A Memorandum by Tony Benn and Eric Heffer Introduction This memorandum is submitted to the NEC for its consideration. It begins with the election defeat of 1983, and the various reasons given for it, goes on to list the changes that have been made inside the party since then, some of which have been put to conference, and concludes with a series of recommendations designed to assist the party prepare itself now for victory at the next election.
Everyone in the party is determined to work unremittingly for the defeat of the present government. There is no one in the party who is secretly hoping some suppose shift to the left' after another election defeat, tions that this view is held are both untrue and deeply damaging.
We are, all, equally united in our resolve to secure the Labour government. with a large work. ing majority, at the next election, in the interests of the people whom we represent who are, now, suffering real hardships at the hands of the Tories. The real question that we have to discuss. and decide, in a spirit entirely free from personal animosity, is how desire for victory may be realised in practice and we must also accept that there will be genuine and sincere ditferences of opinion about it.
The very serious electoral defeat suffered by the party in the 1983 general election has, quite properly, led to an examination of the weaknesses in party organisation. Some of this examination nas involved a poncal allalysis, the organisational aspects have undertaken by the 'Review of Reviews' committee, whose official task it was to re-examine the organisational recommendations made by earlier committees of inquiry, to see what lessons might still be drawn from them.
This 'review' committee was made up of members of the NEC, the PLP and trade union representatives, and will report to the NEC for decisions. Inevitably its work extended far beyond the problems of administration and, as shown, it has discussed a whole range of subjects including finances, even the need for a change in the NEC sub-committee structure.
Many different reasons defeat in 1983 have been offered depending upon the view point of the people The consensus or liberal view The consensus, and liberal media explanation of our defeat may be summarised as follows:
b. Under the influence of this NEC, COCIC Was persuaded to adopt a whole range of detailed policies, many or wilich were unrealistic, and unacceptable to the electorate. c. The 1979-81 campaign for greater democracy in the party unnecessary and electorally damaging.
Socialist Action 3 June 1985 Benn and Eric Heffer raise is in this week's editorial on page 2.
the SDP.
voters and lost us the election. f. Therefore the suggeslikely to win public support. election of a our defeat very different factors: best that deputy leaders cabinet everyling to luc atle been attack upon the party. for as a peace party.
members, amongst Ine ciccuon campaign.
The attacks upon within the party, wild extremists. te call was divisive, party produced by leaders Socialist Action's view on the issues Tony d. These events forced a lot of decent moderates to leave the party and form e. This, in its turn, split the Labour vole, leu to mass acrecuons by LaDoll should now return to a more middle-of-the-road position, leaving key decisions to the more moderate PLP, which is more Another explanation for NEC.
There is however another, and quite different view, widely held within the which attributes our defeat to a. Mistakes made by earlier Labour governments. which lost us the support of working people and, in particular, b. The defection, to the SDP, of 10 per cent of the PLP, including two former other former people who owed has, ing NEC, leaders, money but who were hostile to the role of conference and to socialism, and then, with full media support, launched a vitriolic TULV c. The apparently unqualified support initially given by to the Falklands war which damaged the party's credibility With, d. The fact that many Labour MPs, including a number of its most senior Have them the two previous party leaders, had spoken out against conterence decisions and the manifesto before, and during, tees.
the left, as at Bermondsey, which gave the public the idea that the party leadership itself actually believed that the party had been taken over by It is necessary to recall this background if we are to understand what has happened inside the party over the last 18 months and look ahead to the future. What has happened since 1983 of very important decisions about the which have • been plemented. This quiet revolution is still in progress, but so far, its effect may be summarised by listing the decisions that have been taken:
1. Removal of policy making from the Basic policy-making is no longer undertaken by the NEC, through its subcommittees, many of which have been wound up, but by joint committees composed of selected NEC, PLP and TU members, who are charged with the task of drafting these new statements NEC to change them at the last stage. 2. A shift of power from the NEC to the PLP.
The role and authority of the PLP and especially the parliamentary committee result, been immensely strengthened, as compared to the NEC and is, increasingly, separately financ. ed through: a. continuing with the allocation of all the - extra -money to the PLP, some of which is used to finance research assistants, workpersonally front spokespersons, who are not paid trade union rates, are not answerable to the For conference, and do not have security of employment; •. Couns with the principle that trade unions directly finance some PLP spokespersons money that does not go through the central funds of the 3. A shift of power from the NEC to the Trade Unions for a Labour Victory. The TULV, made up of trade union , or their deputies, who are not elected by the Labour conference, have been given a more influential role in managing the This has been by the NEC adopting practice of applying to the TULV for for specific purposes, then has to be justified, to the TULV case by case, rather than by using the as a collective fundraiser, leaving decisions as to expenditure to the NEC itself, subject to conference A downgrading of CLP members on the NEC.
one exception, NEC members elected by the constituency section, • been removed from chairman ships of all the main NEC committees thus eliminating them from their exofficio membership of other commitIn addition LICW campaign committee, including NEC, PLP and trade union members, has been set up, from which other NEC members are excluded, which has been Justified by reterence to a wrong interpretation of a conference decision. This committee has established its own subcommittees still further distancing the NEC itself from real power. 5. Changes in party policy The party's policies have been altered in a number of key respects, some of which have gone to conference. a. The 'Alternative Strategy' has effectively been replaced by a more general 'Jobs and Industry' campaign, clear socialist commitments on public ownership. economic plannıng and ex change control have been omitted.
CommuncH would withdraw from the Common Market has been reference to 'an option the exercising of which, has been left deliberately vague. c. The committment to reduce tain's detence expenditure to the same percentage of the GNP as our European allies in NATO, has been explicitly dropped and in its place we have a committment that such a change could not be made during the lifetime of the first Labour government, and indeed, there is a new pledge actually to inLicabo expenditure weapons as British nuclear weapons are place bal. d. Other policies that Labour Programme 1982, and in the 1983 manifesto, have either not been bench the which referred to, replaced by 'Charters' which are more vague, illustrative and general. 6. A purge of the Left.
Despite solemn that there witch-hunt based upon the opinions of party members, the attack upon some of the left has been stepped up.
An apocals and mealadon commo tee has been set up, with only one CLP representative on it, and its main work has been to carry out this purge. Some of the key decisions made by this committee, and confirmed by the NEC, inSULLIC clude: a. The expulsion of one party member for selling Militant in another constituency from the one in which he lives. b. The refusal of membership to a party member who was alleged to have sold Socialist Action. c. The expulsion another party, mainly on the evidence of a Labour councillor, who then left Economic from which some of the included the NEC, tha tinued replaced by to withdraw' Bricampaign advocate them conventional had been in gle changes LIUl outlined above. that existed when or appear to have been of these assul dulle given to would be no The a ransier or of members of elections, the party and joined the Liberals. d. Non-registered organisations are to be denied a listing in the conference diary, whereas all-party groups may be This may be contrasted with the confirmation, after a recorded vote on of Frank Chapple's conmembership of the despite his refusal to take the Labour whip in the House of Lords, and his consistent attacks upon the party in his column in the Daiv mai This purge is, presumably, designed to fend off attacks from the media, which has run, and is still running, a designed denigrate socialist ideas and those who hold, or 7. Distancing the party from struggle A stand has been taken, by some in the PLP, against any suggestion that non-compliance with Tory laws could ever be iustitied. and strong criticisms hav been voiced, within the PLP, about the conduct of industrial disputes, notably during the miners strike, which appeared to distance the party from certain aspects of that momentous strug 8. Re-organisation to support these Though apparently limited to the task of dealing with the efficiency of the party HQ and its staff, the thinking behind the 'review of review's' committee seems to be that there must be a further, re-shaping of the party's organisasupport the malor change Conclusions and recommendations The changes described above are all of fundamental importance; represent a tar bigger change in the party's con stitution than occurred in the 1979-81 period; take us back to the structure pre-war, and post-war, PLP the general secretaries of some major unions effectively ran the party and the NEC was weak and ineffective; and though some changes have been to conference, others have been carried out without the party, as a whole, really realising what has been happening.
I is cosentlat inar any leporl on party organisation issued by the NEC to the 1985 conference should make ab. solutely clear what is happening, and what is now planned, so that the party may know precisely what is going on, before it makes its own decisions.
recommendation. given! below were drafted to help secure that victory. 1. Campaigning around real struggles. To win the next election the party must be seen to be giving whole-hearted sup port to all those who are in struggle against the government, and that all party campaions should centre around those struggles, as well as during all bylocal elections and the TU ballots, and all must be used for basic socialist education.
2. The NEC and conference must run
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The aftermath of the electoral defeat
Differing views as to why Labour lost
The party, and especially the NEC, fell into the hands of the extreme left.
present course of the of the left wing of the party since Kinnock's
The new NEC, elected after the general election, has reached a number