Organise the trade union and Labour left | Socialist Action 1983

Uncorrected machine reading. This text was read by machine (Apple Vision OCR) from a scan of a newspaper page, and the page was cut into articles by machine, at the headlines found by their type size. Nothing has been corrected: expect misread words, text from a neighbouring article, and titles that are the machine reading of the headline, some of them only fragments. Quote from the scan, not from this page.
How this article was cut and titled: headline found by type size in the OCR geometry (split_tabloid.py); 3-5 of 7; machine-segmented newspaper page; uncorrected Vision OCR.

page 2 of the scan

In Britain today the divide between right and left in the labour movement is being drawn.

isn't being decided by resolutions. theories. And still less in the 'new realism' and 'old thinking' emerging from the right wing of the TUC and Labour Coordinating Committee.

position and activity is taken on these issues decides who is on the leit and who is on the right in the opposing its strike?

A whole series of NUR and AsLur branches engaged in bitter struggles to impose union polley Di and scotland support Keeping In Nottinghamshire around 7-10,000 rank and file miners have been keeping up what is probably the most heroic oI all the minority miners strikes against massive press and official union hostility. In Yorkshire Scotland, Kent, and South Wales it is the area leaderships, supported by the National Executive, who are leading the strikes.

nune labour Partı many CLPs have found a qunte new level of activiti supporting the strike.

Tonv Benn. Dennis Skinner, Bob Clay, Eric Heffer and the Campaign group as a whole have given solid backing to the strike. Neil Kinnock has being doing his tamous ostrich act.

In the leadership, Jimmy Knapp, Ray DUCKLOI Jim Slater have had a line in The divide is symbolised by three names - the Liverpool and Greenham.

Len simple both the nas nIcal WUIk front in emerged.

defined all by alutude Ted tremendous of Mick Communist differences action. Bui unites ing place Minority Movement But - which is development which organised in the unions The Broad Organising ing, Tribune, the CamPowerful Some powerful. Some very weak. But none can, or should, attempt to organise the through itself. This will unfortunately make current simply front organisation. The recent BLOC conference for example organised large forces but gave them no orientation which allowed a real role to be played in the class struggle.

It is the type of united front action around the miners that shows the real way torward or une trade union and labour left. whole series of organisa• tions, at every level of the movelicut, acule toeculicI around the key issue of the struggle today. movement based totally on and within the organisec labour movement.

What is happening in defence. of the miners shows the way forward for the left OI the movement right now.

page 3 of the scan

Socialist Action 27 April 1984