancies and service cuts are being imposed by this coalition. The opposition on the council is the 'Broad Left group comprising 22 expelled* Labour councillors and the five newly elected.
Clearly the decision to stand the six 'real Labour' candidates against those imposed by the Labour leadership was a tactic to attempt to shift the balance on council against the right wing coalition.
There are two arguments which some Labour socialists deployed before the election against the ward candidates. First, that it is wrong in principle ever to stand against 'official' Labour candidates. The response of leading Tories to by their ocal community. Eric Heffer's death.
Harry After Hatton, who will they crucify next? are being pool left. despite the pledge for its eventual Second, that this tactic would worsen the witch hunt against the left.
The first argument cannot be sustained. Five candidates won on the basis of fighting cuts and defending jobs. This showed that open defiance of Walworth Road and the council leadership had a mass base. The 'real Labour' candidates were chosen using the normal democratic selection proce dures. They had the support of their local parties and a considerable portion of the Expelled The second argument is more serious. Walworth Road has jumped at the opportunity to deepen the witch hunt, expelling the ward candidates and the 22 councillors who have formed a left group on the council. Local MPs Terry Field and Bob Parry 'investigated'. Obviously the Labour leadership has seized the opportunity to try once more to crush the LiverBut this deepening of the witch hunt is not in itself evidence that it was wrong to stand the six candidates. It has precipitated a deepening of the witch hunt - but that was coming anyway. Those who stand up to the witch hunt and try to defend local jobs and services face more witch hunting. Buckling down to every Walworth Road diktat will be no defence against the witch financial deregulation. hunters. venturism. labour movement candidates. question. A the right wing. behind its back.
The events in Liverpool stem from very special local circumstances and cannot be generalised or applied mechanically elsewhere. Liverpool has had the most advanced and determined mass opposition to the attack on local government in the whole of Britain. Opposition to the attacks of the Tories and the Labour leadership has a mass base often lacking elsewhere. In most other places these tactics would be unwarranted adIn particular, any temptation to use the evidence of Liverpool for advocating a general tactic of standing against imposed candidates would be wrong. In each case it depends on the strength of the left and whether there is a mass base for open defiance. It seems that there is a sharp debate among the Militant leadership on these issues. Hundreds of their supporters have been expelled from Labour party membership. But it would be a major error on their part to respond to this by standing anti-Labour candidates on a national basis. Neither should they, or the Liverpool council Broad Left, assume that they can repeat their council success in a parliamentary by-election. The Walton by-election will be about much more than the attack on Liverpool local government, or Kinnock's witch hunt. Workers will want to express their hatred of the Tories, and will want to avoid two Ducking the fight Militant have never seriously fought the witch hunt. They have avoided building a united campaign to confront the Labour leadership on this general policy of standing anti-Labour candidates would be another episode of ducking the fight and playing into the hands of But neither can socialists adopt a generalised position of accepting automatically the fiats of Walworth Road, as ifits instructions were the last word in democracy and socialist legitimacy. If the left did that it would fight with one hand tied Chris Patten with new realism almost universally dominant in the unions, and the right massively ascendant in the Labour Party. Just as the semi-fascist Le Pen movement in France has grown substantially during ten years of Mitterrand rule, right wing currents could also re-emerge. Labour victorious or Labour defeated in the next election both mean disillusionment with Kinnock. The question will then be who benefits from this. The preparatory work to organise and deepen the base of the left in the unions and Labour Party before an election will be crucial to the outcome. No. 3 June 8, 1991