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Local Labour Briefing groups from many cities will meet in London this Saturday to discuss a national network. Richard Paine surveys the REPRESENTATIVES of groups from . Lonaon, Brighton, Merseyside, Nottingham, Bristol, Strathclyde and West Midlands will meet and attend discussions on local government, sexual politics, trade unions and aspects of Friefing production and organisation.

The conference is working conferenie. We are not forming a national organisation with one centralised base or found- THIS Saturday, February 5, ing a national newspaper. at County Hali in: London, We are simply extending there is to be a national our links whilst preserving the experiences of the the autonomy of the local various Labour Briefings groups.

from throughout the country. The continued Simply success oi London Labour Briefing since its launch in Yet It is obviously something more than 'simply' a working confer- ing number. of similar ence. It is occuring in a very magazines elsewhere -peculiar political context including Brighton, Bristol, and the need of Briefing Nottingham, Strathclyde, groups to come together Merseyside and most is largely a result of that recently the West Midcontext. it represents ar lands. opportunity for a reappraisal of the role of the left in in different ways un the the Labour Party; and the London experience; even pussibility of the realign- visually those in Brighton, ment of that left.

Sham bear a striking resemThe left in the Labour Party is in a state of spas- blance. All have origins modie retreat and uncer- peculiar to their own situatainty. The defeats inflic- tions. ted at Annual Conference grew in October 1981 and, above all, the political directly from the desire to crises in such organisations as CLPD are all symptoms extend, and draw lessons from, the success of the of the new political situation the left is now facing. Left In Nottinghanı East CLP to the rest of the area.

The successes of the democratisation movement, of the GLC elections emerged in danuary 1982 as the old Labour Left was and the setbacks over the register and NEC elections have led to questions over strategy and tactics of how different Briefings.

breaking up. The Labour Lett was a pressure group of those buth to the left and conference to try and pool right of the Militant wnich disintegrated when the nore right wing elements took their political oprosition to Militant to the level of organisational exclusion.

The left reconstituted itself 1980 has spawned a grow- as Brighton Labour BrietWing; the old 'right' rump in the Labour Left collapsed.

In Bristol 'Briefing' (a much smaller and less ambitious publication) grew directly in late 1981 out of the left on the local All have been modelled District Labour Party and confined itself very much to this subject.

On the other hand StrathMerseyside and Notting- clyde Labour Briefing, faced with even greater old guard domination of the local and District Labour Parties, nas - tried since In Nottingham 'Briefing' mid-1982 to serve as a focus for loca! campaigning and community action groups, as well as for the experiences of the left in tha Wards.

In Brighton 'Briefing' Politically the local 'Briefing' groups outside London are diverse Whilst all aim to promote discussion within the left, and support local struggles both inside and outside the Party, the influence of particular political ideas and tendencies has varied.

in Merseyside, for instance, it was pressure within the local Labour Coordinating Committee (LCC) in the summer of 1982 which led to the establishment of 'Briefing'. After sharp political discussion it was agreed that the magazine should be independent of the LCC and other goups, be open to sponsorship, and have open eritorial meetings.

Rationale

Politically its maJor rationale was to campaign, albeit independently of Militant (which is very strong in the area, against the witch-hunt. Recently a local branch of LAW (Labour Against the Witchhunt) has resulted from this focus 'Brighton Labour Briefing', on the other hand, is politically a much more homogeneous group with many revolutionary perspectives. Maybe this results not just from its origins, but also frum the remoteness in Brighton of the prospect of the Labour Party capturing political purver on the local councils. In other areas, Briefings are often much more focussed on council affairs.

Typical of the political perspectives of Briefings however are the four points proposed as a basic platNo2 NOVEMBER After speaking at the Liverpool Distrk forni in ihe first issue of 'Nottingham Labour Briefing': community and trade. union involvement; adherence to Conference decisions: abandonment of managerial outlooks on the local council; and the defence, and extension, of arcountability in the Labour Counciliors Involvement of sympathetic Labour councillors has been sought by all the Briefing groups. In some this focus has been exaggerated so that the Briefing concentrates primarily upon council affairs (a fault in the 'West Midlands Labour Briefing' launched in November 1982). The Merseyside and Strathclyde Bri-fings, despite the latter's lack of professional polish and appearance, hare perhaps been the most successful to date in their coverage of local campaigns and m community issues.

One feature common to all Briefings, despite their many variations, has been the distinct coolness, if not hostility, shown towards them by local Militant supporters. Once again that group's horror of participating in a more or less open forum controlled by no one political tendency clearly shows itself.

Despite this the majority of Briefings have undoübtedly suffered from a lack of urganisational cohesion, and particularly adequate finance. The visual quality, and readability of both the Nottingham and Strathclyde inagazines have declined over recent issues. It has been difficult, too, to expand the nucleus of activists involved in writing and editing the local Briefings. The sales force is usually larger, but • still limited.

A typical level of individual involvement is Merseyside where a dozen or so people form the editorial hard-core, with a further dozen involved less systematically, and perhaps 40 'Briefing' sellers. With some Briefings there has been a tendency for the numbers involved to decline as the workload increases.

Whilst no doubt this may be attributed partly to the pressure of time on many activists, as well as the ebbs and flows in the local pulitical sicuation, it may stem crucially from an inherent, and damaging, localism.

Contact

Tharo ic littlo ar -I AIT TO AMAN CY STUTTY national conference on development of Briefings. neither must one be necessarily counterposed to the other.

The experience in Leeds is illuminating. The Leeds Labour Left, set up during the Benn campaign, has proved very successful in capturing control of the local District Labour Party, helping to overturn the bureaucratic stranglehold on the local Trades Council, and taking euntrol of the editorial board of the 'Leeds Weekly Citizen' This is the decades-old local weekly Labour newspaper, editorially controlled by the Leeds Labour Party, quite unique in Britain.

Wide

Tu establish a Labour Briefing on a city-wide basis is therefore an unlikely proposition in present circumstances; bul as i method of organising the left on a county-wide basis it could very weli be a useful tactic. This suggestion, first floaced some 18 months ag", is likely to be. pursued again bv SO sunThe Briefings Confer-