of the Reykjavik summit.
broken.
There was a bipartisan policy on Ireland since Attlee sacked parliamentary private secretaries against the Government of Ireland Act In 1949 - Iney votea against because they would not support the consolidaton of partition.
The effect of that bipartisanship policy is to attempt to take the issue of Ireland off the Entish pontical agenda *But that is so manifestly unsatisfactory that, after 1979, the campaign for Irish unity and independence began to grow again in the Labour Party. In 1984 the party published a policy which was not perfect, but which was better than we'd had before — which said we would not accept a veto by the protestant leaders on Irish reunification. It wasn't an adeQuale stalellicill, move in the right direction.
Then von had the Anglo-rish Accord which has been seen in many ways. Paisley sees it as the beginning of the break up of Northern place within the United Kingdom. cooked at more accurately Ireland is so ungovernable from London that Mrs necessary to entrench support for the bour Party conference was a watershed w a public display of unity around olicies — and was immediately followed ily catching up in the opinion polls. At conference saw important steps to . It was followed rapidly by the Reaganit. The issues of US bases in Britain, and ip of NATO, figured centrally at party ist Action asked TONY BENN for his ty conference, the state of the left, and London Labour opposition, dication of weakness.
then I think a support but it represented a is now taking place.
Ireland's
But Northern LOS HI demands Dublin, Washington, and in the Labour Party. The fact she sought the support of the the Irish government, and the American administration for the Anglo-Irish Accord was an inthe strength or ine tionalist position - not a sign of its If the next Labour government were to say we're fulfilling the conditions of the Anglo-Irish Accord, which is an international treaty' it would be an absolute disaster. The campaign has to be built between now and the election and government would find it much harder to carry the of the movement if it itself engaged in the degree of repression that li a Labour government weic i continue the supergrass trials, or the strip searching, or with the policy that Mrs Thatcher has adopted, then I think it would not be acceptable to the party. Our job in the meanwhile, between now and the election, is to alert people to what is happening and to make clear • which must include setting the date for withdrawal from Northern Then, when a Labour government is elected, these demands will be sufficiently clearly articulated for them to be brought to bear on that government with speed and efficacy ference. I think that what happen.
Another issue which has aroused controversy is the Black and Asian Advisory Commitee. What is your view of that in the ioht of vour support lor Black Sections?
I wouldn't touch the Black and Asian Advisory Committee with a barge pole.
not a moronse. anything it purports to be. It is the manager who says 'my door is always while he continues to run the Upen, show. That totally different recognising the right of people to run their own affairs.
What about the attack on reselection? Party conference passed a resolution instructing the party leadership not to reopen the matter. But it appears the NoC intends to hold the conterence decision in contempt.
I believe that the gains from 1979-81, of which reselection and the election of the leader were the most important, still remain the prime anxiety of the leadership. Because they fear that when there est beliver, ers will doesnit deliver, MPs be counter pressure from their own constituencies which may override the strident demands of the chief whip to conform. So they would like to get those gains reversed. That has to be stopped. I think there is also a third question, the con- which is the election of the cabinet by will the electoral college. I know it's been argued that this is ahead of its time, and we should have a moratorium on constitutional change, but I think it is a central question. I think we could win that. We have to demand that the entire government, and parliamentary leadership, is elected by the electoral college. We will ignore that at our peril.
the Campaign Group. not Finally the Campaign meeting in Chestertield prior to party conference took a number of important decisions. Perhaps you could explain what those were?
The Chesterfield meeting this year was extremely significant.
First on policy it endorsed the pamphlet Peace Through Non-Alignment. The previous year it had endorsed A Million Jobs a Year. These are two major political interventions. Secondly it agreed to the establishment of Campaign rorum. It endorsed the demand: of the Women's Action Committee, and the Black Section. In agreeing to Cam paign Forum it established a new type of left, of a kind we haven't seen in the Jasl facing the British Socialist Party withdrew when the Labour Party was dent, some of their should run things w.wen vol issues full everyone Is extension liberties, broader which well. If other Left Liaison separate section OUTCLUTCo development But that view is still a minority in Finally, Group at its anyone who Is shares Signitall When I look over history there was which intervene became the Communist Party. The Inlelt in ine 1930s. The Socialist Labour League was Victory for Socialism was crusned inere were vamous Campaigns to take over the party, by the electoral machinery open within the party.
None of these developments got to the core of the problem the party in the country has for many years been suffering from attempts to turn it into a fan club of the parliamentary leadership. In fact it is, and must remain, even from the point of view of winning elections, a strong, indepenbroadly based socialist party. That is what the Campaign Forum is about trying to create.
presen 'moderates' versus 'extremists' you miss the point. The party has always been divided between top and bottom. The top, with its parliamentary base and the general council of the TUC with ideas about how they - have a natural alliance at the top. But down the line what is called the right of the party is actually more in touch with the left than might be realised. For example in the miners strike the left, right and centre in many constituencies worked completely together.
I think the recreation of the Labour Party is the task we have to achieve. But recreate it vou've got to recreate it around certain clear political peace, out of NATO, non-alignment, no US bases, the return to employment the idea entitled to renumerated employment throughout their life, the restoration of the welfare services, the entrenchment of of the restorato welfare services, the entrenchment of liberties, reland. est these objectives restoration have to be restated in the goals of the Labour Party, and the party itself has got to expand its base in much way than the 1918 base was white predominantly male, working class Labour Party with a few little socialist societies added on Today we have got to be much more broadly based, and end the expulsions and reinstate all those who have been I think that the Campaign Forum is the beginning of a broader base. I'd like to see a lot of other groups come in as groups join the Labour and work in the constituencies you could have a whole range of developments. For example I would like to see the pensioners brought in. Senior citizens have got special interests in our They are beginning to get organised and I believe this should be brought into the party, perhaps as a like the LPYS or Women's Sections. The building of all this is really the building of a new party within the shell of an old party, whose no longer conform to the realities of our period Then this has got to have a perspective. I've always thought that the future of socialism lay in the deepening and This what frightens the establishment much more than socialist rhetoric.
immediate questions, the fact that the Campaign Group has decided to stop narrow bargaining for the NEC slate, possibly it will adopt the principle of the shadow siate like the women's conference, the fact that the Campaign Group is not going to 'vet' people who join it but it is open to interested and who our objectives, highly We have one advantage at the moment. The media story is that the left has been beaten and therefore we're doing is not noticed -and if w were being noticed we'd be denounced.
So we've got a space we can fill with work. Our immediate job is to see that the Labour Party, as a socialist party, is refounded on a broader basis — and is more democratic, fight for that before, which I hope we will win, and to politically on the central questions that face people
Socialist Action 24 Oct 1986