i LETTER TO A LEFT WING M.P.
Dear Comrade, Yhis is an appeal.to you to do something which neither of us would have thought to be even thinkable back in October 1964: to vote arainst the Labour whip next weck. it is a grave request to make and should certainly not be made lightly. I-am certainly not insensitive to the difficulties which left wing liPs face, and I have no wish to add to their burden. There is no doubt that the climate is bad for the left as a whole; that the disastrous policies which have been adopted by the-Covernment have been skilfully sold to a very significant part of the movement, to say nothing of the electorate, by the Prime Minister's hichly talented public relations campaign. I am not sur; esting that a rebel can easily expect imrediate support, and that-he might not suffer painful reprisals from the parliamentary machine. In any case, I have no doubt about the depth of self-questioning which prospects of such an action are bound to stir up in anyone who has devoted the years of effort and thought to public work through the Labour Party as you haves The left, far from being ‘Ccisloyal', is traditionally the most staunch, tiost responsible, most reliable section of the entire movement. Our people do not fly off at tangents. But when, next Tuesdoy, the debate begins on the Activation of Tert IV of the Prices and Incomes ict, the Government will have crossed the line which separates the defenders and the enemies of the trade union movement. You are going to be voting on whether you will send your brothers to prison for defending trace union rights. When you anstained in the vote -before the recess, everyone had a clear understanding from Government spokesmen of the conditional, reserve nature of the powers which were to be taken under the Acte Now these pledges, like many more, have becn grotesquely disrerarded. How many people will be locked up as a result of next Tuesday's decisions? You, like all of us, were reared in the legends of our movement, on stories like that of the Tolpuddle lartyrs. Did you see yourself, as a young activist, as.a descendant of Georre Loveless? Or did you interpret. your role as being that of Lord Nelbourne? To pose the question is to answer it. Dut where will you put yourself, if you vote with the Government on Tuesday, when the new'martyrs are being created? There comes a time when it is necessary, however unpopular. it may be,.or however it incites those in power to mean reprisals, to do what is right. You know, with me, that it is right to defeat the Tuesday motion. Please, please, remember one thing: that if one, two, or ten men take a strong position on such a matter as this,.the waverers will rally. If it is plain that, whosoever may avstain, your vote is against, you will find friends to come with you on the day. . I earnestly hope you will do what I know you have it in you to do. The tension of this week will be unbearable. You have my every good wish in the strugcele.
yours fraternally, KEN COATES.