This is the leadership struggle opening up in the labour movement is so vital. The issue facing the contenders is how to defend the movement and rebuild the Labour Party.
Ran Hattersley, Shore Healey general campaign.
They used their position to denounce the Party's policies. Their programme for Labour is simple regain the middle ground lost to the Alliance by wiping out the left its policies.
But their won't work. The British ruling class don't want to resurrect governments of the Callaghan and Wilson type. They want to make sure that Labour never governs alone again.
The left has powerful support. The eight million voters who backed Labour's programme despite the unanimous media campaign against it did SO because bitter parliamentary opposition will not deal with onslaught. As Ken Livingstone put it, "The Tories' manifesto is to eliminate their enemies: the Labour The Tory press already scent blood.
experience has taught them that SDP-type policies don't work.
Right wing
leaders like Frank Chapple Terry Dutty have already explained that if Labour can't govern alone they would quite comfortable with Labour/Alliance coalition.
Meanwhile, the offensive of the Tories threatens the movement with serious defeats.
The strategy of the right proposes nothing to stop them. Unless Labour defends working people here and now the movement will be prostrate before the Tories for the next decade. The second group of contenders are those around Neil Kinnock, the protege of Michael Foot.
Reveal Events before after the election reveal that this centre-left bloc position - they try to balance between the left and the right, generally
TIMES
Apparently, the union's backing_Neil Kinnock as part of its Be Nice to Rightward Moving Welsh MPs campaign going with the strongest force.
But their vacillation allows the media to discredit the Party as a whole. The final effect of Foot's leadership was to legitimise the witch hunt by the expulsion of the five editors. This opened the door to Hattersley and Healey and the media who ridiculed their timidity demanded that they go further.
In the Foot's attempt to marry left and right around a fudged manifesto was progressively shredded on millions of TV screens. The result was a field day for the right wing in alliance with the media to discredit Labour's most radical policies.
Continued on page 10
2 Socialist Action 17 June 1983 THE PRESS say that in June 1983 the Conservative Party won a massive electoral victory. The facts are rather different. Margaret Thatcher has received the lowest real proportion of the vote of any government with a secure parliamentary majority in British history. She has not gained a popular mandate for her policies.
But the decisive blow was struck by the SDP/Liberal Alliance. The result is that while the Tories have no mandate to push through their secret agenda, the labour movement must itself for struggle.
The British working class movement has been educated by its history to be profoundly anti-Tory.
The 1983 elections results confirm this. Thatcher showed herself incapable of increasing her vote from the debacle of Labour's campaign.
In fact Thatcher's vote actually by almost 700,000 between 1979 and 1983- a man mom to ber cent to 42 per cent. That 42 proportion of the vote receivea by a government with a clear majority in British history.
These election results are part of a decline of the Tory vote which has now been going on lor fifty years show elsewhere on this page.
This is all comparisons with the years of Tory supremacy between between the wars miss the point entirely. In the 1930s Conservative governments succeeded in gaining real mass support and mass per cent of the VOLeS -vote in 1931, per percent of the votes in 1935.
The great majority of those who voted for the Alliance, no matter what the goals of their leaders, do not support the demolition of the health service, do not support Thatcher's policies on unemployment, do not support the attacks democratic rights which this government is going to carry out.
A decisive majority of voters, 58 per cent, did not vote for Thatcher. That is why Ken Livingstone and The second decisive result of the general election now completely rebuild Arthur Scargill solutely right to say that me abou movemendousi side Parliament to defend working class rights.
The potential for such struggle Those members who worked for the camWELC thusiastic, active and milithan previous tall years. Those who voted for a manifesto denounced Dy the meala as lelt wing did so more consciously The Tory attack on the mahour movement The Tories realise the obstacles facing them in through their secret agenda. They know their popularity will decline even more rapidly in power. That is why they are seeking to strengthen themselves destroy their opponents.
They have to try to:
of the by the unions having • abolish the closed shop in order to protect scabs in the workplace • use Tebbit's laws to intimidate militants, crush struggles and attempt to destroy unions, particularly those in the public sector.
The attack - the Labour Partv and that on the unions are tied together he trade unions created the Labour Party to defend the unions through struggle.
Weakening debilitating the Partv for the emplovers Is removing the most essential of all weasons with which the unions can defend themselves The very scale of the Tories' assault on basic rights is a result of Thatcher's lack of authentic mass support.
She proposes abolish the GLC because she is not sure the Tories win against Labour in LonPolice COS. powers will be increased because the ories cannot gain popular support for The Alliance attack on the labour movement Coupled with this organisational offensive against ine Labour movement will be a political atLaCK on by SDP/Liberal Contronted with a working class movement which profoundly anti-Tory but not educated by its leadership to prosocialist, then the solution for the capitalist class was Sponsor two Dardes Cara through the attack on working class rights and living standards, the other 'anti-Thatcher' lo pose as 'anti-Tory' which could slice into the Labour vote in a way that the Conservative never could.
The result is a major Coolaus class. It was the Alliance not the ories who cut into the Labour vote and imthe Alliance and not the who were able te pick up the votes driven intheir hands Callaghan and Healey.
Millions voters reasoned that if the point was to be anti-Tory, but not in support of policies like unilateral disarmathe Common Market, then why not vote for a libera anti-Tory capitalist party.
The failure to build up a real socialist Labour ParSteel, O into the ends of Owen, and Jenkins.
Tree Ad toe doice ever pretend replace Tories They eplace smash the Labour Party - they say so openly.
Someone like Owen quivers with hatred every time he even mentions the Labour Party. The triple assault of the brutal club in the Tories homiette the internal sabotage by the Labour the faced and will face in the future The Alternative to Thatcher There should also be no illusions that the struggle with the Alliance is only just beginning.
representatives The more of SCHIOUS the capitalist class understand perfectly well that this se cond Thatcher government is going to become unpopular extremely rapidly. The societies carefully stage-managed their announce ment on increases in mortgage interest rate it came out only after the There will be another round of public sector spending cuts in the autumn. The time bomb the deteriorating balance of payments, and the need for austerity to curb it, is constantly eating Within a year even That cher's low 42 per cent vote will have fallen drastically.
The fraud of 'landslide support' will be increas ingly obvious for all to see and the Tories run the risk of being crushed in by-election after by-election Every by-election will be turned into a gigantic contest in which the entire press, every oner weapon, will be mobilised to ensure that the Alliance defeats Labour. Above all the wants claim, it is the alternative to Thatcher. Grinding down smashing the Labour Party is the goal of both capitalist parties today.
As for the politics of the Alliance it will huff 'and puff about 'opposition to Thatcher' and in practice put the knife into te Labour rarty. As so meone said of the Guardian newspaper it always comes down on the side of repression The Allance will Tegret'regretfully' go along policies to tr to destroy the power. o the labour movement Those who call for votes for the Alliancethe Chapples the Granthams — should be hound ed out of their positions of movement. The itself completely and totally against any coalition or pact with the Alliance The struggles which lie ahead under this governCHL accor to be remely hard. But it is no impossible to win. As the economic crisis deepens as people find out the real intentions of the hatcher government, anger is go ing to rise It is precisely because Thatcher does not have mass support for attacking the welfare state, or for assaulting democratic rights, or for creating unemployment, that the Labur Party can rebuild its popularity. But that means the organisations of the labour movement must their members jobs, wages, the welfare state democratic rights.
If the Labour morement does not defend its members then millions of its members are not going to defend it.
The orientation of the Labour right, to make the Labour Party go even fur ther back to its old openly right wing DOCt structures, will leave eve more space open for the Alliance to try to destroy the Labour Party.
Build the left wing The labour movement and Labour Party is only going to be defended if a massive organised left wing IS built inside Those who belleve tha this *divisive should look at the election cam paign.
It was the fact that Healey Callaghan were held up as honoured figures of the movement and still had Pasty apparatus a boat apparatus, that allowed them to sabotage the campaign.
Building up the Broad Lefts the unions- and bullaing me lels constituencies is absolute v centra to detending and rebuilding the Labour Parand labour movement. The left wing can win the support of whole new sections of the working class.
It is out of the activists anti-nuclear move ment, fend the welfare state, in fighting for jobs, defence of democratic rights that the forces rebuild the support of the Labour Party are going to come.
Thatcher out rinally the movement should have one clear goal - even if it seems a little remote a fev days after an Thatcher has won a landslide of seats with a small vote The Tory Party will rapid- government.
ly become dramatically There necessity for the labour to wait for another five years to get rid of this government As popularity falls becomes clear she has mandate for the policies she will follow, the aim must be to get this govern ment out and lo force general in which the Tories are crush ed. No matter how tough the first months of the struggle, that
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the coming Party, the unions and the GLC'. Labour never governs alone again.
With the Alliance finishing only 700,000 votes behind, they want to ensure that
is Labour's disastrous defeat. This defeat was ably assisted by the wrecking of Callaghan and Healey.