FINANCIAL TIMES The Daily Gelegraph

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IN A former existence, Labour leader I Michael Foot carved himself a reputation for radical journalism. This did not stop him developing a friendship with Lord Beaverbrook.

He reminisces from time to time about his other amicable relationships with noted enemies of the working class. They were, we are invited to believe, lovable old rascals who just happened to be Tories.

Class war dissolved over the mahogany dinner table.

Maybe Foot is now paying off some of his debts.

At any rate, it is almost difficult to blame the press for the latest Fleet Street public assassination.

When Peter Tatchell complained he had been Tried and executed without the benefit of stating I! case' , he was, after all, nor talking about the press but about Foot himself.

Certainly. despite their is: efforts, neither Healey Do: Haitersley have managed i hand such a weapon to the press as did Foot in his mounded bellow of oh-so#lamentary rage.

Still. the enthusiasm with "lit the pubs of Fleet Siree: disgorged their seekers se truth is admirable. The Dais Mail was in no doubt a ma one of the most a contrentations yet in Lieces internal war' 3..? he Mail and the The reed that Bermondsey Labour would be disbanded.

The cries of joy wore a little thin rather fast. Tatchell proved disappointing quarry.

Certainly, he is Australian, which permits them xenophobia. His support for gay rights permitted several columns of gay-bashing.

Yet he is not a Militant or Socialist Organiser supporter. He declares that he really did mean that demonstrations should be used to persuade Thatcher to make a U-turn. Nothing particularly revolutionary here.

On the whole, this did not worry the leader writers. The Sun declared Foot is 'ranging himself on the side of the supremacy of parliament and of the rule of the law against dark forces which wish to see real power transferred to the street' Jon Akass, who wants electoral victory for Labour like he wants gout, said. 'Mr Tatchell is one of the few people in the entire world who could lose Bermondsey for Labour'.

But the Daily Mail, The leading investigators into socialist tendencies, were frunkly disappointed and reduced to queer-baiting in its in depth investigation, into Tatchell. This it did with relish.

We learned Tatchell has *a male model's flair with brown' , and dubbed him *the dandy who rides the bike' The Mail wrongly believed that Foot had miscalculated in attacking with no evidence other than an article calling for extra-parliamentary opposition. 'Rebukes on that score from an inveterate demo-monger such as Michael Foto would be the most arrant humbug'.

The Guardian was frantic. Foot had been badly advised. Even the Times expressed Labour right wing fears: *that Mr Foot plans to turn Mr Tatchell into whipping boy while ducking the demand tor a complete ourge of all rotskvists from positions of influence in the Both parties had reckoned without the servility of the Organisation Committee and the so-called left-wingers on it like Joan Lestor, Neil Kinnock, and Sam McCluskie.

But if Foot wants one quote to keep him warm during the long winter nights. he should take il from the Daily Mail. When Foot first launched his atiack, and before any doubts as to his target had set in. the Daily Mail said Whatever criticism we may have, he is a loyal supporter as well as an adornment of the House af Commons' How Lord Beaverbrook would be proud of his prolege now mean the end of the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA), which provides much of London's education. Already this year the Tories have cut the £125 million grant to ILEA, providing nothing.

Simply for attempting to provide education standards and facilities such as nurseries in the interests of the working class, the Labour-controlled ILEA has been singled out for special attack.

A major strength of the march, besides its size and spirit of determination, was that it brought together students and teachers in active struggle against the cuts.

DR. ANDREI Sakharov and his wife Yelena Bonner have reportedly been transferred to a hospital in Gorki, the city (250 miles west of Moscow) of their internal exile.

On the 13th day of their hunger strike the elderly couple experienced a quick deterioration of their condition. Mobilised The chants of 'no ifs, no buts, fight the cuts' • and "Tories out now' , show that the campaign recognises its enemy.

However, at the rally at Central Hall, no adequate lead was given to the obvious militancy and willingness to fight, except to 'build the campaign' Jack Chambers, the NUT president, correctly pointed out that it wasn't 'enough t wait for the return of the next Labour government' Despite fighting talk, these It is reported that the Soviet authorities are now force-feeding them.

Sakharov• - one of the Soviet Union's most brilliant physicists and one of the best known critics of the regime - has for the last two years been exiled in Gorki. Two weeks ago, he and his wife began a hunger strike to bring attention to the Soviet regime's refusal to allow their daughter-in-law, Liza Alexeyeva, to emigrate to the United States to join her husband. She married Alexei Semyonov (Yelena Bonner's son by a previous marriage) by proxy.

The authorities have refused to recognise the marriage - no provision for this exists in Soviet

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During we spu Bermondsey recommend the NEC. Labour Party defied Labour meeting on HQ to organise aid for the 16th, to réject Tatehell. combined Bermondsey sey Labour Party immediatPETER Taichell was selected as Labour candidate for Bermondsey on November 8th.

There were a few murmurs of discontent on the right wing. Bob Mellish, the present Labour MP for Bermondsey and a hardbitten right-winger, is due to retire soon and a by election is likely in the new year.

Labour right-wingers maintained that a left-winger like Tatchell would lose votes. Also, perhaps, they felt that some sharp action against the Bermondsey Party activists would be necessary if they were to persuade Mellish to postpone his retirement.

Bermondsey, and the Southwark borough of which it is part, have been the scene of battles between the old-style right wing - people like Mellish and the Southwark borough councillors who have just gone over to the SDP - and newer activists.

Irregularity

Frank Chapple has tried tu flood Bermondsey Labour Party for the right wing with delegates (often directly appointed by head office, and often people quite unconnected with the electrical or plumbing trades) from some 15 EETPU branches. When Central London EETPU refused to endorse Chapple's nominee - a man who had not attended the branch for 14 years -Chapple suspended the branch!

But no-one suggested any irregularity in Tatchell's selection.

Then, on Thursday December 3, James Wellbeloved, a Labour defector to the SDP, complained in Parliament about an article of Tatchell's advocating extra-parliamentary protest. Normally the matter would have passed as routine SDP point-scoring.

But Michael Foot jumped to his feet to declare that Tatchell. had not been endorsed nationally as a Labour candidate, 'and as far as he was concerned, never would be' Legitimacy The Daily Mirror reported, 'Although Labour moderates were pleased, some were puzzled' What grounds could Michael Foot have under Labour Party rules for vetoing Tatchell?

The 'offending' section of Tatchell's article read as follows:

'No matter how Left our MPs and councillors may be, the battle for socialism needs a large and active Labour membership committed to mass campaigns of real resistance to Tory rule. Reliance on the present token and ineffectual Parliamentary opposition will advance us nowhere.

Thankfully, there have - -e welcome signs of change in the last couple been some wena woof years. The NEC ha: taken the initiative in re viving a more campaign ing style of mass politics... iD.Il enrolv more imax inative and defiant forms of protest are justified in response to the callous policies of this government? Indeed, perhaps they • are even necessary to motivate and inspire a large-scale popular opposition which can seriously challenge the authority and legitimacy of Tory policy.

Such challenges, especially when combined with the industrial might of the trade union movement, are probably the only means by which this government will listen to the voice of the people and be deterred from its monetarist course.

Debatesd and parliamentary divisions are fruitless cosmetic exercises given the Tories' present Commons majority.

And if we recognise this, we are either forced to accept Tory edicts as fait accompli, or we must look to new more militant forms of extra-parliamentary opposition which involve mass popular participation and challenge the government's right to rule...

•Perhaps we should be thinking more in terms of a 'Siege of Parliament' to demand jobs - a march on the House of Commons led by 250 Labour MPs and a thousand Labour mayors and councillors and involving an afternoon's *sit-down occupation of the Westminster area.

Or possibly the Labour-controlled GLC could sponsor a 'Tent City' of the unemployed and homeless in the grounds of County Hall and within sight of the House of Commons'.

[London Labour Briefing, November 1981).

And why not?

Foot himself only a year ago was calling for 'a storm of protest' against the Tories.

Tatchell has stressed that he is for parliamentary democracy. And so are Marxists for parliamentary democracy, against all undemocratic attempts to restrict and crush it.

Indeed, Marxists are more for parliamentary democracy than the Labour right-wingers who defend the monarchy, the House of Lords, the Official Secrets Act, and Lord Denning.

Marxists believe that the ruling class will attempt to crush parliamentary democracy by violence if Labour uses it for real anticapitalist change, and that, in the fight against that ruling class, workers can develop their own democracy, based on delegates and the right of recall, better than present-day parliamentary democracy.

The left wing - the real left wing, not the Stalinists - has always been more for real democracy than the Red Flag Peter Tatchell points out that such action against the Tories is in the best traal.

tions of the Bermondses labour movement.

Bermondsey Laboul Party was founded in 1910 A year later, in Augus 2PY 1911, Party members were prominent in general eriko which spread from the docks through the cocoa, un box and iam factories in the area.

At the outbreak of the 1914-18 war, the Bermondsey Labour Party wrote an anti-war leaflet which was reprinted in 1'½ million copies and distributed worldwide. By 1916, 19 Party members had been imprisoned and tortured as conscientious objectors.

In 1922 Labour won control of the council, and flew the Red Flag from the Town Hall.

In the 1926 General Strike the Labour council suspended itself and gave support to a working-class Council of Action which started to take control of the area. setting up roadblocks. Rinthe Snanish Civil War, the Republic: And in 1937 a Labour Party and trade union counter-demonstration routed Mosley's British Union of Fascists as it at'empted to cross 'Tower Bridge into Bermondsey.

In Bermondsey as elsewhere, extra-parliamentary action is the real tradition of all the important struggles and victories of the working class.

Despite this, Foot had put himself on the line. To pull back, he would need the courage to face a vicious backlash from Labour's hard right wing. And Michael Foot, even in his most radical • days, has never had that sort of courage. So the pro-Foot Centre and soft Left on the NEC were rallied alongside the Right. And on Monday 7th the NEC Organisation Sub-comnuttee: voted to Wednesday The officers of Bermondely responded:

'We deplore ion of the NEC ion Sub-committee to reject Peter Tatchell as Labour Candidate for Bermondsey. We again reiterate our total and unqualified support for Peter Tatchell as best candidate to fight future elections in Bermondsey and represent the interests of local people in Parliament.

There have been no complaints from the Regional Organiser of the Labour Party, who was present at the selection conference, about Peter Tatchell's selection, and all five defeated candidates for the prospective Parliamentary Candidate have stated publicly that the selection procedure was conducted fairly. We urge the full NEC, when it meets on Wednesday loth Vecelves, 10,1 •Minamhar reverse the recommendation of this sub-committee and endorse Peter Tatchell as prospective Parliamentthe decisOrganisatTHE CRISIS in the Labour Party following the decision of the Organisation Subcommittee of the NEC not to endorse Peter Tatchell is a crisis not just about the selection of candidates.

It is a crisis about the very character of the Labour Party itself.

The decision of the organisation committee, en couraged by Michael Foot, is a decision which calls into question the right of a constituency party to select a candidate of its choice. What Denis Healey and the right wing are now saying is that any candidate elected by a CLP who does not meet with the approval of any individual member of the National Executive, can be de-selected on the whim of the NEC.

This opens the way to severe problems for many constituency parties who have already, or who are likely to, select left-wing candidates.

Needless to say, the proposal will not be used to attack candidates of the ary Candidate for Bermondsey.

Bermondsey Labour Party will continue to fight 'for the interests of local people and for the right of individual constituency Labour Parties to select their own candidates without outside interference.

This decision is unprecedented. It goes against the traditions of the Labour Party. We are confident of full support from constituency parties throughout the country in our stand' And vice-chairperson Bette Crickmar told us:

'Our reaction is absolute surprise and shock. Many Party members have sent messages to Mr Foot supporting Peter's nomination.

"I know one Party member, 75 years old, has sent a letter to Michael Foot reminding him of his younger days, when he spoke out and she backed him all the way.

Peter is not using Bermondsey. He is part of Bermondsey. It's not the local people objecting. The local people have taken him as one of their own' Bermondsey's sitting MP, Boh Mellish, has dismissed the present Party membership with contempt - students, NUPE members, people like that' Bette Crickmar said:

'I'm Bermondsey born and bred, and I take it as a personal insult. I left school at 14, I come from a dockers' family, and my husband is an ex-docker.

Vlartin Thomas by Reg Race M Right.

But there are othe issues involved. There is nov talk, encouraged by righ wing NEC members, 0 expulsions of 5,000 ke left wing activists in th Labour Party. Such propo: als, if implemented, wout wreck the Labour Part completely and would ope the door to a further perio of Tory government or SD coalition.

The whole weight of th Labour Party in the consti uencies and the trade unior must be mobilised in a vigo ous campaign, first to defen the right of Bermondse Labour Party to select Peti Tatchell; second, to defen the right of the constituenc parties to select whom the will; and to deflect the ca for mass expulsions and pri scriptions in the Labor We desperately need 1 get organised. Who can no doubt that the right wing a now getting organised ar will fight to the death?

In the last two yer since Peter was elect Party secretary, he 1 done a marvellous job. I much more open now.

The officers of the Gl used to give me!

impression they did care what I thought, l now we forward motio we discuss issues, meetings are more enj able. No-one is coerc strong-armed, or asked they are left wing or ri wing.

We've gone back to is ing Labour Party news!

ers to each household, v the contents contribu by anyone in the Party wants to - mostly on l issues.

Union affiliations b increased as well as ind dual membership. •Per are becoming more polit - seeing that through Labour Party they stand up for themselves Know Up until this fuss, 1 that we had more tha chance in the coming election. But if the mı and press put 'left-w and 'Marxist' in front ‹ person's name, and played up as if it's so thing terrible, then a lo Labour voters won't k what it means.

It's the first time I've to deal with the Press this. When I saw what 1 wrote, my reaction was we might as well tell to start with, because th all that gets printed any case!'

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Socialist Organiser no. 65 December 9 1981 Page 4 Sortiern Atrica Special World News

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clothes". The Mail described him as a symphony in

LADI to Bermondsey bust-up expulsions

Talk o 5,000 Du