byP.Peterson
The experience of the “ilson Goverment has demonetrated not only the complete betrayal of even reformist principles by. that. Goverment but also, and more important for us, the utter bankruptcy of the trad- Stional left wing forces in this country. Im fact there seema to, bean almost mathematical relationship between the.speed at which Wilson adopted more and. more right wing policies and degree of response: from the traditional left. The relationship has, sed to say, becen an inverse one: the more Wilson has gone to the right the lesa effective has been the resistance of the left. Two examples sre instructive: (1) The attitudes of the left parliamentarians, when a solid block of Labour ii.P.a started to abstain on certain issues in Porllament many on the left, including this writer, grected this phenomenon. \/a regarded thie es the beginnings of. an inetitutionalised parliamentary oppoeition to Wilson. We hoped that-more and more-M,.P,s would. follow this course, amd that eventuallly, some would actually vote: ageinet the Goverment... How erong we were! Tho. exact opposite procesa hes taken place: less and less N.P.8 abstained and then, fineally,.even. this token resistance was dropped. Vicious anti-trade union leglalation has becn passed. through the House of Commons during 1966 with left M.P.e voting for it. (2) Trade union opposition. In 1966 the moat savare attacke.on trade unioniam for decades took: place, It la: not necessary for me to re= iterate them in detail, but let. ua recall that the principle of taking legal action against trade wicnists for calling official strikes has been established; and that freely negociated wage increases have been stopped by the Goverment which has threatened the employers wha wented to pey them. The response to these vicious attacke has been minimal both officially and unofficially. There has becn. only one major strike againat the Goverment: the seamen's strike which was completely unsupported by the rest of the movement, The nunber of working days lost by strike action is drastically down. If we aubtract those days leet through the eeanen's strike from the total we get. sane measure of comparison for the unmnoffioial or. locally based. reaponses. The eomparigon is a gloomy one: the number of days lost in 1966 ia only half of what were lost during the compareble period of 1965.
Thue the vilson Goverment. has been suceasful in carrying out the traditional role of a sooial-demcoeratic Goverment: that of gotting the working clase to accept anti-working clase measures. without a real atruggle.
However, an objective examination of this process, aimed at breeking the impasse is not helped. by a ritualiatic demmeiation of the "fake-lefta", This profoundly non-larxiat approach, which substitutes the peychology of Labour Leadere for an objective social analysis, ia, indeed the reverse aide of the coin of the opportunism of the traditio- Wel left leaders, In feet some responsibility for thia atate of affairs aoorues to the sectarians for diverting important cadre forces away from the struggle at a crucial stage. The polling out of several
humndireds of young people from the Labour Farty by the 5,L.L,; the attempt by some others to rationalise «a move away from the Labour Farty by substituting unofficisl bodies and the shop stewards; and the" social feaciet" theories advanced by various Maniat tendencies are cistakes Just Be reprehensible as that of the Coomuniat Party tall-ending the left parliamentarians. In considerins the role of Marxists in helping to solve thie problem, it seems to be that the following are both very necessary and poseible: (1) to help to intertwine and to fuse all the sectional strugzles into & generelised one against the Goverment) (2) to help to ensure that seme sucedses are gained in the etrugale ageinet Wilson and his Cabinety (3) to resist tendencies towards a ayndicalist retrest from political solutions; +s ta counter the tendencees towards adaptation by the left; and 5) ta give the movement a strategy
In other words to elaborate a transitional progreme From sectional ao les to an overall a Le
‘hen there is a low level of resistance to attacks sgainsat workers! atandarde the dangers of sectionalisn ere intensified, These areas and factories which have the most highly organised and sonsolous workers will tend to go into battle in isolation. We mast fight ageainat this tendenoy and atrese the need to always peneralisa the strussle. This Geans intervening in these struggles with a set of alogens which pose the local fight in national terns, Th ensure Bome BuoeBeaeas
The whole morale of any army = political or military - ie determined by the extent to which it is confident that it has some perepective of sucess, In the present situation of a low level response to the attacks of the Government thie ten only mean taking certain strugesles which sre on a fairly small scale and mobolise every possible bit of assistance for them, In particular it means, on the industrial front, trying to ensure that the unions like the glant TOPU and dynamic ASSET use their full resrurces to inflict defeate, Opposing celism
There ere bound to be powerful sindicalist tendencioa develop in the organised working clase. This is particularly ao beosuse the attacks on the unions are coming from a Labour Goverment, Syndicaliem cen teke the form of unions "going it alor’™ snd flying up the ides of trying to acheive political solutions to their problems, Concretely thia eould quite easily take the form of some militant wniona like ASSET or SOGAT relying entirely on industrial strogele and even severing their connections with the Labour Party. At the present atage such action coul;' only isolate the more conscious workers from the rest of the clases Rank and Pile simdicsaliss can be equally directed againat right wing contrelled wions, Again, however tempting it might be, it could only divide the working class, The fight against syndicaliam involves linking the political and industrial atrucglas, It means that we should call upon the industrial militants to insist that the Labour Party rank and file supporta them, It means pioneering wherever poselible « strategy of militants going to the Lebour Party to take over units,
Opposing -daptation
The evolution of inthony Greenwood is one that da pessibie for
anyone once they put tacticel considerations above those of principle,
Marxists heave a duty » jin « sensative and non-sectarian canner, tin
point out to the left winzersa they work with tha path they are
treading once they oove in this direction, However, if aleo means
building movements whioh demonstrate that it ia both possible to
siick to. principle and to retain wide suppert,
Giving the mnovenent a stratesy
A treneitional prosramme has to be evolved to be adopted by a
united front of trade uniona in opposition to the goverment, the
minorities of those unions whith suppert the government, left
wing Labour Party menbersa and other aoolealiste,. Buch. & united
front would be meaninglese unlesa it involved leaders who, in
the eyes of millions of Labour supporters, appeared os an
alternative leadership to Vileen and co.Mo dovbt this would have
to be achieved in stages, but the popularising of the idea of a
broad conference of the left, convened by nationally know trade
union leaders, and at least some unions and Labour Parties should
be started. The programms put forward should include
(1) Immediate abolition of the wace freeze and anti-union lecislation;
(2) The re-iterastion of the principle of full freedom of nego iation
by undona;y
(3) A eliding scale of «azas to compensate for the increase in the
oost of living:
(A) Huge cute in cilitary expenditure;
(5) Nationalisation of the commanding heighta of the econony under
workers! control;
(6) A workers! plan for the development of the British economy,
including tha “solving” of ite balance of paymenta problema by
nom East-eat trade and long term trade agreemente with under-
developed countries;
(7) Opening the bocke of all employers and workers councile in
all places of work to contrel hiring and firing, welfare allocat-
ions, ete.
(8) A socialist foreign policy, with Labour on the side of the
oppressed instead of bein, partner in their suppressiony and
(9) A eall for an 211 Furepean conference of Inbour to meet the
threat to workers’ conditions posed by the creater unity of
Eurepesn cepiteliste.