FOLR YEARS ago, in March 1981, biggest structural change ritish capitalist politics since World ar I took place with the split from Labour Party to form the SDP.
miners" strike has now brought out the biggest event in working politics since 1926 bergence of the Scargill wing of the T.M, the first mass class struggle rent in the labour movement for years. JOHN ROSS looks at the storical reshaping of slitics which is taking place.
THE framework of the old British blitical system - both working class capitalist was crealea Dy lne isi: which unfolded in British society om the beginning of World War I up the level of capitalist Jorld War I smashed the backbone of mass Liberal Party hich until then had been the chief dernative party the Tories trember 1910, the last tition before War Peral Party won. 272 seats and atour Party only 42.
In 1916, under the strain of war, the aeral Party shattered between apporters of Loyd George squith. By 1924 the Liberal Party had arel! seats in Parlament abour 151. The Conservative Party reired. and even increased, its strength.
Tne old Liberal partered from its 1916 split. Ünder the apat of war the entire party system anged ITOM Dasicany arsus-Tory contest to a Labour-versusori system.
This two-party system of politics mained clearly dominant acades until 1981 — when the SDP was rmed from the split in the Labour That split was necessitated, for pitalist politics, both by the historical cline of the Conservative Party and the destabilisation of Labour. The DP. in alliance with the Liberals; oduced the electoral eruption of June and the tremendous bour Party vote of that year. Since * 1983 a new three-party system has clearly established *i World War I set in place a new abour versus Tory system, then the aleat of the general strike of 1926 dicect the type of Labour Party which asied within that political framework.
In the period prior to World War I barmous forces had been developing in nuish society British politics, - the force In general the the allu hc vol Liberalthe strain of the war.
for six dominated the pre-war period.
Communist Partv and on the other a unions - symbolised by fall in the •leadership of the miners and by the rise of a left wing mass Minority Movement.
British and above all Labour bureaucracy:
granted independence in the British govern ment rising clashes lined with PF The combination versus-Tory political system completely dominant •uucaucaly and the absence of any serious class struggle currents movement, established the framework of British politics from the aftermath of World War I until the beginning of the 1980s. That framework .was frayed by the late 1960s and early 1970s — with the rise of the new Liberal Party and the student and working class radicalisation K o tne 1970s — but it was not broken up in its qualitative features.
The Liberals, despite gaining almost 20 per cent of the vote in 1974, could not спаск іпе framework politics or splinter one of the other major parties. tsing working class racicallsaton In Hugh Scanlon and Jack Jones was only that of a others to take action — and only before Jones Scanlon capitulated to Wilson in became an active force in breaking up working class struggle. his When that framework is understood, then it can be scen wnat a pontical cartnquake Is lne almost simultaneous emergence within bourgeois politics of within working class emergence of the Scargill leadership of the NUM. The creation, almost at the same time, of the SDP and 'Scargillism' reflects the break up ponucal equmorum or society lnal wa: created out of World War Iand itsaftermath The fact that the two fundamental shifts in capitalist and working politics emerged so close together time reflects that the entire society is in motion. beginning to break up.
The consequences of the emergence of the SDP have already begun to work themselves through novelen ne new renn the TUC, of Hammond, Duffy, is not simply a trade union line. Their conclusion is a complete political realignment,, the reorientation Labour Partyto coalition with the SDP. Liberals and a qualitative weakening of the links between the trade unions and the Labour Party.
Equally, beginning to work its way through the labour movement. Out of the miners' YORKSHIRE ARET (LaDolT with a right wing within the Labour Parti of their lives.
the undoubtedly emerging Rate blacks, COT two-party Times The reflection of the The leadership which permitted completely 1975 vcal Sure ana "Scargillites"
the SDP politics by the revoluuokdv of the culild in British society.
In decline of remake structure Dr Death Owen policy of Graham and of the before our eyes.
the past Scargillism' is only just politics. strike has been forged a new force of tens of thousands of people who have been through the greatest political event The new 'baseline' of radicalisation in British politics is no longer 1968, or even the working class struggles of the early 1970s but the great miners' strike of 198485.
The nature of the forces which are clear Their core is the militants of the NUM - the greatest layer of class struggle fighters to exist in the British labour movement since the creation of the Communist Party. But thousands and thousands of women.
trade unionists, young people _LaDOu activists have oriented to this strike. The Financial paid rather fitting compliment when it called this force "the greatest civilian mobilisation since the Second World War' NUM, the miners' support committees, "the women's groups, the solidarity, are beyond doubt the greatest social movement in since World War II These forces have an even more advanced ally today in Gerry Adam's Sinn Fein in is out of these forces, the who dominated the miners' strike and made it their own, that a class struggle left wing and a marxist curren labour movement are going to begin to be forged. They constitute the greatest opening for internationalist, political marxism to break out of its historicallyimposed isolation and strike real roots 1979, under the whiplash of economic necessitv and the historical the Conservative Margaret Thatcher set about trying to British politics British society. Her first political product was - the grisly face of David SDP Her second political creation was the 1984 miners' strike and the first mass class struggle current and leadership in the labour movement for six decades.
The next decade of British politics will be the full working out of the new political forces which are being created Those who do not understand that, are living in dreams of not preparing for the struggles of the future No-one is going to be able to put back together the old pieces of British