THE PURPOSE of Socialists for a Labour Victory is to unite all active campaigning socialists in the party. Our aims are to fight the general election on the agreed socialist policies of conference, take Photo: GM the campaign out into the labour movement and not fudge the issues in the way that the party leadership is doing at the moment.
The inaugural meeting, on Monday 7 March at the House of Commons, considered a statement which laid out the aims of the campaign. That's now been redrafted in the light of that meeting, and will form the basis of the SLV campaign.
The statement will be circulated to all constituency parties, prospective parliamentary candidates, MPs, trade union branches, and other campaigning organisations - particularly black groups and women's groups. We are asking for their support and endorsement of the campaign.
Leaflets are being prepared. There will be public meetings and campaigning activities organised up and down the country. And there will be regional discussions of activists to see how the campaign can be taken forward.
The critical factor in our campaign is taking it outside, making it an out-going campaign. It won't be just an internal Labour Party affair. It must be a public campaign to regenerate the labour movement around the socialist policies of The issues we'll be fighting on are: unilateral disarmament; a return to full employment including the nationalisation of the top 25 monopolies; a growth of living standards and no incomes policy; full campaigning and committment to all Party policies on women; the repeal of the Nationality Act.
There are several things Socialist Action readers can do to build SLV. First of all, get your wards and constituency parties to support the campaign. Take it up in your trade union branches and any other community organisations you're involved in, and get their support.
Ask these organisations to donate some money to the campaign, and to take part in local SLV activities.
organise public meetings and activities in their area. We want to bring together all those hundreds of thousands of people in the community who will see any improvement in their position, any solution to their problems, by the election of a Labour majority in parliament.
convince that we're serious about carrying out our socialist demands. I believe this way we will rebuild the labour movement, rebuild that confidence and support for Labour that ought to be there.
This way we'll build a real fight-back against this oppressive Tory government. Jeremy Corbyn works as a fulltime negotiator for the National Union of Public Employees. is a Hornsey councillor, and a prospective parliamentary candidate for Islington North. We want SLV supporters to These are the people we must SOCIALIST ACTION has been traumatic time for British labour movement.
The miners, in their majorily, have decided to avoid a confrontation Their caution understandable remote prospect of a Labour government FOUR YEARS of Thatcherism have taken a tremendous toll. 'resolute approach' has laid seige to the conquests of a hundred and fift The right to a job is no more. The spectre ot war stalks the country. Living standards lowest in Western Europe. care, education, housing transport threatened cuts. cities are fast becoming wastelands.
assaull enough. But even more frightening is LICi lack of effective response from the labour movement.
In 1945 the Labour Party returned to government parliamentary majority of - almost fifty per cent of the vote. That government presided over a new 'consensus'; bringing in a new age of prosperity; giving working people in Britain fundamental rights that they had fought for since the dawn of capitalism.
Access to jobs, freedom from to be regarded as alaine. ame regarded as inalienable. first challenge to these basic rights came from Ted Heath's attack on the right of the trade unions to organise independently.
replacing at. general election.
the mondsey by-election Darlington prospect.
Socialist given the The jettisoned. will be learned ape. Heathe this been won nave with ahead.
To start with the victories.
Stullill?
LOOL cluding protest was culminating in with march called by the TUC.
fell the US war mongers would pay the missiles ensuing war with our lives.
South
delivery of the Thatcher in a The result of the Berthe opinion polls before confirm that Action editer ALAN FREEMAN argues that we are passing through a crisis of Labourism - the British capitalism, an era in which the old self-evident truths will have to be The process by which new lesson will be a hard one The defeats and set-backs of the last period have already begun to raise amongst miltants Likewise the small victories that have indicated the was Two years ago Tory MP John Corrie tried to introduce a bill to restrict women's abortion rights. A movement of prodemonstrations began inindustrial massive The Bil A year ago the Pentagon decided to grace us with an unwelcome gift of 156 Cruise missiles. The idea was that we would pay for the A small group of women marched Wales Greenham Common and decided to camp out at Greenham as a physical barrier to the missiles. The camp became a focus for the hundreds and thousands of supporters built up by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmadominant perspective of British working class f century.
Such a crisis shoul the moment to jettison approach and draw u new strategy for the left for the labour movemer a whole which can begi answer the grave probl we face today.