'Responsibility lies with

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Briefing)

¡a contrast between Party conference and tember 22 day of actI a few days before! pt a kick in the teeth ace was for the militd unity of the workthat the action on FOR the second year running the Labour Party annual conference saw the defeat of the forces striving to commit the party to democratic change and socialist policies. The upholders of the status quo managed to achieve a net gain of another two seats on the NEC, adding this to the net gain of the five won last year.

It may be argued that the loss of two seats was accidental. Joan Maynard would have been elected had some unions been briefed properly. Eric Clarke lost his seat because a tradé union leader cast his union's vote against the wishes of its delegation. Whatever the causes, the effect. remains the same: a decisive shift to the Right.

Unlike last year, when some sections of the left managed to deceive themselves that the narrow defeat of Tony Benn was really a victory, this year they will be unable to do so. Last year's change in the composition of the NEC resulted in_the Militant Ten= dency report and some CLPs being denied the right to choose their parliamentary candidate.

With this year's NEC we are " likely to see the disbanding of some parties for exercising this right as well as the expulsion of individual party members.

But even accepting 'that adverse changes in the NEC were inevitable, this cannot be said to be the case with the most serious setback of all, namely the approval by conference of the Militant Tendençy Report. Here a significant section of the left joined forces with the NEC and the reactionary trade union leaders to defeat the one option which could have halted the advance of the Right.

Those who sought support for CLPD's "fallback" formula, the adoption • of which would have made a witch-hunt far more difficult had to contend not just with right wing opposition but also with a systematic campaign of denigration from the pseudo-lefts.

Not only, did cause many CLP delegates to vote against the amended Manchester-Withington resolution, but effective groundwork in the. unions was rendered virtually impossible.

Senior figures in the TGWU and the NUM now believe that it would have been possible to gain support for the fall-back at least in those two unions had the case been fully put to them.

Fallback

The responsibility for this failure lies with the "far left and those members of the NEC who were not prepared to support the fallback formula. The ten sympathetic NEC members finally saw the light on the Sunday before conference and voted in favour of the eleven amendments, but by then it was much too late.

The important thing is to learn the lesson from this major blunder. The fight against the register will go on. As before, however, it wilt only succeed if it is based on a formula acceptable to the Labour Party and the trade union movement as a whole. It must also be conducted through channels which are in line with existing party and union practice.

The principal failing of the so-called far left and of the grouping around the new Tribune, which was also opposed to the fall-back, is that they are in too great a hurry and are unwilling to adjust to the milieu within which current political struggles are being fought out. This unwillingness leads them to favour adventurist tactics and to ignore the need to pursue only such demands for which majority support can be won at present.

No doubt we shall now be confronted with a cry for "left unity" : Such a demand, however, is intended to prevent any genuine debate of mistakes which have led up to the present reverses. If future blunders are to be avoided this demand should be seen for what it is and it must be rejected.

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DEMOCRACY BRIGANG no.104 October