SINCE THE end of the miners' strike the left wing of the labour movement has been dividing into a number of currents.
The force that hit the headlines last year was the 'realigned' Kinnockite left. The touchstone of this current was support for Neil Kinnock's leadership of the party.
But as Kinnock moved progressively to the right - abandoning support for the miners, attacking the local going to court, a Labour commission of enquiry — with the possibility of expulsion and regular public denuncia tions - really mobilised a lot of people who were far from Militant in their special general councils, forty nin amendments, a hundred and sixty fiv speeches. This is a declaration we a sending to every constituency in tl country saying 'you might like to co sider doing the same'.
We're not trying to organise peop around us. We say 'we found this sati fying, you might like it. Here's ou draft which you might find is a trigger That is vacuum filling in a way that entirely non-personal. voDooy tal aDoul anybody, or putting anybody on expelling anybody, auackı peacsldl It is saying to people 'this is what happening, this is what we believe ir this is what we can do.' It is an attem -то тестеае me socaus udu uo! will the party, which is there and which h got to be rediscovered. Its like excav: tion, and a whole generation has lear ed its relevance through the mine The miners strike and the extent t which, by its nature, the decisions ha to be decentralised during it, was ama ing. Not just in terms of the picketin but in terms of organisation The Kent miners were in Lond for a year. Terry French was one ( them. Terry Harrison was anothe They, and many others - especially th women - became political organise on a formidable scale.
People like that went back and yo -everywhere The discovered skills and capacities th: they never thought they had. That For the moment it is held back in th case of the miners by the awful setbac of March 1985. But they are still ther The women's organisations develop what the movement was capable of d ing in an enormous way.
Militancy also spreadir up the salary scale to include tł teachers and the nurses. What is ha pening is that trade unionism, and tt structure of trade unionism, is chan ing in the light of people's experienc Hobsbawm is right of course, whe he says there tewer people overalls - in the classic manufacturi working class. . But there are more ar more people who are becoming depe dent upon collective strength to prote themselves. -As there is the compa merger movement, as you get the n technology coming into banking, there will be revitalisation of trade unionism. W it will come the new waves of bla representation pressure women's demands to be met.
Nothing happens automatica We must be explicit in supporting it. the Labour Party it is very importa we absolute uncompromising in our support black sections and women's rights and similarly in the trade union mor ment. nis s desote some tully ] ups, with some left groups in the pa Thn knauna this is a diversion 1 liberal direction away towaras sex ana colour, or tow Irish nationalism.
I disagree with this. I thin demands of the Women's Action C mittee must be strongly supporte
particularly support its campaign of shadow elections at the women's conference for women's places on the national executive. I think the black secSocialist Action 14 February 1986 group