Psychology of SDP recruits

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REG RACE achieved a mild notoriety last Wednesday when he added another word to the list of 'unparliamentary' expressions. The poor man was only quoting from a book found in a sex shop, but as Speaker George Thomas pointed out, nolie of us would say 'fuck' in ou own homes.

The absurdity of this little incident obscured an important decision taken unanimously in Parliament: a decision to introduce licensing laws to cover sex shops. Not many laws are passed unanimously, and the fact that left-wingers like Reg Race were in complete agreement with the government should give us cause for thought. sex shops epitomis all the degeneracy of the *permissive society'.

Race supported the proposal because:

"Sex shops portray women as simply available for sex, as mindless bodies with no views of their own and no position in life other than as sex objects to be used for the pleasure of men. I reject that completely.

No doubt we would all agree with that assessment of pornography, but is it a reason to introduce censorship and state control on sex shops? Sex shops, it should be pointed out, not only sell "pornography' but also sex aids which many people (men and women find useful or necessary for ably amount same thing.

Such state control, like the obscenity laws, is not a step towards the liberation of women. On the contrary, it is a further step in the repression of open sexuality - a step backwards.

Women suffered most under Victorian . sexual morality. Unless they were among the many thousands of prostitutes, they were denied any sexual feelings at all. Gay men and lesbians also have a lot to lose from the gradual moves we are now seeing of sexuality being pushed back into the closet.

Liberals

"Depressed, disillusioned individual, lacking self-esteem seeks young, smartly dressed, well-educated, dynamic party with view to future government. politics please"-sounds like one of the more desperate entries in a lonely hearts column.

In fact it sums up how potential SDP voters see the party and themselves according to two "in-depth" studies just published.

The first, by Consumer Insight, looked at how a group of ordinary working class and. lower middle class voters in London perceived the SDP-Liberal Alliance and its constituent parties.

Using various projective techniques borrowed from clinical psychology, the by Gerry Byrne group were asked to indicate how they pictured activists of the Alliance, the SDP and the Liberals.

The SDP, setting the style for the Alliance, was seen as young, glamourous and dynamic, although no-one could positively identify what its policies were, and, in particular, on unemployment which was seen as the major problem facing the country.

This last finding. was borne out by the second study by Cooper Research and Marketing "(CRAM). They looked at people who had voted SDP in national and local elections, but were not members or activists of the party. They were found to be positively hostile to the SS by Patrick Spilling pathough SD voters know devloping , policies: full well that the movement must eventually stoop to articulating policies, some supporters strenuously reject policies as the language of the SDP" , say the researchers. Many "did not want their Peter Pan to grow up."

But perhaps most interesting about this survey was what it revealed about how SDP voters see themselves and their subconscious motives for being drawn to the party.

They presented a bleak picture of depression, lost self-respect, disillusion with their own lives and a sense of remoteness and isolation from the political process. "jingoistic" wish for a return Often expressed was a to good old British values.

While in both cases the samples were very small and the usefulness of this type of "qualitative" research unproved, it does present a consistent and almost alarming picture (which also tallies with findings of much larger surveys on now lal SUr т ма Lanary OND policies are known or seen to be important).

The irrationality in relation to politics, the national chauvinism, the underlying despair and the intense romanticising of the image of the party are all eerily reminiscent of the original attraction of the Nazis, and other fascist parties, between the wars.

It's not that the SDP or its politics are fascist, but that the conditions, both social/economic psychological, which enabled the rise of fascism, are ripening. Whether the labour movement can respond more adequately this time, is down to the left's will to organise.

MEXPANSS *