WHY LABOUR DOMINATES
This is why the Labour Party dominates working class politics and why, indeed, even those not in the Labour Party or even hostile to it have to orient themselves towards it in day-to-day politics. The mass of the workers see no alternative to that of trying to express themselves politically through the Labour Party. This explains the ability of the Labour Party to even improve its position after such experiences as the 1929 and 1931 Labour Governments, History indicates most definitely that in the absence of a mass-based alternative the Labour Party will survive even Mr. Wilson's tenure; and that we could see the politics of the mid-1970's dominated by the question of a return to power of Labour in face of a viciously anti-working class Tory Government (which could, perhaps, incorporate some of the features of de Gaulle's regime in France), Such an eventuality would mean the loss of the experience of a whole decade,
To those who would point to the by-election results as an answer to this argument we would reply: did you notice something very funny? Despite the policies of the Labour Government and despite all the dissatisfaction, thousands of workers still went to the polls for Labour, This is the most extraordinary feature of the by-election results. This is the factor which would puzzle the mythical man from Mars.
The experience of the Communist Party is most salutary: It has had a daily paper for some 38 years, a full-time apparatus of some strength for over 40 years, and the prestige and backing of the Soviet Union for nearly 50 years, and yet it remains little more than a sect, Of course, the crimes and zig-zags of stalinism have played a large role in discrediting it but this is by no means the full explanation, Even with the disadvantage of being associated with stalinism the French and Italian Communist Parties have grown into mass formations. What is the essential difference? In answer one must say that in both those countries the Communist Parties arose out of mass currents within long-established Socialist Parties (even to the extent of commanding a majority). Those who would put all their efforts into producing a daily paper should ponder the experience of the British Communist Party.
AVOIDING A "STRONG" TORY GOVERNMENT
It would be a serious mistake to think that the arrival of a "strong" Tory Government would mean an upsurge of workers' struggle. It would take place under conditions in which the working class had suffered a defeat. Most likely this defeat would be paralleled with a decline of workers' organisations. Moreover, the Tories are not fools: by demagogy and clever tactics they would seek to minimise the workers' struggle. We believe that the best way to avoid such a disaster is by building a mass left wing alternative to Wilson within the Labour movement. For the next year or two a jump to revolutionary consciousness by very large numbers of workers would be too big a step to expect (although we would like to be proved wrong), Without that alternative, apathy and, in the best circumstances, concentration on pure trade union struggle would remain supreme,
Such a mass left wing will not come into existence as the result of any fight put up by the remnants of the traditional left; that much is clear, But it is still possible that the huge trade union opposition could, if it avoids compromise and the abandonment of political struggle, provide the mass base for such a left, The role of marxists would have to be that of helping this mass left to work out a consistent, realistic and offensive strategy and programme, Marxists will have to organise within this trade union opposition a firm core which will act as a counter against tendencies towards making the kind of "errors" Cousins and others made in relation to the dockers' and busmens' struggles This is best done by us making the firmest and uncompromising criticism. Silence is the equivalent of complicity.
Of course, this mass left would undergo many political and organisational developments before it laid the basis for the mass socialist party. Without doubt there would be severe political struggles and even fresh schisms before that process was completed. But such a struggle is inevitable for anyone who wishes to build the mass socialist party. It cannot be avoided by remaining within a small but pure little group - politics, especially revolutionary politics, is a tough business. If one does not like getting wet, one should not go swimming,
THE NEW FACTORS
Is, then, our attitude towards the Labour Party exactly the same as in 196? The short answer is - how could it be? When the attitude of the vast majority of the workers has altered, how could we retain the same approach?
In a period when the mass of the workers have great illusions in the Labour Party it is no little thing for marxists to be thrust out of that party; In such a period marxists are justified in being circumspect on organisational matters and, politically, must appear in the public eye as the foremost advocates of Labour to power. In a period when the mass of the workers have lost their immediate illusions in the Labour Party it is imperative that any marxist in that party is a resolute and dynamic opponent of the right wing policies of the Government. If this means the risk of expulsion so much the better, A marxist would conduct his fight against expulsion and for re-instatement on the grounds that he was defending the true working class traditions of the Labour Party by opposing the policies of the Government,
Because so many militants have left the Labour Party and because the left is so fragmented - not least on the question of its attitude towards the Labour Party - it is necessary to create non exclusive united front organs of struggle on particular issues, To argue, as some do (e.g., supporters of the British MILITANT), that activity in these organisations is a diversion from "true working class politics in the Labour Party". is to completely misjudge the situation. This argument - together with its corollary: the insensitive castigating of people who can't stomach the Labour Party ("go back and capture your ward") - is one of the misapplication of tactics at the best and servility before the right wing at the worst. It is a thoroughly healthy class feeling to be sickened by the Labour Party and its terrible internal life. Those who are NOT sickened are the ones we should be suspicious of.
UNATTACHED MILITANTS AND NEW FORCES
The truth of the matter is that we will be quite unable to draw people back into the struggle inside the Labour Party until we have demonstrated that we can wage a real struggle and that the struggle has some perspective of success - that is why it is all the more important that Activities such as the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign and the workers' control campaign keep together unorganised militants in meaningful activity and exert a pressure on local Labour Parties, More important, they provide a means of attracting and bringing into politics thousands of young people who have no interest in traditional British political formations.
From these two strands: the unattached militants and the newly interested young people, can come the bulk of the new cadres to provide the hard marxist core for the mass left of the future. If this mass left can be brought into existence out of the trade union struggle against the Labour Government's incomes policy we may yet break the impasse in British working class politics. We must hurry; this has to be done before Wilson does irreversible damage to the structure of the Labour movement,
Neither passive work in the Labour Party nor sectarian adventures in the political wilderness will help this process. Continuing the struggle within the Labour Party in an open and vigorous manner can, Hand in hand with this must go the creation of united front organs of struggle. A fight to get people involved in the Labour Party struggle will be won by example and thorough discussion and not by the invocation of fetishes,
Unless there is some drastic change in the relationship between the organised working class and the Labour Party, marxists must conduct the struggle along these lines,
There is no simple answer to this question. We are in the middle of a process which has not yet jelled out, There has been no significant move at union conferences for a rupture with the Labour Party, neither has any alternative force appeared on the scene, (Despite the election reverses of Labour, the Communist Party made that minimal ins and in Scotland clearly lost votes to the Nationalists. It gained two seats, nationally, the same number that the Cornish National Movement gained);
PRESENT POSITION CANNOT CONTINUE
On the other hand, it is clear that the present state of affairs cannot continue: if Labour's election position remains as it is now, its relationship with the unions is bound to suffer, Union leaderships will be under tremendous pressure to drop their embarrassing links with a totally discredited party,
This factor is the key to understanding the question: no matter how low Labour's fortunes may be now WHILE EVER THE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE UNIONS EXISTS THERE IS ALWAYS THE PROBABILITY OF A RENEWAL OF ITS SPECIAL POSITION VIS-A-VIS THE WORKING CLASS. This is all the more so because there is no sign whatsoever of an alternative political party filling the gap.
But it is clear that British politics can no longer go on in the same manner. Already, there is talk in serious bourgeois journals of the need for a "strong man" (although those commentators who quoted the example of France to back this argument must have red faces now!)
THE POWELL AFFAIR
The Powell Affair has shocked many sections on the left, It is to be hoped that this shock will expedite the process of the formation of a united [illegible] policies and other right-wing forces, But the key is to dispose of the obstacle that the Labour Party presents to the building of a mass marxist party.
This obstacle will not be disposed of by workers abstaining from politics or voting Tory or nationalist. Neither can it be eliminated by pure industrial struggles - even when these struggles are, by implication, against the state, The large-scale defection of workers from the Labour Party, to apathy or the right, makes this job more difficult because the essential lesson has not been learnt,
Marxists should still remain in the Labour Party but doing everything in their power to initiate the most vigorous opposition possible to Wilson, They should seek to use the municipal election results to convince the remaining socialists in the party of the disastrous folly of not fighting Wilson TO THE END.
POSTSCRIPT: AFTER THE MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS
It is difficult to exaggerate the extent of Labour's defeat in the municipal elections held this year, In some large industrial towns, Leicester, Birmingham, etc., Labour failed to win a single seat. Some of the Tory victories were so sensational as to be scarcely believable, for example taking of control in Islington.
In Scotland, the success of the Scottish Nationalist Party was just as decisive and unexpected by most political commentators,
In political terms these results can be seen as the rejection of the Labour Party and Wilson and his Government by sections of the working class on a scale that makes the 1931 election seem mild, Does this, then, mean that the arguments I have used in this article are no longer valid?