The debacle of new
April 27, 1992
Reform without change? HOW, when the world is changing, can we ensure that our power and privileges stay the same? This was the question
BRITAIN
NINE years of right-wing reform of the British Labour Party placed at the centre of the under the leadership of Neil Kinnock ended in spectacular recent crop of elections in Western Europe by the political and defeat in the elections of April 9, 1992. An election which economic establishments
Labour could clearly have won ended with the Tories there.
retaining an absolute majority of 21 seats. This result was a
In all four countries where shock to everyone - the Tories themselves had thought elections took place - legislathey were staring defeat in the face. During the pre-election tive elections in Britain and period the stock market fell dramatically; after the result
Italy and regional elections in
France and Germany - the the speculators literally danced for joy.
votes took place against a background of talk about, on
ALAN THORNETT — April 15, 1992 the one hand, constitutional and electoral reform, and on the other about strong government, realignment around a new centre or coalitions, all conceived as means of ensuring that any reforms leave the existing power structures intact.
At the same time there was a striking absence of any discussion of the big questions, such as the collapse of the economies of Eastern Europe, chronic long-term unemployment in the West, the continuing economic and social disaster in much of the Third World, or the menace to long term economic prospects posed by growing trade frictions between the US,
Europe and Japan.
Unfortunately the parties based on the labour movement, mesmerized by the prospect of entry into, or the hope of holding onto government office, have opted to present themselves as a reliable partner in
"preserving stability" thus becoming complicit in the stifling of fundamental debate.
Part of the price paid for the left's dereliction of duty has been the alarming rise of far right forces offering xenophobic anti-establishment rhetoric.
In this and subsequent issues of International Viewpoint we will be publishing articles looking at the crisis of
Europe's existing institutions and raising the debate on possible strategies for the left.*
A S before, the Tories did not win
La majority of the votes, although their share of the vote held up. As before, 58% of the electorate voted against them, but, as before, the unjust first-past-the-post electoral system gave the Tories power.
This result is a disaster for the working class and has implications for the left throughout Europe. The Tory government which had smashed up the unions, increased social divisions, introduced massive privatizations, reduced education and the health service to a shambles, deepened the economic crisis and put millions out of work, has been returned to office. They will claim they have a new mandate to continue their policies.
For millions of people, the election result is not just a matter of political interest; it will have an immediate effect on their job prospects. More schools and hospitals will opt out of the state system and become businesses while rail and coal mining face priva-
This was an absolutely crucial election. Strike struggles in Britain are at a 100 year low and the loss of confidence has made the Tory anti-union laws extremely effective. This has been reinforced by the depth of the recession and the sharp rise in unemployment. Under these conditions, even the election of a right-wing Labour government, or put the other way round, the defeat of the Tories, would have raised morale and combativity.
However, it was precisely the right wing policies of Kinnockism that deprived Labour of victory. Everything they have done to the labour movement over the past nine years, from witch-hunting militants to supporting the employers and the government, was done in the name of winning this election. The last election in 1987, they claimed, was just a stepping stone to victory in this one. They have failed.
The reason for the result that confounded the opinion polls must be sought in the last few days of the campaign. There was a late swing to the Tories and a polarization between the two main parties that squeezed the Liberal Democrats and produced a huge turnout of voters. With the help of the rightwing press, the Tories succeeded in bringing about an anti-Labour mobilization by sections of the middle class and better off workers.
But this is only part of the answer. Why were they able to get this last minute swing? Why was Labour's vote so brittle? And why was the right-wing press so effective? Labour's policy contradictions
The answer to such questions lies in the programme on which Labour stood. After years of adapting to the Tories they had no distinct policies on which to fight the election. In many areas of policy it was hard to tell the difference and where there were differences they were very small.
Worse than that, their policies were shot through with contradictions. They proposed some minimal development of public services in health and education but could not explain where the money would come from since they were neither prepared to significantly increase taxation of the rich nor cut arms expenditure - the obvious sources of
They were equally incoherent on the economy. They claimed they could get Britain out of recession but could not say how. They claimed there would be no increase in interest rates, but proclaimed their loyalty to the European Exchange Rate Mechanism 3 (ERM), which would, precisely, force them
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realism
Nationalist loses in West Belfast
BITTER disappointment hung over the Falls Road in the heart of nationalist
West Belfast as the election results were announced. Gerry Adams, presi-
International Viewpoint # 227 • April 27, 1992
BRITAIN to raise interest rates to maintain the level of sterling. They claimed they would promote investment in industry out of growth in the economy, but could not explain how or when such growth would come about.
dent of Sinn Fein, lost the Westminster parliamentary seat he had held
They were in confusion about electoral since 1983 as result of tactical voting by pro-Unionists in the Shankill disreform - they brought the issue up late in trict of the constituency. The seat was taken by Joe Hendron of the Social the campaign to attract votes from the Libe-
Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) on his third attempt.
ral Democrats, but when Kinnock was asked
Sinn Fein were fighting the election in difficult circumstances. Candito explain his own views on the subject on dates were presented in 14 of the 17 constituencies in the North of Ireland television he refused to answer. In another
Richard McAuley, Sinn Fein press officer, explained that they were not
TV interview, Kinnock could not explain standing in the other three not because they lacked members but because why he supported unilateral nuclear disarit was too dangerous to be known as a Sinn Fein supporter - at least one mament when the USSR still existed and
Sinn Fein election worker was killed during the campaign.
was in favour of keeping nuclear arms now
The refusal by the British and Irish governments and the other political that the "Soviet threat" had collapsed.
parties to involve Sinn Fein in the talks taking place under the Anglo-Irish
It was inconsistencies such as these that in agreement - and the desire to see an end to the war which has gone on the end gave credibility to the anti-Labour for over twenty years - mean that there is pressure among nationalists to campaign of the rightwing press. They were vote SDLP because it is involved in the "peace process". This was reflected not the result merely of faulty campaign in the results throughout the Six Counties where a 30,000 rise in total votes presentation but were built into the fabric of for the SDLP pushed Sinn Fein into third place, bringing down its overall
Kinnockism and "new realism", percentage trom 11.7% to 10%. The only change in the overall result was swept the labour movement for the past ten the SDLP increase from 3 to 4 MPs with the Unionists holding the remalyears.
The Sinn Fein campaign focused on the demand for "an inclusive dia-
Sharp decline in activism logue leading to peace" and the record of Gerry Adams and the Sinn Fein councillors throughout the North as good community representatives. But
The role of the Labour and trade union without a mobilization of the nationalist community such as we saw during leaders in helping defeat a series of major the hunger strikes the likelihood is that the defeat suffered by the loss of strikes in the 1980s, most importantly the seat, despite the maintaining of the vote in absolute terms, will not miners' strike of 1984/85, led to a catastrobe easy to reverse. — Philomena O'Malley* phic weakening of the whole movement and allowed the introduction of far-reaching and
Strikes were presented by the new realists as an electoral liability, although in fact
Labour's support was at its strongest in the
80s during strike waves. The net result has been a loss of four million members by the unions and a sharp decline in activism. Tens of thousands of activists have left the
Despite all this, the working class has remained capable of struggle, as was shown by the anti-poll tax movement which brought down Thatcher. However even here the Labour leaders opposed the non-payment movement. Now there are millions of young people, and the poorest and most oppressed, who have never been in a union and do not see them as relevant to their problems.
All this is not to say that Labour cannot win. They could have won this election. But for this it would have been necessary to go on the offensive with a programme which was coherent, inspired their supporters and ripped the Tories apart.
The swing to Labour was biggest in areas which have most felt the impact of the recession and specific Tory attacks. Tory marginals fell to Labour in the North West, the Midlands and London, all areas hard hit by recession, unemployment, poverty and cutbacks in services.
Labour victories in Birmingham Northfields and Selly Oak showed Longbridge car
4 workers faced with the destruction of their industry turning back to Labour. In the mining areas of Nottingham, the savaging of the local coal industry enabled Labour to
In most areas where there were strong left wing campaigns, Labour candidates did better. Leading left-wingers Jeremy Corbyn, Dennis Skinner and Bernie Grant all did much better than average.
At the same time, Terry Fields and Dave Nellist, former Labour MPs expelled from the party for their association with the leftwing Militant Tendency got respectable votes - 5,952 for the former and 10,551 for the latter. Scottish Militant Labour candidate Tommy Sheridan got over 6,000 votes in a constituency in Glasgow, pushing the Tory into third place.
As everyone said, the Tories conducted a poor campaign. They were defending an appalling record in the middle of a recession. But they were able nonetheless to attack Labour, exploiting the contradictions in their platform. They raised their own policies starkly and polarized the vote. They even did this on the issue of Scotland where they stridently denounced both independence or devolution. The result was a polarized vote, a mobilization of loyalists and a slight swing to the Tories, despite the massive anti-Tory feeling sweeping Scotland in recent months, which still exists.
Now they are back in office with a far worse economic situation than that which confronted Thatcher in 1987, a crisis which they intend to resolve at the expense of the
Inside the Labour movement as a whole, and especially in the new realist dominated trade unions, the immediate reaction is likely to be one of scepticism and demoralization. Workers under attack will most likely feel that the balance of forces in society has moved against them once more.
How things will develop in the long-term is less clear. The employers' offensive at the level of the workplace has been gathering pace over the past two years. Participatory techniques linked to de-unionization, loss of bargaining rights and the introduction of individual contracts are spreading rapidly throughout industry. Working conditions are deteriorating, the pace of work speeded up and union rights lost.
The reaction to this will come, but with the Tories re-elected it will come under the most difficult conditions. There is now, however, no other way. The argument of waiting for a Labour government is no longer credible; those under immediate attack will have to fight or go under. Crunch approaching in Scotland
The most immediate repercussions of the election, however, will be in Scotland, where the political situation is completely different from in England and Wales. In Scotland the mass of the working class
Postwar regime begins to crumble
April 27, 1992 voted Labour hoping for a devolved Scottish parliament as Labour had promised, as a move towards independence.
Now there is bitter resentment as they see they are going to be ruled by a London-based Tory government which few in Scotland support. The likely result will be increased support for independence and for the Scottish National Party. A massive demonstration in Edinburgh within 48 hours of the declaration of the results showed that
INTRODUCTION