Unite on class struggle platform

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TONY BENN'S defence of conference policy on Peter Shore and Roy Hattersley, 'unilateral initiat- The centre left will probably still press to sink We must square up the ranks of the Left. Already

renatrenationalisation without compensation has set the congealing fluids of Labour Party politics runn- rsenal aproject or two may be cancelled, but the the differences - but now with Benn excluded. It is not so clear that they can succeed. 66 MPs voted for turn away from the struggle for Labour Party the Labour Coordinating Committee is proposing to Benn in the Shadow Cabinet elections, reflecting a democracy - in favour of vague, allegedly more At the Brighton conference Michael Foot and the Neil Kinnock - the star of the Shadow Cabinet strong current in the Labour rank and file that radical, but certainly less controversial, extra-Parliaelections, rising from 12th place to 7th - is another is not willing to see the last few years' struggle to mentary activity. Many people who backed the 'centre left' gained dominance on the National Executive. Their strategy has been to draw the teeth leading spokesperson for this version of unity. The transform Labour seep away into old-style anti- victories were apparently easy, will retreat now fight to transform the labour movement when of the struggles for democracy and left policies, using the justifiably popular banner of unity. And it ittee' - faded away. In return Foot backed Benn for seemed to be working. Benn's call for a new Labour Left movement - a Labour Representation Comm- Right concedes everything but the essentials, and the concessions to the Left, or they don't think the strategy will work. But the aggressive attacks on the Foot/Kinnock strategy. They dislike the limited Many of the right wing MPs are unhappy with the DCILI faced repeated demands 'repudiate and the right wing MPs are becoming more warlike. At the Parliamentary Labour Party last Wednesday, article in London Labour Briefing which detailed Several hard-fought reselections are coming up, when the backlash turns nasty. But we must unite as sharpen the policies of the Left. Existing Labour policy of support for NATO gives a tremendous Simultaneously we must fight to clarify and orter of unilateral disarmament but has never been a Spokesperson of dele see show a the meanies the Foot's appointment of John Silkin as front bench Left by Healey, Hattersley and Shore mesh together labour. They shift further to the Right the centre of gravity around which a fudged unity must be built. with the Foot/Kinnock strategy in a division of the record of some London MPs and argued that "To 'de-select' such an MP [who turns his/her back on the CLP] is both legitimate and democratic" . (Benn had not written the article - it was by Nigel William- son. Benn had only contributed to the same issue of down the commitment to unilateral nuclear dis- lends itself ideally to fudging. There are twenty armament. And the Alternative Economic Strategy different versions and no-one knows which is which, weapon to the right wing in their fight to whittle strident spokesman for that approach. The odds, theretore, are that Mr Silkin will be in a strong leaders to speak out clearly and uncompromisingly But the centre-left strategy forbids Labour Party Briefing. Imagine the scenes if right wing MPs were how it will work, or why it is being proposed instead position to knit together the widely differing views issues. Tony Benn's speech on renationalisation for Labour Conference policy on controversial it conference policy that re-selection is 'legitimate time they wrote for the Fleet Street press! And isn't asked to repudiate other articles in the paper every and the trade unions, over the last two years. But we We've gained a lot of ground in the Labour Party, Denis Healey has stated clearly that he will refuse without compensation challenged the whole project could lose it all very quickly unless we consolidate to serve in a Labour government committed to of Labour consensus politics. And that shows what's The sugar-sweet slogans of unity could soon show our forces, building a strong organised class-struggle together' can only mean one thing - unilateral unilateral nuclear disarmament. So this 'knitting nuclear disarmament will not be carried out, and it's a unity based on seeing the majority rank and file view as just one element to be stirred into a vague wrong with the unity aimed at by the centre left - their bitter after-taste: in an offensive against left- wingers hypocritically accused of disrupting that left wing on socialist policies. That's what Socialist instead we will have the recommended formula of ing hot and fast again. a place in the Shadow Cabinet. in the Shadow Cabinet" ives' compromise. rence policy will be gutted.

Left gains everything but the essentials! Toryism. and democratic?) unity. And so two tasks face socialists.

In many as we can. of straightforward socialist measures.

Organiser must do. by Jane Ashworth