This issue of The Week, produced especially for the Labour Party Annual Conference, deals exclusively with George Brown's National Plan and an alternative to it. The: Plan is the logical conclusion of the disastrous policies pursued by the Labour Government in its first year of office, We show, in the extracts from the big business press, that this ~Plan has not nothing whatsoever to do with socialism or socialist policies, The big business community, through their journals, are grudgingly - although _ somewhat sceptically - in favour of the essential ideas of the Plan. The Financial Times even warns Mr. Heath not to be too critical of the Plan! Had there been any measure in this plan which in any way encroached on the power and social position of big business in this country a howl of criticism would have gone up. This is, in a negative sense, powerful proof of the correctness of left wing criticism of the National Plan,
Ken Tarbuck, in his article, places the National Plan in context. He points outs its essential neo-capitalist nature and how it follows from the decision made by Mr. Wilson to attempt to deal with the crisis of British capitalism by using traditional Tory methods, Mr. Tarbuck also relates this. particular episode of the crisis of British capitalism to a long term conflict.
We have reprinted the final part of Ken Coates! article "Labour's first year" in which he argues that the left needs to fight - and organise - around a new programme, This,we think goes hand in hand with an assessment of the Nationa] Plane It covers, moreovex,-the problem of how to fight, which in many raises just as many problems.
Only a few more words need to be added to this introduction. This pamphlet is both a call to action to fight.and organise for certain things and the initiator of a discussion, The main lines are clear; for instance, would anyone now claim that Mr, Wilson is a man of the left? Or again, would anyone now seriously say that the appointment of some of the traditional left wing leaders of the Labour Party to Cabinet rank guarantees left wing influence on policy? On the other hand there is still plenty of room-for ...discussion on such topics as how the left should organise. Or on the topic of the relevance of particular types of struggle. There is, too, a need to discuss certain economic problems in light of experience and as part of a general strategy. ‘Some feel that there is a place for devaluation as part of an all-embracing anti-capitalist strategye But discussions such as these cannot and will not prevent the ‘left, at Blackpool and after Blackpool, uniting and getting on with the struggle to save the British Labour Party from the fate which has stricken some of its continental counterparts.
That such a struggle can onlybe onthe basis of a real fight against Toryism must be made clear, The whole. basis of the weakness of Mr. Wilson and his team is their unwillingness to fight big business at home and abroad. The key to understanding the difference between the programme we are putting forward and that of Mr. Wilson's is that ours presupposes anti-capitalist measures. There is no substance to the argument that this is impossible ‘because of Britain's relitnce on the all-mighty dollar. Cuba, France, and a host of other countries are living examples to the contrary.