We noted last year how different the 1966 Brighton Conference of the Labour Party was from the 1965 one in Blackpool. This year's conference will be even more disillusioned and bitter against the Government. Almost certainly that feeling will be expressed in a number of votes on key issues. It is highly likely that the Government's incomes, economic and foreign policies will be rejected. Thus there will be a programmatic contrast between the Labour Party's policy and that of the Labour Government: a situation which favours the emergence of a big left wing. However, we must seek to turn this contrast into conflict: only when we have a struggle against Government policies can we hope to bring back into the party the thousands of disillusioned activists who are essential if we are to regenerate and re-enthuse the movement. The job which The Week, in its modest way, sets itself is to assist that process. We believe that certain lessons have to be learnt before we can undo the damage of right-wing domination of the Labour Party. But when we express our opinions we do so with two essential qualifications: firstly, we do not pretend to have all the answers; and secondly, we pledge ourselves to support any step forward in building the left in Britain. It is in this spirit we approach the forthcoming Scarborough conference. A good number of the activists who support The Week will be there as delegates (all too few of these, alas) or observers. They will assist such ventures as the Sunday teach-in, Briefing, the C.N.D. march, the Five-Union meeting, etc., and anything else which looks as though it will help the emergence of a strong and fighting left wing. They will also advocate the political line which this journal has been propagating since its inception, and especially since the election of the 1964 Labour Government: namely, that the present impasse in British politics will only be broken when a mass left wing emerges with a fighting strategy based upon an anti-capitalist programme which makes sense to the mass of politically aware Labour supporters. A detailed examination of that policy is contained in the special printed issue of The Week which we are going to sell at Scarborough. Naturally, Scarborough will see a great debate about the methods which must be used to achieve the end of forging a mighty left capable of defeating Wilson and his Cabinet. Firstly, we must express a note of caution: the passivity which has paralysed big sections of the left will not disappear overnight because of the passing of resolutions. Let no one delude themselves that the task is going to be easy or quickly achieved. Secondly, let us retain a mental note of caution about the outcome of the conference: basically, which way the decisions will g0 will be determined by the votes of a handful of large trade unions. This is an ideal set up for the manoeuvrers. The lesson of the defeat of the Bevanite anti-German rearmament campaign should not be lost. Thirdly, we cannot bank on Wilson being completely unable to meet the challenge of the T.U.C. and Scarborough conferences: the goings-on at the I.M.F.-World Bank meeting in Rio indicate that he is to be given more breathing space. Conse-
/Cont'd. on page 3.