TONY BLAIR'S recent talk of a "stakeholder society" along with promises to follow in the footsteps of Margaret Thatcher leaves no room for doubt as to the direction of a future Labour Party government.
The sheer volume of reactionary speeches from leading figures in the party has been hard to keep track of. Under the guise of radicalism-"thinking the unthinkable -the shadow cabinet have set about a steady campaign of social comment that capitulates to some of the most backward aspects of the Thatcherite agenda.
Straw's outragcous attack on "wi. nos and addicts" captures the callous flavour of what is in store.
But there is more involved than simple electioneering. or capitulation to middle-class prejudices.
Responsibility
Blair's office are deliberately preparing the ground for a Labour govern. ment that will continue the Tory attack on the welfare state, shedding all state responsibility for the welfare of its citi. zens.
This is because whichever party wins the next election they face the same set of problems.
British capitalism has not the resources to maintain its swollen military machine and finance sector, It remains trappro in an cconomic and social structure built around empire.
Ruling the waves for centuries has left it with a set of social alliances that are unworkable in Is new positson This is what is behind the crisis in the Conservative Party.
The end of Britain's leading international role requires a new direction in pontical poncy Without a massive income from overseas Britain is required to look to European integration for its future.
But this undermines the chauvinist social alliances on which the Tory party is founded, what Thatcher calls the "the shared instincts and traditions of the British people*.
Cutting welfare
It also means that the only way capitalism can increase the level of investment is by driving down the level of wages and cutting welfare spending.
A Blair goverment will be in the But the Labour Party faces its own ser or citriculties in calying through such a project. Unlike the Liberal Democrats and Tories the party is based trades unions at every level.
This means that working class resistance to attacks on wages, conditions and cuts in welfare rights is expressed rectly.
be changes in the block voic and the constituency organisations are an attempt to block the process. Some of the bourseoisie's more far sighted strategists realise full well how damag ing for their European project it would be it workers militancy was able to politically organise in the party of govemment.
These difficulties should be seen as our opportunities. Defending the class basis of the Labour Party is a crucial part of defending the British workers' Socialists should link up with oll those in struggle movemen anis is one reason why the call for a new Socialist Labour Party is mistaken. To give up the struggle inside the Labour Party is massively premature The main battles remain ahead of us.
As well as the fact that such a project has little practical chance of getting off the ground, Arthur Scargill has a mis. assessment of the tasks facing social. ists.
The crunch When the crunch comes it will octur at the heart of the inhour movement Moreover, the organised labour movement is the only force that has the challenge to the bosses offensive.
The left in the trades unions and in the Labour Party-primarily organised in the Campaign Group-has to take up #inking up with all the forces who ard affected.
ine Labour Party, and its iciatons with both the trades union movement and capitalism, are as much a product of the empire as the Conservative Party: as much trapped in the contradictions of a new situation.
We remain therefore at the beginning of the huge changes in British politics, not the end.
What will emerge at the end is impossible to say. But to abandon the Toolnaroy in the extreme.
The energies of those trying to build a new party would be better spent elsewhere.
Defence of the welfare state, for example. should be absolutely Arthur Scorgil the next few years. This requires us to build an alliance in defence of the welfare state from the bottom to the top of the labour movement, drawing in all It has become the key issue for the western European working class.