defeat in 1959 were terminal. Reconciliation between the left and right However, under the leadership of Wilson, backed by the Frank Cousins the party went on to win the 1964 and Another defect with Grimond's Labour. In the February 1974 election for example the Liberal's upsurge within the SDP allowed Labour to become the largest than the Tories. This was confirmed leadersals. by the results of the 1979 general elecThe social class profile of the parties All Con Source: Gallup Report, Political Tracking Study, October 1981. Quoted in but in only 2 won by Labour. The rise least two Shirley Williams the aim of getting sufficent utopian, as the Liberals were identified by the bulk of Labour voters, and tary agreemenl more importantly by the trade union David Steel anti-union. For Owen the alliance with the Liberals is a temporary evil to be dispensed with Roy Jenkins has put forward a third way. For him the SDP/Liberal Alliance can be a two edged sword which can cleave both at the Labour It follows that Jenkins would be prepared to accept a coalition with the Tories for the sake of achieving elec toral reform, and sees the Alliance as semi-permanent feature of the British with Owen and Rodgers in elections for the party Lib/ This is likely to remain the case until the results of the general election are known and their impact is felt on all the major political parties. For at of the strategies of the Alliance rest on the response of the right wing of the Labour Party to the overtures being made by the Alliance.
Already the Alliance leaders have indicated their terms for a parliamenwith other parties. indicated that measures against unemployment and a commitment to steps towards proportional representation are the rocksame journal and which finds its reflection in the themes set by the organisers of the Peoples March. Thi aim is a grand anti-Thatcher alliance. without regard to party affiliation. which can lay the basis for nationa Theorists Marxism Today theorists and their ilk hope that the Left by virtue of moral and political superiority can emerge as the leadership. But as we have seen such schemes will only aid the pro jects of the Alliance and the right wing of the labour movement and have willing takers in the SDP. Such a course would lead not to the victor!
ine labour movement needs to wil broader forces to its ranks or to make alliances. It needs to build among the •OUL unemployed and those workers and youth of Scotland and Wales who oppose Westminster but support the na. tionalists. It needs to ally itself with done on the basis of socialist policies. In this way Labour can show a way out of the social and economic crisi which can only be resolved through a strong and decisive lead over the Alliance base: ground dows policies yet lacking confidence in s Labour leadership which has shows itself incapable of championing the interests of its own class let alone the interests of the frightened people who will vote for the Alliance in the com * Multi-Party Politics and the Constitu tion: V. Bogdanor. Cambridge Universit Press. £6.9: