munist Party executive committee Tony Chater from the party. But the impact of the developing split spread far beyond that organisation. JOHN ROSS looks at the implications.
THE OPEN split in the Communist Party starts the most important fight for the future of socialists in the fight over the whole direction of the Labour left.
. The right wing line pursued by the Communist Party throughout whole last period has greatly weakened its hold OVCr the labour Jett. Marxism Today, with its support for coannon with Ine Allance and open endorsement of Kinnock, placed itself far to the right of the developing Labour left. The Labour left, symbolised by Tony Benn, Scargill, Ken Livingstone and their supporters was in turn able outflank the Communist Party on the lett on particular issues, and at the level of tactics, without a programThe consequences of this inside the Labour Party were also clear. A -spontaneous alliance developed between Marxist, basically forces and the emerging Labour left. Newspapers such as Labour Briefing, Socialist Action, Socialist Organiser, in different way, Herald, were able to substantially innuence me acveloping Labour ICIl.
Militant also grew although it was essentially parasitic on the development of the Labour lett and did not shape its development. chauvinist and opportunist politics in any case led outflanked on the left by the developing Labour left forces shown graphically now in Liverpool with the collision between the black caucus and Militant.
the Arthur to Trotskyist, Photos: MORNING STAR Their being as is being the initiatives of the my Knapp Heathfield, Ken Cameron, Halpin 1r reorganise the bureaucracy Star. boycotted by 'spon- wing of the party.
While Marxism Today stepping up its praise for nock, the moving to distance in the developed Mike ed:
When the This orientation is evident from itself. The platform of last weekend's Liaison Committee for the Defence of the Trade Unions — Tony Benn, JimEric Clarke, Peter with Stalinist stalwarts such as Kevin left trace around the Morning The conference was effectively the Eurocommunist has been Socialist Party in the same period.
This of course does not mean that these forces have always taken explicit positions 'for Moscow/for Stalin(!)', or "for Trotsky'. But these two pro grammes are completely incompatible as regards their practical conclusions.
Is the Labour left for or against Solidarnosc? Is it for popular front alliances with bourgeoisie — and therefore is it for For against class independence? Does it stand unequivocably on the basis of unilateral nuclear does it orient to multilateral talks between Washington and the Kremlin? against the women's organisations in the Labour or does it course.
of Stalinism DraCuca which Europear small. radicals Soviet Germany and ing disarmament Is it for independent black and them with The that Notts COLON to do.
This call was also the Durham 'Money IS stration.
He proposed an the It is or against withdrawal from NATO? Is it for or against Sinn Fein and its leadership role in the struggle for independence in Ireland? These, and many others are the different practical choices which are posed by the two programUnited action with the Com.
munist Party must be undertaken of But for the developing Labour left to fall in anyway under the influence of the Stalinist orienta. tion of the Morning Star, or the alternative one of Marxism Today, would be an historical disaster A Labour left tainted by the brush wastern Europe would never gain mass support. Its poncie. Wolle trap the development of the left of the party within a popular frontist ramework and break its dynamic. A Labour left Was influenced by would be a Labour left inevitably doomed to defeat by the right. would be a break with everything that has made the current so attractive to forces coming into politics.
Of course the chances of the Labour left going over openly to support for the positions of the Eas bureaucracies The days of the 1930s, when be mesmerised bs even that of the early 1950s when the carried the recent prestige of the struggle against Nazi when many people turned to support for the Soviet bureaucracy out of justified hatred against the cold war policies pursued by the United States and its allies Today the great majority of those active in politics know the real facts of the systematic repression of the work.
carried out in Eastern Europe and the crimes of the Sovie! bureaucracy. But the more local, and strategic, forms of class collaboration advocated by the Communist Partie and by Moscow still are influential.
The developing split in the Com munist Party does open up the really fundamental fight over the direction of the Labour left amendment was not put.
possibility of building industrial action was shown in Jimmy Knapp's speech, when he predicted Thursday's strike in the East Midlands and South Yorkshire areas of British Rail would be 100 per cent.
The most important issue facing conference was developing a strategy general council's refusal to fight for the decisions of congress. This the conference failed While the moves by Basnett to convene a conference of union executives in order to reverse Wembley ed, there was little in the way of real proposals to deal with this threat to the entire policy of the TUC Despite the huge limitations of the conterence, the decision to go for a does repre sent a step forward, and deserves the widest possible support. All sections of the movement should now put their weight behind the call.
The demand must be that the Labour Party and the TUC call a demonOfficial support from national that 24 February is a real show o strength in support of the NUM.
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* 1985 prayer: aid not arms Church appeal to Thatcher & Go
Stalin and the Soviet Five Year Plans The situation is no longer