The politics of 'Briefing'

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Debate/Briefing SINCE London Labour Briefing was launched in 1980, it has expanded to a circulation of over 3,000, and similar publications serving as an axis for the local Labour Left have emerged in Strathclyde, Merseyside, Humberside, the West Midlands, Nottingham, Bristol and Brighton. A conference, Towards a National Network', , was held on February 5.

Socialist Organiser has collaborated closely with London Labour Briefing in many enterprises, such as a joint trade union conference last year and the new Socialists for a Labour Victory' campaign. At the same time we have debated differences on issues such as rate rises and criticisms of the Greater London This week we print - as part, we hope, of the continuing debate - an open letter from Brighton Labour Briefing to London Labour Briefing, with an introduction by the authors. Next week we will carry an extended reply from Chris Knight of LLB.

BELOW IS printed an open letter from Brighton Labour Briefing to London Labour Briefing. The letter also has signatures from Merseyside Labour Briefing and from comrades based in London. The reason for its publication in Socialist Organiser is that LLB refused to print it.

This refusal is regrettable and may be due to a confusion by a majority of LLB comrades over the motives that lay behind the letter. We therefore feel obliged to present BLB worked very hard (with LLB) to organise a National Conference of Briefing groups. The conference finally took place on February 5 this year. We believed a national conference was essential for three reasons: (a] to provide a focus for the various regional Briefings that had sprung up around the country and ensure some form of organisational links between them; [b] to begin to build a united national left-wing movement in the Labour Party, convinced that Briefings' localised yet open organisation provided the most suitable structure within which such a movement could take form; [c] and, in the critical situation now facing the left, to debate what perspectives and strategies the left should adopt in building this movement, particularly in the areas of community, local government and the trade As the letter relates, many people, particularly in Brighton, were disappointed because the conference failed to address these questions. The letter was intended simply as a conment on and as a response to this failure. It, too, had three motives: [a] to criticise the conference; [b] to initiate a debate, within the pages of LLB, on what direction a national coalition of Briefings should or could take and, indeed, what would be the political basis of such a coalition; [c) and to criticise what we take to be the increasThese were and are our motives for writing the letter. We are obviously not trying to 'wreck' LLB _ our own The fares fight: was Briefing's political edge blunted by "an effort to preserve its relationship with former comrades who are now record in Brighton, and the commitment we have consistently shown to LLB, are adequate repudiation of that. We are simply trying to initiate, and engage in, a debate. We approached LLB initially because we believed LLB, with its ostensible 'open editorial policy', would be the most appropriate place to express these criticisms. This, it appears, is not the case. It is indeed a strange 'open policy' which allows overtly sexist letters to be printed see 'Streetlife Letters' , LLB no. 27] yet not critical ones.

We hope, anyway, that this statement goes some way in correcting LB's present misconcention about the Council Labour group leadership.

publicly just what these motives were.

ing lack of political direction of LLB.

'purpose" of our letter.

IN THE last 18 months the left in the Labour Party has suffered a series of defeats, starting with Benn's Deputy Leadership battle followed by loss of the NEC to the hard Right, control of the Manifesto loss of the ter, and now very organisation which pioneerea much of the minende Left's advance - the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy.

With a General Election in the offing, we face a witch-hunt of unprecedented proportions as much of the left replies with the call for unity. On the industrial front we have seen the defeat of the NHS dispute, the isolation of the miners, and the inability of' any section of workers to challenge the government.

As the soft left moves rightwards, the hard left and what remains of the Benrites find themselves ribos at! strategy or PErSpECTE ThE acrimonDALE DECERE TIE: IDE TaLeS.

dare Bries.

BEEL ET JESELI 124, March 1983, Page Bryn Griffiths Tony Greenstein Jane Mardell Liz Godden A. Bridger B. Oldfield Mark Holmes Dave Lowney Janice Turner Chris Scott • Daniel Ben Ami (BRIGHTON LABOUR BRIEFING)

Sam Semoff (Merseyside Labour Briefing)

G. Usher Lesley Lee (London Labour Briefing)

Anthony Clavane reflects the crisis of the left in the Party.

It was with this in mind that Brighton Labour Briefing (BLB) proposed in a meeting with LLB last October that a National Conference of Briefing groups be held. He beliered that a =abora: Left Wing Move=: = is Izo Party now in lendina nacitinns»» urgently needed to be built around the left's base in the CLPs, with a clear orientation towards work in the trade unions at the grassroots and amongst the unemployed.

Yet what transpired at the Conference held on February 5? Graham Bash opened the Conference with a call for unity on the hard left. Ken Livingstone told us a harrowing tale of what happens when you are elected and then held accountable. Sharks swimming everywhere, looking for an easy bite! Given that local government and accountability have been Briefing's two main planks, as Graham described vividly when referring to the de-selection of London's Labour Right, this hardly bodes well for the future.

Trade unions

Only Jeremy Corbyn dwelt on the need for work in the trade unions, and this was not taken up by any other speakers.

It was into this vacium that the highly original proposal for a Socialist for more accurately CND) Campaign for a Labour Victory was made by Socialist Challenge supporters.

we do, of course, support a really Socialist Campaign for a Labour Victory, one which also highlights other aspects of Labour IF sims 2001 Doyla policy, e.g. on repeal of the Immigration/ Nationality Acts, International Solidarity (not least Palestine); and progress towards implementation of Clause IV.

Still less attention was given to what happens after the election, especially if Labour lose, and the consequences of this for the left inside and outside the BLB's proposals for syndicating articles nationally were ignored, and no progress was made towards generalising Briefing nationally. In response to the left's crisis, LLB has become increasingly directionless. In an effort to preserve its relationship with former comrades who are now in leading positions, it has started to abandon any criticism whatsoever.

Nowhere is this process more (evident than in the meetings of LLB Editorial Committee, whose meetings seem to be a camouflage for decisions taken elsewhere. No doubt this is due in part to the separation between production and editorial functions.

A case in point is the position of LLB arising out of the Labour Committee on Palestine conference. One would have thought, given the role of LLB in spear‹ preserve is reinonsnip win heading the fight tot democracy inside the Party, that it would have unequivocally condemned the actions of those, in particular the LCP's former Treasurer, Ted Knight, for introducing 100 members of the WRP into a Labour Committee on Palestine, and would therefore have supported those who walked out to form the Labour Movement Campaign for Palestine (LMCP). Indeed, this is the position taken by Brighton and Merseyside Labour Briefings.

Instead the LLB Editorial merely 'regretted' the action of the WRP, even though the editorial when first approved condemned its 'outrageous' behaviour. All references to Knight were omitted after he made threats to sue LLB for libel. Even mention of the threat to sue was arbitrarily removed from LLB.

Similarly, articles by individuals in the LCP and LMCP have been equated with each other regardless of content, in particular an article on Women and Zionism. There are reactionary elements in feminism which often emerge over international issues, not least the recent coverage in Spare Rib over Palestine/Israel. Socialist feminists and socialists should allow space for that import. GIC ant polltical disagreement, and not allow threats by certain groups to withdraw to quash real political debate by trying to exclude a socialist analysis of feminism and imperialism.

Quest for The reasons for this watering down and compromise lie in the quest for unity at all costs, a unity in which political differences are submerged in exchange for a formal cooperation between different political tendencies.

The threat by a leading Socialist Challenge supporter that they (SC) would have to reconsider their position in Briefing if an article went in on LMCP unopposed by one from the LCP is indicative of how the quest for formal unity blunts Briefing's political edge.

LLB has a deserved reputation for uniting those in the Party who had previously been divided. But the basis of that unity then was around a set of political objectives. We believe that reassessment of those objectives is urgently needed if LLB is not to become increasingly irrelevant. The same political criteria need to be applied now as then, if the left in the Labour Party is not to continue to retreat down the road to oblivion.

March 21 28 7 "14 22 29 Monday 1 16 23 15 30 Tuesday 2 9 24 31 Saturday 13 20 Sunday PAID ads 5p per word, £4 per côlumn inch. Send copy to Socialist Organiser, 28 Middle Lane, London N8, to arrive by Saturday for inclusion in the following week's paper.

CALDERDALE March for Jobs. Organised by Sowerby YS. March 19: assembk Cornholme 8.45am. Railica at Todmorden 10am, at Hebden Bridge 12.15pm.

at Sowerby Bridge 3.30pm, at Halifax Town Hall 5pm.

LABOUR democracy and local government: day conference for District Labour Parties, Saturday March 26, 10.30 to 4.30, at Manchester Poly Students' Union. Sponsored by Sheffield, Leeds and Manchester DLPs. Contact: Frances Done, Manchester City Labour Party, Hulme Labour Club, 1 Stoneylow Close, Manchester M15.

EL SALVADOR Solidarity Campaign: Labour Movement conference, Saturday May 14, 10am to 5pm, County Hall, London SE1.

Credentials £2 from ESSC, 29 Islington Park St, London N1.

SHEFFIELD Labour movement conference on Ireland - Saturday March 19, Sheffield University Students' Union, 9.30 to 4.30.

Sponsored by Sheffield Trades Council, Sheffield District Labour Party, and Sheffield LCI.

LABOUR Committee on Ireland Annual General Meeting: Saturday April 23, 10am to 5pm at County Hall, London SE1. Resolutions to be submitted by April 8. Con tact: LCI, BM Box 5355, London WCIN 3XX.

LABOUR Campaign for Gay Rights, Glasgow: meeting to discuss future strategy. Tuesday March 22 1983, Irades Council (Room 3), 8. Carlton Place, 7.30pm. Contact: c/o Russell McVean Glasgow School of Art SRC, 168 Renfrew St, Glasgow. ISLINGTON Labour CND meeting on the Civil Defence regulations: Tuesday Match 22, 8pm, at the Town Hall, Upper St.

TROTSKYISM or Castroism: a pamphlet analysing the move away from the Trotskyist theory of permanent revolution by the Socialist Workers' Party of the USA. Published by the Trotskyist International Liaison Committee: 40p plus postage from PO Box 135, London NIODD.

Labour Campaign for Gay Rights, National Conference on "The Fight in the Labour Movement for Lesbian and Gay Male Rights' • Saturday 9 April, 11-5, Shepherd's Hall, Old Market Street, Bristol. Creche Details: phone Bristol 63420 OUT NOW! 'The Death Agony of the Fourth International and the Tasks of Trotskyists Today' . A new. book from Workers Power Irish Workers Group. 120 pages, £1.85 including post age. From; Box 7750 BCM WCIN 3XX or left book shops.

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Socialist Organiser 124, no. 1983, Page

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