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BRITISH PERSPECTIVES * This docuneit was adopted by the National Meetine.- The vote 7) wass for: I9; against: UY; abstention: 2@3 No votes 0; vy as Yollowss For: Andre; Ball, Biges, Bliss; Brovn, Cheddar, Dele, Grady, Hudson, ‘Inglefield, Jones, King, Knight, Lynch, Mathews, McDermott, wuick, soberts, kuperte Avaingt:
Adevir, Clynes, #llis, Joseph, Lessing, Lufl, Manzano, Savages Abstention: Hleanor, Hurlewe Bherneentemnente erty imi wines bAr rst an freed nthewment sneha stlfen nna in/out eremguaresninat gsm
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British Perspectives. submitted by Leadership Caucuse I.The British economy has entered its deepest recession since the I930s.- This co-incides with the exhaustion of the historic reserves built up by British capitalism in its period of world economic domination, As a result the decline in the rate of profit which has taken place in Britain since the early sixties is worse than that of any other major imperialist economy. ; .
This chronic economic crisis of British capitalism has necessitated a tremendous re-organisation ef the relations of the British with the world economy over the past decade. At the centre of this has been the integration of the British economy into the E.E.C.. As a result the major contradictions of European capitalism, and in particular, its growing economic struggle with the USA, find expression in Britain and British politics.
Internally, the consequences of the historic decline of the reserves of British imperialism and the re-orientation of British capitalism © into the EEC, have necessitated an attempt by the ruling class to carry through the most fundamental re-organisation of the British political system since the twenties. The central objective of this is to Greate the conditions to imnose a qualitative defeat on the British worki class,a defeat on the scale of 1926/31.
The imposition of such a defeat on the working class is the sole means of British capitalism emerging from its current crisis.
Despite important individual victories over the past period, British capitalism has not succeeded on inflicting such a qualitative defeat on the British working class.
THR SOCTAL RELATIONSHIP OF FORCES 2.The reason for this failure of the British capitalist class to carry through such a qualitative defeat of the working class despite ten years of acute crisis, is rooted in the very structure of British society. ‘The social relation of forces in Britain is profoundly wnfavourable to the ruling class. Britain is one of the most proletarian countries in the entire worlds . In Britain, small farmers, shop keepers and other petty “ bourgeois strata, were eliminated as significant social forces many years ago. :
Since the second world war, Britain has deepened even further its massively proletarian social structure ’withs 7 * the massive entry of women into the workforce}; * the elimination of traditional self-employed and 'old professional’ strata; * the proletarianisation of white collar workers; * the creation of a massive new public sector workforce} * the enormous extension in the scale of the education and the change in its function so that it no longer simply produces strata tied to the ruling class but broad stm ta of society.
It is this unfavourable social relation of forces that has deterred the British ruling class from engaging in the type of struggle with the working class that would have been necessary in an attempt to break out of the long decline of the British capitalist economy through the fifties end sixties. € EDIATH RCOTS OF. THE POLITICAL CRISIS 3.This social structure developing in the conditions of the post war boom gave rise to further organisational and political shifts which have greatly exacerbated tne crisis of British capitalism and which are the a
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\e immediate roots of the crisis facing British capitalist politics.
Taking these in order of their development: a)The post war period saw a tremendous expansion of trade union membership in Britain, the expansion of trade unionism in a massive way inte the white collar sectors, the massive unionisation of women workers, and the development of the most dense system of shop floor representatives in the world.
This reached its peak in 1979, despite the recession, with over 50 per cent of the workforce organised and I2.2 million trade wmmionists, and over 300,000 shop stewrads. Since '79 these fifures have been eroded by the impact of the recessionwith a fall #9 ten million trace ununists and a significant reduction in the number of shop stewards (from 130,000 to 80,000 in manufacturing) But it has not heen able to ehiminate nor even qualitatively weaken this massive organisational power of the British working class. b)The position of women in society has profoundly altered in the post war period.
There has been a massive entry of women into the workforce and into higher education which has fuelled both the continuing movement of women into trade unions and the radicalisation of women against sexual discrimination.
This has resulted in waves of struggle by women to extend their rights to equal pay, against sexial discrimination, for control over fertilit;, for changing the sexist division of labour, for extending child care fucilities, for the mass organis tiond of the working class to themselves represent and defend the interests of women, ¢)in the conditions of post war boom British capitalism recruited a new workforce of Carribean and Asian workers to carry out the lowest paid JODS, | It created a black population of between 2 and 3 million peorles, ° This pooulation suffers institutional -hsed racisn in education, housing, employm=nt.and “fhe crimitalisation of the new generations of black youth born in this country. It is conceritrated in the poorest inner city areas.
It is overvhelmingly proletarian. A far higher proportion of black workers are unioised thah white workers. This black population has never boen won to dolitical support for the capitalist parties it overwhelminzly supports the Labour Party, d)Since the nineteen sixties the British ruling class have been unable to stabilise the situation in Northern Ireland, The anti-unionist minority has reach a higher level of radicatisation than any other section of the masses in the British state. The British ruling class has been wmable to buy off this radicalisation by dismantling the sectarian wnstitutions defendei by the Orange state. Nor has it been able to crush militarily the ant.-unionist mass movement or the IRA, As a result the loyalist politic.1 forces in Northern Ireland have broken their links with the British Tory “arty. The chronic political crisis which results constan ily tends to spill over and destabilise both the Southern Irish state aid the political institutibns of the British state itself. e)The s :ructural changes in the economy through the fifties and sixties destroy::d huge sections of the tradional industries dominating the West of Scot..and. Living standards in the West of Scotkand declined to amongst the wor:t in the British state, in I97I Glasgow had twice the British avergag:: rate of make unempl;ment and the highest infant mortality rate in Sritiing This impoverishmentment of the West of Scotland, followed by the dis:overy of North Sea oil, helped stimulate the resurgenee of Scottish nations ‘ism and‘ the movement for a Scottish Assembly which is overwlemingly focused throush the Lebour Party. £)The e:pansion offurther and higher education has created a student population of over one million. In addition the various government training schemes are plasing even more youth in various fmmther education colleges.
On the oasis of this development of education h mass student movement has tev:loped over the past fifteen yeers, mainly orsenised through the Sat .one Union ef Students.
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This movement has polarised in the latter haff of the seventies into a ninority right-wing based in the universities and organised by the Tory Party and a majority supporting the Labour Party and electing an overwhelmingly Labour leadership of the NUS. g)The British ruling class! changing relations «ith Europe and the USA have gencrated tremendous contradictions in its military role, In particular the second wave of CND focusing on opposition to new British and american nuclear weapons has developed into the greatest mass movement in Britain since the suffrazette movement with a capacity to mobilise hundreds of thousands and to win néjority opposition to Cruise missiles. 4ein confronting tnese problems the ruling class has been weaxened by the decline in the objective resources available to it. Whilst the Tory government has nad some success in utilising the wealth generated by the cil boom, this in no way compares with the bases on which the British ruling class could rely before the first and second world wars. Furtnermore the oil itself will begin to tun out at the end of the eighties : throwing the British economy into qtialitatively deeper crisis.
As a result the ruling class has been unable to hold together and insegrate the social fabric of British society, Instead a series of social layers have progressively broken with the capitalist political parties with the development of both generalised discontent and periodic mass explosions? 2) The black population hes never been integrated into the social base of the capitalist politica} parties. It has always overwhelmingly given its allegiance to the Labour Farty. The new generatio of Black youth have faced a situation where many of them have no hope of work and face systemetic police harassment. The resuit has been the rebellions by the Black youth in the major cities of Britain combined with a significant upsurge of selforganisation in the black communities. The traditional leadership of the commmities have been unable to control these developments and the state has not succeeded, in the main in buying them off.
The most advanced expression of this trend has been the emergence of organised black currents in the trade unions (Black Trade Unionists Solidarity) and in the Labour Party in a drive to try to win these organisations to fizht racism, b)The support for the Tory Party in Scotland has been steadily whittled away since I959.'. At tne last general election it gained merely 28per vent of the Scottish vote. Opposition to the Tor: government has taken the form not only of industrial struggles but also of the demand for a Scottish Assembly. This demand has incresingly been shanneled through the yebour Party and labour movement in Scotland. o)in every single big city, except London and Bristol, the Tory vote has fallea dramatically over ‘the peat twenty five years, more rapidly, in fact than in Britain as a whole. The Tory Party is being pushed out of the big industrial cities. It is for this reasin that the Thatcher government has launched its drive to eliminate the metropolitan counties and control local councils = because the Tory Party can no longer win elections in most of Briatin's cities. . d)In Ireland, the split of the Unionists from the Tory Party in 1974 gravely weakened the social base of the Tory Barty, fragmenting off one of its chief sources of reactionary supporte At the same time the radicalisation of the anti-unionist minority against the British state, and the experienze of mass political campaigns like that around H-Block hunger strikers, have resulted in the highest level of support anywhere in the British stste for forces dedicated to overthrowing that state's control over them.
The inability ef the British ruling class to defeat the anti-unicnist population of Northern Ireland both undermin. the stabihity of Southe mm treland and spilis over into British politics.
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This is creating the beginning of the conditions for a link up between the left-wing of the Brish labour movement and the struggle against British imperialism in Ireland. The vehicles for this allaince have heen the Bennite leftwing of the labour mo ement and the new Sinn Fein leadershipe e)The structural changes in the position of women in the workforce and the offensive since the beginning of the recession bg the ruling class to make women scapegoats for the capitalist crisis have resulted in the begiming of a historic shift in the political allegiance of millions of women away from the Tory Farty. The resulting radicalisation of women has resulted in women playing a leading role not only in defence of womens! rights. but in leading the movement against nuclear weapons 2t Greenham Common and én comming forward as amongst the most radical new currents inside the labour movement, Womens are turning away from the Tory Party more rapidly than men. Women are continuing to join the trade unbins and to organise in the unions and Labour Partye,, The SDP/liberal Alliance has made winning over the women deserting the Tory “arty a central element in its strategy. What is now at stake is whether the labour movement can itself win a new social base amongst women on the basis of coming forward as the champion of womens strugzles and demands. f)Since the late sixties British society has been swept by successive waves of youth radicalisations the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign; the Anti Nazi League; the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Zach of these had brough a new generation of youth into contact with the labour movement and into struggle against the policies of the capitalist parties and, on accasion, the right-wing line of the Labour Party. The ruling class has been able bo gopstruct no serious right-wing force amongst youth, ‘The Labour Party, has made no serious efforts to win over the youth radicalised through these youth movenents to its ranks. g)The mass organisations of the working class re-inforced through the post war bokm have proved capable of beating off wave after wave of ruling class attack on them. Wilson's attempt to bring in anti-union legislation had to be shelved in the mid-sixties and provoked the tevelopm of a — mass. militant movement in the trade unions wh4fB 9? PY LTHE OP pr” LAKAMACE wit SCHAKON ~O JoNES" |, The Heath Tory government was eventually destroyed by use miners! strike of I974 and the Industrial Relations Act it hadnenacted was removed by the Labour government that followed, The Wilson/Callaghan government was able to seriously political divide the labour movement and incorporate and destroy the Scanlon Jones wing of the trade union leadership, But they were eventually broken by the strike wave in the public sector in 1979. , The Thatcher government is engaged in the most serious effort to date to break up the power of the trade unions and split their links with the Habour Party. But despite important political successes this government has yet to demonstrate: that it is capable of using its battery of trade union law to break the power of the most powerful unions, meaning nattttenannanicens MS Cur riNnEA‘etHe emu tarwn intent tie
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as Re ein perm , ANTS TO COT MTG rT Try arp sae TET FC TIP iCciL OPTSIS Ce Tab RULIEG TL Bh Fa Re Me rr oa A ceri 5eThis process*of erosion of the social base of the Tory Party accelerated through the seventies, .it.expresses the break up of the traditional mechanisms whereby the bloc o8 social forces around the Tory Farty had been hel together since the end of the last century. That is 3ritish imperialism is no longer able to finance massive concessions to the working class and sustain such a huge scale of working class orgenisation, out of the proceeds of overseas investment, international banking etc.
In 1974 the Tory Party received its lowest share of the vote in a general election for II5 years. The project of Margaret T atcher was to halt this historic decline of the Tory Party linked to the historic decline of British imperialism. The eim was to rebuild a bloc of social forces around the Tory Party on the basis of inflicting a terfefic defeat on the British labour movemente 411 of the evidence demonstrates thet Thatcher has so far failed in this project, The last general electicn revealed a further decline in the Tory vote and a catastrohhic decline in the big cities and Scotland, it is the destablisation of the traditional mechanism of bourgeois politics in Britain which equally hecessitate the tremendous wave of attacks on democratic rights and the strengthening of the state apparatus which have been organised over the past fifteen years in Eritain.
In carrying through this process the ruline cless has been able to exploit the political bazkwardiess of the working cless on Irelend and racism, The strengthening of the police in a qualitative way has been linked to campaigns against the black communities. ‘the new methods have been tried out in Northe rn Ireland, Then in every case they have been deployed on a grand scale against the organised labour movement.
This prodess of building up the state apparatus goes hand in hand with the Toriest attacks on local government and the democratic rights of the labour movement. Such attacks are made all the more necessary by the inability of the Tory Party to any longer win popular majorities for its policies. Lowes _ 6,The same vrocess which has wndermined the social base of the Tory Party hes also created a crisis in the Labour Party. Right-wing sccial democracy is no longer able to either secure serious concessions for the working class nor is it capable of delivering the type of attacks on the working class which British capitalism demands.
Bach Labour government since I964 has failed to make serious inroads into the strength of the trede unions. At the same time the price of pursuing extreme pro-capitalist policies in office has on each occasion pesn the break up of the internal stability of the labour movement itself.
The exverience of the Ist Wilson governments created a mass trade unicn current capable of defeating successive assaults by the Tories and Labour.
The experience of the last Labour government generated Bennism, a political current seeking to control the actions of ea future labour government, to @emocrabically reform the Labour Party and unions and to win suzpobt “or radical left-wing policies that are totally unacceptable to the British ruling classe Thus the decline in the Tory Party and the crisis in the Labour P have created acrisis of the traditional two-party system of capit rule in Britain, , rty list Ss he
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the response of the ruling class to this crisis has been to create a new po! force the SDP/Liberal Alliance. This party bases itself on those section” / of the capitalist class most tied into the EEC, Its fundamental objective is not at all to restore any so-called consensus in 3ritish politics. :
Guite the opposite, its aim is to smash up the base of the babour Fartys to cut into Labour's votepm to win a section of the trade union bureaucracy away from support for tie Labour “arty and to prevent Labour being capable of forming a majority fovernment ever againg a In creating the Alliance the British rvling class have exploited the chief contradivtion built into the very foundations of the British labour movement Vhilst the British working class built up immense organisational power in ¢ ° the struggle for the economic concessions made available to then by the British ruling class, these same economic concessions meant that the working class never had to engage in the scale of struggles ‘on the scale and at me political ‘level of the working classes elsewhere in Europes The working class never confronted the queviiuns o1 Guustructing elliances of wll of the oppressed against tne bourgeoisie, in short the working class developed strong organisations but remained extremely volitically weak. . m an Jes raae ; » .
The SDP/Liberal Alliance has been able to take advantage of the fact that rhe 4 Ey . ~ / whilst millions of workers are profoundly antieTory, they are not alk eneunrerensr neces IN eel - ponent < won over to support to the Lebour Party and only en even smaller minority supports the left-wing of the Labour Party and socialist poliviess The Alliance was able to win the votes of millions of anti-Tory workers 7.The decline of the Tory Party, the construction of the Allinace ané the crisis of the Labour Party amount to an attempt by the ruling class to resorganise its entire system of political rule. Its purpose in this is to ensure that the decline of the Torkes does not allow an unstable Labour Party with a powerful left-wing to govern alone The frontal asseukt of the Tory Party and the political assault of the Alliance off the trade micns and Labour Party form part of the same overall ruling class offensive and mutually reinforce each other. Every workers! vote won by the Alliance helps the Tories win support for + eir attack on the political levy and trade union funding of the Labour Party. Every blow the Tories successfully deliver against the Labour Party and trade union membership strengthens the drive of the Alliance to break up Labour's vote and break its relations with the unionse The tabour movement had to launch a mass party in order to defend the trade union against atecks by the capitalist state at the turn of the cuontury. If the ruling cless can successfully split a section of the unions from the Labour Party, it can politically divide the unions and tremendouslv weaken the ebility of the working class to defend all of its rights and organisationse FOR A_ MASS TART LABOUR AGAINST POPULAR FRONTISM 8.The fundamental,struggle therefore confronting the working classpis™ these against the Tory Party and the Alliance, Within the lebour movement this takes the form of a struggle against any line of non-political trade unionism and popular frontism with the Alliance at tieelevel of zovernment or at the level of strategy wothin particular mass moverents and camapignse The price of all such agreements with the Alliance is not to broadem movements like CND or in defence of local government.
It will narrow all such struggles. It will limit the forms of struggle and the demands on which the struggle is based to what is acceptatle to the Allience and the capitalist class that supports ite :
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a Tn reality popular frontism with the Alliance mesns absn@oning the cefence of womens! richts, abandioning the struggle against racism adendoning defence of the cities, abandaming nuclear disarmament ete and sbandonbnng the type of mass action that is necessary to achieve victory.
Tt would therefore smash up the base of the labour movement, It vould ° be & political catastrophe allowing the most ferocious usseult on labour this century. : i & ut the very conditions that have undermined the material foundations of the traditional two-party system in Britein have also begun to create the forces around which an alternative political project can e roast = : : ~ F > keftcting minority in the tuade unten cavern een od 2 waded i novenent, the srowing radicalisabion of women in the labour movement, the mass peace movement, the first steps to dink the left-wing of the labour movenent with the leadership of the anti-unionist struggle in Ireland = all of these developments point to the possibility of beginning to re-build the labour movenent on & new basis ~ that of an alliance of all of those struggling against British capitalism eround 2 Pe A nt . . parties, : Forty 2£ Labour against all capitalist Historically a mass revoluticnary party will be necessary in order to forge such an allaince against the British ruling class. Today the the concrete steps in this direction passa through the political struggle within the labour movement and Labour Party for the line of rebuilding Labour through championing the struggles of all ‘of the oppressed and exploited against the line of dragging the ‘labour movement into the disaster of a popular front coalition with the SDP/Liberal Alliance, advocated by the Hobsbawnistes of ‘Marxism Today.
Participation in this struggle within the labour movement and the Labour Party, as part of the Bonnite left-wing, is the next step in pbuilding a revolutionary organisation in the British class struggle.
In order to do this it is necessary for revolutionary socialists to be active members of the 4abour Yarty at every level, and in particular, in prpmoting the links between the Labour Party and the wmions and mass campaiens, This is nota shorteterm polisy, but will be necéssary | for the forséeable future. it pre-figures the type of organisational ' flexibility that will be necessary if revolutionaries are to participate in,and influence, the great process of splits and divisieng in the Labour Party which is the sole road along which a mass revolutionary party can be built in Britain.
KINNOCK'S EURO-SOCIALIST PROJECT. 9.The drive by the ruling class to re-organise British pclitics has had important consequences within the labour movenent.
Within the TUC the most right-wing forces have taken the leadership of the General Council. The lesson they draw from the last election is that the trade union bureaucracy cannot organise its politics around the objective of attaining a Labour government because this is unlikely to be possible in the forseeeble future. Therefore they advocate collaboration to get what crumbs are obtainable forom Thatcher, Distancing the unions from the Labour Party in order to establish ‘non-political! trade unionism and preparathons for a popular front approach to the Alliance and the Tory 'wets'.
The Kinnock leadership in the Lebour Party bases itself on an alliance of the centre and right-wing of the Labour Farty to re-build Labour a to the ruling class. They intend to make it acceptable through a poli offensive to re-orient Labour along 'Huro-socialist! lines. That involves
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dropping those policies like unilateral disarmament and opposition to the Hzl vhich the Eurovean oriented sectors of the ruling class cannot tolerate.
They intend to make it necessary by rebuilding the pobular support of Labour around opposition to the most unpopular policies of Thatcher on the NHS, local democracy, trade union rights, etc.
However Eigmock confronts three obstacles in-carrying through this orientation: Firstly, he is not prepared: to engage in a serious struggle around any of the issues that he takes up because this would be totally umacceptable to precisely the capitalist sectors Kinnock is seeking to woo and would result in a collsiitn with the right-wing bureaucracy. Secondly, the ruling class has concluded that in the new conditions of recession the Labour Party cannot form a government capable of controlling the working class and, furthermore, the existing strength of the labour movement is beyond the means of British capitalism to sustain. Therefore the ruling class will put massive resources into both the Tories! attacks on Labour and building up the Alliance to ensure Labour can't win an election, Thirdly,Kinnock confronts the Bennite left-wing in the Labour Party constituencies, the mass campaigns end the left-wing of the trade unions movement. Although Kinnock has won a section of what was the Bermite left to its Euro-socialist' project - the Labour Co-ordinating Committee he has by no means succeeded in defeating the Bannite left as a wholes On the contrary the Benn Chesterfield vimtory and the role of the Scargill leadership in the miners! struggle and the Livingstone leadership in the movement defending local government, all demonstrate the limits of the Kinnock/LCC drive to destroy the Bennite left.
In fact following the NGA betrayal and Chesterfield the Sanite left has started to resorganise itself, Ths is a vital step given the success which the LCC has had in exploiting the real political weakness of the CLP left in many areas.
THE SSCONM Wave OF BEIWIS?". ; IC.The emergence of this Bennite left following the ‘79 general election profoundiy affected the development of nolitics within the labour movement.
What is unique about this movement is that it is based on a movement in the trade unions, and mass movements and campaigns with its political leade ship and expression inside the Labour Party, Given the owervhelming and total political domination of the British working clas= by the Labour Party it is only through the development of the political crisis within the Lavour Party that a political alternative to right-wing social democracy can be built within the mass of the working class. e F The first phase of Bennien centred on the struggle around the Lebour Perty leadership and for democrativ reforms of the Party. ihat is now beginning is a second wave of ennism centring more centrally on the forces moving into action if the class strugs}e and the relation between these forces and the struggle in the Lebour arty: * within the trade unions the accumulated experience of the oven betrayals of ASLEP, the Eealth workers and most blatantly, the NGA have bemun to crystaliise an increasingly organised leftwing on the TUC General Council centring around Scargill. These are the same forces in the bureayeracy that ere most hostile to the drive to weaken the unions? links with Lanour. Amongst the trade wiion activists the leftevwing is increasingly moving out ; of the frsmework of the old Communist Party controlled Broad Lefts to organise explicitly as the Labour left trend within the
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unions. This is reflected in the growth of the new Sroad lefts the response to the BLOC conference, and tae inoreasingrefleotion in the unions of the policy debates in the Labour Partye Tt is these forces that are in the forefront of fighting fot solidarity with workers! struggles against the sabotage of the TUC 4 ? ) * the development of the self-organisation of women in the labour movement has been greatly influenced by the movement for democratic reforms in favour of women in the Labour Party led by WAC which in turn is led by Bennites; * the alliance which defeated the attempts of the CND leadership to abandon unilateralism at the 1983 CND conference was organised around and led by Labour CND in alliance with the Greenham movement, Youth CND and Trade union CND; * the Bennite left organised around the GLC and the LCI have transformed the consciousness of the lebour movement on Irelend through linking i. up with Sim Fein as a legitimate political force and campaigning for British withdrawal; * there is now the beginning of a movement of belck people to reform the Labour Party and trade unions to win them to defdnd Black people against racism and increase the resprcsentation of black peop.e within them; * in defence of the cities against the Tories! attacks the Bennite left have led the movement which in London has proved capable of organising significant protest strikes and through which recvolutionaries have been able to begin to pose a strategy for wiited action ecross the unions and Labour Party; * in Scotland the Labogr Party has vecome the sole credible vehicle through which to campaign for a Scottish Assembly. * amongst students the National Crganisation of Labour Students has become the overwhelmingly dominant force in the NUS and it is whthin NOLS that the only serious opposition forces to the line of the Kinoockite leadership of NUS are organising. * Even the LPYS, which Militant has ensured was by-passed by the great youth movements of recent years, is being shaken up the the Benn ite left and its relation to the mass campaign around CID, to the womens? movement, and to questions like gay liberation, so that a minority current to the left of Militant looking to the Bennite left in the Lebour Party is beginning to emerge in the YS.
It is because the Bennite left has been able to play tnis rote and draw to itself the most dynamic forces in the uni ons and campaigns that there are no mass forces to the left of Bennism in the labour movement. _FOR A CIASS STRUGGLE LEFT WING IN THE LABOUR MOVEMENT {i,The central orientation of revolutionary socialists in Sritain today must be to participate in this Bennite current and to fight within it for it to organise itself into a class struggle left-wing organised from top to bottom of the labour movement, This requires three central elements: eres
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S‘a3basing the Bennite left on the struggles that unfold against ti: “‘Pory government und in defence of the labour movement. b Organising to win the Bennite left to fight for united action with the Kinnock:,’Loc forces in support of every single concrete atrugele against the Tory goverment. It is in the course of struggis like that of the NGA and the Miners that the strategic line of Euro-socialism can be scem for what it is because each such struggle poses Kinnock with the choice of defending the working class or standing with the bourgeois courtsp police, etc against the lacour movement, c)Organising with the Bennite left to defend the policies and democratic reforms that have been von in the Labour Yarty gince I979 agaist the drive by Kinnosk and the LCC to reverse these policies. This requires en ideological struggle to clarify the womuite ¢ “orees on the character of the Kinnoek/LOG 0 operation and its goal of destroying Eenzisme This is the essential con tent of the struggle to construct a class struggle leftwing in che Britich labour movemgnt today. It is not & struggle to Miternative to the left of Bennism, but, on the contrary, to strengthen the relation of the bennite movement to the mass struggles and campaigns against the Tories and to develop a current within it cepable of grasping the strategic significance of a line of rebuilding Labour as charp icn of the opressed against the stratezic line of poouler frontism and coalition ith the SDF/Liberal Alliances build an This means building Labour and trade union CiD; building thb Broad lefts in the trade unions; building the Worens' Action Committee black movement in the Lavour Farty and srade unions; pbuilding the cabyonig. building the LPYS ancyLebour Ulubs in the collegess At the level of the Benite left as a whole revolutionary socialists must support every step towards -arganising this current and making its leaders -ascountable to its ranks, At present both Tribune and Labour Herald have no intention of playing 2 serious role in orgenisng a ‘the base. The only force attempting to move in this direction is =Ericfing. .In order to be successful, however triefing will have to break from sectarian and ultra-leftist approaches to the Bennite movement. It should set its geal as promoting the systematic organisation of the Bennite left at every level. This will require both a political struggle ‘ageinst the atiempts of the LCC to roll back the nast gains of Sennism and a drive to force wmited action on the LCC and Kinnock around every concrete strugzle.e In order to achieve the maximum results in this Briefing would have to systematicaliy build up relations with the Gempaign group of MPs, with the key left trade union leaders and with the left intelligensia that is-volarising away from‘ the Hobsbawmite:- line of Marxism Today.
To achieve these goals revoluticnary socialists will progressively step up their involvement in, and resources devoted to, National Briefing and building around Briefing locally. In every area Briefing should be organised around, local Briefings established and National Briefing should be scld, Our aim in this is not to ‘take over! Briefing but to win political hegemony around the political line maoped out above and to build Briefing as an organiser of the “ennite left.
This will require Briefing beginning to organise forces by transforming itself into a camnahgning journal, mere rn enrh nets
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a Pes OTIS Te mame pee ome mr eet ote wait? See iC TASKS TDD TH TADS win Ulin a ct a The depth of the recession,the rise of mass unemployment,and t!2 defeats suffered under the Tories,have had a profound effect in the unions.
Following the steel strike the level of strike struggle declined consistently between '79 and 83.In manufacturing the number of shop stewards fell by half.Many of the shop stewards organisations that remain are shadows of their former selves.The old shop stewards committees orga hised around the national political, pole of theLCDTU no longer exist as an effective political force.These organisations depended on strong shop stewards organisations based on the long boom.They disappeared under the impact of the recession and the betrayals of Jones and Scanion.-and the inability of the CP to provide a political alternative.
With them has gone a large part of the CP base in industry.But Thatcher has not succeeded in breaking the basic organisational strength of the class.There are still over 200,000 shop stewards- an increase in the white collar sectors has partially compensated for the decline in other areas.Trade union membership has declined,but there are stil. -imost 50% of trade unionists in af@illiated unions.For those ir “Ox¥ «ages have kept pace with,or outstripped infkation.
This balance of forces has dramatically reasserted itself in the rianers strike with the relucaance of the Tories to use the autior jear:latior against the Yorkshire NUM, ° This means that the pattern of struggle established after the onset of the recession,and particularly in the winter of dicontent,will constantly tend to reassert itself.The typical struuggle will be longer, nationally organised,and involve more workers than the struggles of the 60s and early 70s.The economie upturn willencourage more fight backs than in the last three/four years. The basie reason for this is that the class has not suffered qualitative defeats.Even in the recession the class was able to maintain its basic position. The Tories have not been able to turn mass unemployment inteaweapon to break the unions.
The last ten years have produced important changes in the unions.The Old CP-led broad lefts °° - ° °« have sufferd severe defeats.The right has made important gains in the unions and at the level of the TuC,for the first ‘time since the fall of Deakin/Carron.These are the foeces of the'new realism',who favour talks witht the Tories and any party ‘capable of forming a government',At the extreme right is Chapple who explicitly favours the SDP over a left LP.Murray et al seek to push Labour to the right,to prepare the ground for a coalitinn government. These forces have set their faces against mass struggle.
However,the Tories have no intention of easing their attacks on the labour movement.The result is & a_political split in the TUC,led by Scargilland BUckton and suuported by Evans.They have openly opposed the right on the NGA sell~-out,and have organised independently of the General Council over the miners.The '84 Congress will see the sharpest politigal fight within the trade union bureaucracy for decades.
These steps towards organisation by the left are an extremely import~ ant development - they provide a vifal focus for the bennite current which has developed at the ba of the unions,and will greatly stimulate its development, and steps towards organisation at the base.
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- Bennism provided political coherence but n@ organisational work for thfs left opposition at the base.We must be part of a. ¢' eos towards such organisation.Our demand of the left leaders is organise your base.This is not an exposure demand but one which Corresponds to the needs of the class struggle. The labour movement will divide verticallybefore it divide hoeizontally.We will support all steps towards organisation of the left in the unions ~ participation in the broad lefts,fighting to open up BLOG ,building labour movement conferences on the key issues of the class struggle (solidarity with the _ miners,defence of the political funds,against abolition of the GLC,etc..) and seek to draw the left leaders into support forthese initiatives, Birksre$ rpc Kh Beri THE LP AiO THe unlorit, It is along such lines that the class struggle left wingwill emerge in Britain.The lines of divide will be political,not industrial or sectoral.The position of Sirs of theISTC in the miners strike isa - clear demonstration of this.Since the mid-fifties ones portance of the industrial unions has declined relative to the expanding white collar technological and particularly the public sector. The notion, stemming from the turn,that these are petty-bourgeois areas has to be rejected, The public sectoe will be ™ great political importance in the coming period,asLiverpool and the GLC has demonstrated.We must build up all our union fractions in the next pericd,so that they can fully participate in building left wings in all sectoes.This means rejecting the idea only the ‘core industrial sectors'are od political significance.It also means that the line of ‘building workplace bases'is quite inadeqaate.We must fully partivipate in the structures of the‘unions in which we are involved,stand dor vositions,etc ; Ihe forces which will fundamentally resolve the political crisis in the labour movement are organised in the trade unions. As the crisis of the Labour Party deepens the right-wing bufeauacracy has, and will continue, to stifle and prevent the debates in the Labour Party spilling over and politically polarising the trade uNnionss Revolutionary sOchialists on the other hand will take all possible ; steps to sarbngthen the organisation and links between the left-wing nf the jabour Party and the trade union left-wings.
This requires building the Broad lefts in every union and moving teWerds establishing Broad lefts where they do not yet exist.
It requires a central political campaign in the. unions in defence of the political levy and the promotion of all possitle forms of organisation that can facilitate this campaign, in particular; LP/TU liaison committees; open and democratic BLOCs; the LCC appeal; etce It requires systematically promoting a crass sectoral political line for united action across the unions and with the 4abour Party: in defence of the GLC and the metropolitan authorities; in solidarity with workers in struggle; against the anti~ trade union laws; in defence of unilateralism; etc. Campaifning and united front bodies will often assist this approach, examples are Trade union CND, the campaigns in defence of the GLC, united fronts in defence of the NHS.
In order to carry out these tasks revolutionary socialists will give special priority to building up fractions of trade union comrades to organise the work in each trade rnion, Wherever cdes work in a particular trade union the objective should be the establishment of a trade union fraction, “hilst rejecting the strategy of the 'turn' of the Ath Varia ongresc, revolutionary socialists will continue t»5 organise be get conrades into rriority trade unions, sectors and plants ans vill continue to: prboritise builé@in-g branches in the key indur éreas where strong branches do not yet exist. vtrial nd
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F Te 3 ‘ * . — . = > 4 . ; I2.%he chef political forces sesking to break up the Sennite and reszroup it around the 'Euro-socialist! vroject of Kinnock are those organis aroune. the LCC in the Labour Party and around tne line of Marxism Totey. 2 a) The L,C.C. has consclidated itself nationally into Kinuock’s thinktanl.e They ow bidding fo control of New Socialist. The LCC's politics Have been clarified as oriented towards wiiming Labour to a pro-aEC line. They are organising with the trade unions, the womens movement, the student movement, the LPYS ana the CLPs to attempt to politically divide the Bennite left, to roli back these policies unacceptable to Huropean capitalism and isolate the Tortskyist forces. At the same time on certain inviduel questionz,lixe defence of the pclitical levy, it is possible and nevessury to forge united action with the Loc. More generally tne base of the LCC is not hegemonised in all areas of the country around its leadership's rightist line and thi 1 contradictions and possibilities of unitedaction for specifi aor aI unlike the LOC, cpenly 2 Its success in winning the CPSB to its 30a] aiid litionist line hes teen cramitic risis in the CP mince 1955. The cssenti is between the pro-vrepesn imperielism one proeoscow line of tne Morning Dtar. ina split in tue Cro Revoluticnary socialists support noither side in this struggle. Both political lines fundamentally; subordinate the intezrests of the working cluss to alliances with sections of the Zvitish ena European bourgeoisies, ‘whe interests of the workine class ere best served by the dustruction of the British Communist Party under the watsht of its own contradivtionss Id oThe Militant Tendency have come to the fore over the past neriod through their leadership of the struggle by Liverpool City Council against the Tory governnent, their leadership of BLOC and tasir leadership of the LPYS. Their entrenched position in the LP, the LFYS and the trade unions has allowed them to win substantial new forcss to their ranks and to grow extremely rapidly to a force. of some thousands.
This organisation has a right centrist character and hus been evolving in a social chauvinist direction over the past fifteen years. This comes out most clearly around its systematic adaptation to British imperialism end failure to support struggles egainst it. On the Kalvinas iiilitant was qualitatively to the right of Benn. On Ireland Militant is creating the ground for the rightewing's attacks on the Bennites!< evolution on Ireland, — a ‘Neither docs Militant support the struggles and selfeorzanisation of the ‘most oppressed sections of society. It rejects the actual movements ifor womens! liberation for black rights, in defence of gay rights. ‘It abstains from partivipation inmass movements organised outside ithe TUs end Lakour Party like CID, the 4ANL and the YSC. As a result Ililitant lhas able for a whole period to reduce the LFYS to its om periphery ‘organisations . . The fundamental orientation of revolutionary socialists must be to destrey the Militant Tendency as a right centr¢§t obstacle to building a revolutionary Party in Britain. This involves exploiting the contradiztions being introduced into Militant's ranks by the new wave of growth it is experiencing and its inability to control these forces fully and maintain the monolithic characte: of its organisations This can be done ché@fly through a systematic struggle to draw Militant ‘i nto vmited action through creating a relation of forces with the ‘Bennite left that makes Militant vay a very high price for abstention, ‘This must be combined with conshkstently erguing againet and exposins the rightist and chauvinist elements in Militant's volitics, ee ents