[London Labour Party conference, December 12: a fringe…]

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London Labour Party conference, December 12: a fringe meeting showrd strong support rights perspect ....for Peter Tarchell.. • i a=. Published by the Socialist Organiser Alliance, 28 Middle Lane, London N8, and printed by East End Offset (TUI. Registered as a newspaper at the GPO. Signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of the SOA. THE DECISIONS of the Organisation Sub-Committee in the first week of December (which could be referred back, but not overturned, by the full NEC) have fundamentally changed the nature of the struggle in the Labour The decisions to reject Peter Tatchell as Bermondsey's candidate and to launch an inquiry into Militant have put the left decisively on the defensive - and at the same time create both the possibility and the necessity for the left to go on the offensive.

Sundry After Brighton, all the conditions existed for the left to be narrowed down and isolated. Past the mid-term of a Tory government, and with the SDP no longer a joke, a 'unity' offensive by the new party establishment .. could have smothered the party demo cracy movement in electoral anxieties.

Now it is clear that the right wing have given up on the next election. If Labour had any chance at all after Foot and Co. had told all and sundry that Tony Benn and his followers were dangerous loonies, that chance must now have evaporated completely. Telling the world that the Labour Party is infiltrated by wild-eyed Trots and that various local parties have chosen "electoral disasters' for their candidates just isn't the way to win an election.

The decision to launch a witchhunt can leave us in little doubt about the right's perspective,.

First, to frighten those parties now selecting their candidates into adopting safe bets. Having failed to outvote mandatory reselection and being unable to use the shortlist of one ploy as a universal device, the right have used Peter Tatchell and Bermondsey to put a blanket, overall pressure on every selection conference to come.

War Second, they have launched a war for outright possession of the Labour Party. If they win, they will put an end to mandatory reselection, to the electoral college, to the rights of local parties - and, at the same time, attempt to prevent anyone in future fighting for these things.

By the time that has been achieved, the morale of the party and its ability to fight an election will be in * for Peter Tatchell. . ...

Allianno 22 Middle I ane Inndon shreds. But they have little wish to win an election on the basis of the present policies, as the policies they adhere to are those of the SDP.

So why not let the SDP take the votes, and then join with them in a coalition? Then any left-wingers left in the party will be thoroughly fed up, and the policies won in the party in the past couple of years will be quietly buried.

Whereas immediately after Brighton it could be argued (as Vladimir Derer did in the pages of SO) that the great overriding desire of 'ordinary' party mem-