dalliances than with alliances. That as ever, the terms of the debate are being defined by men already deeply entrenched in the politics and strategies of division. And that as ever, this debate more about finding a role dismossessed munist the ordinating Committee. Parliamentary Party and Socialist Action - than it is about empowering the already powerless.
But let us generously put these (admittedly considerable) tions on one side for the moment and consider what is on offer from our brothers.
On the one hand we have iony Benn arguing (in Socialist Action 4 May 1984) that he 'personally and for a very long time has seen the Labour Party as the true alliance of progress and has tried over ten years or more to get the Labour Party to open itself to affiliation from other groups who represent different interests women's movement, the community groups and so on.' (My italics).
There are some interesting, if unCOSCOES ment and analysis, throughout SA's Benn. The first is inherent in Benn's view that the Labour Party is alliance, which nevertheless has failed to ally itself with interests different from those of the organised, white, male skilled and manual class. In other words the Labour Partv is an alliance of 'progressive men (between whom there may, admittedly, some differences political perspectives etc who have failed to ally themselves with other in the Com- "progressive forces'.
Coparticular be interpreted and used.
There with, and including, Tom Paine (of - the male heroes interests those which surface with cidentally, by virtue of his belongs. an working in skill, What Tony Benn offers here is an admission of how narrowly based this Is. and indeed how narrowly the term 'alliance' can More disturbingly, we have an admission that the interests of women are 'different' from those of the organised male working class; that in effect women are not part of that class.
is nothing new in this men, beginning the Levellers, *Rights Man' fame), the Chartists - through to the of our time have always had difficulty in aligning their with the interests of the women of their class. Tony Benn, one of the most admired and progressive Male alliance, can only define women's interests as 'different' from those of the dominant group; to which he, gender, Here we have the politics, the ana vsis. the strategv of division wril large. For these are the politics, and this is the analysis which cannot conceive of the working class as anything other than narrow, divided and male. Which is therefore unable to devise g strategy which will unite the working but most disturbingly 0I al which cannot conceive of, or imag:?: an alliance which is an alliance of the whole class.
However this at least, is an improvement on Eric Hobsbawm's and the Communist Party's offer, clearly expressed by Jon Bloomfield in April's edition of Marxism Today. There Bloomfield argued openly and in unison with other prominent Marxists, that the women's and anti-racist movements are not part of the working class. However, ne added con descendingly, the Communist Party 'to courant movements to have a close, mutual relationship with the working class movement, which for theoretical and political reasons' (he might have added 'white male-centred' reasons) 'the party rightly considers the fulcrum of an alliance for progress.' Women He went on to assert that women (we, who conveniently are all thrown together into one pot, in company no doubt, with Margaret Thatcher and Baroness Young) 'are people's rather than class-based movements (and) it is inappropriate to seek to attach them organisationally to the Labour Party. In this sense', he added emphatically, just in case not all of us had been able to sweep aside a vision of 9 million working women, 3½ million of them this women's movements are clearly different from trade unions.' Now anyone who has ever had the privilege of survesiag from a bakos! the endless rows Labour Party-tied men that occupy the trade union benches at Labour most party conterences, never-ending rows of men that line the floor at TUC congresses; anyone who has had the privilege of access to such a balcony for a survey, will be in no that represented at these conferences can in no sense be identified with the these Unions field is right. Where he is profoundly Willed rogant, men, this 'trade unionism', this grand constitutes was endorsed again by Peter Hain in the 11 May issue of Socialist Action. Hain argued in his contribution that the Labour Party has to find a 'way rebuilding class base and integrating the "new politics" groups which have grown in importance this past decade; women, black people, ecologists for example.
"traditional class base' and women are of the 'ne» ecologists. discorered bs young men like Peter Hain."
are shed For similarly the the party.
In this respect at least Jon Bloomand indeed disturbingly ar, is in his assumption that these the working our class?
It is however an assumption that In other words: men constitute the politics. Like been hand nuine allance developing within ou class are dim. Men in the Labour Par ty and trade unions are reluctant t permit women to make even the mos modest advances. They will not, fo example, allow the 650 women tha attend the National Labour Women' Conference to submit five resolution to the men's conference — the Party' Annual Conference. They continue t insist on exercising their right • or behalf of the women absent from th men's conference of electin the women's section of the NEC o They will not agree to this powe being conferred on a body which is fa more representative of the women o our class, where trade union wome represented the Labou Women's Conference. Nor will the even consider the structural change necessary if there is to be a transfor mation of the parliamentary labou overwhelmingly op pressively male.
If these modest concessions can' be made by the dominant alliance поре • is ther of a genuin alliance, a developing cohesion withi Precious little. Margare Thatcher Rules. OK? *Can I, in passing, refer brother Hain, Benn and Bloomfield to thre books which might help them unde stand the role of working WOMe within the political struggles of ou First, Sheila Rowbotharr. 'Women, Resistance and Revolutior (London, Allen Lane, 1972); secono Barbara Taylor's superbly researite 'Eve and the New Jerusalem: Saraz and Feminism in the Ninear:" iurt London, 10Z: :hird. Liddinglor ="s Tried Virago, 1978).
Socialist Action is on a train THE non-state organisation. here wil cabilal s