THE REASONS for voting for Tony Benn and Eric Heffer in the leadership election are principled and not tactical. Neil Kinnock, in his willing alliance with Hattersley, has systematically sabotaged the struggles which would have taken the labour movement forward. He has thereby weakened the working class today and made it even less likely that a future Labour government will succeed. It is only necessary to list the miners strike, Wapping, the fight against councils cuts to give support to the nurses strikes — to make clear the record.
And worse is to come.
This year will see the attempt to commit Labour to - not to mention the latest episodes such as the failure the P&O dispute. Benn and Heffer, and the Campaign Group, have taken up, and given full blooded support, to the struggle. Tony Benn and Eric Heffer went down to Dover to express support for the strike - which is what the leader of the Labour Party should have done. Support for such struggles is both vital in itself and will win support for the campaign.
But in addition to direct class struggles there are a number of clear, coming, policy issues which can and should be used directly in the campaign. How to articulate these with the leadership campaign requires strategy and tactics by the left - not only organisation but highlighting what are the decisive areas where the left can win votes. These must also, to have an effect, be the most important issues of policy. Before considering these however consider briefly the line up of forces in the CLPs.
Leaving aside random votes the leadership election will see four basic groupings inside the constituency parties. The first is those voting Kinnock-Hattersley - the right. The second, the soft left, will vote Kinnock-Prescott. The third the periphery of the hard left, will vote BennPrescott. The fourth, the hard left, will vote Benn-Heffer. It is relatively easy at the beginning of the campaign to work out the relative strengths of some of these currents and, in turn, work out the key issues which must be clarified to strengthen the left.
First, as we show on the opposite page, approximately 25 per cent of CLPs will vote for the right wing Kinnock-Hattersley. Nothing substantial can be done about them and for campaigning purposes they may be ignored.
The second group which it is relatively easy to determine the weight of, is the hard left which will support Benn-Heffer from the beginning of the campaign. Eric received 180,000 votes for the NEC last year which is also the strengin or mose unal volca for at least five Campaign Group candidates out of seven. This is 32 per cent of CLPs voting at conference.
Battle The real battle ground is approximately 40 percent of CLPs that are not committed either to the right wing or the hard left. How win CLPs at present thinking of voting BennPrescott into voting Benn-Heffer, and how to win Tony Benn speaking in Chesterfield CLPs at present thinking of voting Kinnock-Prescott in to voting Benn-Heffer is the key issue. The key to achieving this is first to ensure that the policy issues are debated out before the issue of the vote for leader and deputy leader are taken. and Values - compared to 50 per cent that might be considering Benn for leader at present. The first crucial task is to explain to the 25 per cent of CLPs that will oppose Aims and Values, but at present may support Kinnock, that this is a completely inconsistent posinominations. Forcing a debate on the policy issues is the first priority.
As regards the deputy leadership the decisive issue will be both Aims and Values CCO ONC policy. Everyone knows that Hattersley wrote Aims and Values and that he supports the documents likely to test are those at present con•VOLLIS BennPrescott - CLPs that wish to vote against the right but which are thinking of voting for Prescott in order to defeat Hattersley.
Here the left must explain that it is correct to vote for Prescott on a se cond round but that it is