Chris Otley's comments on the Radical Alliance/Labour Left dilemma s@wu to be conditfonrd by a view of left wing roles and activities which stops short of any of the developments of the last four yearse He is clnost. nostalgic for the hey=-day of mass CND activities, and the "old" Mew left clubse .He can see nothing but decline since then, 2nd this has led hin to neglect a whole range of developments, none of which would have been possible without the original New Left, but which have taken New Left thinking « and above all, organisation and activity in the labour movement «= great bounds beyond what the clubs ever dide Does ~ 7: srowth of the Voice movement, in all its shedes and activities, the pre.cuce of The Week, the campaign for workers* control, Centre for Socialist Education, Socialist Register, Towards Socialism, etce, etce (and the opposition of the 1.G.W.U. ind the techicians* unions to the incomes policy) mem nothing to him? The direction of this recent left growth has been against reformism and labourism, where it grows and is nurtured ~ in the domestic British Lobour Partye As Ken Tarbuck says: "the main enemy is at homee” I take this to mean that, in the international socialist struggle of which we are a part, our role is to take on that part of international neow capitalism which we can directly engage, Unless we do that we find, as with the Radical Alliance, that the international issues that we wish to raise remain somehow unfocussed, remote, unconnected with other aspects of the struggle. I am puzzled as to why Chris Otley should suppose that we (the local Labour Party to which he refers) harbour illusions about our past, present and future impact in the Hull Labour Partye I think we know fairly dispassion:tely where our strengths and weaknesses lies We can disagree about these and no great harm is done by such a discussione But certainly we believe that our presence (which represents a trade union shopfloor ~ Labour Party based left) has enabled a constructive dialogue to develop with Radical Alliance, and with the important surviving groups of what Chris Otley calls the "independent left" (CND, New Left)e This dialogue has helped to build a bridge from Refe ideas of election= opposition through to the trade union left opposition within the party and movemente Cecil Ballantine, in his contribution, shows that we have been understood by the RaAe nationally, and this is true clso here in Hull, The exchange of views which has gone on between ourselves and the ReAe supporters here has been marked by an absence of mutual recriminatione It is a pity that Chris Otley, at several points in his contribution, fails to respond to this new, maturing mood of seriousness in the discussion of socialist strategye His major mistake is surely to identify oll effective opposition to the Government with the Gott vote, First, this is not true even if he thinks only of the articulate Humberside Voice «trade union left, for we have made an important impact in the campaigne On January lst, the Guardian headlined a three column article, which described among other things our Dockers Charter for the nationalisation of docks with workerg control, and the Voice pamphlet on busmen's demands for workerd management, with the caption: "Much will depend in Hull Ne on Labour's unofficial Voicese" Apart from this, does Chris Otley discount the fact that 3,(:00 dockers took a day off work, to hold o mass meeting in support of 2 militant wage demand, here in Hull this week? The idea, that some political conspiracy to "embarrass" Mre McNamara was behind this, can be dismissed as the cops and vobters stuff that it ise But the unofficial meeting, with that amount of support, shows an indifference to the Labour Government, and a de fscto opposition to the clamours of Brown
Hull's Labour left and the Radical Allianee eontinued/
and Gunter for wage restraint and "responsible" (isee docile) attitudes,
which, in the long run, is of more significance than Richard Gott's votes
If socialists fail to respond “to the voice of that opposition, they will
remain in a truly impotent isolations If they can give expression both
to that industrial opposition, and the moral outrage over Vietnam, and
advance both together over the hurdle which at present separates them
from a positive, coherent, and alleembracing socialist strategy, th«'. we
shall indeed be assisting Chris Otley's call for the "crystalisation of
a popular socialist movements"
One last word of warning. The mutual understanding for which we are
pleading now, during the by-election campaign, must not be destroyed by
recrimination within the left, AFTER THE RESULT IS ANNOUNCED. Whatever
the effect of Gott's intervention, we must adhere to our present position
- that the responsibility for the intervention lies with the Government
and its policies, and ‘NOT with the left + neither pro or anti-Gott
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