MARGARET THATCHER succinctly summarised one of her chief political objectives in a recent interBritain,' she said. Paradoxically, she has not only failed to kill socialism, but has presided over its rebirth the British labour in 1985.
Thatcher's assault on the labour movement nas secured some definite successes. Using oil revenue money, sne nas pursuea a successiul poncy or mak ing substantial economic to considerConcess uls ahe secuon. the employed working class, while concentrating creasingly severe attacks other sections: unemployed, black people, youln, wollel parts the industrial working class econoAMOSi mic and social differentia. within the working ciass ane ne Doressa selvas of society has been widen.
At the same time inCreasille been direcied against those rising in revolt againsi this situation — a governmen! policy anü truncheons' But despite the unmass counted popular opposition allti periodic struggles againsi, policies continue particuiar ul clUy among !nose mosi serere!!
hit bi them Neither repression nor Dublin's collaboration have succeeded in breaking ihe mass resislance ic British rule in the north of Ireland. Tory tinues to decline sharply in v SuDOUIlLU!!
Scotland, Ine north England major cities. There has been prolonged industrial action b!
(calles dustrial disputes have continued. The 1985 uprisings against police harassment communites in ne black more Intense tual anything which happened lhe campaign nuclear weaDoll continues enjoy. mass suppori. The solidarity movement. This movement in support of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa has made a breakthrough •udutallve in recent months.
despite specific and important vIC tories by inalcnel, wnich have placed the working class on the defensive and have created a sharp swing Government 10 the right, sections of the working class and oppressed people continue io fight back agains: the governmen:
Each siruggie loda! 1s finding points of suppor: in the Labour Party This development is decisive.
Despite the seriousnes. of the attacks mounted, • despité its governmen: actores. uic with SuDOUll government unable direc! mass suppori, the bourgeoisie 1ook the initiative o spili ine Pariy and creale the SDP resulting SDP Liberal Alliance is aimed ai preventing the return of ze bb quveil me coni su auna ol ing continuation the Thatcher esselillai policies. The SDP, and the plays no pro gressive role in the struggle w screl constitutes pari of the offensive of the ruling class.
Line Allance works i.
parallei, often direct collaboration, with of the the extreme right bureaucracy. This has been substantially strengthened Wille by the overall policies Thatcher telexe or ene the defea:
ana by miners strike. It has a clear project: noluca Labour-Alliance coalition government and bringing Ine enulc movemen Will framework of Tory anti-union legislation.
the Kinnockite leadership of the ATTeT supported Labour Party. by the most powerful sections of the trade union aimed oureaucraly. rebuild Labour as • a a jority party of government taking the party lo the right, while al CIne salli( avoiding coalition Against the sustained offensive of the bourgeoisie the defeat their initial project progressively weakened The TUC has moved to the acceptance ot the nev framework of trade union law withou: waiting for the promised b!
Kinnock The leadership has jentisoned •a mosl would all challenge Dolces That- that cherism and has increascastu balancıng and moved to openly centre all its energies on an onslaugh: on the left.
nowerful While the Kinnockites stil! diffe:
Mainstream righ!
question of coalition, and polic! varivu. anc. taches. incliuls the Converge practical positions oi ine iwo currents en crei ot effeci Converge this is to strengthen the right The ferocity the bourgeois assault, climaxing in the tremendous class confrontation represented by the miners strike not merel! polarised society but openly divided the left wing or ne labour love ment which then existea.
The first and largest component led by Tribune and the LCC and symoolsea by ngures sult Macher and Sawyer, and Knapp in the union the nas gone over to practical positions of Kinnock. The specific role of this 'left' is to altempl to Isolalc. disorganise. break up the class struggle forces which emerged ou oi lhe miners subsequent developments which emerged our of the second force miners sinke was a class struggle left Ine nrs class struggle forces, and class struggle curell. emerge British politics This SLICE qualitative development in British politics.
During Scargill became the the Hinck.
first mass leader in Britain since AJ Cook (on a higher level than Cook) !o artempl lo win a grea: viass struggle, the greaies ior 60 years, The forces which cargill expressed, and basea tHIOsenuil. engaged in a systematic mobilisation of the working class to win This culminated in the longest mass strike in the history of any imperialist First country. Scargill's was onc of ihe greatest examples of ship in Britain's hisiory.
was the emergence for the first time since 1926 of a class struggle leadership in the working ciass.
The incredible force of the miners strike in turn polarised every other force lef: wing of ine working class movement sending some rignl qualitatively deepening the position of others womer Agains! Pir Closures developed direciBenn-Skinner sing , out of the strike. The of the group of MPs Campaign solidly with the miners, and with Scargill inrougnoul the strike and emerged qualitatively strengthened.
The black section, born in the period leading with the strike. A whole series of other individuals For gallsalivil. too stood firm L nen miners The fact that these forces constituted a qualiBritish kalve DICaN politics has been confirm ed by developments since end of the strike Tony Benn demandc. British withdrawal The Campaign NAIO group of MPs drew up the Miners Amnesty Bill . The black section Campaign Scargill defended the black uprisings and supported Liver mombers of he cani ien nurice.
voled against Anglo-rish accord. Inese same of forces came oui against the witch-hunt Thev strongiy support tn revolutions Centra America and the struggie against apartheid in South Africa In short, we are seing a developing class struggle the whose components ODIeCV they đo so converge. As they they are in Creancl beginning take the struggle directly through the labour moveucH!
Toda! they are under :eocens anach the bourgeoisie and its agents - who are attempting to destroy them But the entire dynamic of this current is to go furthe and further through the Ja Dou movellicl dynamic created by their urgent necessity to try lo hansl orl ul masa tions of the working class into instruments of Siruezic through which they can fight back against attacks launched on them The emergence of this curreni, the social base propelling il, and its increane dvnamic to through the labour movement, is the most impordevelopmenı British working politics for 60 years. View.
historical the ena o. gives greater cause about the ZO OHmS!!
future of the socialism in Britain than at any time in the last half century.
® CORMAC
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view given to the Financial Times. 'I have always regarded part of my job as ... killing socialism in
'rebirth' is the most historically significant develop- ment in the politics of the British labour movement