IN ORDER to judge the new type of left which is emerging in the party it is worth going back and looking at previous The left of the 1950s and early 1960s might rightly be termed a 'protest left' — the old Tribune left. It placed itself in opposition and complained about the ills of the party as well as supporting some progressive demands. But it had no programme to take power in the party. It had no programme to seek to lead and mould the party itself. It was by its very nature oppositional.
The final peak of this type of left developed in the early 1970s. emerged as a current accompanying the trade union battles against the Heath government. The key figures on the left in the unions were Hugh Scanlon and Jack Jones. The political driving force was the Communist Party which propelled forward the Broad Lefts in the unions and the Liaison Committee for the Defence of Trade Unions. Penn hased himset on these forces to create a Labour left which, unlike those since the 1920s, had a direct base not only in the constituency Labour Parties but crucially, via Scanlon and Jones, in trade unions. As a result in 1973 Labour adopted an undoubtedly 'left' programme.
T'his development was broken up by two processes. First Wilson, using the anlimited power of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) and leadership, simply overruled the conference. This led to the formation of the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy (CLPD).
The second step, still more decisive was that in 1975, after the EEC referendum, 81111 Seanlon. leaders of the Broad Left, allied with Wilson to introduce wage controls. This broke up the movement almost entirely.
The Communist Party, which had allied itself totally with Scanlon, began its dramatic crisis and The left before the miners break up the left. developgovernment in 1979.
'Bennism' Led policies weapons, for policies. The Labour Party as a result.
Mobilising Committee, Tony ership in 1981.
the SDP - and by This party leadership.
position of the the Labour Party. In 1981 wing took over control of the promise, right, wat. installed.
led from the party. forces within Jones of fragmentation. decline. The trade union bureaucracy, backing up the PLP, stepped in to The decisive thing which CLPD introduced into the left at this point was that it was not based on 'protesting' but the on changing power within the party. The next develooment of the Labour left, was the drive to democratise the party to ensure that the disasters of the 1974-79 Labour government could not be repeated. This broke out in full force immediately after the fall of the Labour The This struggle achieved the election of the leader by the electoral college and mandatory reselection of MPs. At the same time the Labour Party adoptof opposition to nuclear opposition incomes SDP split the CLPD, and later the Rank and File was the umbrena under walco tuls tell was orgalls ed. It peaked with Tony Benn's challenge to Dennis Healey for the deputy leadThis was only blocked by the votes of MPs who later left to join the abstentions of individuals such as Neil Kinnock.
was again halted by the trade union bureaucracy — the most powerful force within the They were in par. ticular alarmed by the tremendous impact of Tony Benn's campaign within which showed how the bureaucracy could be challenged by developments in hunger NEC.
The so-called Bishop's Stortford com- NUM, in reality a victory of the 1982 the editorial board of Militant were expelThe coalition of CLPD subsequently broke up. The lett passed into a period THE MINERS strike gave rise to the present development of the labour movement left — and raised it to a new higher state. It also overcame fragmentation of the previous period. But in doing so the miners strike brought together forces that so to speak summarised the entire political crisis of British society which has been developing since Thatcher came to power in 1979 elements which previously were drawn together and given a new shape The leadership of the NUM itself emerged as the first leadership since the 1920s. Not only did it wage a gigantic strike against the full weight of the state, but to do so it tied together in support of the strike a whole series of social forces - most spectacularly the role of women in strike, but also a whole series of other layers. It was able to do so because forces had themselves developing with their own dynamic.
It is also clear, in retrospect, just how significant the year 1981 was in British politics. It was the year of the depth of the economic recession, year of the split from the Labour Party to create the SDP, the year of the first round of black uprisings, the year of Tony Benn's deputy leadership campaign, the year Livingstone was electec leader of the GLC, the year in the president of the early 1982 the Campaign group of MPs was created. 1981 was the year British bourgeois and working class politics was blown apart.
In effect it took two years for Thatcher to so to speak, 'compress' British society. After that time it exploded -with the fragments being created then coming together at a new qualitative level in 1984 to create the miners strike and its impact.
British politics today is a product of that explosion. The development of the SDP, and the forces around the miners strike created a new shape to British politics.
It is therefore worth briefly outlining the developments together in the miners strike and post existed miners strike left.
by the The greatest wave of radicalisation of women since the suffragettes had begun to develop from the late 1960s. It struggle succeeded in defeating all attempts to repeal under Thatcher. history by becoming the first major trade union movement in the world to call a demonstration in the defence of the Within the Action beet independent of CLPD women's demands exploded onto the In this period the Labour women's conference developed to most radical national body of the the labour movement. In the trade unions a parallel radicalisation for demands of women developed. Women Against Pit Closures developed as the most advanced women's movement in Britain since the suffragettes. of the year • In the summer of 1981 the youth of Britain's inner city black communities lose up against harassment. Battles went on tor week: in Liverpool and for days elsewhere. The failure of Labour to select a single black candidate for a safe seat in of ¡he entire shape history.
that came the million in Britain. including The TUC made movemen. the Committee became become the leader racism and police Erupt racist
the government left collapsed in 1985, as right wingers 'emerged' under the test of a confrontation with the government, Liverpool and Lambeth, on two of the most deprived areas of the whole country, stood and fought. In 1986 a major influx of black and left wing councillors took place in the local government elections.
The post-miners strike left, in short, made a link with a whole range of mass social struggles. It was a far deeper left socially that which existed either the early 1970s - focussed on trade union struggle and the native Economic Strategy — or that in late 1970s focussed on constitutional reform. It also developed in a huge upsurge struggles - those in Nicaragua, South Africa, and against nuclear weapons being the most important.
The post-miners represented an enormous deepening compared to anything that had gone prepare the decisive and difficult task of taking these developments through the trade unions. The key guiding threads of based development are self-organisation of the class independence and working class democracy. Put in a word they amount to creating an anti-imperialist current in the British labour movement — one based on the fight not only against the policy perialism but all its internal ramifications as well.
in women and black people into the work.
Wing class since World War Il gives an Alter- unprecedented opportunity to do this.
which have to be achieved in sugh als Summing agenda for the left they are:
• The left socialist political majority to either the was the was pèople. anti-imperialism, oppressed, British imThe massive entry up some of the this.
creates creation of an alternative Socialist Action 6 June 1986 to organise and respond to the demands of women, black people, and young The demands of the Black Section of WAC, the necessity to build a mas: LYS, the need to develop black and self-organisation unions, a fight for lesbian and gay rights, are not 'secondary issues' but at the core of any socialist perspective.
• Developing the fight back for jobs to defend services and living conditions, is today a brutal struggle. Thatcher has consciously set out to divide the working class and labour movement and achieved considerable success in Conditions where. on the on hand, four million people are out of work and, on the other, average rea wages have gone up by 10 per cent, tremendous problems for uniting the labour movement.
The fight for the shorter working week, for a national minimum wage,