By and large the left has repudinted Richard Gott, the candidete of the Radical Allinnce in the forthcoming by-election in Hull North. This, I believe to be aprdoundly mistaken decision, ond I should like to set out my reasons for saying thise As The iniquities of the Labour Government require no ectaloguing for the readers of The Week, I am sure. The only dispute is over the extent and manner of our opposition, The Labour left clsins tht we should fight through the Lsbour Partye All well and good, The question then arises: _ how much fighting has the left done, how effective hus it been, «nd what further forms of struggle does the left intend to employ? The “nswers res the left has mounted beleted and linited campaigns over Vietnam, immigration and wages policy, it has b-rely raised the issues of nuclear weapons, colonial policy and steel nationalisation; the left haus had no perceptible influence on any critical issue; the left is not prepsred to go beyond the lobbying and declamatory techniques it has employed so fare The Parliamentary left his not even tried to use its most effective weapon ~ the threet to vote against the Government. The reasons for the failure of the L~bour left are complex, but obviously.include: (a) the personal defection of some of its former lenders beguiled by the fruits of: office; (b) a self-imposed restraint stemming fron 2 rituclistic adhesion to the L:bour netaphysic (absolute priority of the necessity of placing end maintaining Lobour in office, necessity for loyslty to the Labour Party becsuse it is the only ass party of the working class, etce); (c) a collepse of morale sii nerve brought on by the recurrent failures of the left in the lost few yearn; (4) the decline of effective pressures from the independent left (CD, New Left, etce) I see not the slightest chance that any of these factors will cease to operate so long as we remain imprisoned in the str tegic formula of the orthodox lefte Re It is by now surely clear that we caniuot expect the L-bour Party as at present constituted to bring us to socinlisn, The Labour Movement does, - obviously, contain a socialist nucleus but this has been porilysed by its awn theoretical ond strategic we knesses ond its capitulation to the Lebour netaphysice At its most effective 2.11 that it has been able to do is to prevent the mest outrageous betrayels of principle by the Lebour lenderships Its effectiveness has increased in periods when it hos nllied itself with indpendent radical-and socialist movements -nd when it has been emboldened by such alliances into launching 2 head~on attack on the right, The late fifties and early sixties saw the beginnings of 2 loose+knit olliance between the Labour left 2nd a new independent left which culmineted in 4 temporary defeat of the Labour -old guard, to a revitalisation of socialist thought and analysis, to the mobilisation of l-rge numbers of the normally apolitical, to a great . widening.of the terms of political debate in this country and to the enhancement and diversification of the: channels of democr— atic activity in this countrys. In this situntion there was some hope a genuine growth of mass socialist consciousness ond the crystalisation of a popular socialist movement, These hopes and achievements have by now | largely been dissipated ond.we are rapidly moving back to a situation where a truncated "loyal" left is fighting for its very existence on the wings of Labour noverent. ‘The time has come for us once again to breck ‘out of these constricting quarters and to try .gnin to construct a movement of © popular dissent both to challenge the Labour Party and redicalise its left 2nd to — lay the fourd ations of 1 new socinlist movement.
Should we support Gott continued/
Ce Irrespective of these long term considerstions we have an immediate duty
to offer challenge to the Government on Vietnen, nuclear weapons and alliances,
immigration, antietrade union legislation, etc. No better way of making this
challenge exists than to threaten the Governnent's precarious majority by
electoral intervention, Gottts candidature at Hull ensures that at least the
najor issues of foreign policy will be debated «nd that national publicity
will be focused upon them. (It's noteworthy that none of the other candide
ates intended to make foreign policy an issue at all until Gott intervened.)
Gott's vote may or may not be derisory = this is not the nost important test
of the correctness of his stand, Instead his accomplishments have to be
judged by (2) the extent to which he makes Vietnam, etc, live issues in the
campaign and by the effectiveness with which he counters the Con=Lib=Lab
concensus on these issues; (b) the extent to which he reinvigorates and
strengthens the independent left in the Hull area,
This overall strategy is obviously open to serious criticisms. To the
objection that the vote for Gott may keep the Labour candi date out, I
can only say that there appears to me to be more overeriding priorities
than the addition of a staunch Wilsonite to the corpus of docile lobby=
fodder which at present constitutes the back bench Labour Party. If the
Governnent ig endangered by this intervention so much the betters We wish
to give it a fright ~ it has given us some bad frights recently. (In any
ease socialists must seriously consider whether the longsterm prospects for
socialism in this country are improved or worsened by the retention of a
reactionary Lebour Government.) To the objection that the loes1 Labour has
refused to back Gott and is now thoroughly >lienated from the independent
left one must counter the question: «nd just how effective has the laol
cbour left been in raising and fighting upon the issues which Gott intends
to bring forward? We know the answere There is no reason why we shonid
be fooled by the illusions of the local Labour left as to their own pust,
present and future impact in the Hull Lebour Partye
The final objection is that if Gott's vote is very low, it will be interpre-
ted as signifying the slightness of the opposition to the Government. This
may be so (on the other hand it could be crgued that those with 2n essential
interest in the results of the Hull byeelection will know that there has
been a conflict of loyalty .nd that many disaffected socialist nonetheless
voted Labour), Certainly Gott's vote will indicste the extent of open
socialist opposition to the Lebour Government in Hull North and it will be
the only indication of loc.1 dissatisfaction ot the elections So long as
the orthodox left offers us nothing but ringing declurstions ~ mere verbal
militancy « then those who really wish to oppose nust look to Gott for their
salvations