culture. They believed that the whole of our politics had to be geared to that.
This was never true. Even in the depression that I'm sure we all went through after 11 June it was never a realistic assessment. Because there was an overwhelming public commitment to the changes made in 1945. There has never been that for the changes that Thatcher, and those around her, have pushed through in British politics over the last eight years.
inere las consistently been majorities in every opinion poll for full eing. yme got the lowest votes of any employment, for belter public Tory government, not the real mass votes that Lne post-war ments got. Although government has presided over many advances for capital, and many defeats for Labour, there was never a sea change brought about in public perceptions.
So the world has changed. And it's going to take a lot of people a lot of time to wake up to it. But it does mean that the key issues of socialism that have been there throughout the last 100 years are put back into the centre of political debate. There is no way that we can lift ourselves out of the recession that we're going to go into - starting from a real position of four million unemployed without tackling the question of the control of capital.
It is of course fortuitous that we're going to have a major review of Labour Party policy at the same time as the consequences of the Wall Street crash begin to work themselves through.
Undoubtedly many of the right see this review as a chance to water down For to try and find another way of fudging whattvel economic policies they'll come up with to lose the next election. But it also reemphasise and reevaluate, and try to make relevant to today's conditions, all the fundamental underlying principles of socialism based on analysis of class.
The crash will also put right in the centre of political debate the issue of our relationship Europe. there's no doubt whatsoever that the right in Europe — and this will certainly be the case in every European country - will see the way out of this recession as building very rapidly the final stages of the Common Market, in particular achieving by 1992 the common panied by moves towards European military integration and strengthening govern- European militarism — the Euro-bomb concept of Owen.
There is no way we can lift ourselves out of the recession without tackling the control of capital This is inevitable because one of the things that will be accelerated by this recession is the move of American interests away from Europe and towards the Pacific basin. There will be major pressures on European nations to increase their defence spending, and the right will be arguing that they want a Europe that's literally armed to the teeth in order to fight the dreadful Russian menace. Therefore, as well as the debate about rebuilding our economy Because and our welfare state and how to Dar for it, we'll also face the central issue of where Britain should be in relation to the forces throughout the world. What should be our attitude to Nicaragua and South Africa? Should we see the Soviet Union as an enemy or take a none progressive This will be accom- view about the nature of relationships that should develop between ourselves, the Soviet Union, and the process of internal liberalisation that it faces. that must be dealt with in the review.
arms spending we will be in a position to show that this is now actually a more realistic time than ever before to actually go for a policy of unilateralism nuclear weapons but for election that the mone bomb crane. now. reduction in ween the nations these debates will be avoided.
_ must say brian politics you had to adjust to it that's going sions in society members of the undercut What will its shape be?
sianism.
DOCH minded
As the right are pushing for extra and to go not just for getting rid of getting rid of the nonsense we got saddled with at the saved on the should be used to buy more tanks. We also want to say this is the to negotiate a massive conventional arms betof Western Europe and the Soviet Union. There is no way These views culminated in the final nonsense of Gould saying that we must now all have to accept the share-owning democracy and this is the way forwara.
Gould is actually a very nice person. He was one of the few MPs that was actually prepared to talk to me after the election. I have nothing against him personally but it is bad to urge everyone to get in on the share market three weeks before the end of a 12 year bull market coming to its end!
But Bryan Gould simply believed that had changed in a way which would be a completely new world and to be knocked away. Because although people haven't yet taken on board the scale of what's happening in terms of the political divi- and as yet ordinary community, unionists and so on, haven't taken in turn the scale of what is happening - as it starts to bite it is going to completely Keynesianism intellectual credibility great and authority of the politics the new right have pursued both here and in America, and the reflection it has had in the labour movement. A new shuffiing of the political cards will take place.
War Il to do that all back to work!
Finally, there, wards by this more nations to increase their There will be people deserting, people who've gone along with Reagan and Kohl and Thatcher, now desperately looking for some alternative, and there will be a major struggle between the new centre party and the left. And unfortunately for the left large numbers of people will actually be reflecting time when much of the thinking of the new centre What we will see being put forward as the alternative to Thatcherism now will be a version of warmed-up KeynPeople like Steel and Owen, and unfortunately some of our own leadership, will say that what we need is a nice big public works programme to Around completely overlooking the fact that it wasn't that turned round the depression of the 1930s. The public works programmes of Roosevelt in America had a major 1DaCl 11 1 lividual areas but they didn't cure th general problem of unemployment and underinvestment, and they didn't get the US out of recession. It took World - and I don't think even the new realists will be advocating a third world war as a way of getting us while the debate will be there is the question of how we actually move it forward. There's no question in my mind that the struggle for the policy direction of the Labour Party will be given a major ratchet upcrisis. People who thought we could drift along with a bit rhetoric. adapt to Thatcherism, will get a shock. But this also demands a sense of seriousness responsibility from the left. The idea that we carry on our own internal sectarian disputes on the left, and worry about which left wing grouping is a little bit holier than the other one, or who can poach a few members from here or there, or which small grouplet can fuse with another small grouplet or pressure group, is completely inadequate, and wholly irrelevent to the process change that is going to be sweeping not just through Britain but the rest of the We are at a fundamental point in the entire world system begins to change. It can change progressively if we seize the initiative, or it can go the other way to one of several reactionary alternatives. . If we fail it might very well be parties of the far right that seize the initiative, win working class support that Labour should have, and open the way to some form of modern authoritarian solution. The question, therefore, is what do we do about it?
I make no apology whatsoever for saying that the question of unity on th left — not a bureaucratic structure, no differences, but strands opinion on the left working togethe for common goals — is absolutely fun damental. If we remain divided, if on group on the left sees its main enemy a another group on the left rather tha defeating Thatcher and the right in th Labour Party, then they are actuall betraying the working class and th internationally workle Therefore, I think that it couldn't ha come at a better time that there is th beginning of some sense of responsibil ty and some beginning of understar ding about the need to put togethe broad consensus for • unitv an abol what type of agenda that unity shou be based on. ... a sense of seriousnes! and responsibility from the left We have seen that understanding the Labour Party most effectively terms of the work done around Lab Left Liaison - • with the internatio campaigns in it, and its defence
entire Socialist Action 20 'Nov 1987
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gives us the chance to push forward, THE 1900 yesterday: own 22.6%
There will be major pressures on European defence spending party rather than socialism.