21.09.2005
Glimmer of hope
What are the prospects for this year's Labour Party conference? How should revolutionary socialists unite theory and practice in this period? Graham Bash (Labour Left Briefing) gives his views
This week there were two clear statements against the war on Iraq - from the Liberal Democrat conference and the Church of England bishops! So what of the labour movement? TUC congress came out with a low-key, but clear-cut statement calling for a speedy withdrawal of troops. But will this survive the Labour Party conference? Those of us who remember the trade unions' capitulation on Iraq at last year's conference are entitled to fear the worst. The opposition on pensions at the TUC will, however, find expression at Labour Party conference and could be one of the key debates. In the past few weeks, I have been reading a lot of Labour Party history, especially of the last 25 years or so. What strikes me is the extent of the complicity of the trade union leadership in the betrayals of this so-called 'Labour' government. New Labour is not just some old-fashioned, rightwing faction of the Labour Party. It is a direct representative of the capitalist class in a way that even the likes of Callaghan and Wilson were not. And yet, it is chastening to recall that it was the TUC general council that prevented Labour from supporting McDonald in 1931. The question we therefore need to ask is why - in today's world - has there been such collusion by the trade union leadership with the government of Blair. In political terms, it is at least on a par with the McDonald government. I suppose the mood that will dominate the Labour conference - and the party for the next year - will be one of anticipating the post-Blair era. Although one or two union leaders have raised doubts about support for Brown, I will not be holding my breath. How many will actually oppose Brown, when it comes to it? And what viable left candidate exists to run against Brown anyway? So I assume that the 'realistic' strategy of the union leadership will be to try to pressurise Brown to adopt a more pro-union stance. Well, this has not been too effective so far. When Brown addressed TUC congress, there was no reference at all to the Gate Gourmet workers, no commitment to repealing any of the anti-trade union laws. Unless the movement is rebuilt from the bottom up, then the trade union leadership will not be under much pressure to demand anything substantial from the Labour leadership, whoever replaces Blair. I am aware that I have occasionally been criticised for representing the 'miserablist' tendency in the Labour left, but I honestly do not look to party conference or to the year ahead with any great confidence. I suppose that the best thing that is happening is the development of the Labour Representation Committee, which has put out an alternative programme for a Labour government and is developing relations with sections of the trade union movement in joint struggle against New Labour. The LRC's relationship to the leaderships of the larger unions is very much at a distance. There is still insufficient relationship with the bases of those unions - or rather that relationship is still in its embryonic stage. The message of the LRC - and of the Labour left generally - is that the struggle is between the real labour movement and real Labour Party, on the one side, and the New Labour faction that has usurped the leadership of our party, on the other. This approach appeals to the residual class loyalty of many workers to the Labour Party. This cannot be ignored, but in order for those words to become a material force, the left must build its forces among the rank and file of the trade union movement. What strikes me from a re-reading of Tony Benn's diaries is that in the period of the early 1970s we saw the enormous industrial strength of the trade unions and the linked political upsurge of the Bennite movement in the party in the early 1980s. One example really struck me. On November 28 1974 at Labour Party conference, which was postponed due to the election, Tony Benn wrote: "This enormous centre of power, namely the Labour conference at Central Hall, was dominating parliament; it was much more important than parliament." How things have changed. This places objective limits on what is capable of being achieved today. That is not an excuse for inaction or pursuing wrong strategies, but it does give us a clear-headed view of what is possible. The annual conference is always an opportunity to review the progress - or lack of it - that Labour Left Briefing has made in the preceding 12 months. LLB has certainly maintained the quality of its coverage and as a journal it is going from strength to strength. However, if it is assessed as an organising force, then we are running to a standstill, like all sections of the left. It requires more than good publications and skilled journalism to create a movement. At the moment, I am spending a lot of time 'retreating' into theory. I am trying to reassess the historical analysis I have had of the Labour Party. In particular, I am trying to understand the particular period we are in. This is absolutely necessary, but the separation it implies between theory and practice is itself a product of objective conditions. Only periods of working class upsurge can bring the two together. Part of our practice must be to attempt to rebuild the organisations of the labour movement - both of the trade unions and the Labour Party, to facilitate this upsurge. However, to some extent at least, this downturn is an objective phenomenon that is outside our control. There are developments internationally that can give us hope - the heroic struggles in Latin America and the crisis of the Republican right in the US. These can impact positively on our own struggle, of course. Now, the analysis I have outlined above is hardly very stimulating. It almost makes me retreat into the methodology of Weekly Worker, which seems to be 'forget about practice and concentrate on the world of ideas'. Almost, but not quite "¦ things ain't that bad. We must endeavour - even in this bleak period - to maintain the semblance of a unity between the two in the one place where it really matters: the mass organisations of the working class. Graham Bash Labour Against the War Fringe meeting 'Iraq: End the occupation - bring the troops home'. Sunday September 25, 7pm, Friends Meeting House, Ship Street, Brighton. Speakers include Tony Benn, Reg Keys, Michael Meacher, Houzan Mahmoud (Organisation for Women's Freedom), Jeremy Corbyn, Gerry Doherty (TSSA), Christine Shawcroft (NEC). Chair: Alan Simpson.
Worker