The "never Again" Manifesto

It is a pity that the challenge presented by 70 MPs, in their "Never Again" Manifesto published by Tribune one July 21st, was so swiftly followed by the usual non-event in the lobbies at Westminster, It is bad enough that the degree of left militancy in Parliament is today measured by the yardstick of abstentions. When even this minimal act of "nilitancy" is foregone, it is difficult to counter the cynicism which paper protests habitually arouse, or to give a satisfactory answer to the jibe at the sponsors of "Well, what are they doing about it?" However, to the extent that the Manifesto challenges the central plank of the Wilson administration, it must certainly be welcomed, The shocking summer unemployment figures - the worst for twenty-seven years, the resignation of Margaret Herbison, the almost universal disenchantment with James Callaghan, and, now, this Manifesto, all add up to trouble for Harold Wilson at the Party Conference in October, Already a fair guess can be made at the manner in which he will try to side-step his difficulties - a Government reshuffle, new faces for old, the promise of industrial democracy, using and perhaps misusing the vocabulary of the workers' control movement, and, of course, the forward march to the Common Market. There will be the appeal for loyalty to new men and "new" policies, and, once again, time will be lost and another round of Labour supporters disillusioned while new men and measures are "given a chance" to show their worth, In the run-up to the Conference it is vital that constant pressure is maintained. To this end, the measures outlined in the "Never Again" Manifesto are tactically valuable, so long as they do not mislead people into thinking that such measures can, alone, cure the country's economic ills. Indeed, the options for individual socialist actions are very narrow unless they are underpinned by a socialist strategy, or, at the very least, by a socialist sense of direction. It is this sense of direction which is totally missing in the Wilson administration, and it is this fact that is, to a large extent, dictating the course of action which are possible, There are ways out of this country's economic stagnation, but they are either capitalist ones in a capitalist framework (involving working class sacrifices in defence of the pound sterling), or they are socialist ones within a socialist framework, The Manifesto poses the socialist alternatives to Wilson's policies without reference to this framework, which must, of necessity, involve a rethinking of our present dependency upon the capitalist world - a dependency which is responsible for many of the evils which the Manifesto sets out to eradicate, Having said that the Manifesto puts the cart before the horse, it may seem contradictory to wish it well, But, provided that the necessary action is forthcoming and that the MPs pursue their aims in Parliament as eloquently as they do in print, then a campaign of pressure to remove the easily recognisable evil effects cannot fail to challenge the basic structure itself.