THE LEFT is used to being in opposition. Denunciation of the Labour leadership is its stock-in-trade. But that is not enough today. The changes now taking place in British politics are of gigantic scope — larger than anything this generation of the labour movement has ever experienced. Kinnock and the Labour right not only fail to understand them but they are leading the labour movement to disaster. The left must cease to be "an opposition' and must use every ounce of its resources to turn round the situation in the labour movement. Because only the agenda that the left is beginning to set can lead Labour out of its crisis. JOHN ROSS looks at the changing shape of British politics.
see byshape ATTISE politics. try main SDP-Liberal boosted under tied to the its the the union movement cong realist' lines.
the vote Thatcher government, popularity, able Conflicts The task of the ruling class in that situation clear. It must marginalise the before the continuing fall in Thatcher's unpopularity makes it impossible for continue in office whether this takes nace al the next general election or It is by these which involve stabilising the Alliance as a feature:
Botish politics, that the bourgeoisie seeks to ensure that the tremendous changes the Tory government has brought about in society, economy and politics will be rendered permanent The chosen means for the ruling class to achieve maeea ine only one society, to divide the country geographically, deepen every differential and division which exists.
This process starts in the economy. It creates a core sector of stable, employed, well-paid workers and a 'periphery' of insecure, often temporary or with WORKCES rew or no union rights.
It extends into deepening and utilising the sexual and racial divisions in the working class. The bulk of the secure core are The majority of the Inell. pennely are tie wolic..
black. Beyond even we perpucry are wie dishig ranks of the permanently among the DACK the Inese divisions al c country.
rising the Prosperity reign, even in large 'he insions simply but also reflect underlying ty. capitalism's goal Is to consolidate better off of the to aimed against sections of capital The that divide split the working the made because the of 1964-70 1974-79 The Callaghan governments drove of better their Hallue 1966 1983 among any social group. supervisory techniworkers supRise These workers moved in huge numbers first to 1979 and then for the Alliance 1983. Wilson Callaghan by their policies smashed pieces the historic bloc of the work. ing class created in 1945. Thatcher Owen are today the the tremendous divisions introduced into the working by capital by Labour's right wing. How to reunite the working class movement, on a line of struggle against capital, is the task that faces the left today.
That right wing is today pursuing a course that does still further damage to the labour movement.
Golding - and their allies Parlamentary act to nent minority status. On this leaflet the SDP The be converted to "business unionism' short term only few million best paid have their organisation destroyed.
right that halt the the movement.
the initiatives undo the tremendous Lead Given the damage which was done to Labour and the labour movement by the last Labour governthis right ana by wing bureaucracy, several million workers have been broken lou Labour alu vote Alliance as well small fraction right wing been consolidated in the unions. Labour has been very much the party of the innercities, of the north.
the black community, or lie council estales of the unemployed. That is the real situation Labour One danger for the lefi is that situation. Ideas of the 'allance dispossesed' 'emthe powerless, are a useless mirror image of the business unionism, or support for the SDP, 01 Golding, Laird, or a Hammond. Yes, must be the party of the black community, of the Above: triumphant Alliance candidate in Greenwich, Rosie Barnes. Below: the campaign Labour should have mounted -was produced by HQ only days before the poll unemployed, of women, and of the council estates. But it cannot be simply must represent the whole working class not only women, black people, the miners, but also a large part of the membership organised by the ABU, o the EETPU, and many of whom are now voting for the first time ever for well.
As we already seen, do - because that will working against ed realism' for only a few million of the most secure most Laird, Owen' s left:
in the first that can be built in which where Laon the traditional But to build on this it is necessary to grasp the tremendous changes that have taken place working class in the last 30 years, what necessary for Labour to be a class party today.
Rate It is here that the left is Breatest leaps forward her make greatest understanding. Since World War II almost three and a half million women black DCUDIt have entered the labour force The working class today is divided virtually half and half between women and black workers on the on side and traditional 'male white other. It is among these, above all among workers, that Labour has historical a cales. weakness indeed Labour had won women's suppoll Ill lie way ll la won men's it would have DCCU in office throughout the 1950s and 1960s To be a class party today, indeed to be more of A all. than it ever was in the '50s and '60s, Labour has to reorganise both its policies and its structure to take account of that reality of the working class.
That is the significance of what a Bernie Grant is doing in Haringey, or what an Arthur Scargill did in the miners strike. It is not, as the right accuse, the idea of constructing a majority through a coalition of minorities although that they categorise women shows just how the right What involved understanding the tremen dous changes in the struc ture of the working class itself.
The reality is the majority of the working class in London are women o black. No one advocates the adoption of the exact tactics of a Bernie Grant everywhere in Britain. But the basic idea, that Labour must be brought into line will une working class as ll actually exists, does apply crewice Grown And that is also the core of dealing with Owen, Golding, Hammond and Laird who in practice form an alliance. Because finally the Alliance and the new realists have no solution. councils make cuts with the same alacrity as the Tories. Golding and Laird's policy of selling jobs cuts theil base. There is still strong vestigial Labour in wide sec. tions of their base.
Reality Labour is now faced with a task it has not had to undertake for 50 years. To fight inch by inch to rebuild its support in the working class - and to do so on an agenda which only the left can provide. The path which Kinnock pursuing; , to take Labour to the right, will only lead to alsaster arter alsastel This is the challenge that now taces the lett. I1 has to think not like a small embattled minority but like the general staff of the movement. Because onlv its ideas and agenda can lead the labour movement out of its crisis If anyone didn't understand that before Greenwich, they should HUW
Socialist Action 6 March 1987
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against Answer
SDP leader David Owen says he'd join a Thatcher government. Voting for the SDP candidate is just giving a leg-up to Dr Owen's ruthless ambition. A vote for the SDP is a vote for another Thatcher government. There's only one way to get rid of Mrs Thatcher Vote Labour