If we take last month's local government elections actually trailed third either the Tories the Labour's standing in the opinion polls is now down to 30-35 per cent. has lost its deposit in three VIL U LIC HaNU SevcH Dvelections. At Southgate the Alliance vote shot up dramatically to 35 per cent while Labour's vote collapsed from an already low I per cent down to 12 per cent. Pattern A very clear pattern is in fact emerging in all the results ralner tne patern which already existed at the last ciechon is oeing connrmca still more strongly.
Labour is holding its vote, recovering seriously from the disaster Ones ne HOT.B. Labour is holding its position also in the core of the big cities — and doing betTer ma otdor due to the massive campaign to save the GLC.
But outside these core areas Labour's vote is not recovering. anything n ke une sere needeo to wl! an election. The has consolidated itself further sunce Jule 1983.
The movement of Britain towards a three party Dyoucill with fighting the Alliance in the north cities, and the Torie fighting the Alliance in the south and countrvside contunues to steadily develop. Contrary to the expectations of much of the Marxist and Labour left in Britain the Alliance is not disappearing. consolidating itself as a permanent and structural feature of British politics. Southgate was just another confirmation of that - although by now such confirmations are really superfluous.
And where does all this leave Neil Kinnock and his project for The current myth being pedaled in the press is that Laboul s popularity substantially fallen Decaise the munes and the conclusion urged is that Labour must turn sharply to the right. Hence the great rash of articles in the Guardian, New Statesman, Observer ana ine Times demanding from witch hunts, incomes policies, condemnation of Scargill, greater distancing oi the Labour Party from the unions, more conocmnauor. of the miners etc. A strong right Kinnock gets that lonely feeling will supposedly rebuild Labour's popularitv. Alistair Graham urged a similar line for the trade utu Jl dlla ul dllc l Friday's Guardian.
Unfortunately for these arguments none oi them will fit the facts. Neither will the policy conclusions which flow from During the early part OTI the mhe" before Kinnock started aenvering VICOUS diatribes against 'miners violence', popularity held up. It was after Kinnock started openly attack the strike, that Labour's popularity began fall. This scarcely surprising because if, according to Kinnock's logic, the Labour Party is based on movement whose activists 'creating. violence support it? Rehearsal As for the incomes policy and witch hunts the record is only too obvious. No British government, or party, pledged to incomes policy has ever elected or re-elected.
18CUlCs policy the single HUSU electorally disastrous poncy In post war British history. And as for witch hunts is it really necessary to rehearse the story of Bermondsy?
The reality is that it is Neil policies which stand as the obstacle Labour rebuilding electoral support, and winning the next June 1983 was not a freak.
was a product of definite relation of class forces move to victory quires moving that relation of forcěs in favour of the working class - the last time Labour won an 1974, it was because of a miners strike that shattered the Heath government.
But Kinnock is precisely setting Labour's leadership against every struggle that could shift the rela DO OT TOKeS ao O the working class. This is the drauual col where if Thatcher lost the strike her government would be broken backed But instead of helping take the strike to victory Kinnock has attacked obstructed it. Success A similar development is already taking place Ihe big success storv Labour in electoral terms is the popularity of the left But now we must be realistic. cannot win an election and it is unite all antiurrcll Thatcher forces...? class. If he succeeds in that there is no possibility o SLaDOll winnlng une nex election. For Labour to be victorious its supporters have to break with the line of Kinnock : and shift the relation of forces in favour of the working has the chance to next leadership not because of it.
Finally who will gain policy?
Ironically it won't even be his supporters those who are trying to recreate нр. ne pope who hl a Labour government gain those who ali d even to Kinnock's right -the new realist wing of the TUC and the coalitionists within the Labour bureaucracy.
Neil political project is to avoid coalition by moving Labour to the right. His actual role in the struggle is to open the way for a coalition by defeating Labour left, and permitting Thatcher to impose major defeats on the working class.
The bitter fruits of that can be seen not only in the miners but in Labour's election results.
Photo: IOHN CHAPMAN But where Robert Maxwell, the Mirror, are really going was made unambiguously clear last week.
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Photo: JOHN HARPIS win uthe