Rightwing shift in British labour movement gives rise to witch hunt
On August 11 the British daily newspapers headlined the sack- League, British section of the Fourth International.
ing of 13 'red moles' by the management of the nationalised In the article below Brian Heron, an activist in the Labour
British car firm, British Leyland, at its plant in Cowley, Oxford. Party in Scotland, and a regular contributor to Socialist Ac
Allegedly sacked for having given false references the thirteen tion, outlines the political context and reasons for this red.
were accused in the press of having been part of a plot to baiting attack, how sections of the CND and labour movement
'takeover' British industry, organised by the newspaper Socialist leadership have followed the lead of the bourgeoisie in trying to brand Socialist Action supporters as 'infiltrators', and the re-
Socialist Action is a newspaper that has been recently sponse through a national campaign against political victimisawithin the Labour Party fighting for revolutionary tion that is now getting under way.
It is supported by, among others, the Socialist
Action. launched socialist ideas. Brian HERON
This year's annual conference of the British Trades Union Congress (TUC -the single trade-union federation, representing 10 million members) has been a dramatic affair.
Frank Chapple, the TUC chairman for this year, and a leading rightwing spokesperson for the most Cold War oriented section of the bureaucracy, spoke out at the beginning of the TUC giving his support to Neil Kinnock in the election for Labour Party leader due to take place at Labour Party conference at the the beginning of October. This caused much surprise in the press and in some political quarters, up till now Kinnock had been regarded as the 'centre left' candidate against the two candidates of the right, Roy Hattersley and Peter Shore. Chap ple's own union, the engineers and plumbers union EETPU, is not participating in the election because it does not agree with the democratic principles on which the election is organized. (1)
Against the wishes of the largest union, the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU, with 1.25 million members) the TUC elected a new General Council, composed of representatives from the smaller unions as well as the larger traditional industrial unions. For the first time this contains a large number of representatives from unions that are not affiliated to the Labour Party. (2) The TUC itself also refused to take the traditional greetings from the Labour Party leadership, and refused to accept or organise or participate in a meeting of the Labour leadership candidates even as a fringe event.
A series of statements were made both before and during the TUC by a number of leading figures, including Len Murray the general secretary of the TUC, on the necessity for talks with the Tory government about their proposed union legislation. This went against the principle and policy laid down by the TUC, and defended by the left, notably Arthur Scargill, the president of the very leftwing National Union of Mineworkers, who is opposed to these talks and instead is in favour of organising a fightback 18 against the Tory government based on the industrial and trade-union movement.
At the same time the policy of incomes control, disguised in terms of a National Economic Assessment', has been re-endorsed by the TUC There have also been a number of statements inside and outside the TUC by leaders of the trade-union movement backing off from the policy of opposition to the European Economic Community.
TUC SHIFTS TO THE RIGHT
To summarise these developments we can see an attempt to politically shift the axis of the TUC in quite fundamental ways. First, for the TUC to drop the main radical policies of the labour movement over the last period - opposition to Britain's independent nuclear weapons, as well as to Cruise missiles; opposition to the EEC; and opposition to any form of incomes policy.
Removing these radical policies from the TUC's position clears the way for the second major thrust, which is now very apparent. To loosen the TUC's commitment to a straight Labour Party victory, and to open the door to those political discussions and policies necessary to begin the task of constructing a coalition between the Labour Party and the Social Democratic Party/Liberal Party Alliance.
In the June General Election the Alliance came within 700,000 votes of the Labor Party. The balance sheet that major sections of the trade-union bureaucracy make of this result is that it is necessary to reconstruct the opposition to the Tories in line with this electoral balance of forces. Thus it is necessary to start removing the political obstacles to the possibility of a coalition. We can see, therefore, that the political relationship of forces within the labour movement has shifted substantially in favour of the right.
This confirms the prediction we made about the effects of the Thatcher victory. We said that it could, would, and must be seen as a major political defeat for the workers movement. And that it would push ahead various trends that were already apparent within the workers movement, give them extra impetus, and create the conditions for a major offensive against the minority that still wishes to fight to defend the independence of the labour movement, and the political independence expressed by the existence of the Labour Party. The door is open for a massive offensive against that minority this establishes the political atmosphere we now face within the labour movement.
These trends were clearly visible before the election. First and foremost we had Tony Benn, the best known leader of the Labour Party left wing, deciding to wrap up his opposition to the Labour left and centre, on the spurious basis of the need for unity in the election period This so-called unity was destroyed by the right wing who had control and the initiative during the election. We saw Frank Chapple endorsing an SDP candidate in Islington, an important central London constituency, traditionally a Labour stronghold where the local Labour Party has left wing polices and candidates.
THATCHER'S VICTORY OPENS DOOR TO RIGHT WING OFFENSIVE
Now these trends have been given a tremendous push by the election of Thatcher. The result of this political atmosphere, and the political offensive 1. The Leader and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party are elected by an electoral college in which the constituency parties (local branches) and parliamentary representatives have 30 per cent of the votes each, and the affiliated trades unions 40 percent. Only members of parlia ment are entitled to stand for election and formerly they were the only ones entitled to vote. The involvement of the whole party in the election is one of the democratic reforms fought for and won by the Bennite left 2. Most trade unions, particularly the traditional and industrial ones are affiliated to the Labour Party. Members pay a 'political levy which is automatically included in the union dues unless they state they do not wish out) fox to pay ('contracting The unions them pay the affiliation fee the appropriate number of members to the Labour Party and are thus entitled to wield the block vote a Labour Party conference. About 6 million trade unionists are affiliated to the Labou Party in this way. One of the aspects of the new legislation proposed by the Tories is to make it obligatory for unions to revote ever five years whether or not to remain affiliated and to make the payment of the political lev separate from dues payment.
opened up by the right, has been significant division and demoralisation among
We have already seen that Kinand the press as a candidate from the left, is now the candidate considered to be the best candidate to conduct the witch hunt, he has already committed himself to do that. He has also stated his opposition to the EEC, and it is obvious that he intends to go further in this direction having attained the leadership of the Labour Party.
The rot has gone deeper. Meacher, a candidate for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party who is seen as the candidate of the Bennites, has stated that he is against pursuing the witch hunt, but he is not in favour of readmitting the five members of the editorial board of the Militant newspaper who have already been expelled. Hardly a coherent, consistent or fighting stance on the question. He has also explained that he is now for a referendum on the question of unilateralism, rather than carrying through Labour's commitment to this policy, thus allowing it to be decided by the influence of the bourgeois media, etc.
So, this shift to the right, and the pooffensive that has opened essentially to prepare the conditions for coalitionism, have had a serious impact the left, what we have dubbed the Bennite left. The witch hunt is more and more necessary, particularly within the Labour Party to prepare the condi-
WITCH HUNTING THE LEFT
It is possible for the TUC to make its shift on policy questions, on the Labour leadership question, without going in for a full scale purge. It can do it by isolating particular unions, facing up to the left oppositions which undoubtedly exist and are growing to defend the radical policies of the labour movement union democracy, and a left leadership of
In the Labour Party itself this shift will require much greater tactical flexibility and more careful preparation than took place at the TUC. At local branch and constituency level in the Labour Party about 80 per cent of the membership could be described as supporting the left, defending the present leftwing policies we have mentioned and would vote for Bennite candidates for the leadership of the party. This means it cannot be a question of political persuasion or arguments that the right can use to change the relationship of forces. Right at the centre of its political preparation must be a purge of the party to shift the balance in the direction in which it wishes
Therefore, the witch hunt is not going to go away or become less of a feature of the political situation within the labour movement. On the contrary, it is likely to be one of the main queswithin the Labour Party, over the next short-term period.
The second basic point that we have to understand is that all rightwing victories, of the sort that Thatcher's victory reprealways come purge, or an attempt at it, of militants in things before, after the defeat of the General Strike in 1926 for example, and there are many international examples. that point of view the attack on Socialist Action supporters in the British Leyland car plant at Cowley in Oxford is simply a signal of a broader policy designed to uproot militants and militant leaders in the
Thatcher's victory was very much the result of the split in the anti-Tory vote engineered by the production of a new bourgeois party, the SPD. She failed to popular majority. fundamental weakness means that the employers and the state must mobilise all the more directly to resolve the problem of leadership that they face, and intervene directly to deal with the question of the relationship of forces on the factory floor and elsewhere. This, if anything, makes a purge of industry more likely over the next period.
The question to answer just now is why this witch hunt started in industry aimed at supporters of the paper Soc-
There are two basic reasons for this. First of all a certain measure of understanding that it is necessary to hit at the
Socialist Action is a relatively recent development as a newspaper, and as an organised current within Bennite left in the unions and the Labour
It is well understood that to hit the left at a weak link means you are more likely to achieve victory, and to cause confusion within the Bennite left as a whole. The bourgeoisie obviously made a careful balance sheet of the witch hunt against the Militant tendency and understood that such a witch hunt can cause divisions among the left provoking different responses, and sought to achieve something similar among leftwing trade unionists.
SOCIALIST ACTION SUPPORTERS
UNDER ATTACK
We should also note that there is an aspect of the witch hunt directly related the importance and significance of Socialist Action itself. It is a current within the Bennite left which acts on and understands the importance of the relationship between the battle in the unions - the formation of new Broad Left opposition groupings increasingly focused on the struggle in the Labour Party the need to be organised within the Labour Party itself. It is also understood the Socialist Action supporters are not a sectarian current like those around the Militant but are capable of operating in a broad united way, and are therefore more dangerous from the point of view of the potential for organising the left wing in the unions and Labour Party.
For both these reasons Socialist Action supporters have been the target of a massive witch hunt over the last month, starting with thirteen and then a further three being sacked from Cowley.
When such a witch hunt takes place, all sorts of scum and reactionary ideas rise to the surface. One of the worst of these reactionary ideas and reactionary moves was that centred around women. Six of the sacked workers were young women, and much play was made of the perfidious role of women in respect to the so-called plot to seize power in British Leyland and there was an attempt to create a general atmosphere that made the presence of women in industry and in trade-union politics illegitimate.
Naturally the attack by the employers on Socialist Action supporters was utilised very rapidly by the leadership of the for Nuclear (CND, the mass movement opposing nuclear missiles) and then by the Labour Party leadership itself.
CND LEADERSHIP MOVES TO DROP
UNILATERALIST POLICY
In a relatively short period following the sacking of the 13 from Cowley there were statements in the press by leaders of CND, including the chairperson Joan Ruddock and Bruce Kent the secretary, attacking the role of Socialist Action supporters and supporters of the youth paper Revolution for their 'infiltration' and takeover of Labour CND, the branch of the campaign organised in the Labour Party and a sizeable leftwing current of the mass movement, and in Youth CND, the fastest growing component of the movement within which support-
Revolution have considerable influence because of the work they have
This attack arises from the fact that the CND leadership are proposing to retreat considerably from their positions of unambiguous defence of unilateral dis-
In the context of the election results and the rise of the SDP they are seeking, just as sections of the labour establish a set of policies relevant to the prospect of linking up with the Alliance, to the prospect of coalitionism.
Therefore, they are attempting a major political struggle to establish the main policy stand of CND as for the nuclear freeze, that is, no more nuclear weapons over and above those already in Britain. It is no exaggeration to say that the leading forces opposing this move are Labour CND and Youth CND, and the Socialist Action and Revolution supporters within the movement in the local
Thus the attack by the employers at Cowley was seen as a golden opportunity to undermine and attack the political role of Socialist Action Revolution supporters in the main mass movement in Britain today.
The third aspect of the witch hunt which flowed rapidly from the Cowley events was the discovery by sections of the press of a plot by one thousand moles in the Labour Party. Newspapers came out with headlines like
DRAFT STATEMENT AGAINST POLITICAL VICTIMISATION
This draft statement will form the basis for calling a national campaign committee
Trotsky problem in Labour Party, or
*1,000 moles discovered in Labour
Party.
Comments in the press were quite interesting.
They made a clear distinction between supporters of Socialist in defence of bourgeois democratic rights, against political victimisation at work
Action and Militant from the point of view of Socialist Action's capacity to
"We are deeply concerned that the recent dismissal by British Leyland at Cowley and more united front have a broader of workers for their political views is merely one example of increasing evidence of policy than Militant, lack of sectarianism, the victimisation of workers who are considered radical or socialist.
intelligence in political tactics greater an employer is not entitled to censor ideas or penalise normal trade union activity.
and so on.
The press treatment of the Cowley story was gravely disturbing in assuming guilt where none was proven. Yet few voices were heard in criticism.
NEW ROUND OF WITCH HUNT
MeCarthyite tendency to condemn people by association and, taken with the activ-
IN LABOUR PARTY ity of organisations like the Economic League, it is a tendency which ought to be reversed. We would welcome your support in forming a committee to counter this general
Interestingly the secretary tendency and to give support to those who are victimised at work for their political of the
Labour Party, Jim Mortimer, squashed these stories by explaining that
Statements of support should be sent to:
they were a vast overexaggeration.
But
Alex Lyon we should be clear that the main reason
23 Larkhill Rise for this was because the Labour bureaufrom its cracy has learnt something
London SW 14
Great Britain year-long battle with Militant. In many circumstances the public battle, the press campaign battle, builds the support and the following of those victim-
So, although they have not reised.
treated on their plans for a witch hunt, they are on the contrary massively stepping them up, they want to do so in silence, without the attention of the press.
several days Socialist Action came under massive supporters attack, a witch hunt in every corner of the labour movement and ment. A witch hunt that tried to render them a current without any legitimacy in the labour stances it proved almost impossible to win immediate allies to fight back.
several days Socialist Action supporters stood alone in their attempt to defend themselves, with the exception of the support from sections of the rank and file leadership at Cowley, the shop stewards.
The prospect of establishing a national campaign in defence of those militants under attack was very, very limited.
Therefore it was necessary for Socialist
Action to work out a defence policy that would allow it to break through this logjam of complicit silence.
The first breakthrough came with a
Eric Heffer, member of parliament opposing
Carthyism and witchhunting
He is one of the candidates in the Labour Party leadership contest most associated with Bennism, although with some differences and distinctions with it.
support from Heffer indicated that sufficient numbers of people now understood that the attack in Cowley was and parcel of a general attack on
Action supporters across the board, and then on the left as a whole, and that it was now possible to move ahead in a defence campaign.
Action considered that the campaign had to start from the Cowley victimisations, despite the fact that over the short term the centre of the witch hunt would be of course the attempt to smash the Socialist
20
Action current out of the debate and struggle within the Labour Party. The issue posed at Cowley was a basic bourgeois and democratic right — the right of people, regardless of their political con-
On the basis of this bourgeois democratic right Socialist Action began to build a campaign which had the ultimate aim of mobilising within the labour movement in defence of the rights of
Action supporters, but which started by assembling those forces prepared to act on a national level in defence of the bourgeois democratic right so rapidly overthrown by the Cowley management.
A national campaign on this basis is being prepared and led by Alex Lyon, a former Labour minister, and a candidate for the presidency of the National Council for Civil Liberties, and supported by bourgeois academics and other figures, for the establishment of a comvictimisation, blacklisting, etc., and starts from fact that Cowley was such an incident.
NATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS
The draft statement which is to form the basis of this campaign is published here. Initial signatories include not only Alex Lyon but Professor Steven Rose,
Hall, John Saville and Antony This statement will form the basis of many resolutions to trade-union branches, Labour Party branches, ete., and for support committees and activities in support of bourgeois democratic rights, and against political victimisa-
Through this campaign Socialist Action supporters hope to catch the sections of the Labour leadership in the cross-fire between the struggle of this campaign to defend bourgeois democratic rights and the actions of the employers at Cowley, and thus open cracks in the Labour leadership on the question of de-
In our view This is a new fence of the rights of Socialist Action supporters, and thus create the best framework in which it would be possible to resist what will inevitably happen in a witch hunt of the views and activities of Socialist Action supporters in the Labour Party.
The campaign has so far produced a dossier on the activities of the Economic League, a shadowy organisation of the employing class, whose directors and sources of funds read like a Who's Who of British capitalism, and whose function is to provide systematic information to employers on the activities of left-wingers and socialists in industry and the trade unions. • This dossier also includes the draft statement and other material. So far it has been distributed to every delegation at the TUC conference, where the statement has been supported by a number of union leaders including Ray Buckton leader of the train drivers union and new chairman of the TUC, Jimmy Knapp, general secretary of the National Union of Railwaymen and Alan Sapper of the cinema technicians union.
It will also be widely circulated inside and outside the labour movement, and will lead to a meeting being prepared shortly to establish a campaign committee whose aim will be to seek interviews with victimised workers and uncover political vetting and blacklisting in British industry.
In this context Socialist Action supporters seek the widest possible international support for this campaign that they have initiated, supported and is now under way. This support can come in many forms, but in the first instance should come in the form of statements similar to that published here from lead. ing academics, political and labour movement figures, those who have a record of defending civil liberties and democratic rights. Socialist Action believes that this would aid struggles against political victimisation in the countries themselves, and also enormously aid the campaign in Britain.