This resolution was adopted by the National Council of the Foundry Workers’ Union.
ABOUR’S setbacks in the recent
Leyton and Nuneaton by-elections must be seen as a serious and grave situation, which must be faced with cool judgment and practical action. It is no use seeking consolation in explanation of special factors operating whether of the personalities of the candidates or the shocking racialist happenings at Leyton, which were not decisive factors. In both constituencies there is a common political trend. Why is it that within such a short period of the electorate throwing out the Tories and turning to Labour for an alternative programme, in the first electoral tést so many previous Labour supporters either abstained or transferred their votes, which has created the effect of a swing back of the electorate towards Toryism? There is little doubt of the answer. Higher prices, higher mortgage interest rates, wage restraint, tax increases —all precisely those measures which had been made the object of attack against the Tories. The delay in granting the increases to pensioners on the grounds of ecenomy, when so much money is being poured out on arms and military expenditure, was a disastrous error. This setback must be overcome. The Tories must not be given an opportunity of a come-back. New thinking and radical changes of policy must be adopted that will rally the people and inspire the Movement to regain the lost ground. A clearer view of what is intended by an incomes policy must be given to the people, by action demonstrating that incomes restraint applies all round, to the price lifters and the profit makers. Labour’s policy must be clearly seen by the people to fundamentally differ from that of the Tories, in that it puts the need of the people before big business, social services before arms expenditure, and peaceful co-existence instead of cold war. We must have no more The Movement must be reactivated in support of the Government. From the February issue of