dispute and working ase workers defending the estricted course the right wing leaders in abour Party and the unions had ntion of doing any such thing. left also failed to do these an organised way. In general it activities to individual cconspicuously failed through the trade unions and i Party against the right. An etween the trade union and Which turned towaros mas meat now faces a ça apolll battle for the retara of a nir government: the onus for tak" on this task lies with the left inside is party and the unions. That means democratic rights.
just in the Labour Party and the unions, but also in the women's movement, among the unemployed, ticularly the youth, and in the Black and Asian commonities. No single current in British politics can on its own build that movement, firstly because no political grouping either left reformist or Marxist millions of people. If the teft works together to build such a movement then it has the potential to reach out to the millions needed if Toryism is to be defeated The job of building a united left leadership is of overwhelming importance. It means the difference between defeat and victory for the working class and its allies.
Fi across the labour mover can provide leadership in gainst unemployment, in clear war and in defence of Such a movement will find allies not pool enjoys the support of ideas. RIGHT UP TO the Liverof Labour Party in 1925 Communist Party members could be individual members of the Labour Party. This strengthened the left and helped to spread Marxist ideas inside a Party whose left wing was deeply imbued with reformism.
The right wing had no intention of allowing this to continue and they got a resolution carried al Liverpool cluding Communists from any kind of parts did onin ta bourested ana ins.
not go unes stee Labour Party.
A sizeable minority of local parties simply did not operate the Liverpool decision. Many of the left reformists saw the attack made by the right as part of a general offensive against all left In December 1925 a National Left-Wing held organise a struggle inside the Labour Party whose aim was 'not to supercede the Labour Party 'but to "re-mould it nearer to the heart's desire" of the rank and file.
The conference was impressive. Its main organisers were Tom Mann, Joe Vaughan, a former mayor of Bethra Green and a member of the London Labour Party executive, Alex Gossip of turniture William Paul, editor of the Worker which then had a circulation of around 100,000. The conference was informed that nearly 100 divisional and borough Labour Parties had suspended carrying out the Liverpool decision.
Some of these associated themselves with the National Wing Movement. Eyen the disaffiliaThese were people who supported the the right of the Communists to be individual members of the Labour Party. They wanted a socialist programme and they wanted more militant policies insiac ine Labour rarty and lne trade unions. However they had not accepted a number of the policies of the Communist Party. Most of them were fai from convinced about the need for the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism and were suspicious about democratic centralism, The National Left-Wing Movement therefore provided a form of organisation which could unite in common action and in common policies the two ex most advanced currents in the labour movement ists of the Communist Party and the left reformists of both the Labour Party and the unions.
Wing Movement continued to grow. In • many cases it worked to replace rightwing parliamentary candidates by those from the left.
As working class militancy revived after the General Strike more people were drawn into the fight against the right. A manifesto calling for a socialist policy inside the Labour Party was put out by A.J. Cook and James Maxton of the ILP.
Clydeside MP John many other lett MPs. It was then officially endorsed by the National LeftWing Movement.
May Day Demonstration in London in 1928 10,000 peoplé turned out. Sunday The 1928 Conference showed that the movement had much wider than before and around 80 Labour Parties were represented. despite its successes the National LeftWing Movement was the cause of much bitter discussion inside the Communist Left• the revolutionary MarxThe National LeftThis was backed by the left Wheatley and At the Left-Wing 'The that:
Movement ... spread its roots 'But A.J. Cook miners' leader who sup ported both the National Minority Movement and the National LeftWing Movement argument of J.R. Campbell 'We must nave a Left-Wing ' in order 'to unite with the honest rank-and-file members of the Labour Party, who are genuinely dissatisfied with some of the Labour Party policy, but who are not prepared to come right over to the Communist was • destined to go unheeded. Then the 10th Congress of the Communist Party voted that party members should leave the National Left-Wing Movement. Shortly after, the National Committee of the Movement on which the Communist Party had a majority voted it should dissolve and advised its supporters to join the Communist ParThis caused considerable indignation in the ranks who had never been consulted and left a bitter taste in the of many left reformist militants. The ruling class and their servants in the right wing of the Labour Party and the trade unions welcomed the National Left-Wing Movement's demise. As far as they were concerned obstacle to pro-capitalist policies had been removed.
Whilst history simply never repeats itself and conditions are very different than in the late twenties it is important that socialists study what happened to National Left-Wing Movement and its counterpart in the unions 'the National Minority Movement (see Socialist Action No.25). Both serve as examples of the need to build broad based oppositions to the attacks of the emplovers and to the sell-outs ottht right wing labour leaders. They showed when these movements were at their height how they could unite in action reformist-minded They are the living proof that if the left today is going to revitalise the movement by organising forces that are in opposition to the Tory government it can only be done by organising an opposition rooted in the It must offer a way "LO « nose wie genunnel want to fight for policies that serve the interests of the working class and its