THE ELECTION campaign very professional. gave people hope and confidence that they were doing well, although in fact the outcome was very disappointing.
My own feeling, looking back on it, was that it was a terrible tragedy that all that professional skill, which was formidable, had not been harnessed to earlier struggles. Supposing the leaflets, and television skills had been put at the disposal of the miners, printers, What an educational that would have been.
The party came out of the campaign in better heart than one would expect compared to the actual outcome. ple on the left are looking very carefully at matters, and engaging in serious and constructive discussions about where we proceed from here.
What is clear is that the centre has cracked, the Owen-Steel alliance has cracked. A lew years newspaper was telling us that if Labour was more like David Owen, or Roy Jenkins, or Shirley Williams then we would win. But it is they who have splintered, not Labour.
The new 'radical' Tory policies announced in the Queen's speech sharpen polarisation. The Labour Party can become stronger. That will be registered at the local government elections and the European elections.
the lICW Labour Party I do not believe people are interested in a re-run of the past. Neither the new nor the old MPs in the Campaign Group see the general election as simply a four week truce in hostilities which will now be resumed.
I think that is why the idea of a conleadership have found no favour. Peo- test for the leadership and deputy ple have other priorities build the broadest possible base for the The Campaign Group must not be seen as a grouping around a few. inaviolas It must centre around clear ideas which seeks broadest measure of support for.
First that Labour is an opposition not simply to Mrs Thatcher, and the Tories, but to the whole direction of our economic system.
I do not believe Mrs Thatcher is an uncaring prime minister. She cares for her own people, not for our people.
was The campaign which concentrated compassionate.
tensions. tion of the state, education system, cities, wAl pamphlets, teachers.
enterprise Peoago every pact.
Led to will socialism and Party of socialists.
Parliamentary The aim is not to There are These are to would strengthen Campaign *6634 hopesthereswillabora muchadeeper « way that it has organic links with the analytic criticism of events in Britain than was seen during the election on showing that Mrs Thatcher wasn't fair, or wasn't Second economic polarisation will lead to much greater social and political The poll tax, the centralisa• the attack on the the housing crisis, the attack on democracy in the inner lead to struggles of substantial kind. The Campaign Group will have to think carefully about how it can support these extra-parliamentary struggles. If we don't we will be seen simply as MPs and not as an integral part of the movement created by these - as we were seen during the Third we have to look at foreign policy in the light of Gorbachev. We should be considering non-angient. We should be bringing our influence to bear to unite Europe rather than divide it. The policies Gorbachev has outlined in the USSR have had a great impact. I believe they will have a still further imFourth we must watch very carefully the proposals that are being made for an arrangement with the Liberals. This is not simply about tactical voting and proportional representation. It is link'cleansing' of cleansing the Labour Fifth our alternative to a pact with the liberals is refounding the Labour Party on a broader basis. We have to build up shared values about what socialism would mean in Britain. this has to draw in people from the left of the Labour Party, and people who are socialists but not in the Labour Party.
establish an alternative to Labour but to refound the Labour Party on a higher basis.
socialists in the green movement, socialists in the black movement, socialists in the women's movement, socialists in the pensioners movement, socialists in community groups. All should be affiliated to, or individual• members of, the Labour Party. This the left and put socialism back on the national agenda.
They must include some who today support the Liberals. I believe there are hany Liberals who do not want to joi ith the SDP. This is one obvious are to start building Labour's support.
This brings us to the role of the Group. Campaign Group has to organise itself in such a unions, with Liaison, CLPD, the Women's Action Committee, the other organisations.
This plays a short term role of making the Campaign Group a force to be reckoned with inside the Labour Party. But its long term objective is ensuring that the broader mass base within which those that are today gathering around the Campaign Group themselves.
The present constitutional changes being proposed in the party go in the opposite direction. One Member One Vote (OMOV) is designed to break the power of the Labour Party membership Those advocating it would evenwhere the media would take the responsibility for advocating particular candidates.
Constitutional change always has a motivation. wanted the vote to strengthen the position of the working class. fragettes wanted the vote to strengthen the position of women. We fought for reselection because we wanted the party without which not MPs. OMOV is designed to weaken the position of the active members of the party as a whole in relation to MPs The same goes for the other, more speculative, constitutional have been put forward - for example the effective abolition of the NEC. The aim here seems to be to eliminate the constituency the NEC on a regional basis. Here, it is hoped, the trade union vote could ther be used to replace the CLP vote.
All this is part of the long saga of trying to turn the Labour Party in the direction Gaitskell 1959. To turn the party into one with much looser links with the trade unions with the eleiminated. The end result would be to prepare the party for the type of ar rangement with the Liberals that existed when Callaghan was in power. Moving Labour in the direction of a European Socialist Party or American Democratic Party People know what they have in mind. People can then see the relevance of what we are saying ed mass nected with struggle outside itself and outside parliament, and with a much clearer socialist perspective. People can then judge from their own experience Left them.
Black Section and retlects express mission, wholly inadequate -postal ballot time.
rally, The Chartists authorities, strong The Sufment because coming, one MP would be be strengthened vis a vis The the 1918 socialist societies -ideas that technological civil members reorganise as theirs.
after ingredient tion rapidly.
the autumn.
should be aware that we What s for a broader basmore explicitly conmoting individuals ty. which type of party is more relevant to I have no doubt which type of party people in Scotland demanding hom rule, or people in Liverpool, or miners, or nurses, or teachers or civil servants will see as more relevant to their needs The power of capital in Britain is not based on Mrs Thatcher and her parliamentary majority. It is based on bankers, multinationals, the EEC comNATO, the security services, the civil service, proprietors etc. It is here the strength of capital lies. Unless we have a strong labour movement in Britain we have only one effective opportunity to shift the balance of power - and that is at election time. That is because capital does not restrict its activity to election In order to win we have to have strong trade unions, a strong Labour , strong Labour groups on local socialist and strong regional organisations. This means building up the labour move.
it is the only force capable of first resisting, and then overthe enormous power that exists outside parliament institutional basis created by with conerence unions, constituency parties, and a few is too narrow for the very widely based and diverse work ing class that has appeared as a result of change. Teachers, servants, GCHO show that radicalism is by no means confined to the old manual working class. Here we find echoes of radicalism among those who Mrs Thatcher and Dr Owen claim I believe these matters cannot be discussed simply among a few people. We are not working in a vacuum for four years. We are working in a situa where things will change very This is why we are considering a conference on the future of socialism in This not simply recruiting agent for the Labour Party but an attempt to identify a direction which might find favour within the party and command majority support in must be established are shared values and objectives. Because without these we will be simply proWe will not have built the strength at the bottom capable of sustaining representation in the parct with ng the Socialist Action 10 July 1987
Wage cutting policies of Craxi led government in Italy represent extreme form of Eurosocialism'