cher goss eet. out fede HeakHeath UNC W through extra-parlamentary action. Fund and the Treastiry Yet within a year the policies that the resulting (overment had been elected on had been dropped and after two years Denis Healey was imposing an austerity policy demandthe International Monetary The immediate effect was that living standards dropped faster than at any time this century and unemployment shot up to over a million In the name tract there was no resistance of any significant type labour movement. Those on the far first, with some combine native activity. sent defeats which them.
an of the Social Concerr within Two alternative conclusions have been drawn from this experience. The espoused by the right-wing, that the labour movement should not fight against a Labour government. This argument has been carried over nto the Labour Party in oppositiol success. But concession made to the right wing leaders have only resulted in a ferocious purge and the dropping of conference policies second is that the against the capitalist offensive must mass action with political preparation for an This means re-examining the olc debate on the relation between direct action and political action. Ever since the death of Marx these two strands of socialist activity have been forced to run in separate tracks — symbolised by the confinement of economic to the unions political activity to the Labour Party The time has come to redefine the relationship between political activity tion in the driving seat. It is time for representatives become servants of the mass struggle and not the other way round as at preSo what form would perspective take in the light of the encountered under Tories? The decimation of the steel industry and of BL have been eclipsed in most militants' minds by the result of the miners' ballot If the miners won't got? qualification is necessary. The miners have not been defeated in battle They have refused to fight on terms they saw as stacked against But how could an adverse relation of forces have been converted into a favourable one? The answer lies in the political implications of any serious action by the miners.
In 1981 a similar movement won immediate step-down government on pit closures . Unall Thatcher she threatened by a movement that could sweep her from office.
view within , struggle the alterwill be necessary defeating socialist policies the paper such the ing class as a whole.
of the fight over unions. inin culdie paper by socialist the It was was the ward rather than backward.
Support for such objectives at present only commands a minority the labour movement: judging by the votes for Tony Benn in the deputy leadership election bel : variant are government must begin now.
It will therefore be the first objective of this paper to actively support all those fighting against the Tory with the objective of Thatcher and winning government committed For this reason the paper will support and help to build a socialist campaign for a Labour victory. While we will put forward a definite editorial point of view our columns will open to all those whọ agree with this objective. The editorial view point of will be that , of revolutionary socialism. In the words of the Communist Manifesto we will have no interests separate from the work.
In particular we will act as a voice struggles of the oppressed from Poland to Central America inside the Labour Party and the trade We believe that the name of our expresses our guiding :principle: that the mass action of the workthe only force that can liberate humanity, must be informed consciousness dir for us that socialsm is one which rejects Stalinism and bases itself or the principles of workers democracs - the ideals of Solidarnosc It is this strategy which we believe represents the ultimate alternative to the crisis of Labourism which afflicts movement today. The coming period will permit no other.
Socialist Action 18 March 1983
Photo: ANGELA PHILLIPS (IFL)
TUC women's conference shouldn't stop at resolutions THIS WEEK, the 53rd TUC Women's Conference ona BL'sR For Long Kesh?' follows BL homes, night, by physical police.
BL's policy even the of constewards Derek HODINSOT workforce.
On March worker's worker suspended the suspicion stealing sized firm police found 'incouple car light bulbs!
The workforce stacker transport workers by by the of allowance ICOI dispute November 1981.
for the SECWarU.
year.
It that union right • issues Longbridge plans by the parent
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battle with the Tories and fight for a government which would take the labour movement forward rather than backward'