AT THE end of August seven members of Labour Left Liaison (LLL)
Co-ordinating Vladimir Derer, Peter Hain, Ken Livingstone, and Joan Ruddock issued a statement entitled 'Labour, the Liberals and the New. Statesman, John Lloyd, in the Sunday Times, making the front page of the Morning Star, Tribune.
It is clear that the statement had a considerable impact in deciding actions the leader s ip part of the. thrust of the statement was against the since the election, andauty unions by Hammond and Laird, in favour of a pact with the Liberals and, make this possible, the introduction of proportional representation.
Shadow Cabinet.
Since the election the New Statesman, Marxism Today and leading Fabians have openly argued for Labour-Liberal pact. This become a hidden agenda tor the party others, while rejecting such a pact, are caught up internal developments with the same dynamic.
The decision by the Tribune Group to relect a joint slate with the CamGroup symbolised bonzi this process, encoulasa serious rethinking on the leit.
The proposed joint slate gave Tribune virtually blank cheque terms. It included eight members of the Tribune group, TOlI Campaign Group members Lutet Tribune incumbents that is eleven Tribune and four Campaign. Yet it was rejected by the majority of the Tribune group who, in practice, preferred to align with centre-right MPs.
The political dynamic of this clear. Although generally loyal to the party the right has an agenda with potentially much common ground with the While modernis and of the executive of the Committee (LCC) Ann Pettifor, Marc Wadsworth, dominating the correspondence columns of week's Observer and SunBryan Gould to wage an making clear there would pacl opposing proposals for proportiona representation/electoral Kinnock did this for Ron Todd and John Edmonds had spoken out at the same time as the statement making clear their divided.
This is a programme for maintaining, not overturnthe essential changes Huc. brought about cherism. A Labour-Liberal pact might appear to be ar anti-Thatcher coalition' but in practice it would be coalition for perpetuating Thatcherism T'he alternative is orienting to a GADuL VIlly through pushing back the which requires re-establishing unity left to pose a serious slippage by • default into coalitionism - and also winning over those potensupporters who in the last elections have voted for Thatcher Such unity on the left is a principal goal that must be worked towaras.
Disagreements between various trends on the left cannot be resolved immediately. However a joint campaign around the following ISSUCL would help the party to adopt a capable of oroziauule winning majority support for Labour and would go some way vecull these differences:
the rejecting ally pact or coalition with the Liberals or Alliance * Commitment to maxSunday 13 September, 10.30-5 pm (Kings Cross tube).
In the morning there will be a panel take reports, resolutions and elections. Ann Pettifor opposition any deal with the Liberals. What the statement of the seven made clear was that if Kinnock did not act decisively against talk of a pact anc ?R he would rapidly finc himself with a united left which he dreaded. The statement, in short, was an extrémely effective 'shot far across Inc bows ment socialist cial the legal right effective links between rejecting LaDOul links with in unions to workers the TGWU, GMB, and other unions.
* Radical democratisapolitics, the olsucu l * For Assembly Act establishing Assembly passed in to unilateral disarnuclear free ulaliCal Europe, emillllaliull wide more effective in influencing the course of the party leadership, because to it for once, NOGO BE than any amount the scenes pressure' capitulation, whịch Sections of the soft left ad. vocate for influencing the course of the party.
More important, and to the point, by making the party leadership come out sharply against any talk of stos ihu king along thes Coauol isolates the richt. li •It also, therefore, poses the issue of how Labour builds its own support.
Reaction to the state ment has been interesting Tony Banks, Tony Benn Short and Gavin Strang. 1 been endorsed b SLADOU Section, altu. the indications are, i will be endorsed by the exthe Campaign It has been repudiated by ecutive of the LCC The authors have made clear that they see this as only the first step in a process.
BaJKI developed political agen flow da. But we pledge to work within our existing organisations to maximise ciples. will regularly to decide the next steps in this process A meeting will be held a the party discuss these A copy of this document has been circulated to Labour Campaign Groups. their names and to attend the meeting Vladimir Derer, Secretary Labour Left Liaison Ann Pettifor, Co-chair, Labour Left Liaison Marc Wadsworth, Cochair, Labour Left Liaison George Galloway MP Executive, Labour Co Peter Hain, Executive Labour Co-ordinating Committee Ken Livingstone MI Executive, Labour Co ordinating Committer Joan Ruddock MP Executive, Labour Coordinating Committee All in a personal capacity
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the unity of Labour's left'. It aroused a storm of discussion provoking a lengthy reply by the editor of
London LCI annual meeting
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