THIS WEEK the Labour leadership has thrown away a rare opportunity - that of taking a step • that is clearly in the interests of every single person in Britain and across the world, and which at the same time, would be an enormously popular step electorally. That was to pledge that the next Labour government would put an end to the use of all nuclear power in this country. Instead shadow cabinet, almost certainly the national executive, is going to pledge the opposite, that is to maintain Britain's deadly nuclear power stations.
Labour Party policy on nuclear power, adopted at last conference, clear. The resolution, carried by 3.9 million votes, called for: 'a halt to the nuclear power programme and phasing out of all existing plants.' A number of major trade unions, including the TGWU, NUM, NUPE FBU, SOGAT and USDAW, helped to ensure that vote was carried with more than a 60 percent majority.
The Socialist Environment Resources Association (SERA) have already used the policy as an opportunity to mount ampaign with Friends of the Eart Greenpeace geared Labour's conference policy and aimthe at the labour movement. Labour leadership, used that same policy as the bedrock of its response disaster, explaining that if a Labour government were to be elected to implement such a policy there could be no chance of a repeat accident in this country.
Such a policy is vital to the health and survival of the human race - and it is immediately seen as such by the majority of people in Britain. Furthermore, it is a policy which has clear job conserving implications.
Every nuclear
displaces 7000 mining-related jobs. Nuclear power is also gobling up the research funds that jobs in other industries. Research on safe renewable sources of energy, for example, has been cut to £14 million, an excellent joint while nuclear power research is runnWing at almost 20 times that amount, a around over £250 million. A grotesque £240 million was spent on one neutron slow The breeder reactor prototype alone. too, could have But instead of seizing this opportunity, the Labour shadow cabinet is Chernobyl moving to overturn the conference policy. When spokesperson Stan Orme reiterated that policy in the wake of the Chernobyl nuclear power melt-down, environment spokesperson John Cunningham was quick to contradict him. Kinnock immediately jumped in to back up Cunningham. government, they said, would maintain nuclear power. reactor built handedly announced could provide Dounreay, prepared That statement tions. Alla energy The Sellafield expansion.
put On the TV AM programme of 4 May, the Labour Party leader highthat Labour would go ahead with the nuclear reprocessing plants at Sellafield and and maintain existing nuclear power stations. Last Tuesday the Guardian leaked the contents of a proposed statement to parliament and the NEC by Cunningham. It was shadow cabinet meeting presided over by Kinnock thou do according to are ment statement simply calls for a public enquiry on Dounreay and an 'economic reappraisal' on the new But there is an alternative being forward within the leadership. Tony Benn and Eric Heffer have presented a paper to the na tional executive, based on last year's alterSellated and the bandon o Winning that position for Labou is vital to winning the next genera election. Even more important, it is vital to the survival of us all.
Socialist Action 16 May 1986 Action SoCiAlist