THIS WEEK AT Blackpool the Tories meet in ference. Thatcher fresh from her June election victory will get a rapturous from the rank and file.
But in the more astute circles of the ruling there is just a euphoria and complacency. The British bourgeoisie nothing if it is not hard-headed and realistic. They are just a little worried that over the years the Tory Party has been losing ground and between 1964 and 1979 lost four elections out of five.
Some of the ruling class think it is not a bad idea to hedge their bets and this means giving a nod and a wink to the In this article which is based on the last chapters of the book Thatcher friends JOHN ROSS we look at what has been happening to the Tory Party SDP/Liberal got friends in high places.
DESPITE ITS LARGE parliamentary majority the Tory Party is in decline. From 1886 onwards the Tories won the largest share of the vote in 12 out of 13 general elections.
After crushing the general strike marginalising the thirties. such mass support that their votes in the 1931 and 1935 elections are easily the largest ever recorded in Britain under any electoral system. For nearly 78 years up to 1964 the Tories were virtually continously in office.
Then after 1964 a new Conservative crisis set in. For 11½ out of the next 15 years they were in opposition. They lost four out of five general elections.
Weakness Thatcher came forward task of halting this slide. brilliantly utilised Labour's weakness and the undemocratic nature of the British electoral system but she has still not . been able to halt her decliné.
Despite getting more seats than in the last parliament the orv vote this year still slithered downwards. Her vote on 6 June 1983 was the lowest real vote ever recorded by a Tory permier. In the last election the Tories got 42 per cent of the votes, compared to 44 per cent in 1979 and 53 per cent in 1935. (see table for detailed breakdown of votes since 1935).
In Scotland the slumped by 22 per cent since 1935. The Labour Party is in deep crisis, revival of Toryism under should not blind us to the fact that the Conservative Party is in decay. The attempt to rebuild a mass popular Conservative Party in the post-war years has essentially failed - a failure which inevitably calls into question the entire form of the party system in which the Conservatives were born.
The days when the Tory Party could integrate the political fabric of British society in an immense party political domination alcover The decline of the Conservative Party, and of the modern British party system is a product of the rise and British imperialism itself. The immense complex of economic and social forces Which made up classical British imperialism are breaking down.
To attempt to get over that, British capitalism must abandon economic formulas created in the 1840s and link itself to new rising forces - in SDP/Liberal two by the Alliance has iney Dulll with the She has party's capitalism of the vote has change in the party system.
but the Thatcher such British politics bring itself into existence.
Partv and the economic decline of mechanisms that imploding political and beginning to be required.
the old particular, to the powerful European This entire reorganisation of the mechanisms of the British economy needs a complete It is only possible to outline what La new party system will be. It would as far as the ruling class is concerned consist of a Gaullist-type Tory Party, the creation of the SDP/Liberal 'pro-EEC' Party and the creation of a reformist Socialist Party as opposed to the Labour Party. Over the last 30 years has been about the struggle of that new party system to It's aim, naturally, is to forestall any socialist alternative to the longdrawn-out-decline of the Conservative socia By the 1960s and 70s the economic contradictions of the old imperialist system were British society. had 'economic formulas were The results were the 'retreat from the Empires, the decision to enter the EEC and that period from 1964 to 1979 Tory percentage of the vote since 1931 when the Tories lost four general elections out of five. This was when the social alliances of the Tories began to break down. In October 1974 the Conservative vote fell to the lowest level for 115 years. Heath campaigned for a 'national' and not even a specifically Tory government. Strategies In society as a whole it was a period of disturbance and conflict, wịth the activity of the anti-Vietnam movement, student upheavals and in the 1970s the largest trade union struggles since the general strike. In the Labour Party a new left wing emerged led by Tony Benn. British capitalism had not faced such problems for 50 years and they showed the weakening of the mechanisms through which the Torie carried out their stragegies. Now the most important thing for the British ruling class is how to put a stop to these processes.
Whilst vote has
declining the Conservatives have proved incapable of gaining support from it and thus stopping their own electoral decline. Large sections of the working class have not shown themselves as deeply attached to Labour in the way many assumed. historically has shown itself to be op posed to the Tory Party. Anti-Toryism, not support for Labour is the most profound and widest of all traditions in the British working class movement This is why the Tory Party has no mechanisms for institutionalising links with sections of the working class breaking with Labour. and 1983 Thatcher inflicted tremendous defeats on the Labour Party but she could not succeed in winning votes for the Conservatives. In fact 700,000 fewer people voted Tory in 1983 than in 1979.
Had Thatcher re-created mass supold port for the Conservative Party, had she succeeded in reversing 50 years of Tory decline, had the Party now found some mechanism to integrate in workers and others been British capitalism systall.
cient.
was supported by (chair Edmund nard Doyle, McConnell.
advertising Spencer EMI, Minority representative main 'second' party they But the working class its Between 1979 Conservative its support the skilled breaking from there would be no need for reorganise its f2.50.
British capitalism could rest content today, with what it enjoyed in the years between the wars - a mass authentically popular Con Thatcher's defeat of Labour is not enough to create political stability. The old system of rule still continues declin. ing. That is why the levels of support of each party in 1983 formed part of such long-term pattern Is also the for fundamental reorganisation of the political system have not been overcome emergence of the Socia Democratic/Liberal bears testimony to the fact that important of the ruling class recognise that Thatcherism alone is not suffi Nothing could be more naive than the view that the Alliance is the expression of the 'middle class'. At its foundation the Alliance John Harvey Jones of ICI), Clive Lindley (ICI group), Claude Wilson (Rothchilds), Dell (ex-Labour cabinet minister and now a merchant banker), the chief executive of the SDP was Ber former head of Booker On 24 January the Guardian noted that "The SP is planning a £250,000 call balki money donated, it is believed, by Mr David Sainsbury of the supermarket family? Earlier Lord Sainsbury another backer of the SDP launch had noted that 'we are simply offering a more stable environment for business'. Of the major firms with annual reports prior to th Thorn, EMI and Marks and had donated funds to the SDP/Liberal Alliance. In 1981 Thorn, ICL, Marks Spencer Sainsburys along with Booker McConnell were among the 100 companies with the largest turnover.
The ruling class see in the SDP/-Liberal Alliance as a way of cutting into the Labour vote and later perhaps into the labour movement, in a way that the Conservatives are clearly unable to do. It has the potential to fracture Labour's support into its two historical components — that part which was authentically pro-Labour and that which is primarily anti-Tory. That discerning voice of the interests of the ruling class, the Financial Times said: "In a more voting system. the Alliance could emerge tomorrow as the alternative to . Mrs Thatcher, which we would count as a strong gain. The ruling class will not succeed in their objective of making the Alliance the But by building up the Alliance, and winning over the traditional anti-Tor vote of sections of the working clas they hope to create a situation whereb if the Tory vote slumps even further ondith, a loet the DP/Libera cannot Alliance and the Tories could make Labour a permanent minority party.
Thatcher and friends tomy of th John Ross Pantone s Thatcher and friends - The anatomy of the Tory Party Published by Pluto Press,
Interview with LUIS JALANDONI National Democratic Front of the Can you explain the background of the killing of Aquino, the leader of bourgeois opposition party in the Philippines, the United Democratic Organisation?
All evidence points to the responsibility of the Marcos government.
TIC retrie Philippines, there was a convergence of factors whien we in the Nauonal Democratic Front believe about the assassination.
First was the advance of the armed resistance and the struggle of the New People's Army. There were 300 tactical offensives from March 1982 to Socialist Action 14 October 1983 Philippines Nationalist At the brought International representative of the 0 Miles 200 CHINA Clark Air Force US Nava SI al susic Bay material PHILIPPINES ment tisan warfare LUZON into the PHILIPPIL mutually SAMAR Do the ship?
sent to the Philippines English, Spanish and French on the different aspects - the combination of mass mobilisation with the armed struggle, the combination of political struggle and armed struggle, the com bination of the open peasant move with the peasant wa guerilla warfare with armed city parWe have to work together. This is vital for the future, not only during the struggle but also later We have rich natural resources and we hope that we won't have to get financial system dominated by the United States. We can have beneficial trade with progressive movements who win.
people mobilising against Marcos look to the NDF for leader.