THE TORY Party has embarked on a course of preparing general election by stoking up a wave of reaction in the country. They have been able to do this because of the complete failure of right-wing policies, and witch hunts againt the left, to offer a credible alternative Thatcherism. The result of Labour Party conference which conceded the Thatcher case on trade union law, nationalisation and witch hunts against the left, has opened up the way for the Party to drive the entire political spectrum further to the right.
One example of this came last In House of Commons now demanding that Kinnock expels the leaders of Haringey, Lambeth, Brent and Manthe chester Labour councils! Tory vironment Minister Nicholas made the grotesque claim that the residents of Haringey or Brent live.in conditions like Poland or East Germany and in fear of 'the knock on the door in the middle of the night.' Black Labour parliamentary canto didates, Diane Abbott and Grant, were singled out for special racist attack by the Tory Party leadership. And the front bench response from the Parliason tory Jobo c Parin the person ingham, is to claim that these are only 'one tenth of one per cent' of Labour councillors.
Labour councils like Haringey Lambeth have demonstrate, within the constraints the imposed upon them by the government's attacks, a genuinely radical alternative to the Tory government's Ridley fighting for been a thorn in Thatcher's side.
Bernie John CunnThe second campaign tried to AIDS. terests of the black communitites, positive action policies nuclear weapons. towards black people and women, seeking to overcome prejudice against gays and lesbians, these councils have But Ridley's outburst was just one launch example of the hysteria Thatcher has been whipping up since Tory party conference. The first wave was the vicious campaign around visas for visitors from India, Pakistan, Bangla Desh, Ghana and Nigeria. This wave of racism in the press stimulated racist attacks in many areas of the country.
was on AIDS. Here a special Cabinet committee was established, and public attacks on gays and lesbians launched, to conceal the fact that the government refuses to take the effective Instead of measures that can be taken against need for the West' to have Now the campaign is being whipped up against Labour councils.
But what has allowed Thatcher to this latest reactionary onslaught, and to recover from the 01eanue camase to mer coveramen that the miners' strike inflicted in 1984-85, is the disastrous course of Kinnock and the party leadership. Instead of defending those under attack from Thatcher, Kinnock has added his tuppence worth to the attacks on Scargill. on the miners. on Bernie Grant, on Diane Abbott, on Brent council, on Lambeth council and so on. In this way he has undermined Labour not the Tories.
creating a pollica. alternative to Thatcher Kinnock has incorporated elements of Thatcher's of the labour movement for alternative policies, and the removal of the Thatcher government, he has opened up a disastrous series of witch hunts within the Labour Party, attacked the so-called 'violations of democracy' in the unions, and failed to answer the racist campaigns by the Tories. Kinnock's course has weakened Labour and conceded the political high ground to the Tories. The result is Labour slipping behind the Tories in the polls.
The way out starts with the defence of those in the inner cities, Labour councils, the leadership of the NUM, and all those who now face Thatcher's most venemous assault. Without that -CoulSe 1S heading for disaster at the election. Because the more Kinnock concedes to Thatcher today the more she will demand tomorrow.
Socialist Action 21 Nov 1986 ACTiON SociAlist IN ONE month since Labour Party con'DEFENCE', and that means nuclear weapons, is